I shake my head and hold her gaze. “You look beautiful.”
“Liar.” She sniffles.
“You know I’m a terrible liar, B.”
She flashes a proper grin that makes my chest ache. It’ssogood to see her smile like that after she was so sad.
“I’m going to get cleaned up in the bathroom, then I’ll come back to the table,” she says.
“If you don’t want to be around anyone right now, Briar, you don’t have to. I’ll tell them that something came up and then take you back home.”
She gives my hand a soft squeeze. “It’s okay. I want to.”
She goes into the women’s restroom. I head back out to the table. When Briar comes back to the table, she’s smiling, and that sad look in her eyes is gone.
We pay our tab and then head out. Nick and Poppy leave to stay at her apartment. Travis and Anna walk off in the direction of Anna’s apartment.
“You guys want a ride back to the house?” Leo asks me.
Briar looks up at me. “I feel like walking. Is that okay?”
“Of course.” I turn to Leo. “We’re gonna walk.”
We say goodbye and step out into the cool early autumn evening. We head down the street in the direction of the house.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” I say to Briar as she strolls along the street.
She looks confused for a second, but then she smiles when I move so that I’m closer to the street.
“Right. Meat shield,” she says through a soft laugh.
We walk in comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Wait.” Briar stops walking all of a sudden and turns to me. “You were about to ask me something at the table before my mom called me.”
“Oh. That.” I shove my hands in my pockets and look down at the sidewalk. “It’s nothing.”
“No, really. What were you going to ask me?”
Nerves flicker inside of me. “I, um, was just wondering if you were free next weekend to go as my date to that dinner for the hockey team.”
She looks surprised that I asked her. That’s when I realize how I made it sound.
“As a friend,” I say quickly. “I hate going to those things alone. If I don’t have a date, I always end up getting roped into being DD for the guys on the team who hit the drinks too hard. I don’t really want to spend my evening playing chauffeur to a bunch of my drunk teammates.”
She smiles. “Sure, I’d love to go as your date.”
I grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Dinner at a fancy French restaurant paid for by someone else sounds really fun.”
“Thanks, Briar. You’re the best.”
“It’s the least I could do after you let me cry into your shirt earlier at the diner.”
She’s joking, but I still feel awful thinking about how sad she was.
“You don’t owe me anything. I’m your best friend. I’m always here for you. Sad stuff, happy stuff, everything in between. Okay?”
