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“Even by your standards?”
“Yes. Even by my high standards. Do you come here a lot?”
“All the time. I’m meeting my friends here.”
“You have friends—ow!” I clutched my arm. “Did you just punch me?”
“I can have friends.”
“I didn’t mean it as an insult! It was just you and me for a while,” I said. Jade frowned and I knew I had to correct myself. “I’m happy for you. It’s good to have friends.”
“So you can say something nice.”
“Do you want me to be nice?”
One corner of Jade’s mouth lifted, and I was so sure she would say yes. That we would have something similar to how we used to be.
“Jade!” someone called. “You coming?”
Both of us turned to see Grace come around a corner. Her gaze met mine and she paused.
“Hi, Gabriel.”
Grace and I had never been close, but we knew each other. She’d always been kind, but my focus had always been on Jade.
There were no hard feelings on my part, but I wasn’t sure if the same went for her.
“Grace,” I said with a nod. “You look well.”
“I’m doing pretty good. I hear the same doesn’t go for you.” I think she was intending to make casual conversation, but her words were laced with a bitterness that I expected.
I was about to agree with her when the last person I expected stepped in.
“Grace, stop. Don’t be bitter with him because of me.”
My eyes widened and I turned to Jade.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “She can hate me if she wants to.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “You have to be the only person in the world who would complain that I just stuck up for you.”
“I’m telling you, you don’t have to.”
“And I’m telling you, I don’t do what I’m told.”
“Wow,” Grace interrupted. “Seems like nothing has changed. It was always weird being in the middle of your banter. At least I’m not single this time. It hurts less.”
“That’s right. You have a kid now, don’t you?”
“Yes.” Grace’s brow furrowed. “How did you know that?”
Jade replied, “He says he’s keeping loose tabs through Atticus. I feel like he’s lying.”
“Anyway,” I said with a shake of my head. “I’m happy for you. Who are you seeing?”
“A guy named Dean. He’s from a small town too, actually. He hated them for a while, but he saw the good in them eventually.”
Dean’s name sounded familiar in a way I couldn’t place. I slowly nodded along, wondering when I would run into him. “I’ll make sure to say hello and congratulate him when I see him.”
