Her laugh is so contagious that even though I’m angry about the whole thing, I fight a sneaky smile. “Please let me find you another apartment.”
She slows down her laughing. “But they might not take cinnamon rolls as payment there.” She throws her head to the side as she laughs loudly at her own joke. She lightly bangs her head against the window, and that just makes her laugh even more.
By the time I park beneath the streetlight in front of her building, I have to nearly carry her from the car. She’s gasping for air, promising to be serious, then ultimately loses it all over again in a noise that sounds very similar to a hyena.
When I unlock her apartment with her key set, wewalk in and find Piper on the couch. Magnolia has her laughter mostly under control.
Mostly. Until she looks at Piper.
Her face turns red as she tries to contain her laughter.
“What did you do to her?” Piper asks in a horrified tone.
“I don’t know, okay? She just won’t stop laughing. It worries me.”
Magnolia blurts out, “Protection cinnamon rolls!”
Then she laughs so hard that I’m pretty sure I see some spit go flying.
How can someone do that and still be attractive? Is this what a rebound feels like? There is no other logical explanation for my obsession with Magnolia.
Piper shakes her head slowly as she looks back and forth between my confused face and Magnolia’s laughing one.
“There’s no coming back from this one,” Piper tells me. “You might as well save yourself.”
I shake my head slowly. “She’s exhausted.”
“Yeah, that’s because she’s desperate to get our business off the ground. She’s been searching for some kind of commercial space for a distillery and restaurant, and she’s been going into the office to get as many extra hours as she can. She even started DoorDashing this week to make a little extra cash.” Piper shakes her head. “She’s gone postal on this project. I think getting fired showed her how fragile of a situation we’re in.”
“She can’t keep going like this,” I mutter as I look watch Magnolia cross the living room.
She flops onto the beanbag couch, gasping for air as her laughter dies down. “You two realize I’m still here, and I can hear you talking about me?”
Piper and I ignore her.
“When are you going to move out of this place?” I ask Piper.
She shrugs. “Our ship hasn’t come in yet.”
“Do you have a dock?”
Piper pivots to glare at me fully, and I hold my hands up in surrender.
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to micromanage, but the guys hanging around the building are part of a biker gang.”
Piper shrugs. “Fair enough. Everybody needs to have friends. Some men golf together, some have gangs. Who am I to judge? Anyway, yeah, maybe someday we’ll be able to get out of here. In my job, I rely on tips, and I haven’t felt like sharing my sparkling personality lately.”
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. It’s at that point I realize the laughing has stopped. I glance at Magnolia.
She’s already asleep on the couch.
“What the—” I start.
Piper asks, “Did you have a big social event tonight?”
“Yes…”
“Well, there you have it. Magnolia’s stress response is to fall asleep. If she’s emotionally drained, she sleeps.”
