It was hands down the coolest job any teenager could have, if you ignored my job, which was arguably cooler. She got to spend her shifts talking to people about makeup, recommending products, and getting sneak peeks of new stuff. And best of all, she got a staff discount and could take home any samples she wanted. Which translated to me inheriting more than my fair share of free makeup.

With a shriek of happiness, Ainsley dove off the couch and onto the ground to grab a sachet before I’d had the chance to process the selection. “Oh, yes, yes, yes, I’ve been wanting to try this,” she said.

“Well, I guess you’re claiming that one,” I said, pretending to be put out. “Hi, Brooke.”

She caught my eye and grinned. “Hey, you. I brought gifts.”

Somehow—thankfully—I managed to stop myself from making a cringey one-liner about how her presence in my house was the real gift. Instead, I made just the right amount of eye contact—which she unfortunately broke before we could have any kind of moment—and kept my tone carefully casual, but not so casual I sounded disinterested. “How’s the essay?”

Brooke wrinkled her nose. “I got the outline done. I was waiting on your notes.”

“You’ve still got until next week. That’s plenty of time.”

“I know, I know, but it takes me forever to do them. I’m not a fast typer like you.”

“Why are you here, then?” I asked her teasingly.

“Because you’re so much more fun than working on my essay.”

I shook my head at her, in a pretense of disappointment, but the look of elation on my face probably gave me away. For a second there, she’d given me what seemed like a meaningful look. Sure, it might have been platonic affection, but it also might have been a hint. An opening. I would rather be around you. I have fun with you. I’d sacrifice a good grade so I could snatch an extra hour with you.

Or, maybe I was reading into it and hearing what I wanted to hear. Why was it so much harder to answer my own relationship questions than everyone else’s?

While Brooke and Ainsley gushed over the product Ainsley had swooped in on—a chemical exfoliant, from what I could gather—I crawled over to the haul and found a mini liquid lipstick in the most perfect peachy-pink shade I’d ever seen. “Oh, Darc, that’d look beautiful on you,” Brooke said, and that was it, I needed this more than I’d ever needed anything in my life.

But as I was swatching it on my wrist, I noticed Ainsley giving me puppy-dog eyes in my peripheral. I glanced up. “What?”

“That’s the lipstick I was gonna buy this weekend.”

I pulled it into my chest protectively. “You got the exfoliator!”