Page 43 of The Last Love Story
Hallie: She woke up and chose violence. It’s the only answer for the ending to book 7.
Hardy: La la la. I can’t hear you. I haven’t finished yet! No spoilers!
Hallie: Get out of the chat then. We have grievances to air.
Frannie: I’m not ready yet, but that’s my own doing. I know the last two chapters are going to destroy me, so I’m avoiding them and having a Joey Tribbiani moment.
Kennedy: Put the book in the freezer?
Frannie: Metaphorically speaking since I’m reading the e-books.
Hardy: Seriously! No spoilers. I’m muting this chat until I’m done!
Me: Jade, welcome to chaos.
“What did you do?” she asks with a laugh.
I shrug innocently, but she doesn’t buy it. She shakes her head and types out a response.
Jade: I don’t know who all of you are yet, but welcome to the party. I provide tissues and emotional support cat memes. You can send me your therapy bills, but don’t expect me to pay them.
Jade: Oh, and I only have brunch with Satan the second Tuesday of every month. And yes, we do use your tears to brew the tea. XO
I laugh as I read the texts.
“You’re savage. I kinda like it.”
Her eyes dance, and it’s impossible to miss the shift in the air around us. If we lock eyes for longer than a second, the tension between us grows exponentially.
After a moment, she rolls her eyes and smiles. “I like having fun with it. And obviously, it’s different with your friends, but generally speaking, being playful creates a stronger barrier between my work life and my personal life. They can bleed together, and I try to keep that from happening too much. You somehow got through.”
“I’m sneaky like that.”
“So, who all is on this text with us?”
“First one is Kennedy.”
“One of your besties.”
“Yep. And second is Hallie.”
“Her younger cousin and Frannie’s sister?”
“Yes. And Frannie was the fourth one. The third is Hardy.”
“Hardy?” she asks in confusion.
“Well, Ryan, but that’s what he goes by?—”
“Wait. Ryan? As in Ryan Hardison? The New York Bandits wide receiver?”
“Little bit. Are you a Bandits fan?”
“I’m a sports girl in general, but yeah, my dad and I always watched their games together—sometimes still do. We even went to a game their opening season… twelve or thirteen years ago, I think?” She shakes her head in disbelief, then her brow furrows as she puts the rest of it together. “Wait. And Frannie’s boyfriend Mark is Mark Abbott? Their quarterback? The one who went through that whole scandal thing and then maybe got engaged—was it Frannie? Are they engaged?”
I laugh out loud at the rapid-fire pace she spits all that out.
“They’re not engaged. Mark just apologized to her in the dumbest way possible. They’d only known each other for like a week at that point.”
