Page 153 of Sparks Fly

My hands had started doing that thing where they couldn’t decide what to do with themselves. I touched my glass, pulled back, smoothed the napkin, twisted it, untwisted it. Eventually I forced both hands flat on the table.

“I want to bring someone to your wedding,” I blurted.

Lilly’s face lit up instantly, as if I had just told her I had rescued a stray puppy.

“Of course you do,” she said warmly. “Addison, yes. You have a plus-one. You’re allowed to have a life outside of making sure mine doesn’t implode.”

I blinked at her.

“You’re… not mad?”

Lilly laughed lightly.

“Why would I be mad?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, and my voice cracked embarrassingly on the last word.

Lilly’s smile softened.

“Addie,” she said gently, “why are you acting like you’re asking permission to breathe?”

My throat tightened and I dropped my gaze to the tablecloth.

“I’m not,” I lied.

Lilly arched an eyebrow.

“Okay,” she said. “Then who is he?”

There it was.

That assumption was so casual and automatic it shouldn’t have mattered. It wasn’t malicious. It was simply the script we had both grown up with.

But my chest still clenched. I swallowed hard.

“Her name is Sawyer,” I said quietly.

The words landed between us like a coin dropped into water.

Lilly didn’t blink. She didn’t hesitate or perform that careful pause people sometimes did when they were trying to decide how to respond in the most acceptable way.

Instead, she smiled. Wide. Real. “Oh my god,” Lilly said immediately. “Addie.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “What?”

She reached across the table and grabbed both of my hands. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I swallowed hard.

“Her name is Sawyer,” I said quietly. “I’m bisexual, and I’m dating a woman. I have been for eight or nine weeks.”

The words landed between us like a coin dropped into water.

Lilly didn’t blink. She didn’t hesitate or give me that careful pause people sometimes used when they were trying to decide how they were supposed to respond.

She just smiled. Wide and real.

“Oh my God,” she said immediately. “Addie.”