#*mckenzie

“That’s not– that’s not what we’re talking about,” Rosie tried to get them back on track as they spoke through Facetime. At least a couple times a week they found time to video chat, even if it wasn’t for long. One of them would have something they had to tell the other, and it was always better when they could do it face to face.

Especially when one of them was having a ‘crisis’. It was almost always Rosie.

Tonight, she was draped on the couch dramatically, holding her phone up in one hand. “What if one day I just… I just do it? I just kiss him, without meaning to? It just happens ‘cause it’s all I can think about?”

“He’ll kiss you back and you’ll finally get together,” Mckenzie answered for her, as she laid on her stomach in her bedroom back in Atlanta. It was late afternoon for her, night for Rosie. They were accustomed to the time difference by now, though it still wasn’t the easiest when they had spent almost all their lives in close proximity.

“I’ve been panic baking again,” Rosie went on, as if she hadn’t heard the concept she was struggling to see coming true.

“Ooh, can you send me some?”

“They’ll go stale,” she replied flatly.

“I miss your baking,” Mckenzie pouted. “Nothin’ else is the same.”

“Try tellin’ Teddy that. I’ve been tryin’ to come up with the perfect dessert for him, and it’s impossible, I swear. He likes things, but I don’t think he’s in love with them, y’know?”

“What’d you bake this time?”

“Chocolate chip cookies, but with dark chocolate chips. I thought he might like ‘em better if they’re not so sweet.”

“So go see – he’ll be home right?”

“I can’t.”

“Rose, they’re just cookies–”

“I can’t ‘cause they’re shaped like hearts,” Rosie admitted in a rush, cringing at herself. “I used my love heart cutter. I told you, I panicked! Stop laughin’ at me!”

Mckenzie didn’t even try to stop herself from giggling. “Gosh, I love you, Rosie.”

Rubbing her face with her free hand, Rosie couldn’t fight her own smile, relieved that her best friend had been free to Facetime tonight. There was no one else she could talk to quite like Mckenzie, no one who could understand and make her feel better about anything.

“Why? Why did I make them into hearts? I can’t eat all of them myself.”

“Just give some to Teddy! He’ll like them.”

“Are you hearing me? I said they’re love hearts.”

Mckenzie laughed again, which had Rosie groaning in despair. Back home, they would’ve simply shared the cookies between them, eating the evidence of Rosie’s never-ending pining.

“Here’s what you’re gonna do,” Mckenzie began; she had always been the one who liked to take charge, ever since they were little kids. They both knew that it was unlikely Rosie would go through with most of her ideas regarding Teddy, but at least Mckenzie was getting new ideas from a different perspective into her head, which she thought could only be a good thing. Sometimes, Rosie could get too caught up in her own wandering mind. “You’re gonna go to his bookstore, pick out one of your sexy romance novels–”

“I’d literally go to any other bookstore in London to buy those,” Rosie interrupted. “Literally any other bookstore in London. You already make fun of me for reading them, I don’t need him doin’ it too.”

“I make fun of you ‘cause you’re the most innocent person I know, and you read the cheesiest books that are filled with–”

“They’re not filled with–”

“I borrowed that one with the shirtless cowboy on the front, and it scarred me for life.”

“Oh, it did not,” Rosie scoffed.

“Anyway,” Mckenzie went on, grinning cheekily. “When you’re goin’ to buy it, you tell him if he loves your cookies, then you’ll re-enact one of the scenes with him.”

“I am hangin’ up on you!” Rosie threatened, making as if she were about to end the call, finger reaching for the button. The laughter that escaped her lips, however, made it evident she wasn’t serious.

If only it was that simple: to just come right out and tell Teddy how she really felt. There were many times when she had been tempted, a thousand more that she had thought about it when she was alone, but Rosie just couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to risk their friendship for something that could be all in her head, when Teddy was the best friend she had here. If he truly felt the same, then he would make the first move. She had to believe that.

“You know I’m right!” Mckenzie laughed back. “Just tell him!”

“Yeah, and die of embarrassment on the floor of the place he works! That’s real romantic!”

“If you stop breathing, he’ll have to resuscitate you,” Mckenzie pointed out with a ridiculous wiggle of her eyebrows. She always knew how to make Rosie laugh the hardest.

“What if he doesn’t do it, though? I don’t wanna kiss his co-workers!”

“Now Rosalie, you know resuscitation and kissing are not the same thing. Your dad would be so disappointed.”

Rolling her eyes at the mock serious tone her best friend adopted, Rosie was still grinning. “You’re actually the worst.” Of course, she didn’t mean it seriously, and both of them knew it.

“Just tell him, Rose,” Mckenzie softened, though that faded with the flick of her dark ponytail as she quickly teased, “Else I won’t tell you about my love life.”

“What?! Who?! Who is it?!” Rosie immediately shrieked, her attention easily diverting from herself with those few words. It was futile, though, as Mckenzie blew her a kiss and ended the call before she had even had a chance to process. Still, she demanded, “Tell me who it is!” at the blank screen, as if her best friend would actually hear it.

After firing Mckenzie a series of all-caps texts she was unlikely to get a straight answer from, Rosie groaned as she set her phone down on the coffee table, next to one of the darn love heart cookies. Maybe it really could be that easy?