"You are such stereotypical lesbians," Nora smirked. She looked between me and Summer, shaking her head slightly. Her eyes were still bright from hearing the news, and I was sure she took some level of pride in knowing she'd helped us realize our feelings for each other in the long run.
"Um, rude," Summer said, lifting a finger to object. "I'm bi."
"Alright, well, Jess is such a stereotypical lesbian, then," Nora corrected, laughing at me when I let my mouth fall open in disbelief.
"How dare you?" I laughed.
"You said I love you already! Like, by next week you guys will be talking about moving in together and adopting a kid," Nora teased.
I rolled my eyes, trying to pretend like I wasn't blushing.
"You leave little Maisie and the townhouse out of this," Summer said, making Nora and me laugh. "But I mean, I've been trying not to say I love you for like, a million years," Summer jokingly huffed. "Let me have this."
Nora was beaming like a proud parent, and Summer's words were making my heart flip. I wasn't sure I'd ever get totally used to hearing her say the cutest things about me in a non-platonic way.
"You're too freakin' cute. I'm gonna miss you guys while I'm working in Vermont," Nora pouted, swirling the little wooden mixer around in her coffee.
"I still think you should stay," I said, my smile cracking open into a grin when Summer nodded so fervently beside me that her hair started to fall free of its loose bun. She set about fixing it while I began thinking about how different things would've been if not for Nora. "Like, we're gonna be total hot messes without you."
Nora sipped her coffee coolly. "Hot is the key word," she said, winking cheesily at us and officially cracking herself up when we both reacted, faux-appalled.
Summer groaned especially loud. "You know what? I take it all back. We won't miss you at all," she sassed.
I smirked down at my drink, trying to pretend that was true for a moment. There'd definitely be a smoothie-model-shaped hole in my life without Nora around to nudge everything into place for me. The positive side of it was that she'd be back in a few months â she'd landed a recurring role in a new series â but it was going to be weird with her gone.
Nora clucked her tongue and shook her head, giving Summer a smug look. "Ahh, you know that's not true. C'mon," she grinned, trying her best to get on Summer's nerves. "Tell me you'll miss me."
Summer rolled her eyes and playfully said only, "Gross," as she wrinkled her nose up.
"We'll miss you," I said, caving after a beat. I just didn't want Nora to suspect that it could be at all true. I turned to look at Summer and dotted a kiss at the corner of her mouth. "I'll say it for both of us," I teased.
"You're so lucky your dad promised us his famous pancakes for dinner tonight, otherwise we'd be totally over already," Summer said. "You're on thin ice, Jessica Scott."
"Uh oh, full name," Nora chuckled. "You're in trouble."
"The pancakes'll fix it," I shrugged, grinning.
"You'd better hope they will," Summer replied, but she wasn't putting any effort into pretending she was serious anymore, and her smile looked far too soft to match her words.
"Such an Aries moon," I tutted, trying not to laugh as I took a sip of my coffee.
Summer's smile blossomed into a sparkly grin, and it perfectly matched the happy, contented feeling I had in my chest.
- e n d -
a/n: endless thank yous to everyone who read, voted for or commented on this story! you have no idea how much it means to me that anyone would take the time to read my work, so thank you, thank you, thank you.
if anyone has any feedback that they'd like to toss my way, please feel free to do so! what did you like/not like? i'm super un-scary and i'm totally open to suggestions, i promise. i'm going to take a short breather from this story before revisiting it to edit a few things and tighten it all up, but i'm eager to hear any thoughts anyone has!
i'd also like to give @anthems props for the beautiful cover, but even more importantly, all of her support? like?? um??? you're the best???? what the hell????? but a similar amount of love & bewilderment goes to literally everyone who indulged me along the way tbh so, again:
t h a n k  y o u.
- molly â¥