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Laney and I looked at each other in confusion, but Aubree nodded. “I can see it.”
“It’s an archetype,” Rory added. “He gives off those vibes, but he’s got a heart of gold on the inside, and I’m a sucker for it, apparently.”
“Yeah, I guess every girl thinks she wants a bad boy until he’sreallybad, then it’s like… where’d that other nice guy go? The one who said I should pick him instead? Is he still around?” Laney joked.
“Oh, he’s around. He’s usually waitin’ for her to see him,” Aubree said with a wistful sigh. “Happens all the time.”
“Which is why Travis is a fake bad boy, and I love him for it,” Rory said.
“I should hope so,” Laney teased.
I focused on my pizza with an inward sigh. I wanted what they had. Desperately. Lately, it seemed like everyone in my life was getting coupled up, and I was over here being “too much” for pretty much every guy I tried to date.
I wasn’t into books like Aubree—or like Rory, considering she wrote them for a living—but I was into rom-coms. So, when we had talks like this about archetypes and tropes, I referenced my version of the classics. But lately? All I had to do to keep up with their romance story chatter was look around me.
First, there was Laney and Everett, the high school sweethearts getting their second chance. Then, two best friends made an insta-family when Jackson, Bailey, and Phoebe became one big happy family, and Aubree’s unrequited crush on a famous country music singer actually turned into a high-flying romance for the ages.
And don’t even get me started with Rory and Trav and their adorable he-teaches-her moments. The man literally gave her the most amazing first kiss ever because he was appalled that she was a romance author who’d never been kissed. I mean,seriously?
Finally, we couldn’t have a trope-fest without the ever-popular enemies-to-lovers couple: Adam and Paisley. To be honest, I’d never thought that trope was very believable until I saw it on them. If two people hated each other, why would they suddenly mesh? But then when it turned out there was a reason for all of their fighting like cats and dogs and they had to work through it to get to the good stuff? I shipped them. Hard.
So, yeah, everyone around me was basically living out the rom-com movies of my dreams… and I was here, stuffing my face on pizza, wondering if maybe the only way to find what they had was to make myself a little less… a lot.
Was that a thing?
“What are you thinkin’ so hard about over there?” Laney asked. She reached across the table and used her finger to smooth the skin between my brows. “You’re gonna need Botox if you keep that up.”
I swatted her hand away. “I was thinkin’ about how lucky y’all are. I’m about ready to throw in the towel.”
I glanced up to find three pairs of eyes on me, all wide and frozen mid-bite like I’d just confessed to something scandalous. Aubree’s slice of pizza was halfway to her mouth, and Rory’s soda straw was still hanging in the air. Even Laney had her fork suspended over her plate, a piece of pepperoni dangling from the end like it wasn’t sure whether it was coming or going.
For a second, it looked like they were all waiting for me to say, “Just kidding!” but when I didn’t, they blinked in unison, clearly not prepared for my little pity party.
“That is not like you to say, Dakota Jolene,” Laney tsked.
“I’m a little disappointed,” Aubree said quietly. “You don’t throw towels, sweetheart.”
I lifted my chin. “Oh, no? What do I do with them, then?”
My sisters looked at each other and smiled as Laney said, “Oh, I dunno, tie them around your neck like Superwoman and jump off the top of the stairs?”
I rolled my eyes as I finished my bite of pizza, waving a hand. “That was one time.”
“We’re serious,” Aubree insisted. “I can’t imagine you givin’ up on anythin’ you want.”
Laney nodded. “Decidin’ you don’t want it anymore, sure. You’re always flittin’ from one thing to the next. Attention of asquirrel and all that. But you’ve never been the type to give up on anythin’ just because it’s hard.”
“Squirrels are actually really focused on their goals,” Rory chimed in. “They’re the ones that easily distract people, they don’t get easily distracted.”
“Thank you, Ms. Author. Dakota knows what we mean,” Laney said with a laugh.
Poor Rory never could help but chime in with random factoids. That girl’s wealth of random knowledge, thanks to all the research she did for her books, was bigger than a not-easily-distrated squirrel’s stash before winter.
“Anyway,” I said, sipping my Coke Zero to wash down the crust I’d just polished off, “I’m not sayin’ I’m givin’ up completely. Or that I’ll never find the guy for me. Maybe I just need to stop puttin’ so much pressure on it. That’s how I got myself into this mess with Dr. Dummy and Nurse Ratchett in the first place.”
They seemed to get it, nodding in understanding, but then Aubree put a hand on my knee as I sat cross-legged in the booth next to her. “Are they still givin’ you a hard time?”
“I still think you should let Gertie take a shot at ’em. That’ll put an end to it,” Laney advised.
