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Case in point… Her gaze swept the kitchen and she laughed at how perfectly organized everything was, neatly arranged and spic-and-span

In elementary school, it had made her batty that his pencils never had dull tips and that he always colored within the lines She’d had the urge even back then to disrupt his anal retentive ways, without even knohy She’d done little things to throw hie up the order of his crayons in the box, which he’d always grouped by hues frohtest to the darkest shades

In junior high, she’d known his locker coe his alphabetized books on the shelf High school had been evenhis Nissan Alti the hell out of him

Lola hadn’t been able to help herself Alex had never gotten mad

Exasperated? Yes Mad? Nope

Her antics were her way of letting hi about him—that she liked him and that they’d always be best friends Sort of the reverse of a boy tugging on a girl’s ponytail during class

He o, and that hy he didn’t get pissed Thankfully As she’d told Maxi, Lola couldn’t iine a life without Alex in it

And though she hadn’t adht in Baltimore, Lola actually had considered once or twice if she and Alex should experi more than friendship

Pointless

She sipped her wine, needing to ht they’d split a bottle of chane before Lola had headed back to Arizona

Alex had never expressed interest in her, sexually Sure, she’d caught hi at her breasts from tiuy in school had done that, since she’d had an unexpected growth spurt the surade An aard one, at that Given her mother’s svelte frame, Lola hadn’t been prepared for all the curves she’d ended up with And hadn’t liked how tongue-tied her figure had left the kids in school Even soirls

Thinking back to those painful days left her in need of splashing a bit lass

At least Alex had kept his composure around her Because he wasn’t attracted to her like that He’d always gone for petite brunettes ere h Lola had quit the squadbra couldn’t still her bouncy chest without cutting off her circulation

In addition to her not being Alex’s ro serious between them because she honestly did turn his world upside down s up in a fun way, never one for status quo and certainly never wanting to find herself in a rut Or with her own crayons lined up in a perfect spectruood she’d miss out on that one special color if she didn’t have to hunt it down

However, she couldn’t deny that she needed Alex’s steadying presence to ground her from time to time Like now, as she acclimated to her new job Her new life, really