“Is it too much?”
He hasn’t spoken in what feels like hours but was probably only seconds.
“Of course, it’s too much. I know I can be a lot, and this is a lot. If you don’t want it, then I totally get it. I just wanted you to have the option. A sort of final say on what happens with this place.” I stop rambling and clamp my mouth shut.
“I can’t believe you did this. You said you had a little surprise.”
Crap. I knew it was too much. A normal girlfriend would have bought him a nice shirt or something. He turns and frames my face with both hands and drops his head to mine. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you or this.”
“So, it’s not too much?” I ask hopefully.
“It absolutely is too much.” His laughter is tight and strained and those hazel eyes I love so much stare at me in wonder and surprise.
I was prepared for this, so I have all sorts of logic on my side. “Consider it backpay. Now we’re even for all the months you wouldn’t let me pay you.”
“I know what this place is worth.” He cocks a brow at me.
“Well, you were underpaid. You saved my life. Backpay and a bonus.”
He shakes his head at me like he thinks I’m a little out of my right mind. “I’d burn this place to the ground to keep you safe.”
I know he means it. That he would sacrifice everything for me and the people he loves. Which is my final bargaining chip.
“Burn it, sell it, whatever you want. The point is that you and your brothers can decide this time. You lost a lot that you can’t get back, but this doesn’t have to be one of those things. Will you accept it? Pretty please.” I throw the last two words in as a plea. I can never tell him how much I appreciate him, but this building feels like a symbol of it.
His forehead drops to mine. “God, I love you. Your big heart and your generosity, and the way you have come into my life and made everything feel exciting again. I don’t know what’s next for me, but I know it includes you.”
He looks up at the building. “I can’t tell you what this place means to me.” Then his gaze flicks back to me. “Or what you mean to me. I love you so damn much.”
“I love you too.”
“I will accept it on one condition.”
My heart flutters in my chest. “Anything.”
“Move in with me.” His lips fight a smile and his eyes twinkle.
I shove playfully at his chest, laughter falling from my mouth.
Hendrick wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me. “Almost had you.”
“You do have me. All of me.”
A few weeks later, four wallflowers gather in the living room of their off-campus house. It’s just a house, yet it’s so much more. It’s the place where we became friends, where each of us fell in love, where we watched Jane Austen more times than I can count, studied together, drank wine, played dress up, cried, and laughed. Years from now when we’ve all graduated and started our lives, we’ll look back at this moment and remember that what we shared was special. A once in a lifetime kind of friendship. Or in my case, thrice in a lifetime.
As I look around at my friends drinking wine, wearing beautiful custom gowns, talking about boys and life and our plans for the future, I wonder if we’ll always be this close. If we’ll continue to share our lives when we’re not bound together by these four walls. We will. I know it. I need them. They’ve become a part of me.
Music from a party next door at The White House threatens to drown out the TV in front of us, but we aren’t watching it anyway.
“Okay, your turn,” Daisy says to me. “Would you rather give up sex or kissing?”
We’ve been going around asking these types of questions all night long. When do we want to get married? Are we going to have kids? Where will we live? And then of course it turned to sex.
“Kissing. No, sex. No, crap, kissing. I can’t decide,” I say.
Laughing, Vi gets to her feet. “I’m gonna grab another bottle of wine.”
“I’m coming with you to get more snacks,” Daisy says and follows her.
Dahlia scoots closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder. “This is exactly what I needed tonight. Me, you, Vi, and Daisy.”
Her phone lights up in her lap. We both look down as Felix’s name flashes on the screen with a text.
“And your boyfriend not so patiently waiting to come pick you up?” I ask with a laugh.
On the coffee table, Daisy’s phone vibrates. Dahlia and I share a smile before she leans forward to confirm what we’re both thinking. “It’s Jordan.”
We laugh. “Who would have thought that we’d be hanging out and boys would be blowing up our phones begging us to hang out with them?” she asks.
“I would have. We’re amazing.”
She smiles back at me, warm and caring and with a kind of understanding that only your truest friends ever really know.
“Cheers to that,” she says and clinks her wine glass against mine softly before finishing off the last of it. I do the same.
Dahlia sets her empty glass on the coffee table. “I saw that Penelope and Clint broke up.”
“Yeah, me too.” It was splashed all over the front page of every major news outlet this morning along with news that Clint had gotten into an accident while driving drunk and allegations that Penelope had filed a restraining order against him. And the big superhero movie he was doing . . . yeah, they dropped him too. There was a lot going on there and the media was eating it up.
“Are you okay?” Dahlia asks.
“Yeah.” I nod. “I’m sad for her, of course, but I’m okay. Maybe I’ll reach out,” I say off-handedly, but it isn’t a terrible idea.
“Speaking of celebrities, guess who texted me?”
“Who?!”
“Eddie Dillon.” Her eyes are bright with excitement as she mentions the pop star we met last year. She had this huge opportunity to design an outfit for him, and totally crushed it.
“I knew he’d be back begging you to design more clothes for him. You’re so talented, babe,” I say.
“Well, he didn’t beg, but he did offer me a summer internship with his wardrobe team.”
The three of us squeal at her news. Dahlia blushes and soaks it all up as we take turns hugging and congratulating her.
“A-mazing.” I wrap her in another tight hug. “I am so proud and so, so happy for you. You’re going to kill it.”
“Thank you, but there’s more. He also asked me to pass on his number to you.” She tilts her head toward me.
“What? Why?”
“Why do you think?” She squeezes my knee and gives it a shake. “He saw the videos of you bringing down the house at the Spring Fling and he wants to collab with you.”
My stomach bottoms out. “Are you fucking with me right now?”
“Nope.” Her smile pulls wide. “Maybe this summer I’ll be designing outfits for the both of you.”
An hour later, my friend’s boyfriends have reached a level of impatience that has a symphony of vibrations and pings going off in our living room.
“I cannot believe Hendrick hasn’t texted at all,” Dahlia says. “Did he have plans tonight?”
“He’s hanging out at home, I think. I told him he could come over when we were done.”
“Well now I feel bad that we’re leaving,” Daisy says.
“Go, go,” I tell them. “I don’t mind. Really. I’ll clean up.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me next door?” Vi asks. “Text Hendrick and have him meet us there.”
“Maybe. I’ll let you know what we decide.”
After they leave and I toss the empty wine bottles and wash the glasses, I text Hendrick.
ME
Hey, chicks before dicks time has come to an end. Want to come over?
HENDRICK
Already on my way.
