“Oh no, really?” Cherry reached over so she could give Nugget a scratch. “I get it, though. New digs and all, right? And cats are…I think they kinda work on their own timeline.” She smiled and words came out of Ellis’s mouth before she could stop them.
“Your smile just makes me feel all warm inside.” And then the reality of what she’d said set in, and she froze in horror.
“You should see your face right now,” Cherry said, laughing. “God, you’re cute. Where did you come from?”
“Pennsylvania. I told you,” Ellis teased. How could she be so nervous and so comfortable at the same time? It didn’t make any sense, but she had no other description.
“You’re funny.”
“It’s true. Iamsuper funny.”
Cherry laughed and bumped against her with a shoulder, and their gazes held for what felt like a really long time to Ellis. “So. Pizza?” Cherry asked. “I’m starving.”
“Let’s do it.” Ellis got up to grab her phone. As she called up the app to place their order, she wondered if Cherry noticed her grinning like a fool. But she didn’t care and just kept on smiling because this was easily the best evening she’d had in longer than she could remember.
A pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms was only going to make it better.
Chapter Eight
“Shea! Where are you, woman?” Cherry shut the door with her hip, her arms filled with her purse, lunch bag, and three boxes she’d picked up from the post office.
“How dare you demand my presence,” Shea said with mock irritation, but her eyes went wide, and she hurried to help Cherry with her load. “What’s all this?”
“I gotproduct, baby,” Cherry told her, unable to keep the smile off her face.
Shea squinted as she clearly tried to understand what that meant, and Cherry could see the exact second she got it. “Oh my God. Like,productproduct? Like, sent to you from companies product? No way.”
“Yes way.” Cherry couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice. Hell, from her body. She was practically thrumming. She shrugged out of her jacket, still in her work clothes, and was way too aware of how much she wished Ellis was there right then. “I got a box from J. Jordan, who makes the mascara I reviewed a couple weeks ago. And one from Peak, an outdoor gear company, so I’m not sure what they sent. But the box is big.”
“Babe,” Shea said, and her eyes danced. “This is the goal. This is what you want. It’s starting.”
“It’s starting!”
They squealed together like two sorority pledges, and then Shea got a knife so they could open the boxes.
“So, you’ll use this stuff and then—the company hopes—you’ll give it a positive review, and your followers will go buy it. Yes?”
“Exactly.” Cherry sifted through the J. Jordan box. More mascara,a couple eyeliners. Some foundation, which she didn’t wear, but also some moisturizer, which she did. “A lot here,” she observed as she and Shea picked things up, examined them, and set them back down.
Shea sliced open the box from Peak. “Oh wow,” she said as she pulled a smaller box from the big one. “Hiking boots.”
“What?” Cherry said, her head snapping toward Shea. “Holy shit.” It was, in fact, a pair of nice hikers, clearly high quality, with purple accents on the medium brown base. “Wow. These are gorgeous.” She met Shea’s gaze. “Look ’em up,” she said, just as Shea had picked up her phone, likely to do just that.
“A hundred seventy-five bucks,” Shea said after a couple minutes of typing and scrolling.
“What?”
“Yup.”
“Wow.” She pulled all the packing material out of the shoes, then slid her foot into one. “It fits like a damn glove. For my foot.” She put the other one on, laced them up, and walked around the tiny living room. “These are amazing.”
“You’re gonna have to hike in them. Take ’em for a test drive.”
“Definitely.”
“Maybe your make-out buddy would go with you.”
“Her name is Ellis,” she mock-scolded her.
