Page 15 of Just Friends

“So what do you think you’re going to try? Apps? Going out? Mail-order grooms?”

My nose wrinkles. “I don’t think that’s a thing.”

She cocks an eyebrow. “I actually just read this book about—”

“Blind dates,” I say, cutting her off, because I know if I don’t, she’ll end up down a rabbit hole of smutty romance recommendations. Lucy loveslovemore than anyone else I know. One time, I caught her googling random name combinations and clicking on the wedding websites that came up so she could read their love stories. When there’s a lull at the shop and she’s not cleaning or working, she can be found hiding behind the counter with her Kindle, reading free romances, using her Kindle Unlimited subscription.

“Blind dates?” she asks, her head tilting to the side. “Who’s going to set you up?”

“I asked Alex to.” Lucy blinks, not responding for so long that I ask, “What?”

“You wantAlexto set you up on blind dates?”

I feel my defenses rise at her tone, although I’m not sure what for. Alex and Lucy are some of the closest friends I’ve ever had—if anyone is going to set me up, it’s going to be one of them.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“I just always thought…” Lucy trails off before shaking her head. “Never mind. I think he will be great.”

I want to press her, to ask what she always thought, but I know Lucy’s attention jumps from one thing to the next faster than I can blink, and she probably doesn’t even remember what she was going to say.

“We talked about it after the wedding, and we agreed to set each other up on one date a week.”

“You’re setting each other up?”

Shrugging, I say, “Yeah, he said he’s ready to find something more serious.”

“Oh,” Lucy says and stops again.

This time I can’t resist my urge to ask for more. “What?”

“It’s just…you’re not worried that a girlfriend wouldn’t want you spending so much time with Alex?”

Honestly, no, I hadn’t thought about that. But now that she mentions it, fear takes hold in my gut. Whoever I date will have to be okay with my friendship with Alex. It’s a deal-breaker. But I can’t control what his girlfriend thinks. She could be totally against us spending time together alone, or unhappy with the fact that Alex brings me dinner at least once a week, or annoyed that he texts me first thing in the morning to compare our REM sleep times on our sleep trackers.

“You’re freaking out,” Lucy says when I haven’t responded.

I stare at her, my mind spinning. “Maybe a little.”

Her gaze is assessing. “So what are you going to do about it?”

I rack my brain for a solution. “I’ll just have to set him up with someone who is okay with our friendship.”

“That’s one idea.” A small smile I can’t quite decipher plays on Lucy’s lips.

“Do you have a better one?”

She watches me for a minute, that amused smile still on her face. Smoothing back an errant curl, she says, “No, this will work. Let’s try to figure out who to set him up with.”

“I don’t even know,” I say, my voice sounding uncharacteristically desolate.

“Hold on,” Lucy says, pushing up from the booth. She runs behind the counter and grabs a notepad and a green gel pen before returning. “Let’s talk about what kind of girl he needs.”

“He needs someone who can make him laugh,” I say immediately. “He’s got an amazing laugh.”

Lucy scrawls it on the paper before turning back to me.

“He’s secretly a shy extrovert, so he likes it when other people are the center of attention. He says he can latch on to them and loosen up and be himself. But when he’s on his own, he’s nervous.”

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