“Oh, fuck.” She flails her arms and crawls towards me. “Something happened between you and Nathan. Fucking tell me now.”
My face remains neutral. “How do you know something’s happened?”
“The fact you haven’t actively denied it means I’m right.” She releases a squealing noise similar to a pig. “My best friend is getting the pickle.”
“Flo, I hate it when you call it that.”
She cups my cheeks, forcing me to drop my pizza back down in the box. “DoestheNathan Slater have any hot friends? I want a football player.”
I wiggle my eyebrows. “Evan’s single. You want to be a mommy?”
“I’ll behismommy,” she jokes, and I smack her away with a laugh. “I hope you’re ready. I can see it now. You’ll be on the front page, clinging onto Nathan’s arm as you walk into a fancy restaurant in Paris, ready to dine with the other millionaires of the world. My best friend is gonna be famous.”
“I can’t think of anything worse than being followed around my whole life.”
My best friend snorts. “It wouldn’t be yourwholelife. Just until Nathan dwindles to irrelevancy. And judging by his age, that shouldn’t be too far away.”
“Do you possess a filter, or were you just born without one?”
Flo groans, flopping back on the couch. “God, you sound like my mother. Speaking of, how’s yours?”
I snort. “Is that even a question?”
My best friend sighs. “You’re right. Sorry.”
It isn’t until now that I realise how tired Flo looks. Even the layer of concealer she’s wearing isn’t disguising her under-eye bags. “How’s work?” I pry.
“Killing me.” Flo works for a talent agency. They work with a bunch of celebrities, and she’s always getting invited to fancy dinners and lavish parties—events she tries not to attend. “My clients are driving me crazy. Ella Baxter is a bitch. There I said it!”
On a chuckle, I say, “Really? Her music’s pretty good, though.”
“I know, and that’s what makes it worse! I wanna kill her, but at the same, I don’t because then she’d stop singing. My ears need that woman’s voice.”
“Why don’t you just quit?”
“Mae, I am so close to a promotion, I can practically taste it. I don’t want to give up now.”
I beam at her. “That’s the spirit.”
My phone pings, and I snatch it up, staring at the screen. The world seems to freeze around me. I only pick up on a few words in the email because my heart is rattling against my ribs so hard they feel like they might break.
Congratulations.
Veterinary nurse.
Acceptance.
Florida.
I release a yelp.
“What?” Flo demands, eyes wide like saucers.
I’m still staring.
“Mae, tell me!”
“I got accepted…” My voice trails off. “Fuck, a practice accepted me, Flo.”
