Page 8 of Betting on the Best Friend
“Weknow. Ergo, we have placed a bet among the three of us,” Madison says. “The winner is whoever finds your true love.”
“What do you win?”
“We’re not telling you,” Ava says. “That way you won’t try to skew the results for or against any of us. Any other objections?”
“Honestly?” I try to picture living Madison’s pre-Oliver dating life, or even the dating regimen I put Ava on last summer. I shake my head. “I can’t imagine casually dating, but I can imagine wasting time on another long-term dead-end relationship.Easilyimagine it. I’m worried that’s how I’m built.”
“Nothing will seem like wasted time after Niles,” Madison says. “You dated Niles for so long, and he was so wrong.”
Sami—lead singerandlyricist for her band—perks up. “So wrong for so long. Oh, hey, that’s got a nice—”
“Alison Krauss already wrote that song,” Madison cuts Sami off. “Anyway, Ruby, you will be dating different guys and gathering information about what you like. It’s research.”
“You love research,” Ava says, her voice encouraging. “I’ll help you organize the data. We can break it down however you want. Pie charts, bar graphs, aggregate scale ratings. You’ll figure out exactly what kind of guy you like.”
My besties watch me with steady, understanding gazes, and I sigh. “I don’t see the point. I haven’t missed being in a relationship.”
Sami and Ava exchange a look I don’t understand. It’s knowing, but what do they think they know?
“Your problem is that you have too many friends,” Madison says.
“People tell me that all the time.” In a fake sugary voice, I add, “Ruby Ramos, you have so many people who love you. It’s holding you back.”
“I mean that you always have us around, and Charlie too, keeping you busy and distracted, so you don’t have to think about if you’re lonely,” she says.
“You’re right. Because I’m not lonely.”
Madison must sense that I’m talking myself out of this, because she looks to Sami and Ava for help.
Ava leans forward. “If you won’t do it for love, do it for revenge. Think about all your mutuals who saw the engagement post. He’s getting his revenge for you dumping him by showing everyone how fast he’s moved on.”
Sami jumps in. “Yeah, and they are not seeing you with a man. Are you going to let Niles get away with letting everyone believe you’ve been pining while he finds himself a wifey?”
I glance from her to Ava, then back to Madison. “He doesn’t think that. No one else is thinking that.” But my voice rises almost to a question at the end, because I checked that post all afternoon, and I saw plenty of our mutuals commenting everything from a basic congratulations to his freaking mom chiming in with, “It’s always so clear when it’s finally right.”
I choked on my own spit when I read that one, and Charlie had steered me away from the reference desk to the children’s playroom. He’d said, “Why don’t you straighten up in here?” But he meant, “Strangle the plushies until you’re safe for patrons.”
My roommates look at me with pity. I’m not pitiful. “I even congratulated him, and it got a bunch of likes.”
“You didn’t!” Madison gasps. She whips out her phone and checks. “‘That restaurant is perfect.’ Nice try, but it only has twelve likes. You didn’t exactly ratio him.” She frowns and drags her eyes up to meet mine. “When’s the last time you checked this post?”
“Before I left work. Don’t worry, I already saw his mom’s comment.”
She bites her lip. “But did you see his?”
The rest of us pull out our phones. It’s my turn to gasp. “‘It felt good to take someone who appreciated it.’” I look up at Sami and Ava. “If you didn’t know he’d proposed to me there and you saw that comment, how would you take it?”
Ava grimaces. “It definitely sounds like he’d taken you there before and you didn’t appreciate it.”
"Whyyyy?" I almost whine. “My comment waslow-keyloaded. Why did he have to make his so obvious?”
“Dude has never been subtle,” Sami says.
“Now you really have to let us do this. We’re giving you a win-win,” Madison says. “We get to have our bet with each other, and if none of us win, you’ve at least made us happy by letting us try to find someone who deserves you. But also, we send you out with hot men, you get to put pictures out there living your best life with a string of cute guys.”
“If you won’t do it for love, do it for the ’gram,” Sami says.
I scowl. “I have never lived my life for Instagram.”
