Page 9 of Ansel

“You prefer cock?”

“Too chicken.”

Penny grinned. “Dick?”

I waved my spoon, pointing to her. “Too Richard.” Rich (not Dick) was Penny’s ex and we were glad he was out of her life because he was a bit of a douche.

“Well, then you can go with member, organ, pee-pee?—”

“Pee-pee? How old is thismemberwe’re talking about?”

Penny rolled her eyes. “There’s prick, knob, dipstick, ding-a-ling”—she tapped her chin—“trouser snake, boner, shaft, John Thomas, manhood, joystick, pencil….”

“Pencil dick? I don’t know if I’m interested in that.”

We laughed, and it felt damn good.

“So, I lost a barista this week.”

“Whatshisname quit?”

Penny shrugged. “I fired him. Had to. He was insufferable.”

“And?”

“And…” She grinned wide. “I think you should be my new barista.”

I nearly choked on my spoonful of ice cream. “You want me to go from investment banking to making lattes?”

Penny let out an exaggerated sigh. “First of all, don’t dis the art of espresso. Second, yes! Think about it. You’re finishing your MBA soon, you need time to work on your Capstone project, and this could be the perfect break from all that high-finance stress.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she cut me off.

“And before you say anything about money,” she added, leveling me with a look, “you’re not paying rent until you graduate and get a job. Consider it my graduation gift to you.”

I gaped at her. “Penny, no. I can’t?—”

“You can,” she interrupted. “And you will. Remember when I was struggling and you paid the rent?”

“The rent was less than half of what we pay now.” In college, we’d had to juggle finances—despite having tuition waivers because living in New York wasexpensive.

“We both had less money then so same difference.” She pushed some hair off my face and smiled kindly at me. “Neha, you’ve spent three years making some overpaid finance bro’s life easier while running yourself into the ground. Maybe it’s time someone took care of you for a change.”

My throat tightened. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” I murmured, voice thick.

She grinned. “You kept me from failing stats in undergrad.”

“True.”

“You also helped me pay rent when I didn’t have money, helped send money to my mother when she was sick, held my hand when Mom died, and ate ice cream with me after all my really awful breakups….”

“You’ve also done stuff for me, Pen.”

“Yes! Exactly! We take care of each other.” She held up her wine glass. “So, here’s to you. To quitting toxic jobs. To enjoying a well-earned break.”

I clinked my ice cream spoon against her glass. “And, to never wasting another second on Ansel Tyler!”

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