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“You don’t,” she says. “That’s what friends are for.”
Friends.
“I’ll go get a table.” Before she walks away, she turns back. “Can I trust you to not go find that guy and run him over with your truck?”
I push my hand through my hair, chuckling a little. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”
Emmy has a way of making sense of things—of making things make sense. Like in high school when she gently explained how my vandalism hurt Marco (and the rest of the community) without making me feel completely ashamed. She made me want to clean up my own mess, just like she made me want to take the high road tonight.
How did she do that?
She leaves, and I turn to find Jace watching me. “What?”
He holds up a hand. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You’ve got a look.”
“I do not,” he says.
I stare at him.
“Fine, I do,” he says. “What’s going on there?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“Well, keep her.” He takes a drink. “She’s like Black Widow with the Hulk. What did she whisper to you anyway?”
I just smile and raise a hand to the bartender, asking for a napkin and a new beer.
“At any rate, she makes you better.”
My mom said the same thing.
She does, doesn’t she? She at least makes me want to try and be better. Emmy sees me differently than other people. And her belief in me is convincing. Sometimes.
I take the new bottle from the bartender and shake my head. “You’ve got the wrong idea.”
“Or you’re kidding yourself.” He tips his bottle at me and takes a drink. “Time will tell.”
I walk away, and as I turn the corner and spot Emmy sitting in a booth against the back wall, I realize I don’t need time to tell me anything.
She’s amazing.
And she always has been.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Emmy
This is not a date.
This is a post-almost-fight-after-romantic-slow-dance-in-the-stacks-for-a-calendar-photograph dinner.
No big deal.
I briefly consider that premise for a romance trope—guy saves girl from fire, girl saves guy from fight, will they, won’t they—and decide it’s too far-fetched.
I don’t need a menu for a restaurant I eat at weekly, but I’ve got one, and I’m hiding behind it because what am I doing here?
