By the time I step out of my solo shift at Holy Grounds the next morning, my phone shows two missed calls from Mandy. I laugh when I see her name on the screen. I’m actually surprised she didn’t call sooner.

I carry a PB&J to the banks of Accident Lake and call her back halfway through my lunch. “You rang, madam?”

“Is it true?” Mandy’s voice sounds breathy and impatient. I guess we’re getting straight to the point.

“Is what true?”

Mandy snorts. “Oh please, don’t even try to play coy with me. I ran into Matthew in the hall yesterday and he spilled the beans about your new life as a lube mistress.”

“Ugh.” I pick at the crust of my bread. Wholegrain seemed like such a healthy choice at the grocery store but today I can’t deal with the seeds. I toss the crumbs to the swan who has come to investigate. “Don’t say mistress,” I chide without heat.

“Shit. Sorry.” She pauses, waiting me out. “So it’s true.”

“Yep.” Just like every time I’ve had the chance, I say the words with pride. “I absolutely own a lube business.”

Her squeal comes at such a high volume I have to hold the phone away from my ear. I imagine her eyes, sparkling at me. “Natalie Bloom, you are a badass.”

“Well, thank you.” I take a pleased bite of my sandwich and the peanut butter sticks to the roof of my mouth. I swallow for a second before I can speak. “On a scale of Oh, these are blueberries, not chocolate chips to What? I have several illegitimate children? how surprised was he?”

Mandy laughs. “He was purple. Literally. I thought he might have a heart attack right there and thank god he didn’t because I don’t want to have to give that cheating asshole mouth-to-mouth.”

Solidarity is a good, good thing. I smile into the phone. “Can you be my bodyguard always?”

“If you bribe me with coffee and wine, probably.” Her voice brightens. “And lube! But you’d need to live closer.”

Here’s my chance. I throw the last of my sandwich to the swan and pick my way onto the rocky beach. I need to be up and moving to calm my nerves. “Actually, now that you mention it, isn’t your lease up soon?”

“End of the month, yeah.” A muffled thump sounds in the background, followed by a male groan. She pulls the phone away from her mouth and calls into her apartment, “Ice pack’s in the freezer.”

I hesitate. “Mandy, am I crazy or do you have some piece of ass there with you?”

“You are not crazy. Except now I have an injured piece of ass here.”

This time it’s my turn to squeal. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Well I didn’t know yet that you’d be my newest lube supplier.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Eww.”

“Whatever,” she snorts. “The more I get lucky, the more you get paid. Or something like that.”

“Oh my god.” I groan. “You realize you just made me sound like your pimp?”

“You’re like, the cutest pimp ever.” She laughs. “Anyway, back to my lease ending?”

“Yeah.” I kick off my flip-flops and slip my toes into the lake. I’ll probably get tetanus or something from the water, but the current cools my ankles. “Well, I want to move back to the city.”

“Obviously.”

“Obviously. But I need to get a roommate.” I suck in a breath of marshy air. “Any chance you might be interested?”

“I would love to room with you. Until somebody decides to put a ring on it, I’m a free agent.”

I cringe. “Mandy, that dude is totally going to get the wrong impression.”

She giggles. “Nothing like keeping him on his toes. So what did you have in mind?”

I fill her in on the apartment listings I found online. I’d banked on her saying yes, so I expanded my search to include some two-bedroom places. A huge, not to mention more affordable, improvement over the studios I started with.

“Send me the list of places and I’ll check them out,” Mandy says. “I don’t know if we’ll find a winner, but at the very least, I’ll be able snoop through some medicine cabinets.”

I sigh. “You are totally going to look through my medicine cabinets, aren’t you?”

“Nope.” Her voice is bright. “I already know you sell lube. Not too many more secrets to hide.” Except the secret I hid from my dad about how I used his money. My stomach sinks and I try to push the feeling aside so I can listen to Mandy’s plan. “Give me a few days and I’ll get back to you,” she says. “Love ya, Roomie.”

“Love you, too.”

I click off the phone and beam. I might need to invest in some high-quality earplugs so I can ignore Mandy’s late-night shenanigans, but it’s a small sacrifice. I’m going to pull this off. Project: Boston Comeback is underway. For the first time in a while I have options. Now I just need to earn some money to pay my bills and pay back my dad and Jackson. Time to get to work.