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Melody took a bite of one of her cookies, then stared down at her phone with another smile.

Fine. Claire wouldn’t put it off any longer. Curse her guilty conscience. “Why don’t you just go with him tonight?”

Melody looked up from her phone, at least having the courtesy to appear shocked. “What? No way. I already told him I was busy. Besides, I’m not going to ditch you again.”

“You didn’t ditch me,” Claire corrected. “You were sick. And really, it’s totally fine. I want you to be able to see him more than just once. I mean, you came all the way here.”

And if Claire was being honest, Melody may as well go be with Dean, since she was on her phone with him all day anyway.

Melody frowned, looking between her phone and Claire. “But what would you do?”

Claire shrugged. “I’ll just hang out with Tasha.”

“No, she’s working late tonight since she had to take yesterday off. It would just be you and Liam again.”

Uh, nope. Nope, nope, nope. That definitely wasn’t going to fly. “Don’t worry about me, Melody. I’ll be just fine. Really.” And she would be. She’d just sneak out and go eat dinner somewhere by herself. Or she could buy a stash of McVitie’s Chocolate Digestive Biscuits and eat those for dinner in her room while watching Home Alone. Mmm. That sounded like a lovely evening. Either way, she’d rather be alone than force Liam to spend any more time with her.

Melody’s frown deepened, then her gaze shot up, and she gasped, wrapping her fingers around Claire’s arm to stop her in the middle of the square. A large Christmas tree propped up in an oversized barrel towered beside them. “I’ve got it. Why don’t we just double? To the fair and the ballet? I’ll go with Dean, and you can go with Liam!”

Claire blinked, staring at Melody in silence. Had Melody lost her mind? “I’m not going to go on a date with someone who has a girlfriend.” Or who might have a girlfriend. Or who might not have a girlfriend.

“He’s probably not dating her now,” Melody defended.

Claire gave her a look, then Melody glanced away with a sigh. “No, you’re right.” Her eyes brightened again in an instant. “Then we won’t call it a date. We’ll just be hanging out. That’s probably better for Dean and me anyway.”

Still, Claire shook her head. She refused to put herself into any more situations with Liam. Never, ever again.

“Melody, I promise, it’s fine if just you and Dean go. You’ll have a better time, anyway. I’ll just stay at Tasha’s.”

Melody paused, narrowing her eyes. “You must have really hated your time with Liam yesterday to not want to be with him again.”

Claire froze. Dang it all. That was not the message she’d wanted to send to Melody. Her friend would no doubt confront Liam about it, and then where would Claire be?

“No, no,” she said, hastily correcting her. “I really had a good time with him. But he already gave up his entire day yesterday to hang out with me. I’m not going to ask him to do that today, too.”

Melody grinned, raising her chin. “You’re not asking him. I am.” Then she pulled out her phone and started tapping her thumbs against the screen.

As Claire realized what Melody was doing, she launched forward, attempting to take away her phone, but Melody dodged out of the way.

“Please don’t, Melody,” Claire pleaded. “He’ll think I put you up to it.”

Melody frowned, not looking up from her phone. “Why the heck would he think that?”

Claire paused, mutely shrugging.

“You overthink things too much, Claire.” Then with a roll of her eyes, she added, “Don’t worry. I’ll make it abundantly clear.”

Claire watched in dismay, her stomach churning. “You make it really hard to like you sometimes, you know?”

Melody smiled. “I know.” Then she put her phone away with a satisfied sigh. “There. Done. Now we just wait to see what he says.”

Crossing the courtyard of the market, Claire shook her head. “And if he’s busy and can’t go tonight?” Please, please be busy.

“Then we can just go together with Dean.”

Claire’s brow pulled together. As happy as she was for Melody to be able to do what she wanted, Claire couldn’t help but regret her encouragement. Melody was just too pushy sometimes. Claire didn’t want to be a third wheel any more than she wanted to be shackled to a guy who may or may not have a girlfriend.

The next few minutes dragged by until Melody read her next text from Liam with a broad smile. “He can make it!”