I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.
“You have the ‘I’m pretending I’m fine but would totally text her at one in the morning to get her back’ face.”
“I do not. It’s not like that. I don’t even know her anymore. It’s been years. I don’t know if I want her back.”
“I can’t hear you. I’m picturing you in a rom-com montage doing push-ups outside her door…in the rain.”
Goldie snorts and then makes a face at me.Sorry, she mouths.
I rub a hand down my face.
“So you’re saying I have this wrong?” Erin smirks. She grabs a napkin and a pen out of her bag and waves them around. “Okay, this can be an ‘ifyou want her back’ failproof plan.”
I sit up straighter.
She writes in big letters: OPERATION LOLA
I bury my face in my hands. “I hate this already.”
Ava leans in. “I kind of love it.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Goldie tells me.
“But what does he stand to lose?” Erin asks.
She starts writing bullet points with terrifying focus.
“Step one,” she says, narrating: “We do not beg.”
“I wasn’t going to—” I jump in.
“Good.” She nods. “Because that’s illegal under my jurisdiction.”
• NO DESPERATE ENERGY
“Step two: We assess if this is nostalgia or actual compatibility.”
I mumble, “It’s both.”
She squints at me. “We’ll see.”
• IS SHE THE ONE OR JUST THE FAMILIAR
She goes over theRagain with her pen to make it darker.
Ava nods thoughtfully. “That’s important.”
Erin continues. “Step three: physical rebrand.”
I look up. “What does that mean?”
“Haircut. New clothes. Vibes upgrade.”
“My vibes are amazing.”
She snorts. “Yes, and they could use more amazingness.”
“I’m not rebranding.”
