“I’ll clean. How’s that?”
“Oh, sure.” She put her hands up. “I can’t argue with you about anything right now. Thanks, Alyssa. Do you want a snack?”
“Oh, god, no. I already ate way too much.” I almost said something about the whole thing with Linda offering to help me get a job… I wasn’t sure why it died on the tip of my tongue. It would be ridiculous for me to turn down a job here just because I felt small and irrelevant and like I didn’t want to watch Daniela and Jade both forget about me when they got together.
But sometimes I was ridiculous.
“Suit yourself,” Daniela said. “You’re going to eat well tomorrow, though.”
Tomorrow. Yeah… that’d be great.
Chapter 15
Jade
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Cat said, looking herself over in the mirror. I sighed.
“Why are you asking me a question and not looking at the answer?” I said, out loud, to a room with nobody who could hear me. I finished pulling on my flannel jacket, and I stepped up next to her to answer where she could see me in the mirror. “I know it’s uncomfortable, but if you want to move past everything, you have to step out there eventually. Daniela’s seemed really nice about everything lately.”
She turned, beaming at me. “Oh, yeah?”
“Uh, yeah.” I narrowed my eyes. “What’s with the sudden change of energy?”
She grinned and shoved her hands in the pockets of her big bomber jacket, over top of a heavy sweatshirt, and tiny jean shorts. It was cold tonight, and her legs were going to freeze, but God help anyone who tried to convince her of that. “Oh, just enjoying howniceDaniela’s been to you. I didn’t realize this was that kind of event. Should Alyssa and I be giving you some space?”
Oh, for Christ’s sake. Daniela wasn’t the girl I was useless over right now. But I’d die before I admitted how I felt aboutAlyssa. I still didn’t even like to admit it to myself, and I’d been waking up in the mornings convinced I was going to pull myself together and act like a grownup and move past it, and then I’d be at work for two hours laughing like an idiot in the back of my car looking at a text she’d sent. And I was definitely not going to admit how I’d been cataloguing every scent that Alyssa seemed to enjoy trying to figure out the perfect blend to make her.
“No space required,” I said, and Cat lit up.
“Oh my god, you’re embarrassed,” she said, jaw dropping, eyes sparkling. “You’re embarrassed!”
“No—”
“Youdohave a crush on Daniela.”
Kill me. “I don’t—Cat.”
“Iknewit. She totally has a crush on you too! You should go for it!”
“Cat—” I put my face in my hands, and I covered up a loud groan so she wouldn’t see it. I desperatelyhopedDaniela didn’t have a crush on me. Which was a weird thing to think, when just a few weeks ago, I’d have loved to have Daniela come back and sayI’m sorry, I was wrongand try to take me on a date. But now the only thing I could think of was how Alyssa had looked when she’d been here the other day, nestled in the corner of the couch across from me, blue eyes sparkling as she looked out the window at the endless stars above the valley like it was the best thing she’d ever seen.
Alyssa was the absolute worst person in all Paxton Ridge to fall for. She was the one everyone wanted and nobody could have, so of course it was her I had feelings for. How embarrassing.
“It’s okay,” Cat laughed. “We can make this work. We’ll have a fun night together with the four of us—”
“Cat,” I signed, but she ignored me.
“—and once the evening is getting on, I’ll take Alyssa to go look at something else—”
I signedstoprepeatedly, but she was stopping when she damn well pleased.
“—and you and Daniela can get some quality time together!”
“I’mnotinterested in Daniela,” I said. She laughed.
“It’s okay. I’ve suspected for a while that you had a crush on her—”
“Cat, for the love of god,” I said, “if you try to pair me up with Daniela, I am walking out of there.”
