Chase gives me a funny look. “I already ordered for you—fried chicken sandwich with extra slaw, right? And I was planning to share my fries, but maybe I should order more of those.”

“I’ll get them,” I say sheepishly, climbing out of the booth. I need some air, even if it’s heavily scented with cooking oil.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. This is it. This is everything. I’m on a date-ish thing with Chase and my best friend is here (for better and for worse) and he ordered for me and everyone knows it and somehow Jasmine is managing to ruin it without even being present.

In another life, having her around could make sense. She could date Keith and I could date Chase and we could double, or even add Shannon and Lucas and triple. It’d be perfect.

Except we’re in this life, and that sounds like my personal hell.

I order fries and they tell me they’ll bring them to the table, so I have no choice but to go back. I hope they’ll be done talking about Jasmine by the time I arrive, but no such luck. Worse, I get there as Shannon’s assuring everyone that she and Jasmine are friends and she’ll get the dirt on if she’s seeing someone.

The idea of Shannon and Jasmine being friends is an immediate appetite killer.

My relationship with Shannon is complicated, but she’s still my best friend. She’d drag someone over broken glass for hurting me, and yes, I do say that from experience. She may like to keep her friends in line, but she would also do anything for us, and I don’t exactly have a lot of people like that in my life. (Shout-out to my dad, wherever he is these days!)

So, yeah—the only thing I might hate more than the idea of losing Shannon to Jasmine is the idea of losing Jasmine to Shannon.

And if the two of them get close and start sharing secrets about me, I might lose them both.

I am so not letting that happen.

“When did you guys become so tight?” I ask as casually as I can manage while I squeeze back in next to Chase, sitting a little closer to him than before. “I didn’t realize you’d hung out. You don’t think she’s a little weird?”

I honestly don’t even know what about her I could play off as weird, but desperate times, etc., etc.

“We talked for a while at the party,” Shannon says, “and I didn’t get a weird vibe. She’s pretty cool. She speaks French even better than I do and she’s been, like, everywhere. All the jewelry she was wearing came from a trip to Morocco.”