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Me
And exactly what code is that?
Phoebe
The one where you tell us the minute you get laid by the man of your dreams.
Me
It’s been three days! And we’ve texted every single day.
Lennon
It has to be face to face or it doesn’t count.
Dakota
Devil’s advocate here, but maybe she’s too busy bouncing up and down on that knob to give us the deets.
Phoebe
HA! Bouncing on that knob!! Love it!
Lennon
I just choked on my matcha.
Me
I’ll have you know I’m not bouncing up and down on anything, thank you very much.
Dakota
At the moment, maybe. But I’ve seen that man, and I know the reason you’ve been MIA is because you’re getting a healthy dose of Vitamin D.
Me
For the love of the goddess, I’ll meet for coffee. Just . . . stop talking about bouncing and Vitamin D.
Dakota
We make no promises.
Phoebe
You can play prude with us all you want. Just as long as you’re a freak with that new man of yours.
I loved my girls. Honestly, there wasn’t another group of women out there that I could possibly love more than those three ladies. But they could be serious pains in the ass.
The truth was, they were right. Guilt tightened my chest at the realization I’d fallen down on my job as a friend because what they suspected was right. I’d been spending all my free time with North. I couldn’t get enough of that man.
But I also couldn’t neglect my friendships. After Davis, I swore I would never let myself fall into another man to the point my other relationships suffered. North was nothing like Davis, and he would never try to cut me off from the other people I cared about.
In my defense, however, I’d never felt this way before.
I thought I loved Davis all those years ago. I mean, when he asked me to marry him, I’d been ecstatic. At least until I realized what he was doing. There were a few boyfriends in high school I thought I was in love with. And maybe I had been. At least the version of me I’d been at the time had loved them. But I was a different person now. Human beings were ever evolving. Life had changed me into the woman I was today, and that woman was madly, deeply in love with a man unlike any man she’d ever met before.
When I walked into Daily Grind later that day, Dakota, Lennon, and Phoebe were already gathered around a table near the window.
