I shook my head, giggling at her silliness. This was why we were close. I brought her back down to earth when she went off on one of her flights of fancy, and she urged me to lift my head up and not get so bogged down by the daily grind of real life. She reminded me that it was important to dream and to fly.

“I don’t want to be the one to burst your bubble here, but I told him I wasn’t interested.”

A look of pure horror crossed her face. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m not. I closed that door.”

“Having worked with so many doors in my profession, I can tell you this—that’s the thing about doors. Once you close them, they’re designed to be opened again.” When I didn’t respond, she got up and rinsed out her bowl, immediately putting it into the dishwasher. I’d have to remember to do the same with my own bowl or else she’d get upset with me for letting it languish in the sink.

“Are you really not interested in him at all?” she asked, and I heard that tone in her voice again, the one that let me know she understood something more was going on with my love life but that she wouldn’t press the issue. That she would wait until I was ready to tell her.

I didn’t think I’d ever be ready.

“Noah is . . . different.” It was the most truthful answer I could give her.

“Different how?”

I didn’t have the words to explain, so I just said, “I don’t know.”

She closed the dishwasher door. “Is it because he played Felix and Malec? Like you’re transferring your crush from them onto him?”

“No, it honestly has nothing to do with the characters he’s played. It’s him. He’s just different, and this is the first time I . . .” I couldn’t continue.

Thankfully she didn’t press me further. Another thing I loved about her—she always understood when to push and when to back down. “Well, I don’t think that’s the last you’ve heard of him.”

“How could it not be? I told him no thanks.”

She shrugged. “I just don’t think Noah Douglas is the kind of guy who gives up that easily.”

Her phone rang, and she went into the living room to grab it. I could tell from the sappy look on her face that it was Allan. Again, I felt that pang of envy that I didn’t have anyone in my life who made me feel the way Allan made Shelby feel.

Maybe you could.