“For the fall semester?” Elijah responds as he starts dishing out the Indian food from the takeout boxes onto three plates on the table.
I nod. “Yep, just trying to stay ahead of things.”
Jared tosses me a can of beer as Elijah sets a full plate in front of me.
“How are things with you guys?” I ask to break up the silence. I shovel the first bite of food into my mouth as I wait for one of them to answer.
“Good,” Jared says. “Hopefully, my divorce will be finalized soon.”
“Dude, you got robbed,” Elijah snorts, but I can see by the downturned corners of his mouth that he’s genuinely bothered by the way Jared has been treated.
“She’s letting me keep the dog.”
“He was your dog to begin with.” Elijah rolls his eyes and stuffs food into his mouth so that he can’t add anything else.
“I’m glad you got to keep your dog,” I say.
“He’s about the only thing she let him keep,” Elijah mumbles around a mouthful of food, but the words are easy to make out.
“It’s almost over,” Jared responds, pointedly ending that conversation.
“What about you, Eli?” I jump in to give Jared a break.
His fingers drum against the table as he purses his lips and tilts his head back and forth. “Nothing new here, just same old same old.”
Well, that was no help.
“No crazy work stories?” I pry.
“Nope. Mostly, I just get paid to catch cheaters. It gets old after a while.”
“Have you ever considered taking different cases?” Jared asks.
“Sometimes,” Elijah responds vaguely. “Depends on my will to live that week.”
Jared lets out a surprised cackle. “God, you’re insufferable.” He throws his balled-up napkin at him.
“One of us has to be!” Elijah insists. “Otherwise, this would be the dullest friend group ever.”
More napkins are tossed at him from both Jared and me as we make booing sounds.
My two friends bicker back and forth, and a small spark warms my chest. I feel lighter in this moment than I have in a while.
Yeah, I really hope Summer has someone like these guys to support her in life.
Juliet returns my callright when I’m walking into my apartment.
“Great timing, Juliet,” I say as I balance the phone between my ear and shoulder. “I just got home.”
“Sorry, I missed your call,” she responds. I can hear her whisking in the background. I look over at the clock in my kitchen, and my eyebrows furrow.
“You’re still working?” I ask. “I thought you said you hired an employee a few months ago.”
“I did,” she says quickly. “But we got a rush order for a birthday cake this afternoon after we closed, and I said I’d handle it.”
“You’re not working yourself too hard, are you?”
“No, Asher, I’m not.” Her voice oozes annoyance, and it’s not hard to imagine her rolling her eyes at me. “It’s been really helpful to have someone else helping out with the bakery. It gives me more time with Terra, and it’s fun to be able to gossip while baking.”
