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She threw me in a corset type shirt with lace covering the stomach. “Wow. I never dress like this.”
“All the more reason to.” Her voice sounded muffled from her basically being lost in the rack of clothes.
I quickly tried it on, and it was clear that it was a bit too small for me up top. “Are you sure it isn’t too low?” I asked her in a wary voice.
She popped her head out from the rack. “Oh my God, that was made for you! Absolutely not. Gah, I wish I had your boobs,” she said, looking down at her own chest.
“I wish I had yours,” I threw back.
“And be in the itty bitty titty committee with me? Nah, flaunt it, girl.”
“But everything fits you. I swear they don’t make clothes for my size,” I complained.
“You need to own the fact that you’re spilling out.” She reached up on her tiptoes to grab a shirt from the top of the shelf. Multiple sweatshirts fell on her head as she pulled a shirt down.
I looked down self-consciously. “I’m spilling out?”
She laughed. “Tyler will lose his mind when he sees you in that.” And that… didn’t quite sound bad. “Here, put these jeans with it… Oh, and these boots.” She handed me black jeans and studded cowboy boots.
My eyebrows popped up. “You sure?”
“Definitely. Keep them if you want. Now,” she rubbed her hands together, “let’s invite the other girls over to your place too.”
She was already moving toward the bathroom with a stack of clothes to try on.
“Other girls?” I asked.
“Yeah, the other girlfriends on the team,” she threw over her shoulder. A minute later, she walked out of the bathroom in a sparkly black crop top, short leather skirt, and white boots. “Duke willhatethat I’m wearing this for a girls’ night and not for him,” she smiled smugly.
________
A half hour later, we had the music blasting, wine flowing, and girls dressed to the nines streaming in my apartment door.
I stood in the kitchen with Claire, cutting up meat and cheese in an attempt at making a charcuterie board.
“I’ve never hosted anything before,” I whispered to Claire, feeling a giddy bubble of excitement in my chest. My usual nights consisted of holing myself up in my bedroom at my parents’ house reading romances. Now, for once, it felt like I was finally being included in the real world, where whirl-wind romance could actually happen.
She smiled and tucked a pink strand of her hair behind her ear. “Honestly? Me neither, but I really like this.”
“Me too,” I said, clinking my wine glass to hers.
27. Tyler
“What the actual fuck, Duke?” Reggie complained, pausing the video game we were playing. About five of us were online playing against each other, but we basically used the headsets as walkie-talkie conference calls sometimes. “Nowmygirl is going to join Claire in solidarity. What’d you do?”
I slid my gaze to Duke, who’d been sitting on the opposite end of our living room sectional strewing in personal misery all afternoon, but those words perked him right up. “What do you mean? Claire’s back?” he said, standing up.
“She’s back, and now our girls are all leaving us,” Whitty chimed in. “Suzie just went downstairs too.”
Duke’s face scrunched up. “What? Downstairs where?”
“I thought they were going to your place?” Reggie asked.
Duke stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth, his thinking face— I was used to seeing it during face-offs for years. He shook his head. “No.”
“They’re at Josie’s.” I clenched my jaw, trying to contain my frustration. Because now I wasn’t allowed to go down and see her either because of Duke.
“Who the hell is Josie?” Reggie asked.
