“Stella, you have to DTR with this man.”
“I have to what?”
“Define the relationship,” Effie explained. “You cannot be…” She lowered her voice as two of their coworkers passed them on the way out.
“You cannot be risking everything for this guy and not even know where you stand,” Effie finished.
“I’m notrisking everything,” Stella said. “I’m not risking anything. It’s not like we work together. There’s nothing untoward happening here.”
“Untoward? Really? Did you watchPride & Prejudiceagain?”
“Perhaps.”
Effie rolled her eyes. “Please find a new period drama to obsess over. Perhaps a gay one.”
“But all the gay ones are sad,” Stella whined.
Effie waved her hands. “We’re getting off topic. My point is, thisthingyou’re doing with—”
She faltered and Stella supplied Max’s name.
“Right,him,” Effie said in a tone that indicated disgust. Stella thought this was quite dramatic, seeing as Effie had only met the guy once.
That thought gave Stella an idea.
“Why don’t we all hang out?” Stella said, cutting off whatever Effie was going to say next.
“Come again?”
“You want to celebrate,” Stella said. “And I want to see Max. So why don’t we all go out for drinks? Kill two birds with one stone.”
“I do not want to third-wheel with y’all,” Effie said.
“Invite Kira,” Stella said.
The wordsand Chelseahung in the air between them, butStella couldn’t make herself say them. She and Chelsea had barely seen each other since Sunday. Chelsea had been out the last two days when Stella got home from work, and each morning she was dead asleep in her room when Stella left. Still, despite having squashed things on Sunday, Stella wasn’t ready to introduce Chelsea to Max yet. Not when she could make some joke about Stella’s inexperience, something Max still didn’t know about.
“You want to introduce me and Kira to Max?” Effie asked.
Stella knew what she was really asking. Did she want to introduce them before introducing Chelsea? It would be a BFF violation. Stella knew that if Chelsea found out about this, she would be upset.
And yet.
Stella did want her friends to meet Max. She wanted to know if there was at least a possibility that he could fit in her life in the long term, and more than that, she wanted her friends to tell her if Max was as amazing as she thought he was or if she’d been letting herself get swept up in the feeling of being wanted for once. Basically, she wanted to know if Max was the real deal. Effie and Kira, two of the most unfiltered people she knew, would tell her that without making her feel small.
Currently, she couldn’t trust Chelsea to do the same.
“Yes,” Stella said with more confidence than she actually felt. “Let me call him first, though. He might be busy and then this would be all for naught.”
Effie shook her head. “Seriously, leave the Old English in the past where it belongs.”
Stella ignored her as she stepped a few paces away and called Max. He picked up on the first ring.
“Hello.”
Stella faltered at the sound of Max’s voice. It was silly, but she’d forgotten what he sounded like. Now the deep vibration of that one-syllable word took her back to his bed, his arms wrapped around her, his hand between her thighs—
“Stella?”
