Page 22 of More For Me

I close my eyes. “I am not on board with this.”

“Why? You love shit like this.” My eyes snap open to glare at her but she just smirks. “Seriously Bodhi? If this was anyone else you would be first in line to meddle.”

“I don’t meddle!”

“You started taping pictures of rings all over Leo’s office when you thought it was time for him to propose to Rose.”

“That was different!”

Alex shakes her head. “It really isn’t. We want you both to be happy. We think we can help you get there. Plus, it’s fun and it’s romantic, which are basically your two favorite things in life. So what’s the problem?”

I’m not the type to yell. I do my best to move through life with a smile on my face. There’s already too much dark shit out there. My way of handling the bad stuff in this world is to combat it at every opportunity with the most stubborn optimism I can manage.

But I want to yell right now. I want to tell all of these people—my friends—to butt the hell out and leave me alone. I want to tell them that I’m afraid they’re going to screw everything up. I can’t lose Everly. Do I want us to be more? Yes. Would I rather have her as a friend than as nothing at all? Absofuckinglutely.

And every time one of them brings up this ridiculous plan, something like dread starts to swell low in my belly. I just don’t see this turning out well.

Because, when it comes down to it, I don’t see her picking me.

“Bodhi,” Alex says, her expression softening.

“Hey!”

We both look up to see Everly trotting over, her hair loose and bouncing around her shoulders. She has a huge grin on her face, her eyes zeroed in on the bag in my hands. “God, I love you,” she moans.

“See?” Alex whispers beside me.

“She’s talking to the fucking cupcake.”

“What are you whispering about?” Everly asks, coming to a stop in front of us.

“Just planning your birthday present,” Alex says.

Everly’s eyes grow large. “Ooh. I love presents.”

As annoyed as I am, I can’t help but laugh. “Your birthday isn’t for like, five months.”

Her face falls, but then she looks at the bag again and holds out her hands in a grabby motion. “Gimme. I’m dying.”

“So dramatic,” Alex says. “Why don’t you take your break? I’ll watch the store.”

“Thanks, babe,” Everly says, turning toward the back. But Alex holds out her hand.

“You know, I just got a bunch of samples out,” she says, eyes darting from me to the door to the back. “There’s fabric all over the place back there.”

Everly gives her a weird look. “There’s always fabric everywhere. We own a fashion boutique.”

Alex waves her hands vaguely. “I know but these are like…expensive fabrics. Uh, special editions. Definitely don’t want to get coffee on them. Or crumbs. Or, you know, anything else.”

Everly narrows her eyes. “You’re acting weird.”

I was wrong when I said Alex was the last person on earth I wanted to know about Team Bodhi. She’s the last person in the entire galaxy—hell, the universe—that I would want to know. And this is why. The girl is the worst liar I’ve ever met. It’s amazing to me that she somehow managed to date Wyatt secretly for as long as she did.

I have a terrible feeling she’s not going to be as successful keeping my secret.

“Ooh, you know what I just thought of?” she asks in a voice that indicates she most definitely did not just think of this. “There’s that park around the block. Over by Elmwood They just did their spring planting, it’s filled with flowers. Totally gorgeous. You should take your break there.”

Everly looks confused. “Elmwood is a ten-minute walk. I already had a lunch break, I’m just taking my fifteen.”