“Thanks for a great night, Grace. I had a lot of fun. See you Monday.”
And then she was gone.
As soon as I got up to my condo I texted Maeve and Ariel that I needed to talk. To their credit, despite the late hour they both came right down. That’s the kind of friendship we had.
“Is this about Nicole?” Maeve asked as soon as she let herself in.
We all had keycodes to each other’s places.
“Of course we are,” Ariel said, her tone implying that Maeve was an idiot. “They were super cozy at dinner, then after we all left they were slow dancing and making sexy eyes at each other but now our little Grace is here all alone.”
“Fucking Theo,” I mumbled. “Was he texting you a play by play?”
That man was the biggest gossip in Chicago. I was surprised he didn’t follow me outside to livestream the kiss.
“What happened?” Maeve asked.
“We kissed,” I confessed.
“Again?”
I shot Maeve an impatient look.
“It’s only the second time,” I reminded her. “It’s been three weeks since anything happened.”
“Other than the eye fucking in meetings,” Ariel corrected.
I rolled my eyes. “If you two are done giving me shit, I could use some advice.”
“Ask her out,” Ariel said.
“I tried that a few weeks ago, and she turned me down flat.”
“What did you say exactly?” Maeve asked suspiciously.
“I told her we should fuck once to work through the sexual tension, like resetting a computer.”
Both of my friends sighed deeply.
“That’s incredibly romantic,” Maeve said dryly.
“What was I supposed to do? Ask her to marry me?” I demanded. “I just need to do something to make these feelings go away.”
My friends exchanged a look.
“Could it be that you’re finally falling in love for the first time in your life?” Ariel asked.
“I was in love before,” I said defensively.
“When?” Ariel asked.
“With whom?” Maeve asked at the same time.
“I realized recently that I was in love with Nicole. Back in school.”
Maeve waved her hand dismissively. “School girl crushes don’t count. The point is, you’ve always kept things casual. You never want to let anyone get too close.”
“You guys are too close,” I replied, using her phrasing.
