“You’re right you deserve that.” She gives me a soft smile.

“And so do you,” I remind her, then hop down off the counter when my cell starts to ring. When I see that it’s Carly, a friend of mine from work, calling, I slide my finger across the screen and put my phone to my ear.

“Hey.”

“Hey, what are you doing tonight?” she asks, and I look at Leah.

“Leah and I are getting ready to eat dinner, and veg out on the couch with a show.”

“Oh.” She sounds a little disappointed.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just this guy I met online asked me to meet him at a bar and I want to go but don’t want to go alone because he’s going to have friends there.”

“Hold on a sec.” I pull my phone away from my ear after she says okay then put it on mute and wave my hand out to get Leah’s attention.

“Do you feel up to going to a bar tonight? Carly is supposed to meet some guy, but she doesn’t want to go alone.”

“Sure,” she shrugs, and I shake my head because I know she doesn’t really want to go but is agreeing because I’m asking.

“We don’t have to, we can stay here and hang out like we planned.”

“I honestly don’t mind going out for a while, but I can’t stay out late since I have to work early.”

“Okay.” I click the phone off mute and put it back to my ear. “All right me and Leah will meet you there.”

“Seriously?” Carly asks, sounding relieved.

“Seriously, just text me the name of the bar.” I take the plate of pasta Leah hands me. “What time are you heading there?”

“I think he said he wanted to meet at nine. There’s some band in town playing that is supposed to be good.”

“Awesome, we’ll see you there.”

“See you there.” She hangs up and I drop my phone to the counter then follow Leah who has her own plate to the living room.

“So what time are we meeting her?” She flips on the television.

“Nine and we’ll just Uber, that way we don’t have to fight to get parking downtown.”

“Sounds good.” She grins. “Now should we watch some Viking hotties attempt to take over England?”

“Is that a trick question?” I curl into what has been my section of the couch since we purchased it and dig into my food. After the first bite I look at my best friend. “I still don’t know how you’re not married yet.”

She laughs. “Because I eat like this and look like this.” She pats her thigh.

“Stop it. You know you’re gorgeous.” And she is–between her long, blonde hair, big blue eyes, freckles that give her an unusual flare, and curves in all the right places, she’s the whole package. But sadly, my beautiful friend has a mother and a father who have made her hate her body which is just as perfect as she is, and no matter how much I try to convince her differently she can’t or won’t accept it. Like this pasta dish we’re eating tonight, I’m sure tomorrow she will be up early to get to the gym to work it off.