Page 14 of Not Friends

“I know this is your special Noah and Jenny time, but I have to tell you my news.”

“Yes, tell! And what do you mean by ‘special Noah and Jenny time’?”

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Um, up in Noah’s office.”

“I rest my case.”

“Hi, Sadie,” Noah said, sounding amused. “Did you get the job?”

“I did.”

“I knew it. That’s awesome,” Jenny clapped her hands. “We’ll miss you but I’m excited for you.”

“Wow, everyone’s full of good news today,” Noah said.

“Oh yeah?” I asked.

They were suddenly quiet, except for a sigh from Jenny.

“What is it?”

“Denver got a call today, too,” Jenny finally said with forced cheerfulness. “They hired him as a BFF.”

“When did he find out?”

“Probably around the same time as you. He texted me about ten minutes ago.”

Of course he did. That jerk stole my thunder. He was a total up-stager. And I hated how once again, that made me the bad guy. Because I wasn’t happy for him. Not in my heart where things like that counted. How could I be, when his good news meant I’d have to see his smug face every day? I’d pretend I was okay with it for Jenny’s sake, though. “Well, good for him. He starts in two weeks?”

“Yep. You too?”

“Yes. Two weeks from Monday. I already put in my notice. So, um, does Denver text you a lot, Jen?”

“Well, more since Makayla dumped him.”

Noah chuckled. “I know exactly where you’re going with this, Sadie, and I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Denver’s a decent guy. He always adds me to their texts. He has since the day Jen told him she was dating me.”

“You three have a group chat?” That was so weird.

“Not really, since I have it muted. But I’m there. Lurking.” He gave an evil laugh that had Jenny shushing him, but also laughing with him.

“Noah doesn’t have to read the texts. I tell him everything later.”

“She does. It’s the daily Denver update.”

“It is not. So, tell us about this job,” Jenny said, probably realizing we needed to stop talking about Denver. “What did they say?”

Feeling marginally less excited now, I shared the details, and then let them get back to their lunch hour. It would be okay. Denver could have his good news and I could have mine. Thank goodness my position had nothing to do with his. Denver could do his wingman thing far, far away from me.

Chapter 8 – Denver

It was not every day you found three gym buddies crowded around an island counter trying to make scones. But I was just that persuasive. Or maybe that pathetic?

Nah, I was going with persuasive. Yes, I could admit I was having baked goods cravings, but scones were the perfect reward after an intense workout. Or they would be, if we figured this out. I didn’t have Makayla’s recipe, so we were following one we found online.

Julian, Hank, and I had known each other since joining the swim team freshman year of high school. Suddenly deciding to make scones didn’t even scratch the surface of stupid things we’d attempted over the years. There was the tree house that fell over with us in it. The Prom night homemade hot tub fail. Oh, and the time senior year when we drove to Los Angeles just to try Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles. That last one was totally worth it, by the way.

---