Alex did a happy dance in her living room while Jen just grinned at her. They’d spent a couple of minutes dissecting every one of Gabe’s replies to figure out just how into her he was. She swore she held her breath the entire time she waited for a reply from her first message. When he hadn’t replied immediately, her heart sank a bit.

“He was gorgeous Jen. I mean seriously ridiculous.”

“And …”

“And, he’s not exactly the type of guy that’s going to be into someone like me,” she lamented, throwing herself onto the couch and pulling a pillow over her face.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Jen, you know what high school was like.”

“You mean the two years you were there?” Jen asked, pulling the pillow off her face.

“I’m not that girl, Jen. I’m not the girl that gets that guy.”

“Why the hell not? You’re ridiculous, you know that? While that giant brain of yours is great for analyzing things, it’s not very good at seeing the obvious, which is that in the past two years, you’ve become a Grade-A hottie.” She snorted.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, disbelieving her.

“Alex, your baby fat is gone. You’re not wearing those giant glasses that were so heavy that they forced you to keep your head down all the time, and most importantly,” she said, taking her hand in hers, “you got out of that house. Becoming emancipated was probably the best thing you ever could have done for yourself.”

“It’s not like I would have been able to do it without your and your dad’s help.” She shrugged.

“Hey, all we did was help with the paperwork. Anyway, I know your confidence is shot after all you’ve been through, but sometimes you should grab life by the balls. Plus, a guy doesn’t wait until a girl gets off work, take a punch in the nose from her, and still ask for her number if he doesn’t like her.”

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She stood to take her phone out of her pocket and checked the message.

“Yes,” she shouted before fist-pumping and slapping her hand over her mouth.

“I take it he said yes to breakfast.” Jen chuckled. She whirled around to her, clutching her phone, and bouncing up and down.

“He did! He did!”

“Be sure to let him know I’m super territorial when it comes to my pancakes. I will stab him with a fork if I feel he is encroaching into my territory,” she said dryly.

“Don’t worry, Jen. I’ll be sure to make tons. Enough that we can freeze them and you can use them as a studying treat,” she said, smiling down at her phone.

“That is an excellent idea!” Jen beamed. “Can we do some with chocolate chips?” she asked dreamily.

“Fine, fine, but don’t complain to me when you gain ten pounds between the intensive studying and chocolate chip pancakes.”

“Scout’s honor,” Jen said, placing two fingers over her heart.

“Is that even the scout’s salute?”

Jen shrugged her shoulders. “Who knows? I’m probably close enough.”

“He’s in for a real treat, this guy. First, he gets a taste of your fists of fury and tomorrow a taste of your pancakes.” Jen chuckled, picked up her sketch pad, and continued drawing. The sketch was only half-finished and it blew her mind. Jen had so much talent and she hated seeing her waste it.

Alex plopped down on the couch beside her and smacked herself on the forehead.

“I still can’t believe I punched him in the nose!”

Jen snorted. “What guy thinks it’s okay to creep up on a woman in a dark parking lot when she’s all by herself? He’s lucky you didn’t go for a nut shot. Isn’t that what they taught us in class? Go for the soft spots.”

“I’m glad I didn’t; poor guy would have never asked for my number had I kicked him in the balls.”

“With how smitten you make him sound, he probably would have. What’s this movie they’re filming? I’m intrigued now.”

“I don’t really know. He had to be weirdly hush-hush about it and couldn’t tell me much. Maybe we can try to sneak onto the set and see what it’s about. At least from the size of the crew I can tell it’s not porn, so there’s a win there.”

“Or it’s going to be the biggest budget porn film ever created, starring Gabe: The Hottie from the Restaurant!” Jen tossed her sketch pad on the couch and stood, striking a superhero, hands-on-the-hips pose.

“Shut up, it’s not that,” Alex said, laughing as she threw a pillow at her. Jen ducked the pillow and went to the fridge to grab a bottle of wine.

“I’ll let you get away with the pillow throwing and even offer you a glass of wine, all because I want pancakes in the morning,” Jen said as she took two glasses out from the cabinet.

“I’m glad you met someone nice, Alex. It’s about damn time,” Jen said, handing over one of the glasses.

“What do you mean about damn time?”

“Oh, you’ve always tried your best to hide out and not make waves. Not trying to draw any attention to yourself.”

Alex had made a vow to herself when she finally made it out of her mom’s house: she would rather be alone than be with someone who mistreated her. Her mom was a magnet for every piece of crap in a fifty-mile radius.

For the most part, she kept her head down, did her school work, and tried to be away from home as much as possible. Jen’s house and school had been her refuges. That was part of the reason she had graduated early, not that it had helped much. At that point, she was still stuck in that house and it was worse, because then she didn’t have school anymore.

Without her mom to fill out the forms, there wasn’t any financial aid she could get, which meant she worked to try to pay for classes. Her mom had been following some guy in a band across the country, which made life at home easier, but didn’t help when it came to things where you needed a living, breathing adult. A class every semester was all she could afford after she paid for gas and insurance for her car, which she needed for work. Then her mom’s newest scumbag addition decided that he might like a younger version of her mother. That had been the final straw. The second that creep walked in on her in the shower, she packed a bag and headed for Jen’s.

Jen and her dad helped her gain emancipation, but she didn’t want to mooch off them, so she worked two jobs and got herself a place. She’d had to put her college plans on hold for a little bit longer. At least she had a lot of credits and they would transfer to the local university once she got her crap together.

Jen moved in with her once she graduated from high school, and commuted to college. Alex loved her for that. She knew Jen could have been on campus partying it up, living the typical college life. Instead, she was holed up in their place and commuted to classes almost every day.

“I remember when you nearly shit a brick when you got that speaking part in the play and asked Mrs. Hendricks to make you a tree instead.” Jen lay down on the couch and propped her feet up on her lap. She picked up her pad again and flipped to a new page.

“I was not going to play the senile old cat lady in that play. Trust me—the tree was a much better choice,” Alex said, pushing Jen’s feet off her lap.

“I’m glad to see you going for it, is all I’m saying. And I can’t wait to meet this guy,” Jen said with a suspiciously sweet expression.

“Don’t think of pulling any funny business while he’s here,” Alex warned, grabbing the pad out of her hands.

“Whatever do you mean?” Jen asked, grabbing for her paper.

“I’m talking threats of bodily harm, threats of legal action, or anything else.”

“You wonder why I don’t introduce you to any guys I may be interested in? It’s because you scare them!” Alex chuckled. “That’s why you’ll be a wonderful lawyer and the most feared woman on either coast.”

“Tell me about it,” Jen said, grabbing the pad back and tipping back her glass.

They spent the rest of the night reminiscing about Jen’s antics in high school and Alex’s repeated attempts to bail her out. Their friendship was a weird one, even Alex admitted that, but they were always there for one another and Alex was glad she had her in her life. The night’s festivities continued with massive quantities of cheese and a John Hughes movie.

After two bottles of wine, they both passed out on the couch. When he woke at 2 a.m., Jen was sleeping with her head bent at an odd angle. She woke her up and they both stumbled into their bedrooms.

After brushing her teeth to get rid of the purple stains and clear the taste of furry wild animal poop, Alex lay in bed staring up at the ceiling and picturing Gabe. His bright blue eyes and the way he’d rubbed that soft-looking upper lip were playing on repeat in her mind as she drifted off to sleep. She was totally going to make out with that man, just as soon as the room stopped spinning.