As if she had telepathy and knew now was the moment Jenna needed to be prodded, her phone lit up with a text from Dakota on the group thread.
Talk to her yet?
Did you talk to her?came immediately after from Ronni, so she knew they’d discussed it.
Hesitating, she typed, then backspaced, then typed, then backspaced, before finally settling on a simpleI didn’t.
An anger emoji came from Dakota then.Why not?
Well, that was easy to answer.I was going to, but when I saw her, I was so embarrassed and I just couldn’t. I had to get away from her before I burst into tears.
I get that.God bless Ronni and her ability to understand all sides.
I did ask her if we could talk, and I did tell her that her sticky note had triggered me, but that’s as far as I got.And reading those words back made her grimace, thinking how confused and possibly hurt Sawyer probably was, wondering what exactly was happening.
That’s a start, Dakota typed.Don’t let it go on too long, though.Ron and I chatted a couple times about how you light up when you talk about her. Maybe give her a chance? Tell her the truth, yeah?
Hard agreewas Ronni’s contribution.
She couldn’t be mad that her best friends talked about her love life when she wasn’t around. She’d talked to one of them about the love life of the other a hundred times. It’s what friends did. They chatted and they theorized and they worried. They also knew her better than anybody else, and they loved her. And the truth was, she felt the tiniest bit less stressed after talking to them.
She inhaled deeply and let it ease out of her.
Okay. I’ll do that.
Smiley emojis from Ronni and, weirdly, a Champagne bottle emoji from Dakota popped up, and Jenna laughed quietly.
Might be time to listen to her friends.
“Why do you do that?” Courtney’s voice held an edge that surprised Sawyer.
“What do you mean?” She had the phone propped up against a coffee mug while she unloaded her dishwasher. Courtney rarely just called or texted. She FaceTimed. Like, all the damn time. Sawyer always found herself fixing her hair or her clothes the whole time, her eyes drawn against her will to the tiny rectangle that showed her own face. “Do what?”
“You let women you like dictate how things go, Sawyer. It’s not good.”
Oh. That. She sighed, then stretched out of the frame to put a dish on a higher shelf. She had told Courtney about Jenna asking to talk, then asking for time, and not hearing from her since. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Probably?” Okay, the edge in Courtney’s voice hardened enough that Sawyer stopped what she was doing to look at the screen.
“You’re mad at me.”
“I’m pissed at you.”
Sawyer flinched like her sister had smacked her. “Why?”
“Because you refuse to stand up for yourself. Everybody in your life sees what a great person you are. What a catch. Why don’t you?”
“I know. I know.” It was not a new argument, but then there was a knock on the door, three sharp raps that saved her from any more of Courtney’s wrath. “Somebody’s at the door,” she said quickly, grateful for an excuse to end this convo. “Gotta go. Call you back later.” She hung up in the middle of Courtney’s protests, then blew out a relieved breath as she pocketed her phone and headed to the door.
Her relief was probably super obvious to Jenna as she stood there.
“Hey,” she said with a furrow in her brow. She looked almost angry. Was she angry?
“Hi. Come in.” Sawyer stood aside and let Jenna come in.
Jenna was here. That was the only thought that ran through her head, and it made her happy. Jenna was here. Angry, she thought, but also super cute in her anger, and what the hell was that about?What is wrong with me?she wondered, even as she took in the soft-looking jeans and light blue sweatshirt with a big white heart on the front. Jenna’s hair was in a ponytail, and she looked like every leading “nice girl” in every teen angst film she’d ever seen.
They stood there, much too awkwardly for two people who’d shared the night they’d had, but Jenna seemed to be struggling with words, so Sawyer jumped in first.
