“At first, it just hit me very strangely. I don’t know how to explain it. In my head, Josh is still, like, fifteen, and I couldn’t picture the two of you together. And I worried about him. I didn’t think he was ready for a relationship again, but maybe I was wrong about that.”
Paige nodded. She didn’t have siblings, but she tried to imagine how she would feel if she did and one of them dated one of her best friends. It would probably be weird. And she knew Lauren was trying to protect her brother from further heartache.
“It’s not even that, though. The problem is me.I’mthe one who ended it because suddenly it was all too much and I freaked out. Being with someone in a real relationship requires schedule shifts, requires letting someone into your home, into your life, in a way that I wasn’t ready for. And I thought I could just go back to my regularly scheduled life, but it turns out I can’t. Josh shook everything up, but now I can’t figure out how to put it all back.”
Lauren was quiet for a moment, like she was turning that all over. “I’m certainly no expert, but one thing I’ve learned in the last couple of years is that, although I don’t really believe in fate or there being one perfect person in the world for everyone, I do think that once you’ve met someone really amazing, your life is never the same. I mean, Caleb and I hated each other when we first met, and he still managed to change my life entirely.”
“You think that’s what happened with me and Josh?”
“I don’t know. Only you can answer that. But I saw how upset Josh was when you two broke up, and I’ve seen how sad you have been over the last few days, which is why I asked this question to begin with. If you guys are happy together, then that’s all that matters.”
That did go a long way toward making Paige feel better. “But what about you and our friends and everything? What if things get weird?”
“I mean, say you do get together,” Lauren said after popping another bit of muffin into her mouth. “You’ll have fights. You’ll probably pull me into them a few times because I’m the only one who knows you both really well. Or, you know, you’ll have a fight and I’ll side with one or the other of you and it will get awkward. And, yeah, you might even break up. But if there’s a chance you won’t? Please don’t let me be the thing that keeps you from trying.”
Paige nodded. “I don’t like not knowing what the future holds.”
“I know.”
“I don’t like that he’s working for the real estate developer who tried to close the Cat Café, nor that it seems like he kind of hates his job. That’s a lot to deal with.”
Lauren nodded.
Paige looked off into the distance, hoping the answer would make itself clear. “If I could know that Josh and I will be fine, it’d go a long way toward making the decision about what to do easier.”
“Unfortunately, you can’t know that. There are no guarantees in life. If you had asked me two years ago, I never would have expected to be married and expecting my first baby now. But that’s kind of the beauty of it, don’t you think? We don’t know what will happen, so we have to take each experience as it comes.”
“Spoken like a smug married.”
Lauren laughed. “You sound like Evan.”
Paige smiled, but she felt sad now. She’d really bungled her last conversation with Josh, and she completely understood why he was mad. “You know, I realized when Josh and I were having that last talk, he’s kind of perfect for me.”
Lauren tilted her head. “He might just be, but I still haven’t reconciled that he’s gone through puberty. He’s still that annoying kid who pulled my hair and fought with me over the TV remote.”
“He’s a grown-up now, you know.”
“I don’t need the details.”
Paige laughed. “Okay. But what do I do now? Do you think it’s too late? Should I try to win him back or…?”
“I don’t think it’s too late. What is it you truly want?”
“I want him back. I want for us to be together.” Paige didn’t even hesitate. She knew in her gut that was the right answer. She could date a hundred guys she met through her phone and never find a guy she connected with like she did with Josh, a guy she loved like she did Josh.
“And you’re all in? You’re willing to fight for him? Because it might be hard to get him to trust you now.”
“Yes. One hundred percent. I’m all in.” And Paige meant it. Josh had shaken up her life, but she welcomed it. She wanted things to be shaken up. She wanted to fall in love and she wanted to have a partner in life and she wanted to find some great apartment for the two of them and their cats and she wanted to break right out of her comfort zone and find the kind of happiness that Lauren and Caleb found. The kind of happiness she knew she and Josh could find together.
“Okay.” Lauren nodded and grinned. “Let’s make a plan, then. What do you think you need to do to get him back?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I want both of you to be happy. So let’s make a plan to make that happen.”
Paige nodded and thought about it for a moment. “He needs to know that I would risk something to be with him.”
Lauren nodded. “In other words, you need to show him you’re all in.”
