Page 90 of Finding London

“Yeah, it’s been great. Unfortunately, I have four straight twelves, starting tomorrow. So, tonight’s going to be the last time I really get to see anyone again until Monday.” Maggie makes an exhausted face.

“What does that mean?” Paige asks. “Twelves?”

“Well, London’s probably told you that I’m a nurse?”

Paige nods her head.

“Well, at the hospital where I work, we do twelve-hour shifts, but if you include driving time and the amount of time I have to stay extra to finish charting, I can be gone for up to sixteen hours on the days I work. So, I basically just come home and go to bed. I don’t have much time to do anything but work and sleep.”

“Ugh, that sounds horrible.” Paige scowls.

Maggie chuckles. “It’s really not bad because I only work three days a week. Depending on how my workdays fall in the week, I can have a bunch of days off in between. So, that makes up for it.”

“So, what did you do after the guys got home?” I direct my question to Sarah.

“Just hung out basically. It’s been such a gorgeous week, so Loïc and I spent a lot of time outside. We went kayaking and hiking, and he took me to the shooting range. That was fun!”

Of course it was.I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes. I hate feeling like this.

I plaster on a smile.Fake it till you make it…right?

“What are you going to do tomorrow while everyone’s at work?” I ask.

“Loïc’s going to let me borrow his truck, and I’m going to drive around to look at some possible apartments and check out a few jobs.”

“Oh, wow. So, like, you’re moving here?” I try to mask the worry in my voice.

“At some point, yes. I’ll probably wait until Loïc comes back from deployment, you know? But we’ll see. If I find an amazing job before then, I might move up sooner.”

A long lock of her beautiful Rapunzel hair falls over her shoulder and comes close to the plate of pizza in front of her. My eyes bulge as Loïc reaches over and places her hair behind her ear, so it doesn’t fall onto the greasy pepperoni.

What the hell?

“Oh, great!” I exclaim a little too cheerfully.

Paige squeezes my knee under the table. I turn to her, and she smiles reassuringly. She knows I’m about to lose my cool.

At least when Loïc leaves me for the blonde beauty, I’ll still have Paige.

Can the confident London, circa June, please return? This current model is driving me insane.

“So, should we get this game started or what?” Cooper asks.

“Yes, let’s do it!” I cheer.God, who am I?

Bowling is actually really fun. I haven’t bowled since I was little. I suck—like, totally suck—but that works in my favor because Loïc spends a lot of his time helping me get my form right.

The annoying Sarah-focused conversations are gone as well. In between turns, everyone chats about random stuff or jeers the current bowler. Loïc and Cooper have this crazy competitive thing going, and it’s quite hilarious. I think Paige and I are also in a rivalry, but we are duking it out to see who’s the worst bowler.

Many times throughout our game, I find myself laughing until my sides hurt, and to be honest, I need it.

We’re all in a fit of giggles as Cooper completes his pre-bowl ritual. He’s standing in front of the lane. First, he places the ball down on the ground between his feet while he stretches his hands up and then out in both directions, swinging his arms back and forth in front of himself. He ends his stretch by shaking out his hands. Then, he touches his toes before completing some sort of lunge. That move is followed by the rolling of his neck. Finally, he picks up his ball, blows on it, rubs it, and appears to whisper to it.

“Fucking-A, Cooper! Bowl!” Loïc laughs.

“Don’t be a hater just ’cause I’m going to kick your ass,” Cooper calls out.

“You can sprinkle pixie dust on that shit, and you still won’t beat me, so stop making a fool of yourself.” Loïc shakes his head in amusement.

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