I nod and hide my smile behind my coffee cup, and then he’s gone.

“Well, that’s the cutest thing ever,” Mom says.

“Will his parents be home while you’re over there?” Dad says.

I get up from the table and kiss them both on the cheek. “I’m going to jump in the shower. Love you both.”

Just before I leave the room, Mom says, “You seem really happy, Soph.”

I give her a huge smile. “I really am.”

Three Months Later

Anna’s crying voice fills my car over the Bluetooth and I can barely hear what Margot’s trying to tell me.

“What?” I say for the third time.

I hear some shuffling and then a loud smacking sound.

“Okay, sorry,” she says in the blessed silence. “She acts like she’s starving to death when I just nursed her an hour ago, but I guess she’s a greedy little girl.”

“Ew, Margot. TMI. These are details I don’t need.”

I’m on the interstate, headed to Shreveport, just like every Friday for the last three months. Margot and I still text all the time, and thankfully now the only pics she sends are the ones of my beautiful niece, who is as round as a butterball. Hard to imagine she’s the same tiny thing who didn’t even weigh six pounds when she was born.

But this is our time to chat. A solid thirty minutes that’s only interrupted when Anna needs to eat.

“So y’all are coming down next weekend, right?” she asks.

“Yeah, Mom is letting me check out early so we can be there by dinner.”

“Okay, we can’t wait to see you. And that outfit you sent Anna is adorable, but she’s growing so fast she’ll probably be too big for it in another month.”

“That just gives me an excuse to buy her something else.”

We chat until I pull up in front of Nonna’s.

“Okay, I’m here. I’ll text you later,” I say.

“Have fun and send me pics so I know what y’all are doing,” Margot says before ending the call.

That week and a half I spent here at Christmas changed everything. I realized I needed my family…and that cute boy next door…in my life, so now I’m here every Friday night and I work with Wes, Olivia, and Charlie at the shop every Saturday. And most times, Olivia, Charlie, and Wes come back to Minden with me on Saturday and we hang out with Addie and all of my other friends.

Whatever this is I’m doing with Wes doesn’t have a label. He’s not my boyfriend and I’m not his girlfriend. We’re best friends who kiss. A lot.

And every Friday is date night.

We’re both happy with this arrangement since we don’t live in the same town. But we’re both talking about how things will be when we’re at LSU, living in dorms that are right next to each other.

And I can’t wait. I bound up the front steps and yell hello when I open the door. It’s chaos as usual, with kids riding scooters and skateboards down the hall. I can smell something delicious coming from the kitchen.

Nonna has on her Of course you have room for dessert apron that Aunt Kelsey had specially made for her.

“Hey! How was school this week?” Nonna asks.

I give her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. “Senioritis has kicked in. I just don’t see the point anymore.”

“You’re almost done! Finish strong,” she says. I walk to the board to see what’s waiting for me. I smile when I read the words in Wes’s handwriting.

There’s a big arrow pointing down to a blanket and several of those movie theater — size snacks.

“Oh! Fun! I wonder what’s playing?” I ask.