“Us.” I swiveled my head to face her. “Him and me.Wedon’t make sense.”
“So?”
“So, it’s better to cut things off before they start.”
Think ahead and account for the consequences.
“It can’t go anywhere.”
“It can go to dinner,” she countered. In another time and multiverse, June could have been a top-notch attorney. “It can go to bed, or—”
“June, he’s a twenty-four-year-old pro-athlete who spends half the year on the road,” I told her. “Plus, don’t baseball players get traded to other teams?”
Her shrug was all the confirmation needed.
“He’s too young to want to settle down,andwhen he does, is he really going to do it with a thirtysomething, grumpy bitch who still lives at home with her brother and can’t have children?”
I buried my face in tulle, too embarrassed to face her response. June was my best friend, and as such, I told her everything, but that didn’t mean I was immune to her judging glance. Not that I needed it. I was and had always been my harshest critic.
“Ness.” I nuzzled deeper into the fabric. “Nessa Mallory Gibbs.”
That was code for “I’m serious.” Other than my mom and GG, June was the only person who ever used my full name.
I uncovered my face and sat back up on my side.
“Babe, I’m saying this with love, but you sort of have a tendency to write people off.”
Only the ones I thought could hurt me.
“And I get it,” she added quickly. There was no judgment in her eyes, just love. “It’s a safety mechanism. We all have them.”
“Oh yeah? What’s yours?”
She pursed her lips. “We’re not talking aboutme, you ho bag. All I’m saying is you can't grieve how thingscouldhave gone without letting them happen in the first place.”
How dare she spit bumper sticker worthy bars like that while I was half-naked.
And she was right. I had spent years guarding my heart, avoiding the consequences of whatmighthappen in the eventuality that I let someone in. Especially when that someone went against everything I had ever envisioned for myself.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “Maybe I should give him—”
“Shut up, shut up. He’s texting you back.”
My stomach roiled with each flash of those three little dots.For fuck’s sake.He was twenty-four. Why did it take him so long to type?
Pink
I knew it.
June and I recoiled in tandem.
“Knew what?” I asked aloud even as I typed it out. This time he responded almost immediately.
Pink
That you were an angel.
“Marry him.” June flicked at the material of the dress scrunched up around my waist. “Andplease, wear this one. Trust me, your baseball boy will eat it up.”
