Page 45 of Ever After

“Yes! The promotion came with a huge pay increase. I can finally get out of my stupid apartment. That’s the other thing I wanted to ask you…” She stops and stays silent.

“What?”

“Since you’re single—or soon to be—would you want to move in together? I’ve always wanted to live with my best friend, but Aiden snatched you up before I could.”

My eyes go wide.Why didn’t I think of that?

“I was looking at places today before you called. I have to figure out the living situation with Aiden. He’s not giving me much to go on, so I started looking at places myself in case I decide to move out. I don’t want to live anywhere where I have to share walls with people. But I couldn’t find anything I liked that didn’t share walls and was in my price range. This would solve my problem. Well, both our problems.” I laugh. “The only problem is that my lease isn’t up for another six months. Either Aiden or I will have to stay in our place for the next six months.”

“I’m fine with moving into your place until your lease is up, and then we could find something we both like. But what is going on with Aiden?” Lia gasps. “And Jay. Oh, my god I can’t believe I forgot about Jay.”

I put my elbows on the table and place my head on my hands. Thinking about telling her everything makes my head hurt. I start by telling her all the things Aiden has been doing to get me back, and then I tell her about the flower incident.

“You did what?” she yells.

“Shhh! Keep your voice down.”

The waiter comes by and sets our burgers down on the table. He must know something is going on. He hardly even looks at us. As soon as he places our food down and asks if we need anything else, he practically runs away. I would too, with how loud Lia is.

“Lilah! I can’t believe you.” She laughs.

I look up at her and give her a dirty look with fry sauce, squeezing out of my burger while I take a bite. “Shut up,” I say with my mouth full of food. She keeps laughing, and I throw a fry at her.

“He didn’t know your address, so why would you think it was him who sent you the flowers?”

“It was an honest mistake.”

Her laugh increases like a fucking hyena. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“You’ve said enough.” I grab another fry and throw it at her. “Shut up and eat.”

“But how could you think they were from him? What did Jay say?”

“I told him everything about how Aiden was trying to get me back. He trusts me when I tell him I don’t want Aiden back. We’re still talking. I know he wants to see if this could work out, but I don’t know what to do.”

“Girl, give him a chance. You already fucked him. What more is there to do?”

“Relationships aren’t only about fucking.”

“Beats me. That’s all guys seem good for nowadays with all the sleaze bags around here.”

Lia has never been one for relationships. She’ll date a guy for a while. Once it gets serious, she ends it. She has been cheated on, so I don’t blame her for wanting to protect herself. It’s never stopped her from dating, though.

“Hey, take a trip and go visit Jay. You guys are practically doing long distance. Just without the titles. You could go down and surprise him. He deserves that much after everything he’s done for you. Especially with your honest mistake about the flower incident.” She puts her hands up and does quotation marks when she says honest.

I roll my eyes at her. “You’re never going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope. I really like Jay for you. No man would have swooped someone up like that, like he did with you. He sounds like a keeper.”

“I guess it isn’t a bad idea to go visit him. How about you come with me? Then you can meet him and tell me what you think.”

“Why would I go? To listen to you guys bone all day and night? Yeah, it sounds likesomuch fun.”

“No. It’s not even like that. I mean, yes, we’ve had sex, but it’s not constant like you make it sound. His best friend lives next door to him, too. All four of us could hang out. It will be fun.”

She looks at me and moves her eyebrows up and down. “Ohhh, who’s this friend?”

“You’ll see.” I give her a wink.

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