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as she stood at the stove so the butter didn’t burn.
    I walked over and put my hands on her shoulders.
    “You’re not a failure, Sloane. You have never failed at anything you’ve ever done. Everything you ever wanted, you’ve gotten.”
    “Except love,” she said in a small voice. Crap, I’d forgotten about that. But it didn’t undo my previous statement. She had gotten everything she’d ever wanted, career-wise.
    “You’ll find it. I promise.” She sniffed again and wiped her eyes.
    “Why the fuck am I so emotional? If I didn’t know that there was ZERO chance that I was pregnant, I’d be taking a test. This is all your fault, by the way.” She turned and I almost stumbled into the counter.
    “I mean, I’m so happy for you, but it’s hard. I miss it just being the two of us. You know I don’t like to share.” No, she didn’t. Except her food. And her clothing designs. Not much else.
    “I’m sorry.” Now I really felt like a shitty friend.
    She sighed and gave me a hug.
    “It’s not your fault. I’m just now realizing what it must have been like for you when I was with someone. But I was never as happy as you are. You bitch. Your life is a fucking love song.” Sometimes it felt that way. And then sometimes Lucah would drag me out of bed and throw me in the shower and yell at me to get ready or I’d be late for work.
    “I like him. I really, really do. Shit.” The butter started burning and she had to rush to the stove so it didn’t ignite.
    “Wow, Sloane Harris burns something. That has to be a first.”
    “Shut up,” she said, but she was smiling. I gave her another hug and helped her dump out the disgusting butter and then air out the apartment as she popped two giant bowls’ worth of popcorn, covered it in fresh butter, and then with herbs and spices. We each grabbed a bowl and went back down the hall.
    “My God, I thought you’d been kidnapped. I was about to go and make sure you hadn’t been.” Lucah’s eyes flicked from me to Sloane to make sure we were okay.
    “You can stop being weird, Lover boy, we’re okay. I’m not mad at you, I’m not mad at her, so we can all go back to normal and you can continue to appreciate everything I do for you, okay?” She handed him a popcorn bowl and flopped down on our couch.
    Lucah and I had picked out a lot of the furniture together, since Sloane had chosen most of the furniture at our other place, and wanted to keep it. There was definitely a lot more red in my new place. Lucah had always wanted the red ones. I’d give him a look and he would play complete innocence.
    “So, what’s the theme verdict?” Lucah said, sitting down on the other end of the couch so I could sit in the middle. Like they were trying to share me. Joint custody.
    “I’m thinking costume porn. Ball gowns and massive hair and jewels and guys with tight trousers.” I waited for Lucah’s reaction.
    “So that means period pieces. I can deal with that.” He smiled at me. We watched older movies a lot when we were alone, so I knew he was more than fine with it.
    Sloane hopped up and went to get the movies and put the first one in. It was the Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen. Definite costume porn.
    “I like the one with Colin Firth better,” Lucah whispered in my ear.
    “No talking. You’re ruining my costume buzz.” Sloane glared at both of us, so we stuffed our mouths with popcorn.
     

     
    We got a little rowdy as the movie night went on. Mostly due to the two bottles of wine we opened after we started watching the second movie, Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst) and also the drinking game we created. We drank every time a man was wearing pants so tight you could see his penis, whenever a woman’s boobs were stuffed into her dress so tight that they formed a shelf, and there were other rules that I didn’t remember in the morning. Sloane was so gone that she didn’t even make it back to her place and sacked out on