Yours Truly

you can’t spell disappointment without men

Her friend.

I was probably overthinking this. I was sure I was overthinking it. Maybe she introduced her boyfriend as a friend to everyone? I mean a boyfriend is a type of friend. Right? It wasn’t technically wrong.

She introduced me as her friend. Her friend.

I smiled. “She’s mad at me.”

“For what?”

“She asked if I’d eat her if she were a gummy bear. I said yes.”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not talking to you for five minutes. I am very mad at you.”

“Am I getting the glitter?”

She sucked in air. “Thin ice, Maddox.”

And your forearms. I love them.”

Well. I was never wearing long sleeves again. Winter was going to be rough.

Doug would punch me in the face for a billion dollars.”

“Then I’d have to punch Doug in the face for free.”

She gawked at me trying to look serious, but she was fighting a laugh. “You’re punching the wrong person. I’m the billion-dollar punch—though I do understand the impulse to punch Doug for nothing. But still.”

I chuckled,

“Do you like it?” Amy asked her with a forced smile, obviously trying to make conversation to salvage the bad start.

“Working with him? I love it,” Briana said. She looked up at me with stars in her eyes. “You know what he said to me the other day? You guys will love this story. We had this patient with a degloving injury to the scalp. Half his face was peeled off, really gory. Anyway, we patched this guy up and Jacob grabs me and pulls me into a supply closet and looks me in the eye and says, ‘Briana, I would love you even if you didn’t have a face.’”

I almost choked on my laugh. Her story was so unexpected it completely threw me out of my anxiety spiral.

Amy looked back and forth between us like she was trying to tell whether Briana was joking.

I coughed into my fist, still smiling. “It’s true. I said it.”

Amy pressed her lips into a line. “That’s so sweet,” she said flatly

“Yeah. Are you ready?”

“I’m never ready for a party. I just come to terms with the fact that I have to go inside.”

Jacob, I am going to be the best girlfriend you’ve never had.”