“Hey,” I said gently.
She halted. Held still. Looked at me.
I said, “None of that was your fault. Thanks for standing up for me, but you shouldn’t have had to. She came for the drama, and she was gonna get it one way or another, clearly.”
“It was super hot when you called her a d**k, by the way.” Maeve licked her lips. “You have layers, girl.”
I grinned. I had done that, hadn’t I?
We started walking again, arm in arm, and she dropped the empty sundae plate into a garbage can. I was amazed. “You even had the presence of mind to clean up after us while you were telling her to f**k off.”
“I have layers, too.”
It was shitty, but it was also a weirdly powerful moment. For me and for us. Like, it drove home that there really was an us, a me-and-Maeve. It wasn’t a month old yet, so who kne
