"Did you win the lottery or something?" Tammy asks from the front door, almost as soon as she catches sight of me smiling at my phone.

I blink innocently up at her. "Hm?"

She tilts her head to the side as she allows Freddie to walk past her through the door. "You're... grinning. I've never seen that."

At that, I frown. "I smile all the time!"

"Not like that, you don't. Your teeth are showing. Who are you texting?" Tammy inquires. "No—wrong question. You disappeared after the presentation, and never showed up for lunch. Where'd you go?"

I bite my lip, trying to hold in my grin. "So, um. I saw my ex today."

Freddie, who's already sticking his face in the fridge, pops out to point at himself. "You mean me? You see me all the time."

I roll my eyes at him. "I have other exes, you know. And we only dated for, like, two weeks."

"Best two weeks of your life," he sing-songs, grabbing orange juice before closing the fridge with his elbow.

Tammy joins me on the couch, propping her feet on the coffee table. She ignores Freddie. "You don't mean... the ex? That one?"

I grin with my teeth. "My ex from high school. Yes. That one."

"The one I was a rebound for?" Freddie interjects from next to Tammy. We're all snuggled together in the small couch, now, with her in the middle. I glare at Freddie over Tammy's head.

"Anyways. Yes, Tammy. That one."

"Didn't he, like, completely break your heart? Like, shattered it to pieces. Why are you grinning now?" Tammy asks.

I sigh. "'Cause none of that matters. I still love him, I think. No, I'm sure. I never really moved on. None of these other guys I've been with have ever made me feel the same way. No offense, Freddie."

Tammy makes a face at me. Freddie shrugs. "None taken."

I shift around on the couch, pulling my knees up to my chest. "I took one look at him and it's like... like I've been punched in the face—"

Tammy grimaces, "Ouch?"

"—and my heart, it's like—I can't describe it." I touch my palm to my chest. "I asked him to be my date for my brother's wedding."

Freddie's mouth gapes open. "I thought I was your date."

I wave him away. "You were always my back-up plan."

He sniffs indignantly. "Rude."

I continue, "I mean, I was never planning to call my ex out of the blue to be my plus-one to the wedding, after all these months of not speaking to each other. But, you know, he magically showed up. Might as well ask him, right? And that was almost the first thing I blurted out. Will you be my date to the wedding? Like, what the hell. I bet I sounded insane."

Tammy's openly laughing at me now. "You really haven't talked to him at all since you broke up?"

"No. I wanted to, but you know we broke up on bad terms. It never felt right. We were so far away from each other, too. I didn't see the point."

"But he said yes to the invite, right?" she asks.

"Yes. I still can't believe he said yes. Oh my god. What was I thinking?"

Tammy stretches, then gets up from the couch after patting my head comfortingly. "My two cents? Just chill about it. He said yes. He's probably still head over heels for you. Just go with it. Second chances don't come a second time. Wow, that was kinda poetic." She shakes her head in wonder. "Alright, I'm gonna shower now. There better be dinner when I come out."

I lean back on the couch, fiddling with the ring I'm wearing on my necklace. Jonah gave one to me for the fake proposal project we did in high school, until I lost it and lost my shit, and he made me another one. I always make sure to keep it with me ever since and keep careful track of where I put it when I'm not wearing it. It's a little wonky now, 'cause it's handmade from a piece of tin wire—nothing terribly special, just some kind of D-I-Y craft project he learned off Pinterest or something. But I treasure it so much, because Jonah once told me that he fell in love with me the moment he put a fake engagement ring on my finger.

"He gave that to you?" Freddie's voice jolts me out of my thoughts, and I look up to see his knowing smile.

I let out a long sigh. "You must think I'm nuts."

"A little bit. I think it's kinda cute. What a coincidence that he was here, huh?"

I slip the ring back under my shirt. I feel mixed up—I'm happy after seeing Jonah again, and I'm planning to get him back, but I'm also second guessing everything now. "Do you think it's stupid that I'm jumping right back on this ship? You know he broke my heart."

Freddie hums. I've told him a little bit about Jonah, and he was right to call himself the Rebound. He's really chill about it. "You still love him, right?"

"I do. But it's been over a year." I can actually recite the exact amount of months, days, hours, seconds since The Break-Up. But I don't because I'm not insane.

"A year isn't that long. Bet he's missed you too," Freddie says.

"If he has, he would've done a better job at trying to reach out to me."

"Like you've been doing the past year, I'd assume?" he retorts with a wry smile that earned a groan from me. "He's not the one who blocked your number, if you remember."

I make a face as if I just bit into a lemon—whole, with the skin on. "God, sometimes I really regret telling you shit."

Freddie laughs heartily. I hate him. "If you'd never told me, I wouldn't have been here to keep your sanity intact."

"That's true. I do need you for that." Then I groan to myself. "But it is stupid, right? To just ask him to the wedding? What the hell was I thinking? It's a wonder he didn't run away from me in fear."

He nudges my side with a laugh. "Don't be dramatic. You told us he was flirting with you. What are you so worried about?"

That I'd fuck it up all over again. That I'd get my second chance and blow it. That I'm overestimating the way Jonah feels about me, and end up making a complete fool out of myself. The list goes on and on.

But I tell him. "You don't get it. Have you ever been in love, and gotten your heart broken, Ferdinand?"

My best friend stops laughing and glowers at me. "Don't ever, ever call me that."

His full name is Ferdinand Bartholomew Archer. He absolutely hates it. It's like his parents couldn't vote between two of the most mouthful names so they just threw them in together. He got everyone to call him Freddie. He thinks it's so much better, but "Freddie" is still a dorky name. He's such a nerd.

He sniffs. "And I'll have you know, that even though I've never experienced the kind of 'great big love' you're always talking about when you talk about your ex, I too have had my heart broken before. In fact, you were one of my heartbreaks."

I nudge him back as I laugh. "Now who's being dramatic?"

"I'm just saying that you're being your usual dumb self, Hannah. You think too much. Slow. Down."

Freddie reaches out to ruffle my hair, and he's opening his mouth to continue lecturing me until we both notice that the sound of shower in the bathroom has stopped.

"Shit. We forgot to order dinner." He scrambles to get his phone and order dinner before Tammy walks out her door.

"Guys. Shit. Tell me I'm not dreaming."

"Want me to slap you until you wake up?" Tammy quips from the couch. "By the way, Hannah, if you keep sitting at that table, the frail thing's gonna goddamn collapse. Stop swinging your feet, you're shaking it!"

Freddie shakes his head from the couch while shuffling the channel with the remote. "I think it's just starting to sink in." He takes a sip from his can of beer. "Has he called yet?"

"We texted a little." I hop off the table and go straight toward the fridge. I feel like I'm in a daze. I felt alright, earlier after the talk I had with Freddie. Then we had dinner, checked my phone to see if Jonah texted again, and my brain is all scrambled once more. "I'm hungry. You want some spaghetti? I'm gonna make some spaghetti."

"Hannah, we just had Chinese takeout, like, half an hour ago," Freddie tells me patiently, eyes fixed at some late-night show on the TV. "In fact, you ate half of Tammy's as well."

"She wasn't going to finish it!" I throw my hands up exasperatedly.

"It's not my fault y'all forgot to order dinner and I was already snacking on granola bars waiting for it to arrive," she defends herself. "Why are we talking about me?"

"Right. Let's talk about me." I look away from the box of spaghetti and opt to grab a tub of ice cream and then stride toward the chair next to the couch. "I can't believe we almost kissed twice today."

"What?! You didn't tell us that!" Tammy exclaims, glancing sharply at me.

"No, I mean, it's an exaggeration, but—" I curse. "Shit. I'm overthinking things."

"Wait. Please elaborate the almost kissing twice part."

"No, it wasn't like we really almost kissed. I think we almost did. I think." I shove a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth, pausing to let it melt on my tongue. "It's just that... we were talking and then we just stopped, and we stared at each other for a few seconds and I'm pretty sure we're leaning towards each other... and I could feel his breath... he was so close..."

Freddie groans and rolls his eyes. "Why do you talk like my thirteen-year-old cousin who just watched a Harry Styles show? It's annoying."

"Cut her some slack, Fred, she hasn't gotten laid since you scared off that exchange student into flying back to his country."

"Hey, he was a fuckin' creep. I did her a favor."

I aim the spoon I'm holding for his head and throw it with all the force I have. Since I have terrible aim, it only hits his arm, but he yelps in pain anyway. "No, he wasn't. He was cute, and he was really nice to me. Were you the one who hooked up with him? No? Then shut up."

"You and I both know I was the best for you in that department, babe," he says with a wink.

"Gross, you two," Tammy cuts in.

"Great, now I don't have a spoon." I put down the ice cream tube on the coffee table. Whatever, I'm not that hungry anyway. I glance at my phone which has been sitting on the table quietly. I stand up and then squeeze into the small space left on the couch.

Tammy sees the desperation in my eyes and casually comments, "He'll call. He's still crazy about you."

I scoff. "You don't know him—you've never met him."

"I was only saying that so you don't look so desperate. You're right, I have no idea if he still likes you." She shrugs and steals the remote from Freddie, who complains with a grunt. "But, ya know, if true love's true, he'll call you. Oh, look! There's Chris Hemsworth. He's so hot."

I roll my eyes and lean back on the couch. "Guys?"

Both of my friends echo with their own grunts as a response.

"Be honest. Like, really honest. Do you think it's wise to pursue this... relationship again?" I ask, looking straight at Chris Hemsworth's bulging muscles on screen. How is it possible that they're that huge? "I mean, I always thought that we left this unfinished business when we broke up... but, I don't know. Maybe he's already got a girlfriend. I didn't ask him that. I forgot."

"Would you two almost kiss twice if he didhave a girlfriend in New York?" Tammy asks.

We're all quiet, pondering the rhetorical question from her over until Freddie speaks up, "I would. If I ran into a very hot ex-girlfriend I haven't moved on from."

"Yeah, but that's because you're a pig," Tammy snaps while reaching over to smack him on the back of his head.

"OW! Why am I still friends with a pair of violent women?"

I doubt that really hurt him. Tammy and I got into a pull-at-each-other's-hair fight once upon a time—a veeery long story, don't ask—and her "punches" barely felt like a tickle.

I stand up from the couch and take my phone from the table. "You guys are children and I hate you both. I'm going to sleep. Bye."

"Love you too," they chorus, out of sync. As I close my bedroom door, I can hear them continue to bicker and lightly hit each other as they fight for the remote.

I throw myself on the bed, facing the ceiling. I light up my phone and see all the messages, but none of them are from the person I'm waiting for the most.

There are a couple texts from Gina, my best friend from high school. We text each other all the time and meet up every few weeks. She's the one who witnessed first-hand how I was falling apart back when Jonah and I were trying to make it work. I've told her that Jonah showed up at my campus today, and she's being rightfully cautious about it.