Page 96 of Triplet Babies for my Ex's Best Friend

“I know,” I groan. “I just…”

I trail off.

Because how do I explain that every time I look at another man right now, my brain immediately goes,okay, but does he look like Ethan when he rolls his sleeves up?and then the answer is no, and then I get annoyed about it?

Deeply inconvenient.

“Addy,” Sophie says slowly, “if you say his name, I'm going to throw a lime at you.”

“I wasn’t going to say his name.”

“You were thinking it.”

I cock a brow. “I was thinking lots of things.”

“Uh huh.”

I take a long sip of my drink because, unfortunately, she’s right.

It’s not even fair.

These men are perfectly nice-looking. One of them has dimples. They’re doing that casual, respectful hovering thing where they’re clearly deciding whether to approach without being weird about it.

And I just… feel nothing.

There’s no spark, no curiosity, no pull. Just a vague, distant appreciation, like I’m looking at a well-designed chair: comfortable, attractive, and absolutely not someone I want to take home.

Which is insane.

Because I’m a single woman in a new city who should absolutely be open to distractions that aren't complicated.

And yet, here we are.

“Okay,” Sophie says, watching my face like she’s reading subtitles again. “We need to unpack that expression.”

“There's nothing to unpack.”

“There'sso muchto unpack.”

“I’m just not feeling it.”

“Because?”

I hesitate. “Because I think I was never actually in love with Bryce.”

She blinks.

That wasn't the answer she was expecting. It wasn’t the one I was expecting either. But now that it’s out there, it settles and feels right.

“Oh,” she says, softer.

“Yeah.”

I stare down at my drink, watching the ice shift slightly. “I think I liked the idea of him. Of what he said we were building. A life, a plan, a future that felt stable.” I huff out a quiet laugh. “Which is ironic, considering he has the emotional consistency of a weather app.”

Sophie smiles faintly.

“I kept trying to make it work,” I go on, “because I thought that’s what you do. You commit, you adjust, you overlook the parts that don’t quite fit because eventually they’re supposed to, right?”