Chapter 239

Chapter 239

On their ride home, Leanne spilled all the tea about her ongoing drama with Curtis, their mix-ups, and his relentless refusal to let go.

Joy, fuming, kicked off her sneakers in a dramatic flair, “Great, you two have been starring in your own soap opera and you’re only telling me now?”

“I didn’t mean to keep it from you,” Leanne said, tidying up the scattered sneakers into the closet. “I wanted to tell you after we got back from that weekend at the Hot Spring Hotel, but you guys thought I was joking.”

Recalling that moment, Joy wished she could smack her past self, “Who would’ve thought you were serious.”

“Calm down,” Leanne tried to soothe her, “You’re all caught up now.”

Joy flopped onto the bed, puffing up like a blowfish, “A few more days and you two would’ve had your happy ending.”;

Leanne wanted to remind her about not getting into bed without changing, but seeing her still steamed, she swallowed her neat-freak tendencies.

“That ain’t likely,” she replied.

“How so?” Joy sat up, crossing her legs, her expression more serious than a UN delegate.

“Honey, be honest with me, do you still love him?”

A fleeting look of confusion passed through Leanne’s eyes as she replied, “I said I didn’t.”

“But I heard it in your voice when you talked about him just now. You hesitated, didn’t you?”

Sometimes, Joy knew her better than she knew herself.

At that moment, Leanne finally admitted to herself that she had been avoiding the truth.

“Maybe there were moments.”

Her heart wasn’t really made of stone, and it could be stirred, involuntarily moved by

Curtis.

“Do you want to hear my opinion?” Joy asked, unusually serious, not her usual rowdy self. Leanne nodded, “Yeah.”

“I’m dead set against it,” Joy blurted out without blinking an eye, “Totally, completely against it.”

She had seen their whole story, from total mushy lovebugs to heading their separate

1/2

12:04

Chapter 23

ways

Once, she had been happy for Leanne, thinking her best friend Leanne had struck gold with the perfect romance.

If she hadn’t seen with her own eyes how Leanne struggled, sank, broke, and clawed her way out of that dark swamp.

Curtis could hurt Leanne more easily than anyone else.

“I don’t care about the misunderstandings, his reasons, or how much he loves you,” Joy said, “I know what those three years were like for you. It’s like someone tells you there’s candy in a pit, so you jump in and find it’s a piece of shit. You finally climb out, and they say, ‘Oops, my bad, I put the wrong thing in. This time it really is candy.”

Joy asked, “Are you gonna jump in again?”

The bizarre analogy was both hilarious and spot-on.

Leanne fell silent for a moment, then softly said, “I understand.”

She grabbed her pajamas and went to take a shower, leaving Joy slightly regretful. Was she too blunt? Did she hurt Leanne’s feelings?

Later that night, after their showers, with face masks on, they lay head to head on the bed. Joy showed Leanne a cringe flirting video she found, making Leanne laugh so hard her face mask wrinkled.

“Cheesy as hell. My review? Not even a tenth of Curtis’ game.”

12.04

212