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“Yeah.”

She groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

I started chewing my thumb. “What?”

She glanced at me. “He’s cute,” she said, like this was a disappointment.

“Yeah. So.”

“So cute isn’t good. You get attached to cute.”

She scrolled on and then looked up and pinned me with a stare. “This is a duck pic.”

“And?”

“Where are the dick pics?”

I crossed my arms. “He doesn’t send me those. And if he did, I wouldn’t let you see them.”

She thumbed to my call log, and her eyes narrowed at my screen. “You talked to him for three hours last night? On the phone?!”

I snatched my cell. “Give me that back.”

She put her hands on her hips. “You like him. You are dating him.”

“It takes two hours to get to Wakan,” I said defensively. “When I go down there, we have to do other stuff. It can’t just be all sex.”

She gawked at me. “You are standing here, lying to your best friend—I have known you for ten years. It is all over your damn face.” She waved a hand in front of my nose. “You’re packing a trauma kit for the car because that’s how much time you plan to spend there, and you’re trying to tell me this is just a sex thing?”

I went back to looking at bandages so I wouldn’t have to look at her. “Maybe I do like him. A little.” I shrugged. “He’s sweet.”

And generous, and funny, and attentive…

She was shaking her head at the side of my face. “You know this can’t be a thing, right? Your dad would disown you.”

I scoffed. “He’s ready to disown me anyway for not getting back with Neil. You know what Neil did last week?” I looked at her. “He turned off the power before he left for work.”

“He did what?”

“Yeah. I thought it was a power outage.”

“Why the hell did he do that? Just to be a dick?”

“Yup. He probably thought I’d call and ask him for help. It’s this super passive aggressive ‘you need me’ thing. He’s pissed because he thought we were going to talk the other day and I went to Daniel’s instead. He texted me all night, asking where I was. It was like this roller-coaster ride of him getting all pissed off because I didn’t show, and then a series of apologies and then he was pissed off again because I didn’t reply. He’s been sulking around all grouchy. Slamming doors and—” I rubbed my eyebrow. “I cannot wait for this to be over.”

“Does Neil know about Daniel?”

I shook my head. “No. Hell no. I tell him I’m at your house.”

“Good. He’s too shady to know what you’re up to. Don’t ever let him know. If this asshat turns the power off just to get your attention I don’t even wanna know what he’d do to your fuck buddy. Does Daniel know about him?”

“He knows enough.”

“And what does he say?”

I shrugged, picking up an oxygen canister. “We don’t really talk about it. I don’t need to bring Neil with me to Wakan. I go there to not think about him.” I rolled my eyes. “You know Neil made me a quiche the other day—”

“Ewwww, did you eat it?”