Shay is next to laugh. She raises a hand over her mouth as she falls back giggling, her naturally tanned skin glowing like she has a golden aura. “Okay, Alina, we all have been dying to know—what exactly made you decide to go out with Vance?”

“What do you mean you’ve all been dying to know?” I ask with a giggle of my own, although I’m sure it’s only because my buzz is being turned up by the number of shots we’ve downed in the last twenty minutes.

“We didn’t wanna say anything while y’all were dating,” Juliana says. “But, now that it’s over, we wanna know why you stooped to that fool’s level. You saw him today, right? He looks like a little troll waddling around the office with that grumpy face of his.”

“And don’t even get me started on the way he dresses!” chirps DeShaun, our resident fashion columnist. “That boy wore a blue blazer with tan cargo shorts today. Tan cargo shorts. A blue blazer!”

Everyone in the group laughs as DeShaun looks like he might actually be sick at the memory of the disastrous outfit Vance wore to work, and even though I’m still upset and taken aback by the whole ordeal, I feel so much better now that I’m with my friends. Their energy makes me feel like being dumped was a good thing.

“Okay, give me a chance to explain myself,” I say with a raised hand. The group quiets down and I become immediately aware that I don’t really have a great explanation. “Umm, maybe I’m crazy, but I thought he was cute.”

“Bitch, you better be joking!” Juliana barks, making Shay crack up.

“Fine, I was enticed by his popularity. Are you happy now?” I say, falling back into my seat as I cover my face.

“I knew it!” Shay shouts.

“High school prom queen lookin’ ass,” DeShaun says, shaking his head. “You liked that he has the column with the most readers, and the way Drake and him stalk around the office together like mafia bosses, intimidating everybody. You wanted to be the queen to his prom king, because there ain’t no way you looked at Vance Whiteman and said to yourself, “Oh, there goes a scrumptious piece of man meat.”

“Scrumptious?” Shay says with a startled face.

“Man meat?” I add.

“There ain’t a thing about any of Vance’s meat that is scrumptious,” DeShaun goes on.

“Stop saying scrumptious,” Shay snaps.

“Scrumptious!” DeShaun barks, and all of us laugh again.