“Anyway,” Celeste continues, seemingly oblivious to my inner crisis. “I was thinking about inviting Max over for dinner tonight. Is that okay with you?”
I place my phone back on the coffee table. “Yeah, of course.”
“I’m going to make coconut chicken and rice. Can you help me with it in about an hour?”
“Sure.”
“In the meantime, can we watch an episode or two ofAbbott Elementary? I need to decompress before cooking.”
“Absolutely,” I answer as I pass her the remote. I glance back at my phone on the coffee table and reluctantly pick it up to answer Nikki’s text.
Jude
sorry you had a rough day! hope tomorrow is better <3
let me know when you have time to hang again - my schedule is wide open
also, before I forget, my friends are bugging me about hanging out with you too so maybe we can have a game night or something at my place?
Nikki
maybe!
wanna do dinner thurs night?
Jude
oh with max and celeste? I can check
Nikki
just you and me this time <3
Jude
oh okay. yeah sounds good!
Nikki
xoxo
I’m careful not to sigh aloud—I don’t want another argument with Celeste over Nikki, especially if Celeste was right. Maybe Nikki sees what we have as a casual fling rather than a real relationship.
It’s only been two months, though. I shouldn’t expect Nikki to be thinking in those terms. I’m not planning on getting married anytime soon. I’m only nineteen, for fuck’s sake.
Ugh. I can’t think about this anymore. I close the chat with Nikki and open the one with Oliver instead.
Oliver
so if you finish class by 11:30 and it’s just the first week of school, how do you plan to spend the rest of your day if you don’t have homework?
Jude
sorry for the delay
honestly I wasn’t sure what to do with my free time today so I ended up accidentally taking a nap lol
Oliver
