Not that anything would go wrong.
Although...something could go wrong. Maybe I should have asked my prospect what flavors she liked best. Or maybe I should have had her come in when the café was open so she could see people enjoying it. Although what if no one came in and then she saw how sad and pathetic my business really was—
“Glory,” Roger said gently. “You look like you’re spiraling.”
“I’m not spiraling.”
I definitely was.
“This is why I haven’t told you you’re ready to stop therapy yet. Just because you have a boyfriend now—”
“Roger!” I hissed, looking around frantically to make sure Horst hadn’t managed to break into my apartment without me realizing it.
Sorry—he preferred “let himself in” to “break in.”
“Break in” sounded like he was a criminal. Which he actually kind of was.
Emphasis on the “kind of.”
“What’d I say?” Roger asked.
“He’s not my”—I lowered my voice—“boyfriend.” My hand crept to the almost imperceptible bump under my shirt that was the heart-shaped necklace. “We’re BFFs.”
“BFFs?” Roger’s brow crinkled. “Buddies who French and Fuc—”
“Roger! BFF has never stood for that. You know that.”
A teeny smile played around the corners of his mouth. “Oh? Then what does it stand for?”
“Best Friends Forever.”
“Interesting.” Roger rubbed his pale hands together, clearly deep in thought. “Is that really what it means?”
“Of course. Everyone knows that.”
He arched one sandy eyebrow. “Do they?”
Oh. He was doing a therapist thing. And he had a point. Horst might have called us BFFs, but what did that actually mean to him? After the time we’d spent together—mainly in my bedroom, but also on the couch, and a little bit in the kitchen—I would say “best” definitely applied, at least to Horst.
Like...super best.
And we were friends. Weren’t we?
Which left the last F.
Forever.
Yeah, I had some trouble seeing that. Given Horst’s propensity to pop in without warning, he certainly didn’t seem like someone who would want to spend forever with anyone. He was more of a free spirit. A man on a mission, and honestly a pretty noble one at that—finding a way to turn a bunch of fairy lizard things back into the medieval German children they once were.
I felt my cheeks grow warm. Was I the biggest idiot in the world, falling for that story? Was he meeting up with guy friends in a bar somewhere, saying, “Wait until you hear what I got this chick I’m seeing to believe”?
I blinked, focusing on Roger’s face on the screen. “Hey, my meeting is in about ten minutes and I still need to get set up.”
Roger gave me a somewhat awkward thumbs up. “You got this, Glory.”
“I know.”
As soon as I hung up, I reached up and, with shaking fingers, undid the clasp of the necklace. I held it in my hand for a moment, then left it behind on the coffee table as I went down to the café to get ready.
