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I watch as they glance at each other with raised brows.
“The look on your face when you text him says you’re full of it,” Vic points out.
“That’s true,” Reya adds with her mouth full of food again. Okay, we allclearlyhave the bestmanners around each other. “The texting face says it all.”
Vic mumbles some sort of agreement and looks at me likeI’mthe one being ridiculous right now. I roll my eyes, and look down at Amira's sleeping face. My arm has gone a little numb, but she’s so worth it.
“You guys look at my face too closely,” I mutter.
Reya comes around the counter to wrap her arms around my shoulders. “Why wouldn’t we? There’s always so much going on there.”
“I’m sure it’s going to go great,” Miles tells me confidently.
Quite the assumption.
“You shouldn’t be that sure. I’ve blown it with plenty of jobs before.”
He’s quiet for a second and I wonder what he’s thinking about that. I find myself trying to imagine what I look like in his eyes, with the knowledge of who I used to be. I consider myself a completely different person, but that doesn’t mean that’s what he sees.
“Is that popcorn I hear?”
A laugh bursts out of me, not realizing he would be able to hear it.
“It absolutely is. I’m going to give myself a break tonight and watch a movie.”
He gives a hum of approval. “What are you watching?”
“I haven’t decided yet, but… “ I trail off, getting an idea. Possibly a bad one. Better to rip the band-aid off, right? “I know you just got off work, but would you want to come over? Help me decide what to watch?”
As soon as the words fly out, I regret asking them. I’m sure he has better things to do than hang out with me. Like hanging out with actual friends that he didn’t have a front row seat to years of their pity party for.
“I mean— sorry. Never mind, I don’t know why I asked.”
“You don’t know why? You don’t want to hang out with me?” He fakes a sound of offense.
“No, I just mean… you don’t have to. You probably have stuff going on.”
“I don’t have anything going on. A movie night sounds like fun.”
His response is casual enough that I physically relax. We’ve had lots of movie nights together in the past. There’s no reason for this to be any different.
No pressure.
Unsurprisingly, my body doesn’t listen to my mind, and I can feel myself begin to sweat at the idea of him being in my space.
“Okay, great!” I say, louder than necessary. “Bring microwave popcorn if you have it because this is my last bag and Iwilldemolish it.”
I text him my address and then spend fifteen minutes cleaning up my messy apartment. When he arrives with a bag full of snacks, I think I’m in love.
Notactuallyin love, obviously. That would be ridiculous. It’s just that snacks are the way to my heart, and he just made sure that I will be keeping this friendship.
“How do you feel about horror movies?” I ask him.
He looks at me with a side eye that gives me his answer, and I burst out laughing.
“Not a fan? That’s okay, I’m nothing if not reasonable. We could watch a romantic comedy instead,” I give in my cheeriest voice. The corners of his mouth tilt up at that.
“You don’t give a guy a lot of options.”
