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“Hey, I’m just giving the lovely couple a little nudge in the right direction. No harm in that.”
“Sounds like they are doing just fine on their own without your encouragement,” I retort with a snarky bite.
When the line goes silent, I know I’ve put my foot in it now.
“Is that jealousy I hear?” she asks, not beating around the bush.
“Jealous? Why should I be jealous?” I scoff.
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“I’m not jealous, Piper. I’m happy Nate has found someone to love. He deserves to be happy,” I say in earnest, even if my chest feels like it’s been hit by a boulder.
“He does. But so do you,” she says affectionately. “Lottie?”
“Hmm?”
“While you were teaching Nate the tricks of the dating trade, you didn’t, by any chance… fall for him, did you?”
“That would be very unprofessional of me,” I retort sadly.
“You didn’t answer my question, hun. Did you or did you not fall for Nate?”
I press my lips, refusing to say out loud what my intuitive best friend already knows.
“Well, shit, that changes things,” she grumbles, disheartened.
“It doesn’t change anything. You had a problem, and I fixed it. The job was to find Nate his perfect match, and I did. That’s the end of that.”
“But is he? I mean, did you even tell Nate how you felt about him?” she asks patiently.
“I don’t know how I feel,” I confess.
“Sounds to me like you do.” She sighs.
“I have a boyfriend.”
“No, what you have is a noose around your neck that keeps you from living your life to its fullest potential. Cooper is not a boyfriend, babe. He’s an anchor, keeping you from achieving real happiness. Lose that weight and call Nate,” Piper says more sternly, her tough love coming at me like a tidal wave.
“I… can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s like you said. He’s happy. I can’t take that away from him, Piper. It wouldn’t be fair on him or Riley.”
“Guess what, babe? Life isn’t fair. It’s messy and cruel. But if you don’t find a way to fight for what you want, then believe me when I tell you that no one else will do the fighting for you.”
I know she’s right, but my life is too messy to pull Nate into it.
I can’t ask him to wait for me until my life isn’t so chaotic.
Riley is available now while I’m still… trapped.
“Just think about it, Lottie. If not for yourself, then at least for me. Okay?”
“Piper, you won’t tell him, will you?” I bite my lower lip nervously.
“That you have the hots for Wilder? Hell no! I’d never do you dirty like that, babe. You always come first for me. You know that.”
