Page 68 of Just Friends Forever
We talk about his family, where he lives, and his career in tech, and then the conversation turns to me.
“So, what comes next for you?” he asks.
I give a breathy laugh. “Still trying to figure that one out.”
He nods, scooping a bunch of toppings onto his nachos. I have to give it up to him. Most people wouldn’t choose a dangerous food like nachos on a first date. Maybe that’s why this feels less like a date than it does chatting with a new friend.
I try to pay attention to how I feel with Landon, and even though it’s comfortable, I’m not feeling any sparks. I don’t think he is either. We’re both just having a good time. That simultaneously relieves and disappoints me.
But I didn’t feel sparks for Troy until recently, either. Does that mean I’m just really bad at identifying who’s good for me?
“Part of me wants to kind of… reinvent myself,” I say, running my finger along the top of my glass. “But other times, that feels extreme, and I crave familiarity. Or the past.” One specific day in the past, to be clear.
“You can always try something small,” he says.
“Something like what?”
He shrugs. “Anything. Your wardrobe, your hair, your routine. You could follow Maggie’s lead and change your name. There are lots of options.”
“Whydidshe start going by Maggie? Did she just like it better?”
He takes a drink from his lemonade. “She got called Maggot one too many times. Kind of ruined the name Margot for her, I think.”
I cringe. “Ugh. I had forgotten about that.” It makes me feel sick inside.
He smiles. “She’s past it now.” He cocks a brow. “Thanks to that name change, maybe. So, there’s a plug for that.”
I laugh. Icouldchange my name. Then when people ask if I’m Stephanie Carr, I could truthfully shake my head. I mean, technically I already can. I’m Stephanie Jacobs again now. But it might be nice toreallychange it. Like Landon said, the possibilities are endless. I could be Darla or Jessie, or I could go the Elon Musk route and give myself an Elvish name or a bunch of random letters put together.
Probably not the option I’ll go with, but Landon’s got me thinking. A change might help me figure out who I want to be after four years of letting the media and Curtis’s PR team craft an image for me.
23
TROY
“You seem distracted,”Tori says, side-eying me from the other end of the couch.
Once Stevie left on her date, I knew the only thing that could really distract me. But evenFresh Princeisn’t doing the trick. Stevie and I have watched so much of it together recently that I keep looking over, expecting Tori to be her. And then inevitably I think about Stevie on her date and check the time and wonder what they’re doing at that exact moment.
“I’ve got a new client who’s kind of high-maintenance,” I respond, keeping my eyes on the screen and refusing to let my finger tap on my knee again.
“Ah,” she says, looking unconvinced. “And here I was, thinking your mind was on Stevie.”
I shoot her a look, and she just smiles like the annoying little sister she is.
Tori’s asleep by the time the door finally opens around 11, and instead of shooting up from the couch like I want to, I take a few deep breaths and wait for Stevie to come in. I always keep my apartment door unlocked in case she needs me. If she needs to run straight into my arms again, there will be no major roadblocks in her way.
It’s what a best friend would do.
When the door to my apartment opens, Tori stirs, wipes her eyes, and sits up from her slumped position on the couch. She’s always had the ability to sleep in the most unlikely of places.
Stevie appears at the top of the stairs, and I glance over at her. “Oh, hey! You’re home already.” The way Tori smirks tells me I’m not convincing anyone that the last two-and-a-half hours didn’t pass like a kidney stone.
“How was it?” Tori asks, stretching her arms above her head.
“It was… really good,” Stevie says with a smile that fills my heart with inky blackness. “I had a great time.”
“A great time as in you’ll be going out again?” Tori asks with a cocked brow.
