A good Never.
Cade Mercer was going in the good.
By the time we got back to the apartment, the three of us were moving like a glam squad with emotional stakes. Charm cropped one of Cade’s Fury hoodies with terrifying confidence while Aura directed her in making sure it was just shy of too short, and I stood in the bathroom staring at the tiny blue marble on the counter beside my makeup bag, trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was about to hand Cade a piece of my grief and call it love-adjacent without spontaneously combusting.
Charm paired the cropped hoodie with my skinny jeans and white Nikes, then made me turn in a circle like she was presenting me to a panel of judges.
“Hot,” she said. “Approachable. Slightly unstable. Very college romance heroine finally accepting her fate.”
Aura nodded from the doorway. “Hair down.”
“My hair is always the deciding factor in major life choices.”
“It’s a good hair day,” Charm said seriously. “Use your resources.”
I laughed, and this time it came from somewhere bright.
By the time I was ready, I looked like myself, but happier. Cade’s hoodie cut to hit at my waist, blonde hair loose over my shoulders, lashes dark, cheeks flushed, the blue marble tucked safely into the small zip pocket inside my purse like a secret with a heartbeat. I stared at my reflection and barely recognized the girl looking back. Not because she was different. Because she looked like the version of me I had been trying to crawl back to for years.
Sunny.
Scared, yes, but sunny anyway.
Charm stood behind me and rested her chin on my shoulder. “You’re going to tell him?”
I nodded.
“What exactly?”
I swallowed, and the nerves fluttered hard in my stomach, but they were good nerves. Normal nerves. The kind girls got before telling a boy he mattered, not the kind my body had learned from parking lots and locked doors and footsteps behind me.
“I’m going to tell him I bought a Never for him,” I said. “And when he asks why, because he will, because he’s Cade and he never lets me get away with being vague, I’m going to tellhim…” My throat tightened, but I smiled through it. “I’m going to tell him that if my mom were here, I would have called her about him. Told her we are more than friends and maybe not the benefits part.”
Aura’s eyes filled again, but she blinked fast and lifted her chin like she was personally offended by moisture. “Good.”
“Very eloquent, counselor.”
“I’m proud of you,” she said.
That almost got me again.
Charm wrapped her arms around my waist from behind. “We’re both proud of you. And after you tell him, please kiss him in a way that honors the emotional growth we contributed to this moment.”
Aura sighed. “Charm.”
“What? I said please.”
I laughed, turning to hug them both because I couldn’t not. They held me tightly, my girls, my armor, my first home outside my family, and for once, I let myself believe that maybe the beautiful things were allowed to come back. Maybe Luke had taken up enough space. Maybe I could start gluing good things into my life again without waiting for fear to approve it.
When I pulled back, Charm brushed one last piece of hair off my shoulder. “Go get your emotionally devastating hockey man.”
Aura handed me my keys. “Text us when you get there.”
“I will.”
“And when you talk to him.”
“I will.”
