"That was for saying no to drugs," Eloise and Ursula replied.
Bess got a confused look on her face. "You had to have a class about saying no to drugs?"
Jenson smiled. "Generation of parents that lived through the Sixties and Seventies. They were being careful."
"It did not work," Taylor added.
"Though maybe a class onjust say noto people would have been helpful," Tilly added.
"So you're going to dinner with this guy that treated you like crap tonight?"
"Yep." She smiled as Eloise handed her a mug of hot tea, thanking her with her eyes.
"I can run a background check on him," Taylor offered.
Tilly gave him a skeptical look. "Is that legal?"
"Not at all."
Eloise beamed at him. "I love you."
He put his arm around her, pulling her more firmly into his side, and kissed the top of her head.
"Listen, Tilly," Jenson started as he made a sandwich. "If this guy is in any way inappropriate or does anything you don't like, you let us know."
"He's really good at crashing meals," Ursula said slyly, to which Jenson bumped his shoulder against hers, and she smiled up at him. He handed her the sandwich and tucked a piece of her black hair behind her ear.
Tilly felt a pang in her chest. That kind of love was real. She'd never had it, but seeing it showcased with her friends gave her hope. And a little sadness if she was honest with herself.
"I didn't know how else to get your attention," he murmured.
"Maybe not acting like a jerk would have been a good start," Ursula rebutted.
"Ah, but my jerkiness got your attention," he bantered.
"I love you all, but the kitchen full of couples is bumming me out." Bess's words were mostly teasing as she watched their intimate moment.
Tilly raised her hand. "I second that. Want to eat on the front porch with me, a fellow single person?"
"Yep." Bess scooped up her plate and followed Tilly through the house, and once they were on the porch, she said, "So, wanna talk about the guy, the commitment-phobe?"
Tilly looked at Bess as they sat on the front porch, Bess with her sandwich and Tilly with a peach from the garden and her mug of tea.
"You have experience in this department of men?"
Bess rolled her eyes. She had her black dyed hair up in a high ponytail and was wearing a Hello Kitty shirt with baggy jeans. "There are like three types of guys. Ones who want a relationship, ones who aren't interested in any kind of romance because of like sports or whatever their interests are taking up most of their brain space and personality, and then the ones who want to feel like they're connecting but don't want to commit. Those are the guys I have the most experience with."
She took a bite of the ripe peach, thinking through her history with dating and men, and found what Bess said to be true.
"I kind of accidentally fell for him even though he told me he didn't want anything serious. His job takes him around the world, and settling down isn't something he's interested in."
"Then how did you accidentally fall for him?"
"Well," Tilly thought about their time spent together. "We spent a year together, hanging out, being in each other's lives, building something that admittedly I got attached to."
Bess rolled her eyes again and truthfully, it was somehow pretty on her teenage face. "Yeah, the commitment-phobe has an avoidant attachment thing. They usually know deep down that they need and want connection and relationship, but at their surface level self, they're afraid of losing their freedom. It's so annoying."
Tilly looked at her in wonder with a grin on her face. How could such a profound thought mixed with the use of eye rolls as an entire language live in one young woman?
