It looks like Shelby Summers from Selling DC has a new love in her life. After she dumped her Waltzing with the Stars boyfriend, Gil Contreras, she’s reportedly rebounded with Representative Josh “Ice Block” Grant, a former Navy SEAL and one of the most eligible—and cutest congressmen in DC.

The caption underneath a picture of Josh and Shelby enjoying an outdoor lunch at Le Diplomate—one of DC’s most hip restaurants made me almost lose my own lunch.

Twelve years. It had taken me twelve years to stop crushing on Josh and give up writing him those stupid, creepy stalker Christmas cards.

And what had he done the very next year? Hooked up with my worst enemy.

*     *     *

Did you really think he liked you?

I could still hear Shelby’s spiteful voice from that year I decided to try living with my birth mother and half-sisters in Greenlee County.

That afternoon, I’d shown up after football practice so excited for my very first teenage hangout—what my much less sheltered half-sister, Thel, would’ve termed a makeout session.

Dante, one of the football gods from Greenlee’s state championship high school team, had left a note in my locker, claiming to have been crushing on me ever since I sat down beside him in the one Chemistry class we shared.

Like, the clueless naïf I was back then, I’d believed the note. Not only that, I hunted down Thel and begged her to exchange outfits with me.

My adoptive mom—Thel’s and my technical aunt—made way more money than our birth mother did. But my earth-conscious mom refused to buy me anything that wasn’t sustainably made with a close-to-zero carbon footprint. And few eco-friendly clothing companies offered anything that could remotely be considered sexy.

But Thel had a job at the mall, and she got to wear whatever she wanted—thanks to our birth mother’s shocking neglect. By her senior year, my half-sister had gained a reputation for wearing things that often got her sent home to change.

Thel agreed to the outfit exchange without blinking.

“It’s about time Dante got with somebody who looked like one of us,” she said with a suck of her teeth. “If he comes to prom with one more blond….”

Thel made a retching sound to show what she thought of that prospect. But she complimented me after our outfit swap was done.

“Look at you, sis! You’re filling out that top way better than I ever could,” she said with a husky laugh, casting my large chest a jealous look.

Even back in high school, she’d sounded like a woman, sexy and grown.

The truth was I didn’t always feel comfortable having such a large chest paired with an otherwise diminutive frame. Back in my father’s homeland, my aunt always complained about how I made all the traditional clothing look vulgar.

But I preened under Thel’s approval…