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“Spell took significantly longer than advertised, but results exceeded expectations. Five stars.”

“You cannot post that.”

“I think it’s charming.” She winks at me. “Just like me.”

I reach for the phone. Merry dodges me, laughing as she backs away from the counter.

“Give me that.”

“Absolutely not,” she squeals, then rounds the island in the other direction. I can see the laughter threatening to escape in how she’s carrying herself, wide grin and crinkled eyes and giddiness coursing through her veins. “I’m supporting a small business.”

“You got all your money back!”

“And yet I’m still giving you five stars. That’s how satisfied I am.”

I catch her wrist, but instead of surrendering the phone, she uses my momentum to pull me against her.

I should have anticipated this.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me.”

“I do.”

The answer comes easily now.

A few weeks ago, those words would have caught somewhere inside me. Now they settle there, warm and certain. I can say it confidently while standing in my girlfriend’s kitchen, arguing over a review. I can say it without needing the moment to become anything bigger than it is.

Merry kisses the corner of my mouth. “Can I post it?”

“No.”

“What if I remove the part about falling in love?” She pouts, and she’s so cute I want to eat her alive.

“Yes.”

Her eyebrows lift. “I already posted the original,” she says.

I shove her away, and she dissolves into laughter. She licks her lips, and I know for sure she’s joking.

Then she starts running.

“Oh, you little shit.”

Merry shrieks and takes off around the island, nearly bumping into the floor lamp in the hallway in the process. I go after her, and whatever chance either of us had of behaving like women in our thirties disappears completely.

She makes it into the living room before I catch her.

We tumble onto the couch together, Merry laughing so hard she can barely breathe as I wrestle the phone out of her hand and hold it against my chest.

“Delete it.”

“I can’t breathe,” she wheezes. “You’re crushing me.”

“I’m barely touching you!”

“You are very strong.” She kisses my jaw, then places another soft kiss on my neck. “I have a very strong girlfriend.”