“Please! If anything, you should be pissed at me.” I hope she doesn’t take me up on that, but I say it anyways because it’s true, and a sad Vonnie is the most heartbreaking sight in the entire world. She’s too full of life to ever be muted. “I should’ve never put that on your shoulders, it wasn’t your secret to keep and I should’ve told him when you told me to.”

“I thought you hated me,” she says.

“Are you kidding me?” My incredulous laughter cannot be prevented no matter how hard I try. If anything, I was just waiting until they realized I was a visitor in their world and there was no reason for them to want to hang out with me when Quinton was out of the picture. “You are literally one of the best people I know. I thought you guys would’ve washed your hands of me already.”

“Why the hell would we do that?” Brynn asks.

Poppy looks at me with big, sympathetic doe eyes, her curly hair bouncing as she shakes her head no.

“You know . . . I mean, we’ve only known each other for a short amount of time.” I look to Marie and Liv to back me up, but the traitors say nothing. “I just assumed that because we only hung out because of Quinton, you wouldn’t want to anymore.”

“Oh yeah, that makes so much sense.” Brynn’s words drip with sarcasm. “You didn’t even like Q when you guys met! Also, we’re all grown women capable of creating and maintaining friendships that have nothing to do with our husbands or boyfriends.”

“Preach.” Vonnie snaps her fingers two times, the quiet woman who walked into my condo fading away.

“I get what you’re saying.” Poppy tries to take my side, ignoring Brynn’s and Vonnie’s glares while Greer just picks through the cupcakes, oblivious to it all. “When TK and I broke up, I felt the same way. But these women are like glitter, they never go away.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Brynn says.

“Same,” Vonnie agrees. “Plus, Justin and I might not make it much longer, so then what? I’m not going to have any friends anymore? I think not.”

Even though Vonnie is talking about her marriage ending, the sadness in her voice from minutes ago is gone and I’m so grateful to have her back. Even if it means her giving me a hard time.

Like Queen Lizzo says, truth hurts.

“Alright.” Greer peels the wrapper off of the cupcake she finally decided on. “Are we going to tell her our intel from Maxwell now? Also, I brought sage to burn when we’re finished. You know, good vibes only.”

While someone offering to sage my house would usually be the thing that catches my attention, it isn’t in this case.