I don’t care. Go on a break
The shop is empty and Mr. Abernathy has left for the afternoon letting me lock up again. I answer when Lacey’s name pops up.
“I don’t think I want to talk about it,” I answer.
“Babe.” Lacey’s voice is suspiciously calm. “You don’t message for emotional support and then pretend it didn’t happen.”
I press the phone to my ear and drop my forehead to the counter. “It was one time. Oneverystupid, very intense time.”
“Who was it?”
“No.”
“Delilah.”
“Nope. I’m not telling you because then you’ll tell Brianna and Chloe and they will spontaneously combust. You cannot tell them. Promise me.”
A gasp. “You hooked up with someone we know.”
I groan. “Just promise you won’t say anything.”
“Fine. I swear.” She waits. And I crack.
“It was...Troy.”
There’s a long, scandalized silence.
“As in TroyHawkins? Your partner in the Future Innovators? The guy you swore you hated?”
“Ugh, don’t say it like that.”
“Ihaveto say it like that. It's how it sounds!”
“We didn’t plan it. It just... happened.”
She’s quiet again and then whispers, “Did you like it?”
I swallow. My voice drops. “That’s the problem.”
Lacey exhales on the other end of the line. “Look… if it were me? I’d probably text him right away. But that’s me.” Her tone softens. “You don’t do things halfway, Del. You’ve gotta decide: Do you want this to be a thing, or not?”
I close my eyes. My throat tightens.
“He’s not who I thought he was.” The words come out before I can second-guess them. “He’s kind. Like… really kind. He cooks. He listens. He’s stupidly smart. He says these things that catch me off guard, and—” I stop. Swallow.
“But?” Lacey prompts, gently.
“But how do I trust him?” I whisper, keeping an eye on the door making sure nobody comes in. “How do I trust that it’s not just a game or a phase or something he’ll forget in a week?”
Lacey says, so simply it knocks the breath out of me, “You don’t. You just have to choose to believe it.”
“That’s terrible advice.”
“It’s the only kind there is.”
Lacey’s still quiet on the other end of the line when the bell over the front door jingles.
I jump like I’ve been caught doing something illegal.
