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.“Tell that to Evie.” We’d Skyped with her last night as she drank with us.Jadyn smiled.“I can’t wait until she gets back for the holidays.It’s just too bad she’s across the country and can’t room with us here next year.”But as fast as that smile had come, it ended.The only reason Jadyn was able to leave Aidan Falls for Texas-U was because her great uncle had passed away a month ago from a heart attack.It’d been sudden and swift, leaving her with no real family, just friends like me and Evie to console her before we’d gone away to college.I touched her arm, and she offered me a different, glummer smile that told me she was trying to put her own loss behind her.We must’ve looked like the saddest table in history, because Nancy, my favorite waitress, came over with two plates of cherry popovers, sliding them in front of us.Then she plucked the pencil out of her gray bun and prepared to write on her order pad.“These are on the house,” she said.“I’m not sure how good it is as hangover food, but if you don’t mind me saying, eggs would be better.If you have a hangover, that is.”She gave Jadyn a pointed look.We thanked her for the offering, but she shook her head.“The sweets aren’t on me.” With a sly nod, she indicated a guy sitting at the counter, surrounded by his laptop, an iPad, and a plate stacked with waffles, plus coffee.He had short black hair, blue eyes, and cheeks that were flushed pink.Very cute.But he wasn’t Micah.He glanced up and smiled, and I smiled back in appreciation, lowering my head and turning around to face Jadyn.She lifted an eyebrow at me as Nancy whispered.“When’re you gonna give that poor kid a chance?”I pushed the menu toward her, pointing to the egg scramble special.“I’m too busy for that stuff, Nancy.”“So you say.” She glanced at Jadyn.“The Shut Down Queen.That’s what they call your friend around here because she attracts attention but never gives a fellow a chance.I keep telling her that she’s too pretty to wither away like a wallflower.”Nancy had no idea about Micah, and how he’d made me color up and open to the sun until darkness had descended without him.“She’ll come around,” Jadyn said in the most chipper voice she could muster for a hangover.She ordered another egg scramble special, and when Nancy left, she hunkered over the table, leaning toward me, her hazel eyes clearer now.“I wish you’d get over Micah,” she said.I didn’t want to talk about him.“I’m fine.”“Fine, my foot.It looks like you never see the light of day.You’re either stuck in the library or in your books all the time.Do you ever go out and meet people?”“I hang with my roommates, sure.But I promised myself that I’m not going to let my grades slip again.I owe at least that much to Mr.Carmichael and Mom.”Jadyn picked up a fork to poke at a popover.“You know how you found me at the beginning of the summer? How I was pretty much just floating around my job and slinking through the market, hoping no one noticed me?”Was she saying I was like that now?Maybe I was.My new roommates had no basis for comparison, but I could tell they felt sorry for me sometimes, studying so much, being so anti-social with everyone but them.I didn’t want Iris and Thuy to think I didn’t enjoy their company, so I did as much with them as I could, cooking dinners together, watching our favorite shows on TV.But I knew I could do better.Jadyn was right.I wasn’t exactly wearing the kind of drab, God-I-hope-no-one-notices-me clothes she’d been wearing, but I was gray inside without Micah.I dug into a popover, smiling in understanding at her, and she smiled back, giving in to her appetite, too.She finished before I did, but the whole time, I noticed that she kept glancing toward the guy at the counter.Finally, I rolled my eyes at her.“Talk to him already, would you?”“He was hitting on you, Shelby.”“He sent the popovers to both of us.” I waggled my eyebrows, encouraging her.But she only smiled, as if she was thinking hard about doing it.I finished my popover, happy that there was a good chance that she’d move on soon.Wishing I could do the same.***After that weekend, I made more of an effort to get out, so I joined the Investment Club and went to more parties.But nothing filled that empty space Micah had occupied for a short but intense time.How long would the hole be there? Nothing seemed to make it go away—not food (as if I had the stomach for much) or school (even though I was kicking ass in every class) or talking with my best friends whenever I could (yay for conference calling on Skype).I even rejoined ParlorFly, but not as Lana Peyton.I used my own name this time, thinking that I might find another Micah somewhere, sometime.Of course, that didn’t happen.Any guy I chatted with didn’t make me laugh like Micah had.They didn’t send tingles through me or make me melt at the thought of his touch.So I went to class, sending e-mails to Mom and Mr.Carmichael with interesting tidbits I was learning.I also kept up with improving social media for both of them, and they said they’d noticed an uptick in business.Mom even put together those new local beer and wine lists so I could market the hell out of them.Everyone was moving on.Today, leaves were falling in muted colors over the campus as I sat on a concrete bench near the business building [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]