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“Wait. So your brother saw your bra?” Julie asked, spinning around in her office desk chair like a restless third-grader.
“Yeah. But he didn’t know it was mine,” Riley said as she tossed the red pen on top of Grace’s article, which she’d been reading.
“It weirds me out that you seem so dejected about that fact,” Emma said as she took a bite of something that looked like birdseed.
Riley reached for the donut she’d stolen from the IT guys, noting the way Grace eyed it lustfully before sighing and returning to her low-fat peach yogurt. Riley didn’t feel even remotely guilty. Grace had a gorgeous man who’d professed his love for her in front of news cameras.
All Riley had was a man who refused to come to family dinners and who couldn’t even tell his best friend about the two of them.
She’d earned her good metabolism, damn it.
“It’s not that I want my brother to see my bra. Ever,” she said around a mouthful of sugary fried dough. “But it pisses me off that Sam told him the bra belonged to ‘just some girl.’ ”
Julie winced.
“I am not just some girl. Am I?”
“Of course not,” Grace said, daintily licking her spoon clean. “But you’ve known all along that Sam’s got a major hang-up over the whole sleeping-with-the-best-friend’s-sister thing.”
“Which is stupid,” Riley said.
“It is. But it’s also classic. The same way a woman can never look at a man her best friend once had a half-second crush on in eighth grade, a man doesn’t touch his best friend’s little sisters.”
“It’s true,” Julie said practically. “It’s in a bunch of books and movies.”
“And if it’s in a movie, it must be true,” Emma said with an eye roll.
Riley held up a hand. “Okay, let’s just pretend for a second that Sam’s not being an idiot. That his whole hang-up is justified. What do I do about it?”
“Well, you could distract him by getting him a dog he didn’t want. Oh, wait …”
“He did want the dog,” Riley protested. “I gave him plenty of time to take Skippy back. He loves that dog.”
“True. I bet he didn’t tell Liam that Skippy’s toy belonged to ‘just some other dog,’ ” Grace mused.
“Not. Helping,” Riley ground out.
“How about this,” Julie said, leaning back in her office chair and tugging her long blond hair out of its ponytail as she thought about it. “See, Sam had his chance to come clean face-to-face with Liam. He chickened out. Maybe what we need here is a less confrontational approach. Like, say, if Liam just happened to see you two together …”
“Yes,” Emma said, rubbing her hands together. “Because manipulation is so much more adult than confrontation.”
Riley flicked a hand at Emma. “Save it. When you’re head-over-heels in love, then you’ll get to talk about doing things on the up-and-up.”
All three of her friends immediately grew still and stared at her, their expressions ranging from delighted (Julie) to dismayed (Emma).
“Love?” Grace said in a casual tone as she looked at her fingernails.
Riley barely managed to swallow her donut as she realized what she’d said. “Um.”
“You owe me twenty bucks,” Julie said out of the corner of her mouth to Grace.
“You bet on my love life?” Riley asked.
“Of course. And thank God we didn’t bet on your sex life. That apparently would have been boring.”
Riley felt a dopey little smile creep across her face. “Worth the wait though.”
“Jesus. She really is in love,” Emma said, slumping back in her chair.
