Page 36 of Okay, Cupid

“So, Jude is good enough to pick out clothes for you?” Alice asks in mock offense.

“You literally picked out that ugly sweater,” Neve points out.

“Fair.”

That’s when I choose to dip out to avoid getting caught in the middle. I like color blocking for Neve, solids that match well with her dark brown skin. I grab a few patterns just to see if we can find anything that works—I think stripes might be a good choice. I come back to the dressing room with too many options. Through the door, I avoid peeping in on Neve as I hand her the clothes.

“Oh wow, this is a lot.”

“Got a little carried away.” I grin sheepishly.

“No, no, I like the options. Thank you. You’re saving my life again.”

“I’ll go wait with Alice.”

Who just so happens to be waiting on a bench outside the changing rooms, looking at something on her phone like always.

“How’s she doing?” Alice asks, scrolling.

“Good … I think.” I take a seat next to her.

Alice lets out a little huff and shakes her head. Then she looks at my hand. “What’s that?”

It’s probably irresponsible to have held on to a donut for as long as I have. I should’ve just thrown the thing away. I don’t want to carry the bag around all day, and I’m not hungry, not anymore. But it was a gift. I don’t want to disrespect that.

“Oh, it’s a donut.”

“From the mochi donut place downstairs?” She perks up like she wants that to be my answer.

“Trinh’s,” I tell her. “I was at the farmers’ market this morning.”

“Huh.” Almost immediately she shuts down.

“Yep. Huy was there.”

“So?”

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just weird that you’d bring him up. I don’t care if he was there or not.”

“And it’s weird that you’d have this reaction over a person you say you don’t care about.”

“Whatever.” She crosses her legs tightly and folds her arms, almost as if she’s physically putting the wall back up. But I catch her eyeing the donut bag before she faces forward again.

Okay, it’s time to go for broke.

“There’s something between you two, isn’t there?” I venture.

“No, there’s not,” she answers too quickly.

“Well, I mean, he mentioned something earlier today. And you seem weird any time that you’re around him.”

“So he’s talking about me?”

“Does that bother you?”

“No.”