We hugged (she wore no perfume) and sat down. Shortly after a waitress came by and we ordered our meals. The entire time Blythe was reserved, looking between me and her table with an uneasy look. I wasn’t in the mood to dance around.

“You alright?” I asked her.

She shrugged, looking despairingly down at her pink fingernails. “Cutting to the chase, huh?”

“I can tell when something isn’t right, and I don’t want to pretend everything is until you drop the bomb on me.”

She sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been a real shit to you, haven’t I?”

“You haven’t been answering any of my phone calls, or my texts. I’m a little upset, sure, but I can understand if life gets in the way.”

“I’ve been cut off from my phone providor. That’s why I haven’t gotten back to you. It’s why I had to call you from work.”

My brows shot up. “You’re that behind on your payments?”

She nodded, glancing at me with her sad eyes. “Yeah. Things aren’t going very well on my end, and I fucking hate doing this right now, because you know me and you know all about my stupid pride, but…I’m close to getting evicted and…”

She was struggling, and my heart tightened in my chest as I began to realize how fraught with nerves she was. I leaned over the table and settled my hand over hers.

“How short are you on rent?” I asked her gently.

Her eyes glistened. “Around two hundred.”

“And how much are you short on your phone bill?”

“With all the late fees, I don’t know, a hundred and thirty? Something like that.”

“Done. We’ll walk down to the ATM after we eat and I’ll float you. Alright? I got a nice nest egg going.”

She blinked rapidly, looking at me in surprise. “I’m not asking for the lot of it. I don’t want to make you go broke on me, Emma.”

“I’m not going broke. If I didn’t have the money, I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

“I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

“Consider this one time a gift.”

She sucked in a breath, and when she released it, her whole body gave out. She sank into her chair, looking like the weight on her shoulders had disappeared.

“Thank you, Em,” she told me sincerely. “I was losing my mind, you know? Denny’s place is going under, and I’ve been looking for jobs. Remember that dude I slept with a long while back? The Adonis –”

“Yeah, the mafia-looking one or some shit.”

“Yeah, well he called me before my phone went out, and I told him about my job situation. He offered me some job at a titty bar somewhere shitty, and he said I’d get great tips, but at the time I scoffed at it like it was beneath me. I feel like an idiot now because I’ve fallen so far behind on everything. I keep thinking I should have just taken it. Talk about desperate, huh? Because I’d still take it right about now. My shifts at the diner have been officially cut in half. Tessa’s working it alone some days, and the food’s shit with half the people in the kitchen now, so nobody’s really coming around. Not even seedy John these days. Can you believe that? You got out just at the nick of time.”

I frowned, feeling suddenly protective over her. “Don’t take that job, Blythe. If he offered it to you again, I mean, just say no.”

“Why?”

“Because there must be something else out there.”

She shrugged. “You know that’s not true. Besides, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, Em. You know that. All we have is ourselves to depend on, and if that means flashing my tits while serving drinks, I’ll do it.” Her eyes brightened at the thought as she added, “I’ll do it happily. Anything to get me out of this mess.”

Instead of begging her not to, I kept my lips shut. I understood her desperation. Who was I to tell her no? You’d do things you never thought you’d see yourself doing when it came to a roof over your head and a morsel of food down your throat. It was just… I didn’t expect her to look like this. Even at my worst, I still tried to look presentable, and she was always more of a fashionista than me.

“It’s crazy how fast shit goes downhill,” she went on. “One minute you got a little bit of money tucked away and a job you think is pretty secure because you’ve been at it for a long time. Then it just gets snatched away from you, and you end up begging your best friend for money.”

I shot her a weak smile. “To be fair, you didn’t beg.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was about to.”

“Honestly, Blythe, it’s not that big of a deal. If anything, you should know asking for money wouldn’t put a strain on our friendship, and I would never consider it begging.”

“Then you’re a damn good friend,” she replied, swallowing hard. “I asked Tessa for some help last week, and the second I did it, she shot me down, which I understood. I mean, I get it completely. But since then things have been weird, like she’s avoiding me as if she expects I’ll hound her for money again or something. God, everything’s pretty fucked up in my life right now.”

She looked down at the table, avoiding my gaze. It was hard to find my best friend the opposite of her usual upbeat self. I didn’t want to give her hope now, but I would ask Borden if there was any possibility we could employ her somewhere. Maybe he had a position available at one of his restaurants or something. I felt bad for her, like she was somehow my responsibility and I needed to make sure she was as happy as I was. I loved the chick.

Our food arrived, and she dug into her sandwich. I ate half of mine, and while I was still a little hungry, I placed the other half on her plate.

“You need to eat too,” she scolded me, though I could see her spirits soar at more food. “Don’t take pity on me, Em.”

“I’m not. I’m having dinner at my grandmother’s house tonight and I need as much space in my stomach as possible. She gets pissed when I don’t eat everything.”

Blythe laughed. “Sounds like my kind of grandmother. Tell her I said hi.”

“She probably won’t even hear me.”

“Why?”

“Borden will be there too.”

Blythe stopped eating mid-bite. Her eyes popped out of her face as she looked at me in horror. “Are you serious? She hates him. How the fuck did that end up happening?”