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"Which is in about twenty minutes," Ayanna shot back, her smile looking a little more strained than a moment before.
"What can be so fancy about ice cream?" I asked.
"Should we show her?" Harmon asked, adopting a cheery tone, giving me 'work with me' eyes, knowing the state of her friend better than I did. And, clearly, it was time for ice cream.
"Ice cream is ice cream," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Oh, we are about to rock her world," Harmon said, hopping up. "Come on, help a girl out," she added, nudging me.
"How is she?" I asked, voice low, worrying it might carry in the open space.
"About two hours away from a sob-a-thon where she tells us all the ways Booker has neglected her over the past year. And about three hours from her angry stage where she decides all men can go fuck themselves, and that she is going to become a rich old lady who screws her pool boys for fun. And then probably another two hours from claiming she's tired, so she can go to bed and divert back to the sad stage."
"They were together for a while, right?"
"I think like five years? Maybe more. I'm not exactly sure. I just know that any story of hers that doesn't involve Gus, involves Booker. Sometimes both of them when Gus got her into some trouble. But, yeah, I imagine this is big. Like... I think I should call Gus big."
"Why? Can she give us some advice?"
"I think she will fly down. And if Gus comes, she will likely bring her guy, West. And I won't lie, I kind of have selfish reasons. I would feel a little bit better if the guys had some reinforcement. There's just not enough of them."
"They seem very confident about it all," I said, looking for spoons. "Che was acting like they were going to just have a meeting."
"Men..." Harmon said, shaking her head. "And now we have to sit here and worry about their cocky asses."
"And eat support ice-cream," I said, holding up two plastic containers that, admittedly, looked fancier than any ice cream I'd ever had.
"You know I love her because the idea of this so early in the morning is making me seriously nauseated."
"So, do you guys have any objections to North & South next?" Ayanna called. "I could really use some longing stares from Mr. Thornton right now," she added.
"What is North & South?" I asked as we walked back.
"Four hours of our life," Harmon explained, then put a cheery smile on again. "Okay which one do you want?" she asked.
"You know me, I'm a peanut butter vanilla fudge type of woman."
"Which one do you want to try?" Harm asked, turning back to me.
"Which one will make you the least sick?" I whispered back.
"This one," she declared, snatching the raspberry cheesecake.
Which left me with the salted caramel truffle.
It took all of one bite before I realized they were right. I'd never had anything like it before. And there was no going back.
As Harmon predicted, Ayanna had a whole myriad of emotions over the next few hours, taking off to the spare room Harm had been sleeping in to take a nap as Harmon passed out on the couch.
Leaving me to pace.
And worry.
And clean.
Then worry some more.
Eventually, I heard the elevator. And despite knowing there was almost no chance of it being the guys, I felt hope bubble up in my system.
Then there was Teddy, his gaze falling right on me standing in the middle of his home.
"I know," he said, nodding, giving me a small smile. "I'm not who you want to see," he added, moving forward, tucking his briefcase under the console table just inside the door.
"I'm sorry. I don't—"
"You don't need to apologize. I'm worried about all of them too. The girls sleeping?" he asked.
"For a while."
"You look like you need a drink."
"God, yes," I said, following Teddy as he went to the kitchen. "We ate all of your ice cream," I told him as he passed me a glass of scotch.
"Good. We'll order something in when everyone gets up. I know you've probably been trying to hold everyone together, what with Harm and the baby and Ayanna and the breakup. How are you holding up?"
"It's really not the same, y'know?" I said, shaking my head.
"Isn't it?" he asked, raising a brow. "Even if you didn't have feelings for Che—and that's a big if—you had a night from hell yesterday. Everyone is dealing with their own problems today, and forgot that you have some too."
"I'm okay."
"No, you're not," he said, shaking his head. "And, for the record, no one is expecting you to be. No one is going to judge you if you want to curl up in bed until dinner."
And because I truly believed he meant what he said, I went ahead and did just that, only waking up when Ayanna called my name from outside my door.
