Page 168 of The Fake Date Agreement

“There was no practically about it,” Javier adds, shaking his head. “We walked into the store. He asked me what flavor you might like, and he was gone.”

Reid is setting up his laptop on my desk. “I didn’t want to forget the most important thing.”

“You act like you have the memory of a goldfish. You nearly knocked an old lady over,” Caleb says, putting his bag down and stripping out of his hoodie. The sight of that tanned skin briefly distracts me, and when he catches me staring, his eyes turn heated, and I look away.

“I saw her,” Reid says defensively.

I get my first glimpse at the movies he and Javier’s sister picked out. Heartbreak. Emotional family reunions. Big weddings. The works. Nothing that any hockey player would have any interest in watching.

Javier and Caleb lay out the snacks, ready for what looks like a day of snacks, ice cream, and a selection of movies that none of them will like, but they thought I would.

I nearly sob when Javier sets down a pint of salted caramel ice cream. Then I see the slab of chocolate, the thing I desperately wanted and didn’t think to ask for. It hits me in the feels, overwhelming me.

My eyes get all misty. That’s a lie. They’ve been misty since the ice cream.

“Sorry we couldn’t come sooner,” Reid says. “Coach was in a pissy mood, and…”

I sniff.

They all stop what they’re doing and twist to face me.

“I’m not going to cry.” Tears fill my eyes, and I drag my sleeve over them to hide the evidence that I’m a big fat liar.

“Come here.” Caleb abandons setting out the snacks to draw me into a hug. I bury my face against his chest and fight back more tears.

The chocolate is what I wanted. A hug is what I needed.

My fingers tighten around the soft cotton of his shirt and I lean into his hug.

When I have a handle on my tears, I lift my head to discover Javier and Reid giving me ‘the look.’

When I had my first period and worked myself up to telling Dad, he looked at me just the same.

Legitimately terrified.

“Should I go to the store?” Dad had asked all those years ago, shifting from foot to foot.

I will love him forever for returning from the store with a brown paper bag full of ten different sanitary pads and tampons, his face bright red. It was important to me, so he made it important to him and asked a random woman in the store which pad or tampon would be best for his daughter’s first period.

That couldn’t have been easy because Dad is… well. There’s a reason he loves his job working from home. Mom was the extrovert in our family. I got my quiet, studiousness from Dad.

“Do you want us to go?” Reid asks once Caleb has released me from a hug I hoped would last forever. “We barged right in here, and you didn’t even?—”

“No,” I quietly interrupt. “I didn’t think you would want… well, me.”

Not like this—all scruffy with my hair scraped back in a pony, fluffy pajamas, and no makeup.

“You needed us,” Caleb says quietly, thumbing a tear from my cheek.

“How would you know?” I ask, melting from the softness of his touch.

“Reid said you sounded sad.”

“How did you know to do this?” I motion the movies and the chocolate.

“I have a sister,” Javier says. “And we live on this planet. We know girls have periods.”

Then he offers me the pint of ice cream and a spoon they must have brought with them. Caleb passes me my hot water bottle when the ice cream briefly distracts me from my cramping belly, and we all settle down to watchThe Notebook.

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