“What the f**k!” The guy who was holding her just laughed louder as she tried to get free. “Put me down!”

“All right. All right,” he said, catching her and setting her down on her feet. She smacked him on the arm when she regained her balance.

“Justin!” she yelled, throwing her arms around him. “What are you doing here?”

“Such a kind welcome. I haven’t seen you in months and you’re already smacking me around,” he said, laughing at her still-shocked expression.

“You deserved it. Picking me up like that! I had no idea who you were.” She just shook her head as Justin smiled down at her. “What are you doing here anyway?” Liz nodded toward her room, and Justin followed her back there as they continued talking.

“Victoria invited me,” he told her.

“She’s just full of surprises, isn’t she?”

“Nice,” he said, sitting down on her bed and crossing his ankle over his knee. “So, how have you been? Are you still with Lane?”

“Yeah, he’s in Charlotte working as a reporter. I’m editor now and working internship hours with the New York Times,” she said, slipping out of her heels.

Justin whistled low. “Someone is fancy.”

“What about you? Where are your big plans taking you?”

As Justin filled her in on what was going on in his life, Liz retreated into her closet and picked out an acceptable outfit for the party tonight. He told her that the company he had been working for had gone under over the summer, and he had been out of work for a little while when he finally found an investor for the business he had been working on since they last talked. After he had a source of revenue again, the project had hit the ground running. He asked Liz again if she would be interested in working with him as a writer for the company, but she turned him down and, as other people showed up for the party, they left it at that.

She sought out Victoria, who was regaling a small crowd with one of her ludicrous stories. Liz only caught the tail end of it.

“So two Australian firefighters and a scuba instructor later and I had the perfect Aussie sandwich. I know that I’ll be going back to Australia. That place should not be a one and done kind of thing. There’s a reason their population started off as criminals,” Victoria said with a wink. She shifted into her right hip and took a drink out of her red Solo cup.

Liz just shook her head. Victoria and her adventures in Australia this summer for study abroad had been a constant stream of conversation since she returned. Liz had heard about how Victoria had been triple-teamed by the three Aussies at least twice. She was most proud of that story.

Why she insisted on telling it to complete strangers was beyond Liz’s mental capacity.

“Hey, bitch!” Victoria said when she saw Liz. “About time you got here.”

“I’ve been here for a while. I was talking to Justin. Thanks for inviting him.”

Victoria twirled her finger in the air and took another sip from the cup. “You’re friends and all that. Plus, I’m secretly hoping you’ll find someone other than your Hayden Lane,” she said with that teasing lilt she always got to her voice when she got the opportunity to make fun of Hayden.

“Oh, yes, so many better options at this party. I guess I should go back to Australia with you.”

“Don’t be jealous of my abilities. I don’t know if you can handle three,” she said, patting Liz on the arm. “You have a hard enough time with one.”

“Oh my God. Why am I friends with you?” Liz asked.

“Because I’m awesome, obviously.”

Liz couldn’t deny that her best friend was awesome, and she was happy that Justin was in attendance even if she was missing Hayden. She wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of the red hunch punch sitting in a cooler. The party picked up pace as everyone fed off of the post-summer energy that took over the room.

Massey showed up at some point with a bunch of her sorority friends. She and Justin seemed to know each other. Soon enough he had his arm around her and was regaling her friends with stories. Tristan appeared shortly after that. Liz wasn’t even sure how he had found out about it, but he only stayed for a grand total of fifteen minutes before making some excuse about homework and leaving. It was the first day of school. There was no way he had any homework.

Savannah arrived late as usual. Liz was pretty sure she had never been to anything except the paper on time. She had a guy with her who couldn’t seem to stop touching her ass even when she swatted his hand away. He was pretty hot, super tall, with buzzed dark hair and a tattoo peeking out of the sleeve of his black T-shirt. He must be the aforementioned Forrest. All Liz saw when she looked at him was the exact opposite of Lucas. A very clear rebellious act.

At the first opportunity, Savannah ditched the guy and veered over to Liz. She was standing off to the side debating on whether or not she wanted a second glass of the hunch punch.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late,” Savannah said in greeting.

Liz chuckled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“Sorry—years of making fashionably late entrances never wore off, I guess. Also, my brother’s in town.”

“Understandable,” Liz said, ignoring the part about her brother. “Is that your Forrest?”

Savannah glanced back at the beefy guy she had walked inside with. She tilted her head and smiled. “Yeah. That’s him.”

When Liz glanced past Forrest, she saw Justin had Massey’s back against the wall and his tongue down her throat. Liz laughed and pointed it out to Savannah. “Well, he certainly moves fast.”

“So does she, apparently,” Savannah said.

Liz shifted her gaze back to Savannah with a smile. She liked having her around. She was different from most of Liz’s other friends, and she appreciated how easily their friendship came to her.

“What were you up to before this?”

“Ugh! I had family shit after the newspaper meeting,” Savannah grumbled.

“Did you take Forrest to your family stuff?” Liz asked with a giggle, imagining the large, tatted man in front of her in the Maxwell house. It pinched at her heart to think about Brady being in town, but she tried to dismiss it. It wasn’t as if she were going to see Brady, and anyway she had moved on to Hayden. That was what was important now.