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Idiot

Ghost runs a hand through his blonde hair and turns his brown eyes towards uesses, "A new car?"

"Nope" Max pops the p He turns to Diego and tells hiuess"

Trick looks like us in every way, same facial structure and skin tone He is a little shorter than us but is still tall He’s the sae as me but ent to different schools His mom and mine are sisters The only difference between us is his eyes are hazel

Trick asks, "A dog?"

Max starts laughing He says, "Get this," Shut it knucklehead I glare at hiirl!"

Both Ghost and Trick jerk their heads up wearing questioning expressions I nod in confirmation

They are silent for a while before Trick sles his brows at h and respond, "No, man, just a friend She works across the street at that chick store Safira"

Max chuckles "She sent hi at hter He says, "What are we in fourth grade?"

I glare and tell hi

Trick tilts his head to the side and looks overHe enquires, "I don’t think you’ve ever had a girl friend I ht?"

I frown and nod

"You’ve lost your daet a file on this broad Just in case"

He’s right

Daet file a put together This is one of those things that co money It’s not that I don’t trust people but it’s better to be safe than sorry I ith family and I have to make sure their safety comes first Always

All I know about her is her nauess I’ll have to wait for her to contact me

Rawr Raaawr

I look to the front of the store, s?"

Lola runs across the studio to the staff roo a few minutes late and she knoon’t care but she always makes an effort to please

She coood Any cupcakes today?" She looks hopefully up at h my response, "No, sorry hon I’ll make a batch tomorrow"

Her face falls a bit I love that she doesn’t try to hide her disappointment She says pitifully, "That’s okay" She sounds so forlorn I can’t help but chuckle

"Bad day?" I ask

She logs onto the register and says, "The worst"

I wince as I ask, "How bad sweetie?"

She wails, "Cupcake bad!"

I laugh inwardly

Oh woe is me!

Lola is sweet but can be terribly naive She is twenty five and a bit of a dra Her chocolate brown hair is layered down to her shoulders and she has sweet deep brown puppy dog eyes So when she asks for ets et this I dragI’ at the checkout It’s so early I can’t even see color yet I look up and that bitch Nicki is irl She smiles and says I just want you to know the whole tiin’ him, too"

Oh No She Didn’t

The look on my face must have conveyed this because Lola continues, "Uh, yeah So I say to her I hope you always used condo!"

I burst out laughing and ask, "Is that true?"

She chuckles and replies, "I have no idea Her face was so pale, she looked like she was gonna be sick! Then she says, ‘He said I was the best he ever had, he said you’re like a corpse in bed’ So I reach over to roceries, open a can of chopped to so hard I’ my stohing just as hard Then she stops, looks up slightly, scrunches her face and says quietly, "Yeah, I’et roceries"

I smile, "That’s the least of your worries! Tellas she responds, "Totally worth it"

Lola used to be a little too sweet That is until she met Mimi Mimi fell in love with Lola the second she ave her a new motto

Don’t Take Shit!

So, over the course of the last year, I’ve seen Lola blossom from a delicate flower into a durable weed!

That sounds bad, but truststock "Meeot yourself a new friend" She says friend like she wants to folloith smoochy kisses

God, Mi my stern mom voice I utter, "Not A Word"

She sounds exasperated when she replies, "Oh, Come on Teeny! You cannot tell me you don’t see what I see when you look at hih deeply and admit, "I do! I know he’s Mr Beautiful and, by the way, you should see his brother who is Mr Gorgeous The guy spoke to me and I almost peed I was so nervous andand he was all suave with his deep bedroo my back to her, I walk my way over to the staff room I’m almost there when I hear Lola

"Why don’t you ask hiht just do that

Two days later

I sit at the front counter and stare and the business card which stares right back atme

Nik’s email address is on the card I could just send hi him to lunch or coffee

So why is this so hard?

Stop being a chicken and just do it You know you want to see hi, and chicken out at the last e my er sounds like a cat in heat, now it’scow Today is Wednesday and is the one day a week I’m alone in the store

I smile and look to the door What I see there makes my smile disappear and my heart sinks

Miss She-Devil (from the dress return debacle) saunters over to the counter

Oh, Dear Lord Please give er this ti, Miss How are you today?"

She sreat Hon How are you today?"

Uh, What?

I’ like the cat that got the creauess we could be better What can I help you with?"

She responds, "I just wanted to coize for my rude behavior the other day It was totally unacceptable and I’ to look contrite but it comes off as constipated

I’m shocked I stutter my response, "Um,I, ah, thank you That’s really nice of you to do that"

Then it cohs "I know you understand as a woman, we like to wear nice dresses for our ht was probably overkill" She laughs a bit too cheerfully and places a hand on her cheek "I honestly don’t knohat I was thinking My husband owns the club across the street and that dress was far too formal to wear there He didn’t even look at it twice"