Page 38 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

“It wasn’t a big deal,” she said.

I snorted again. “Right.”

“OK, I washopingit wouldn’t be a big deal.” She sighed and spoke slowly. “At first, maybe I hoped he’d be different. But he definitely wasn’t. He was just the grown-up version of himself. And that’s worse.”

“How’s it worse?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try?”

“I don’t know. He’s just more obnoxious, he still treats me like a child, and he’s more …” she trailed off. “I don’t want to talk about it, honestly. He already ruined the last few days in Bath, and I’m not giving him a chance to ruin this one too.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that. Stupid logic.”

Julia laughed. “Thanks for listening.”

“Always.”

“You know you’re, like, my platonic soulmate, right?”

I smiled. “Same, you know.”

I loved that I could be myself around her, and our conversations didn’t feel stilted or forced or awkward like with every other person in my life. She knew me better than anyone ever had.

“What are you doing tonight?” Julia asked. “I’m just studying, as usual.”

I bit my lip, unsure how much to say about my current passion project. I’d mentioned him a few times in texts, but Julia and I didn’t dophonecalls very often, so it felt different. “I’ll probably work on that board game project I told you about.”

“Oh, right. With the online guy.” She paused as if thinking. “Danny, was it?”

“Yes. I mean, that’s the pretend name I call him,” I said sheepishly.

“What does he call you then?”

“Mindy. It’s—”

“Danny and Mindy fromThe Mindy Project! That’s so perfect. So this is kind of a slow burning more-than-friends thing, then?” Her voice rose, and I winced.

“Oh. No, it’s not like that. We’re just friends. I mean, I think we are. It feels like we are, despite not knowing our real names. He’s great, but it’s just friendly between us. Very friendly.”

“Really friendly, huh?”

“Yep,” I said, popping thepsound at the end.

“Interesting,” she replied in the tone of voice that usually came with a smirk.

I shook my head, feeling my lips twitch at the corners. “Anyway, I’ll leave you to your homework. And your lake boy.”

She scoffed. “Not my … never mind. Not taking the bait, Rox. You have a great night, all right?”

“You too,” I said before pressing End Call on my phone and tossing it on the other side of the couch.

My eyes swung over to the empty wineglass on the coffee table. I started to rise to refill it again but then slumped backonto the couch. No, two glasses would be plenty, at least for now. I didn’t want to be drunk when Danny came online.

I supposed I cared what he thought. Shrugging off the slightly awkward feeling, I opened my laptop.

My eyes widened when I saw his green dot, indicating he was online. I hadn’t expected him for another hour or so. He usually came on fairly late, I assumed because he worked long days. Or late days. I wasn’t sure. We knew so little about each other outside of this online community.

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