This isn't weird.

That Guy

Tess knew she had fucked up.

Millie had made good on her promise to spend time with her the following night, but that time was tinged with a subtle yet unmistakable chill. Her smiles were thin, her laughter polite, and something about her voice was off in a way Tess struggled to define. It came to her about an hour into their evening: this was Millie's customer service voice, the hollow affability of kindness under duress. It was far worse than being ignored.

They had been friends for so long, Tess usually knew just how to win her back over after an argument. She offered up the juiciest work gossip at her disposal (a pregnancy test had been found in the wastebasket of the owner's office; his wife was in a tizzy), but Millie just raised her eyebrow and said, "Wow, that's crazy." She suggested hitting up a karaoke bar (an activity Tess only ever participated in begrudgingly, but Millie almost never refused), but Millie dismissed the idea; she didn't feel like being in a crowd. Millie did accept the suggestion to finally hate-watch the show they had been putting off, but declined to make it a drinking game, and barely even acknowledged it when Josh Dallas took off his glasses.

Tess even lowered herself so far as to ask how things were going with Genevieve, careful to keep any hint of judgment or disapproval out of her voice, but Millie's response started and stopped with the word, "Fine."

Every time Millie's phone pinged, she made a point not to acknowledge it, though Tess could see in her eyes that it was killing her to ignore what was almost definitely a message from Ben. Fucking Ben. Everything was so much better before he came along. She'd watched countless friends and romantic partners come and go from Millie's life, some quite intense, but she had never seen anything like this. He just sashayed in from out of nowhere, and seemingly overnight, became Millie's top priority over everything and everyone else. Worst of all, he had the audacity to call himself her best friend. Tess had spent years earning that title. That asshole barely even knew Millie.

Unfortunately, that asshole was her only sure bet at getting back into Millie's good graces.

It absolutely disgusted her to say the words.

"Hey, why don't you invite Ben over?"

Millie looked up sharply. "What did you say?"

"You should invite Ben over," Tess said again. "You've been trying to get us to hang out for weeks."

"Really?"

"Sure. Let's do it."

Millie's demeanor instantly thawed. Wearing the first genuine smile Tess had seen on her all evening, she grabbed her phone and began to rapidly text. A few chimes later, she giddily announced, "He's on his way!"

Tess wanted to throw up.

Up until then, Millie had still been wearing the same clothes she had worn to work that day, but by some wild coincidence, at that very second, they magically became too tight, or scratchy, or otherwise unwearable. "I'm gonna throw on something more comfortable real quick," she said, hopping up from her seat. Tess managed to wait until Millie had left the room to roll her eyes.

The knock came before Millie had returned; Tess was forced to answer the door herself. She plastered on the biggest smile she could muster before opening it. "Hey!" she greeted him. "Brian, right?"

"Hi! Oh, um—Ben," he corrected her awkwardly, doing his best to maintain his own smile. It pleased her to no end to see that she had already knocked him off balance.

"Oh, right. My bad. Come on in!"

It was clear to see that he was trying very, very hard to seem relaxed as she led him into the living room. "I'm glad we finally get a chance to hang out," he said. "Millie's told me so much about you."