“I am in a happy and committed relationship, ma’am. And she’s going to be here in less than a day.” His eyes lit up as enthusiasm painted his every word.

Jack’s girlfriend lived an hour and a half away, so they were doing the long-distance thing with plans to revisit the agreement in soon. He was head over heels in love with her, and I was worried this would be his last season with us. It was a reckoning I was in no way prepared for.

I’d known Jack since my first year of college in Palo Alto. I’d been sharing an apartment with too many of my coworkers while I’d lived the barista life at a coffee shop on campus. He’d come in every morning like clockwork before heading to the construction job site a few blocks away. His trusty Americano with a splash of half-and-half and the sticker-covered gallon water bottle I’dfill up for him in hand. We’d hit it off pretty quickly and started hanging out and getting to know each other, and I’d soon found his friendship was what I’d needed in my lonely academic life. We’d been inseparable ever since.

“Thanks, but I need a camp love affair like I need a kiss with poison oak,” I said, repulsed. I didn’t fraternize with campers no matter how desperate my lady bits were for some attention. I decided to deflect, turning back to the whiteboard. “What do you think about Kelli and Kelly?”

“Ooh, the Kellies,” a delighted Hazel chirped. “One’s an introvert and one’s an extrovert, but you know how that can go.”

I looked back on my short relationship history and remembered the one that got away, and how we’d been on different sides of the personality spectrum. Back then, we complemented each other, and I was sure that could be the case for someone else.

“Stranger things have happened,” I said without thinking before glancing at my best friend.

Jack looked at me knowingly, and I glared at him.

I hated that he knew things about me.