Page 83 of Friend Me

But Tyler wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at those garish pink peonies.

He gripped his fist so hard I heard a faint snap, and a tiny something plinked on the wood floor.

“Never mind.” His Vans screeched as he turned on his heel, flung open the stairwell door, and pounded down the stairs.

“Wow,” Ben said, fanning himself. “Angry Tyler Young is one scrumptious lump of man-flesh. It’d be worth pissing him off just for the make-up—”

“Shut it, Ben.”

I walked to the stairwell door and picked up the piece of black plastic that had fallen from Tyler’s hand. It was a tiny gun or maybe a blaster like the one I’d worn with my Princess Leia costume the other night. When I could get myself together enough to talk to him like a reasonable person and not some melancholy spinster with embroidering to do, I’d take it down to him.

I hoped he didn’t need it right away.

* * *

“Look,I’m sorry about the punch.” Alicia frowned as she squeezed her pregnant belly against the cafe table. “That’s new,” she muttered.

I pulled the table toward myself to give her some breathing room. “The punch?”

“At the party on Saturday. Didn’t you invite me for coffee to yell at me about it? Everyone else has. Apparently, Sunday was pretty miserable. Poor Jackson was still recovering on Monday.”

“Poor Jackson?” I snorted. “He made the foul stuff.” I’d popped more than the recommended dose of ibuprofen. To hell with the bottle’s warnings about heart attacks. My heart could kiss my ass. It’d led me astray for the past three years.

“He forgot he wasn’t twenty-two anymore.” She smiled, her eyes going soft and fond.

Tyler used to look at me like that. Before I’d broken him and ruined our friendship. He hadn’t come upstairs Tuesday or yesterday. And I hadn’t had the courage to visit him downstairs. That was what I needed Alicia’s help with.

The server set down Alicia’s herbal tea and my caramel latte with a heart in the foam. Ugh. I swirled my spoon through it until it looked like Jupiter with its striped cloud formations.

“I didn’t invite you here to complain about the punch. Though Jackson should issue a formal apology for trying to poison us all. I need to talk to you about…about Tyler.”

“Tyler? Is he okay? I didn’t see him drink the punch.”

I gripped Alicia’s hand just as she was about to pick up her cup. “Forget the punch. I—I think I love him.”

Thank Bernoulli I’d stopped her from drinking. From the shocked expression on her face, she’d have done a spit-take for sure. “But you have a crush on Cooper.”

“Shh.” The cafe wasn’t the closest one to the office, but Cooper Fallon’s fame spread far beyond the Synergy office. “I thought I did, but I don’t.” I leaned closer to her and whispered, “He kissed me at your party, and I didn’t feel anything. It was like kissing Jackson—not that I’ve ever done that—or, or Ben. Not that I’ve done that either. But there was no magic at all.”

“You mean, not like when you kissed Tyler?”

I covered my face with my hands and nodded.

“How does Tyler feel about it?”

I peeked between my fingers. “Before the party, he said he wanted to be more than friends. And I shut him down. Then he saw Cooper and me. And the apology peonies.”

“Apology—”

“He didn’t take it well. I think I might have hit a sore spot.” His words had been ringing in my ears since Saturday night:You used me to get what you wanted. And the worst part is I let you.I’d done to him just what his ex, Bella, had. “I haven’t sucked it up enough to talk to him about it.”

She arched a blond eyebrow. “But that’s exactly what you have to do. You were the one who made Jackson come to Austin to grovel.”

“I don’t know that what I did was as bad as—”

“You have to talk to him. Otherwise, how will he know how you feel?”

She was paraphrasing my favorite song fromEnchanted.Both Alicia and Giselle were right. I’d tell Tyler I loved him, and he’d take me in his arms and kiss me again like he’d kissed me at Alicia’s wedding. My toes would curl, the sun would burst out from the fog, and woodland creatures would sing. Tyler and I would ride a white horse—or maybe just his blue Mustang—into the sunset.

I leaned across the table to hug Alicia. “You’re right. You’re right. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”

She squeezed me back. “You two are going to be great together. You should come over for dinner one night next week.”

That’d be perfect. Dinner with Tyler, my best friend, and the boss I loved like a brother. I was going to get my happily-ever-after after all.

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