Frida rolled her eyes. “Helping you, duh. What are friends for?”
Em smiled as she divided the papers into two piles. She was so thankful for her friendship with Frida. It would be an adjustment to see her and Finn together, but Em would get used to it in time.
They had only been grading papers for a few minutes when Frida set her pen down. “Have you talked to Grant at all sinceTheDating Game?”
The Dating Game. That night felt like it was an eternity ago with everything else that had happened since—and Frida didn’t know about any of it. The last thing Frida knew about was Em walking out on Grant. Her best friend had met her in the bathroom and made no secret of the fact that she thought Em should go back in there and see where things went.
Thankfully, Frida had also been supportive when Em said she needed to get out of there.
Em nodded. “Yeah.”
“Really?” Frida sat up in her seat.
“I, uh, went to his house when you were in Oregon.”
Frida’s mouth fell open. “You what?”
She bit her bottom lip. “I had a bad day at work, and you were gone. I realized he’d become someone I wanted to spend time with as much as I tried to fight it. I brought him tacos.”
“That’s adorable. So, what happened?”
Em folded her arms on her desk and put her head down. “I kissed him.” The words came out as a mumble as she spoke into the crook of her arm.
“You kissed him?”
Em nodded, her head still on her desk.
“Does that mean…?”
Em lifted her head, her heart still heavy from that night. “No. He said that things wouldn’t work out between us.”
“He said those exact words?”
“Not exactly, but that was the gist.”
“Oh, Em. I’m so sorry.”
She shrugged, her eyes trained on the jar of pencils on her desk. “I’m sure it’s for the best.”
Not that it felt like it was for the best right now. Right now it hurt—bad.
There was a long pause and Em had gone back to grading when Frida spoke again.
“Do you think you’ll go to the rest of the Storm games since you’ll have to see him?”
What did it say about Em that she hadn’t even thought about that?
On one hand, she wanted to go out and support Finn. Even though she hadn’t spoken to him in days, he was still her brother. And now that he was dating Frida, Em would need to make sure Finn didn’t get distracted the same way Silas did whenever he ran past Miriam.
On the other hand, Em also wasn’t sure how she would react once she saw Grant out there. It would be hard to cheer on the guy who broke her heart. Or stop thinking about the way his lips felt when they pressed against hers.
Her heart hammered in her chest at the memory. As much as she tried to stop thinking about what had happened, her brain thought it belonged on the highlight reel and replayed it every chance it got. Em couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t just forget about it.
Because it was the best kiss of my life.
“I don’t know,” she said, finally answering Frida’s question. “I think it’s going to depend on my mood when Saturday rolls around. And even if I go, I’ll probably hide in the stands instead of sitting in my box.”
Frida’s shoulders slumped.
