“I appreciate that,” I said, hiding behind the menu to conceal my blushing. “The alone time was nice.”

“Did I hear him call you his girlfriend before you guys left?”

I broke into a grin. “Yeah, he sure did.”

“That is adorable.” She made a puppy dog face.

“Right? It’s nice to finally make it official.” I set the menu down. “What about—I mean, you and Dallas. You guys still haven’t had that talk? If I’m being nosy, just tell me, and I’ll shut up. We can blame it on too much time with Chase.”

Shiv laughed at my last comment, then her expression sobered. “We had a fight about that last night, actually.” She pursed her lips, looking away.

“You did?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Some guy hit on me, and Dallas got pissy over it. I turned the guy down, so what does it matter? But then he tried to give me an ultimatum. I mean, he didn’t phrase it that way. It was more of an ‘are you in or not’ type of thing?”

I sucked in a breath. “How did you guys leave it?”

“A little frosty. But we’ve had this argument before. It’ll probably blow over.” She shrugged. “It’s not like I want to date anyone else.”

“But…” I prompted her.

She winced. “What if making it official changes things?”

“That doesn’t mean it’ll change for the worse,” I said gently. “It could change things for the better.”

At least that’s what I was hoping for with Chase. Not that there was much to improve on. But I felt more secure in our relationship now. Hopefully, I could work through some of my residual trust hang-ups. Might take a while, though.

Shiv frowned at her Diet Coke. “This is going to sound stupid. Like, really stupid. But I honestly never thought of it that way.”

“If Dallas was anything like your ex, you wouldn’t still be with him.”

“I know.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m crazy about the guy. He’s right there in front of me. The man’s perfect. What the hell is wrong with me?”

I shrugged. “Once burned, twice shy. I get it.”

“Honestly, I’m this close to taking the leap.” She held her thumb and pointer finger an inch apart. “I just need to wrap my head around it.”

After we ordered, our conversation turned to the reason we were here: living arrangements. At this point, we’d narrowed our apartment selections down to two. The unit I had liked initially, plus another new one that had come onto the market when its prospective tenant fell through at the last minute. It was one hundred dollars more per month, which wasn’t totally make-or-break, but still a factor.

Shiv took a sip of her drink, then slumped over the table. “I hate making decisions,” she said, muffled by her arm.