Jordawo things for certain. First, that her friendship with Natalie was the most important thing in her life, and that she would never do anything to jeopardize it, and sed, that she was catastrophically, terribly in love with her.

  The tter was a ret discovery for Jordan, but, she’d realized, not a ret development. It was an old, long-standing, i. After more than a decade spent as the fiery red-hair girl’s best friend, their retionship had settled in a way crete would. Their friendship had been defined so firmly that—even ing to terms with their patible sexuality ieen years—it’d never crossed their mind to be together in that way. Because that wasn’t what they were, and what they were erfect, and so her of them had wanted, or even thought, to risk it.

  It had taken a moal event to prove how flimsy those ‘crete roles’ were, but when it’d happened, it’d cracked open like an egg, revealing the horrible mess inside.

  Unfortunately, Natalie was a gargantuan idiot.

  Jordan already khis. Natalie’s retionship with Sofia had made it clear ages ago. When it came to romance of a casual sort, Natalie was more than fluent. Over the years, Jordan had seen her best friend work her way through plenty of girls, basically every eligible woman—who swung that way—in the local sparring se. Even a few straight ones, if she had to guess.

  But the moment Natalie took i in someone her scious brain hadn’t slotted as ‘a potential girlfriend’, she was hopeless. Sofia, obviously, had been the first culprit. Having grown up together, and always eking out wins against her, Sofia had slotted into Natalie’s brain as ‘her rival’. That Natalie had romantiations—though the extent Jordan wasn’t fully certain on—toward the girl in as day. But she’d been defined in Natalie’s head, and it would take something close to the world ending for her to realize it.

  Likewise, Jordan had a role. ‘Best friend’. Thusly sorted, breaking away would, like Sofia, be close to impossible.

  And that was fine. As Jordan had already decided, her friendship with Natalie came first. She wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it, and that truth held much firmer than her realization: how horribly in love she was. Her gargantuan crush took sed, third, fourth priority to their lifelong friendship. Especially when her crush might not eveurned.

  Not that Jordan thought it wasn’t returhat her affe for Natalie in a romantic way was one-sided. She wasn’t quite as oblivious as her best friend. Though, at the same time, it was well known that love blinded, and so Jordan could easily be under, over, or misreading thiirely. That was the problem. She was too close to the matter. She’d never see it clearly.

  So, while Jordan thought it was returhe hints were there—unfortunately, she could never be positive, even if she felt she ositive. Which she didn’t in the first pce. So, she had zero iions of risking anything by pushing for a ge iatus quo.

  Doubly to the point, as Natalie’s best friend, Jordahe girl well. If Jordan did want their retionship to ge to something more, while also minimizing the ce of disaster, then Natalie had to be the oo realize and a her feelings, not Jordan.

  Those realizations i was important that Jorda her feelings hidden away, which wasn’t the easiest task for someone who could read her so well. And at the same time, she had to alie along with hints. Subtly.

  Well. Natalie-subtly. Which mean bashing her over the head with her i, but not stating things ht. For all Jordan loved the girl, she was a humongous idiot when it came to certain things. To be fair, almost everyone was.

  All those thoughts anized, she had a pn. A practical one, even, that had just enough reasoive that Natalie shouldn’t be suspicious. Though she really ought to be.

  Which led them to this moment.

  “So,” Jordan said. “You old me how your date with Sammy went.”

  “I didn’t?” Natalie asked idly. “It was, um. Nice.”

  She was distracted. Jordan didn’t wholly bme her, but really. They were just boobs. It was the third time Natalie had gotten to grope them. “And don’t fet to cover mround,” Jordan said, rolling her eyes aly guiding Natalie’s hands down her body, then behind, so her best friend was grabbing her ass. “Yesterday, we tested oarget, so now, we’re going for ce. See if there’s more energy.”

  “Right,” Natalie said.

  Natalie’s obvious appreciation of her body didn’t mean muatalie was, Jordan knew, a bit of a pervert. She’d never ogled Jordan, not even in locker rooms when they were ging, but that was for aforementioned reasons—their strictly defined retionship, and the way Natalie’s brain worked.

  Now that all this had started, Natalie—and Jordan, for that matter—had been forced to front just how attracted, physically, they were to each other. Natalie had hahat surprisingly well. She’d accepted that their intimate sessio physical attra, but not something more.

  Jordan … thought. Again, she couldn’t know for sure. It was something they were pointedly not talking about. And Jordan genuinely believed that was for the best. Natalie ime to digest and front … whatever was going on with her. For that matter, Jordan did too. While she had worked some things out in her head, she definitely hadn’t worked all of it out.

  With Natalie’s hands now on her ass, groping her, Natalie wasn’t as distracted. Natalie liked to watch when she ying with Jordan’s boobs, but she couldn’t do that with her ass. At least, not fag each other, and Jordan didn’t io turn around a Natalie go at it without distra. In fact, this promised, half-distracted state was ideal for the uping versation. Jordan had been pnning it.

  Log eyes with Natalie’s intense blue ones, she said, “Don’t have too much fun, though. We o talk.”