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“It’s not a Twilight meet-cute,” Emory avoids.
Lena laughs. “Theo loves Twilight.”
“My God,” I remark. “Someone write down the date. After tonight, I will never be the same.”
Georgia laughs. “Feeling a little too feminine?”
I laugh and shrug. “Honestly, this feels very similar to how the guys’ conversations go.”
Cassie snorts. “I’m not surprised. T-bag gabs constantly.”
“Guys, focus,” Greer interrupts. “Emory was about to tell us her story.”
“No,” Emory says with a laugh. “I wasn’t.”
The group erupts again.
“Come on!”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Jesus Christ!”
“Fine!” Emory finally yells. “Fine. I’ll tell you the freaking story. But you can’t tell Quince I told you because he’s a little sensitive about it.”
Every single head swings my way, and I put my hands up in my defense. “Hey, I’m a vault, okay?”
“All right.” Emory takes a deep breath in through her nose and blows it out through her mouth before turning to Greer. “Do you remember the concert I asked you to go to that you told me you wouldn’t go to unless I took you there in a body bag?”
Greer’s eyebrows draw together as she thinks back. “I feel like I say that a lot.”
“You do,” Emory confirms with a snort. “But you said it explicitly, many times over, when I asked you repeatedly to go to a concert I’d been dying to go to for almost a decade.”
Greer thinks some more, biting her bottom lip and humming, and Emory gets more and more agitated by the minute.
“Jesus Christ, are you really the worst friend in the universe?”
“Listen,” Greer placates. “I’m thinking. It’s just that your taste in music is—oh my God! Taylor Swift? Lord Jesus, please tell me you met Quince at a Taylor Swift concert.”
Emory sucks her lips into her mouth and nods. “He had the seat next to me in the front row.”
“Oh my God!” Greer shouts. “I can’t believe Quince is a Swifty! I bet he fought you over who got to play Tay-Tay when you guys did the Kanye-Taylor couple’s costume at the masquerade ball, didn’t he?”
Emory drops her head into her hands and groans. “He’s going to kill me.”
“All this time, you’ve been keeping this from me?” Greer goes on.
Winnie’s smile is far less mocking but no less delighted as she enters the fray of questioning. “He’s that big of a Taylor Swift fan?”
Emory shakes her head. “I don’t know. He claimed he was there to FaceTime the whole thing for his cousin’s little girl, but he couldn’t get the iPad to work.” She shrugs. “And he did dance along a lot.”
“Man,” Lena says with a laugh. “You really never know where you’re going to meet your man.”
“Or woman!” Georgia shouts. “This is an important lesson, Harrison. Learn from all of us. It doesn’t have to look like the fairy tale or have the traditional timeline. So, you got her pregnant first.” She shrugs. “That doesn’t mean you guys aren’t meant to be together.”
“Look, guys…girls. Whatever. I really appreciate this. All of you and your stories and you sharing them with me. It’s just…this is complicated. She’s got a public fiancé already.”
“But he’s fake, right?”
“Technically, yes. But to her team and the public, this is the best option—”
“Oh, horseshit,” Cassie snaps. “It’s all horseshit. And I don’t even say shit anymore because I’m raising a couple of shitheads. But this is worth it. I’m telling you now—we’re all telling you—if you want this woman to be the woman in your life, you have to walk your ass out on that limb and go for it. Blow it all up. Set it on fire. Tear it all down—destroy the damn thing. Who gives a fluff if it makes a ruckus?”
“I don’t want to…” I pause, not even sure what I’m going to say. “It’s just that…Rocky is happy how things are.”
“How do you know?” Ruby interjects. “Has she said that? Has she said to you, I love how my life is right now?”
“Well, no—”
Cassie cuts me off immediately. “Then stop reading between the lines and start reading the facts.”
Eight women stare me down relentlessly. I blink valiantly, trying to erase some of the pressure from their weighty stares, but they don’t let up, and if I have to guess, I’d say they’re not going to.
Not until I agree with them.
“Okay, okay. You’ve all made terrific points, and I’ll do my best to take them under advisement.”
Cassie rolls her eyes. “That’s some typical male bullshit if I’ve ever heard it. Still, I hope you let all of this sink in and change your mind. I mean, what are you waiting for? Do you want the life you want, or don’t you? It’s that simple.”
“Why do I feel like I’m in therapy?”
“Because you are. None of us is even remotely qualified, but we’ve been in the trenches,” Maybe says resolutely. “There’s no one better to help you with this endeavor than the women who’ve been through it all before.”
