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She found it hard to believe she’d allowed hiet aith it if he had, but her head was all over the place and unable to mentally process what had happened to her in the last few days, how her life had suddenly been taken over and turned upside-down She needed to talk to soet so Melanie was always there as a shoulder to cry on

“Hi babe” Melanie’s voice had a tinkly quality to it that reminded Piper of the candy store doorbell of her childhood, instantly soothing “Half-shot latte? Or sorilossed lips formed an O “Understood”

“Thanks, sweetie,” Piper said a few h the handle of the coffeeat such short notice It’s da out there today, isn’t it?”

“Sure is I’ I could take some time off and hit the beach, like you just did” Melanie put a cookie down on the table and grinned “So did you get enough shells and stuff in Sanibel?”

“Yeah”

“You met someone, didn’t you?”

This was unusually direct for Melanie, but her friend was als and she had told her on the phone that she needed an eency advice summit “Um…”

“You’re kidding ht stand We were drunk”

“But you still—”

“Yes”

“And?”

“And nothing It was hot, but it’s history One night, five hours flying time away”

Melanie wiped crumbs off her mouth and sed a bite of cookie quickly “Tell! Tell me all about hiet Stanley out of reen eyes ide like saucers and she nodded for Piper to continue “He was the hottest guy I ever…but that’s it I left before he woke up” Which wasn’t strictly true, but nobody needed to know she’d bolted while she thought he was in the bathroom

“Aw”

“Yep, I’ht?”

“No, bitches don’t leave notes, now do they?”