“I know you don’t believe in this stuff, but fate is a thing, Reagan. It exists. There are some things that happen that are against all reason and are completely inexplicable. I think you meeting Noah was one of those.”

Halley shook her head. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you buy that Kool-Aid.”

“There’s no other explanation for it,” Ava continued, completely oblivious to the fact Halley had a frying pan in her hand.

A frying pan she had no business holding.

“Ava,” I said.

“It was fate. Granted, your apartment burning down was a nasty side effect of that—”

She was kidding, right? She considered me being homeless as a ‘nasty side effect’ of fate? She needed help.

“—But it’ll all work out. He’s hot. He’s literally your dream guy.”

“Ava,” I said again as Halley set the frying pan on the stove.

“Sometimes the universe just has plans for us that we don’t understand, and that’s okay.”

“The universe needs to tell you to shut up!” I banged on the table. “Halley has a frying pan in her hand! I don’t want another fire!”

“Oh, crap!” Ava grabbed Halley and moved her away from the cooker before she plucked the pan from the hand of our kitchen-impaired friend. “You know you’re on strawberries duty. Reagan doesn’t need to go through any more trauma, thank you.”

Halley pulled a knife out of the block and raised her eyebrows. “You know what’s traumatic, Ava? You and your drivel about fate.”

I nodded along solemnly.

“Even though this is weird, and you may have a little hippy point…”

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

Back the fuck up.

“She does not have a point!” My voice was an octave too high. “Oh, my God, did you drink her Kool-Aid? What’s wrong with you? Are those morning jogs scrambling your brains?”

“It is weird, though.” She tossed a glance over her shoulder at me. “What are the odds?”

“I don’t know. I don’t do math.”

“I bet we could start a thread on Reddit and someone would figure it out,” Ava mused.

“We are not starting a thread on Reddit.” This was ridiculous. “It’s a coincidence. A really weird, slightly uncomfortable coincidence.”

“Does he think it’s weird?”

“I’d be alarmed if he didn’t.”

“So you’re still texting,” Halley stated.

I licked my lips. “I texted him complaining last night when you two told me to piss off.”

“Did he entertain your bullshit?”

“He did.”

They both turned and looked at me. With an eerie synchronicity, they both said, “Marry him.”

I blinked.

As if they hadn’t just gone otherworldly on me, they spun back around and got back to making pancakes.

They were weird.

Seriously.

Almost as weird as my situation with Noah.

“So, what are you going to do?” Halley asked, putting sliced strawberries into a small bowl.

I shrugged and looked down. I didn’t freaking know. It wasn’t every day one was put in this situation, was it? I doubted there was anything on Google about this, either.