“Who is ‘anyone’, Mila?” Sally shook her head. “Get that card and let’s go shopping.”

“Sally,” I groaned.

“What?” She pulled out a flowery sundress. “Do you want to wear this or your slutty black Lycra dress that you got for the clubs?”

“Neither,” I sighed.

“Exactly.” She hung the dress back up. “You don’t have a wardrobe for expensive dinners with millionaires. And tonight you need a dress that’s going to wow the socks off of him. Tonight you have to give TJ a taste of his own medicine.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t have one either.” She shrugged and then looked away. “And I most probably will never need one, either.”

“Why not?” I said in my perfunctory way, though I already knew the answer would have something to do with her not having a boyfriend.

“Because I’ll never be invited to those dinners,” she said sorrowfully.

“Why not?” I asked and then continued. “Is it because you’re going to be single forever?”

“Mila!” She glared at me.

“What?” I reached over and touched her shoulder. “You’re not going to be single forever because my brother is a whore.”

“How is he, by the way?” she asked softly, her eyes searching mine. I wasn’t sure how to answer. Did I tell her that Cody had asked me about her twice now? Did I tell her that a part of me had a feeling that maybe Cody did like her, possibly? I didn’t know what to do. She was my best friend, and as much as I wanted to make this better, I didn’t know what to do or say. I loved her like a sister and I didn’t want my brother to be the one to ruin our friendship forever, if he turned out to not like her or to like her and then cheat on her or something else crazy like that.

“I’m not sure.” I shrugged and gave her a wry smile. “He’s not really talking to me.” I rolled my eyes.

“Why?” She looked at me with an expression of hope, as if she hoped that his reason for being so cold to me was due to the fact that she was my best friend and he wanted her.

“He said and I quote, ‘you scarred me by sleeping with TJ. I’m not sure how I didn’t lose it and rip you out of the bed, but I think shock stopped me. You should be thanking your lucky stars.’ Ugh.” I made a face at her. “He needs to just get over it.”

“That is a big thing for him to witness, though.” Sally laughed. “I mean, it’s not every day you see your little sister boinking your best friend.”

“True, ha-ha.” I sighed. “I sure don’t want to see him boinking anyone.”

“Not even your best friend?” Sally gave me a look and laughed slightly. She ran her hands through her hair and then sighed. “Why is this such a mess? I wish I could just not like him. I don’t want to feel this way.”

“I’m sorry.” I reached my arms out to her. “I hate that you’re feeling this way.”

“It’s fine.” She made a face as I gave her a quick hug. “It’s just what I get for falling for a guy who has never shown any interest in me.”

“He has shown an interest.” I stumbled over my words, trying to find a balance in telling my friend that she wasn’t a fool, but not wanting to lead her on to thinking that he was interested. “But he’s a player. I don’t know how he’s getting women because he sucks, but he’s just not the ‘settling down’ type.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Sally’s voice caught and I leaned back and looked into her eyes.

“You okay?” I asked, concerned by the tone in her voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She gave me a big smile, but I could see her eyes were still sad and looked wet.

“Oh, Sally.” I stared at her. “You’re not okay.”

“I’m fine,” she said, her lips trembling as she looked at me. “I feel like a fool, Mila.”

“You’re not a fool.”

“I thought he liked me. I thought he was the one.” Tears rolled gently from her eyes as she looked at me. “I thought he was my soul mate and that he just had to figure it out. I thought that deep inside he wanted me and he was waiting for the right moment.”

“You never know,” I said softly, not knowing what to say. I knew all too well what she was feeling. It was the same way I was feeling about TJ. My heart sank for the both of us, though I knew it would be selfish of me to bring up my fears and concerns regarding TJ in that moment.

“He doesn’t give a shit about me.” She wiped her eyes and laughed manically. “He fucked another girl while I was there. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. I don’t mean anything to him.”

“Oh, Sally.” I bit down on my lower lip, hating Cody for putting Sally through this.

“It’s fine,” she said again, maybe trying to convince herself. She took a deep breath. “I’m just PMS-ing.” She made a face. “I’ll be fine. It’s not like we dated and he dumped me. We had nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s not his problem I liked him and was hoping for more.”

“Sally . . . ” I started, but stopped myself, not knowing what to say.

“It’s okay, Mila.” She grabbed a hold of my hand. “I’m sorry for being emotional. Let’s figure out what dress you’re going to wear tonight.”

“Let’s grab a glass of wine first,” I said and headed towards the door so that I could grab a bottle of wine from the kitchen. “Wine and chocolate makes everything better.”

***

“Let’s just go to the store and have a look.” I grinned at Sally as we sat across from each other and decimated a large bar of cookies-and-cream chocolate. “I might have enough to buy a new dress myself.”

“Is that a request to borrow money?” she asked me with a raised eyebrow and a grin back, the chocolate having put both of our moods back up. “Exactly what money are you going to use to buy said dress?”

“Well, I have some.” I laughed as my voice trailed off, my financial situation entering my mind unpleasantly. “Plus maybe I can get a store card.”

“A store card?”

“Like a store credit card.” I shook my head at her. “That way I have thirty days to pay it off, or more if they have a six-months-no-interest plan or something.”

“Mila.” Sally shook her head at me. “I’ve never heard that Valentino or Chanel had a store credit card and no, you’re not getting yourself into more debt.”

“I’m not really in debt.” I laughed. “I just have no money.”

“And you have a bunch of bills to pay each month.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Where I come from, that’s called debt.”

“Where do you come from?” I said with a grin. “Wall Street? Bank of America Valley? Chase Street? Discover me discover you?”

“Ha ha, not.” Sally smiled at me and sighed. “Mila, I know you don’t like to think about these things, but you can’t just be spending all your cash and charging what you can’t afford.”

“I’m trying to be good!” I exclaimed. “You’re the one who told me to get a new dress.”

“I know.” She ran her hands through her hair and looked at me with a wry smile. “I got carried away, plus I figured that TJ could buy it.”

“I just don’t know how I feel about using TJ’s money to buy stuff.” I bit my lower lip. “It just seems to cheapen it.”

“Cheapen what?” Sally looked at me cautiously. “You know that this isn’t real, right? You’re not his real fiancée. Just because he’s fucking you doesn’t mean he wants you for anything more than a good time.” She stopped then and slapped her hand across her mouth as my face fell. “Forgive me, Mila. That came out a lot harsher than I’d planned. I guess I’m still feeling down about Cody and taking it out on everyone, like some sort of scorned bitch. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“Hey, I understand. And you’re not a bitch,” I said and sighed as we got up and walked back to my bedroom, having finished our glasses of wine and the entire bar of chocolate. I moaned loudly as we walked into the bedroom and I thought about all the extra calories I’d just taken in, and for what? I groaned and then fell down on my bed dramatically. “It’s not like what you’re saying isn’t true. He hasn’t given me any reason to believe that I mean anything real to him.”