Page 102 of April

“Nothing. Why?”

“Want a date?”

“A lunch date with my friend, Asher, or a lunchdatewith Asher, the woman I’m maybe dating?”

“The second one.” Asher winked at her. “And it’s not maybe.”

Linden nodded and said, “Yeah? I’d love a lunch date with you, then.”

Two hours later, she was sitting at a booth at Mac’s, with Asher across from her, and it felt familiar but new at the same time. They’d shared lunch hundreds of times before, but this time was different.

“I haven’t kissed you today yet,” Linden said as they waited for their food to be dropped off.

“That sounds so weird,” Asher noted with a laugh.

“But good, right?”

“Yes. Very good,” Asher said. “Well, not the part about how youhaven’tkissed me, but the part where it sounds like kissing me is now part of your daily plan.”

“I have a checklist now. Kissing Asher every day is at the top of it. It’s also every other item on the list, too,” Linden said.

“Hey, you two.”

Linden turned, hearing a familiar voice and seeing Jill walking toward them.

“Jill,” Asher said with gritted teeth.

“I’m just grabbing lunch. I didn’t expect to see you here. Can I join? I was going to grab it to-go, but if you’re here, we can all hang.”

Jill sat down next to Linden then, and Linden looked at Asher, who had the funniest expression on her face. Well, it wasn’t exactly funny to Asher, but the adorable jealous look she had right now was priceless to Linden.

“We were just having a working lunch,” Linden offered. “Boring wedding-planning stuff.”

“For Mel and Kyle, or Monica and Bridge?” Jill asked.

“Neither. We have a big client. Lots of details around napkin folding. Very boring stuff,” she said, trying to get Jill to take the hint.

“Napkin folding? People really care about how their napkins are folded at their wedding?” Jill asked.

“Yes, they do,” Asher muttered and looked off toward the counter.

“Ash?” Linden said.

When Asher turned back to her, Linden nodded toward Jill, silently asking if it was okay to tell her. Asher nodded, too, but she nodded to the empty seat next to her. Linden took the hint, exited the booth on her side, and slid into the empty spot next to Asher.

“Will you do that thing we were just talking about?” Asher asked quietly.

“Yeah,” she said, wrapping one arm over the back of the booth and using her other hand to cup Asher’s cheek. “And to be clear, if I do this once, I only get to check it off my list once. I still have it another thirty times or so.”

“So, we’ll need to kiss multiple–”

Linden pressed her lips to Asher’s, cutting her off, and kissed her slowly, not asking for more because she knew where they were and that Jill was sitting across from them, watching this moment between them. When Linden pulled back, she smiled at Asher, trying to convey to her without words that she didn’t want to kiss Jill ever again. She only wanted to kiss her.

“What are you doing?” Asher asked Jill after they’d turned to her.

“Texting everyone,” Jill replied like it was obvious.

“They sent you, didn’t they?” Linden asked.

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