“Thanks,” I say, forcing a smile. “I only had to go through a month of sunburns first.”
She cackles. “Are you sure you’re related to me? Because I swear, I’ve never had that problem.”
“We share a dad. Science says so.” I wink, measuring coconut oil with the dexterity of a chemist. I dump it in and then sigh. “You want the tea about the new neighbor?”
“Oh, always. Mom told me that you think he hates you?” Nora sets her phone on what appears to be a stack of graham crackers and settles in, propping her chin on her hand. “Please tell me he didn’t use your moisturizer…”
I nearly drop my spoon. “No…Well, I don’t think so… I mean, I think he would’ve told me…” I cringe at the idea of Dom using the first iteration of my skincare line.
The one everyone said smelled like rotten eggs.
“Anyway.” Nora coughs. “Is he hot?”
I sigh, dropping the measuring spoon as my face heats up. “Offensively hot, actually… But also possibly allergic to smiling. Remember the Alabama basketball player Dad used to always root for on TV? That’s him. Except now he’s my neighbor and Cocoa’s arch-nemesis.”
Nora frowns. “So, the beef is with Cocoa? The most insanely adorable dog in the entire world? How could anyoneeverbe mad at him?”
I sigh, the guilt returning. “Well … Dominic accused my dog of ruining his shoes. Which is …fine, okay, I think Cocoadiddo it … But also, he went fullTerminatoron me, and basically told me I was enabling Cocoa’s poor behavior. And I’m not even sure that he’s wrong, but—” I flail a whisk in the air, nearly splattering almond milk across my wall. “It was just … a lot. I had no idea how to handle it.”
Nora purses her lips as my face heats. “Sounds like someone’s crushing.”
“Take that back,” I hiss. “I do notcrushon humorless basketball players. Especially ones who have less personality than this almond milk.” I hold the carton up in the air. “It doesn’t matter if he has a smirk that could light up a room.”
“A smirk that could light up a room?” Nora bursts into laughter, pausing to open an apple sauce for her daughter. “So I guess that means you’ve never actually seen him smile?”
“I mean, maybe online.” I scrape the mixing bowl with a silicone spatula, refusing to admit to my Googling habits. “And I don’t think that counts as a real smile if it’s in a team picture.”
“Okay.” She laughs. “So, what’re you gonna do to make up for the shoe incident?”
“I don’t know,” I breathe. “But I feel like Ishoulddo something. Maybe buy him new ones? Or I could feature him on my channel. I have fourteen thousand followers now.”
Nora actually wheezes from laughing so hard. “Fourteen. Thousand. What a flex, Nic. The man probably has a million, given his NBA career.”
“Ugh, I know,” I groan, mixing my ingredients with full force now. I reach for the eggs with Cocoa at my heels and grab the carton, pivoting.
And then…
Everything goes wrong.
Cocoa collides with my shins, and my grip on the eggs vanishes. Nora gasps as I juggle the carton, and then it falls, splattering the eggs onto the floor.
My jaw drops. I stare in silence.
Nora shrieks with laughter.
And Cocoa goes straight to cleaning up the mess.
I pick up the carton to confirm my worst fears. “It’s empty.”
Nora nods, her cheeks red from the laughter she’s stifling. “It probably is, yes… Now what?”
I glare at the mess, at the dog, and then at the phone screen. “I don’t even know.WhydoeseverythingI do always go wrong?”
Cocoa looks up at my shrill tone, tongue lolling, and I can’t even be mad. He’s so freaking cute.
I ruffle his fur with my clean hand. “You’re a menace. You know that?”
He barks once, victorious.
