“I did want to talk to you. If you have a minute.”
Margot made a show of tilting her head from side to side in mock consideration. “I’m in high demand, but I guess for you, I could spare at least that.”
Darcy braced her shoulder against the wall. “I wanted to talk to you about Elle, actually.”
Margot waited.
“I’m going to ask her to marry me.”
Margot sputtered, choking on air. Darcy frowned.
“I’m fine. Just swallowed my spit funny.” She flapped her hand in front of her, waving off Darcy’s concern. “I could’ve sworn you just said you were going to ask Elle to marry you.”
“I did.” Darcy laced her fingers, wringing her hands. “What? Do you think it’s too soon?”
“Um.” Margot scrambled for a slightly more diplomatic answer than her gut response of fuck yes. “I mean.” God, she was drawing a blank. “You’re hardly U-Hauling it.”
Darcy nibbled on her bottom lip, looking less than reassured.
“If you’re worried whether she’s going to say yes, don’t.” Margot nudged Darcy with her elbow. “Elle will absolutely say yes.”
Darcy smiled, small and wobbly but a smile nonetheless. “You think?”
“I’m sure of it.” Margot scratched the side of her neck. Did this bakery sell alcohol? “Have you thought about how you plan to ask? I know Elle’s partial to Ring Pops. Or, hear me out. Prize in the bottom of her cereal box. She’d love that.”
“I was thinking I’d take her up to the observatory at UW. It’s where we had our first real date, under the stars. I thought it was fitting.”
Margot didn’t know what to say because damn. Darcy had put thought into this. This wasn’t a hypothetical. She had plans. Hell, knowing Darcy, there were probably checklists and spreadsheets and risk assessments involved. She was serious. This was serious.
Margot shifted on her feet, feeling out of her depth and underprepared. This was like one of those stress dreams she still had about college. Nightmares where she’d realize she’d signed up for a class, completely blanked, and never attended or turned in any of the assignments, and her entire GPA hinged on acing a final on organic chemistry or astrophysics, something so advanced she had zero chance of bullshitting her way through. “That’s . . . Wow. When do you think you’re going to pop the question?”
“I was thinking after Brendon and Annie get back from their honeymoon.”
Next month. Holy shit.
“But then I decided I don’t want to wait and, besides—Brendon would probably consider me getting engaged to be a wedding present to him, considering he’s the one to thank for introducing me to Elle in the first place.” Darcy wrung her hands together and smiled. “I want to do it before we head up to Snoqualmie for the bachelor-bachelorette party.”
They were leaving in four days. Four. Days.
“It—wow. It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, Darce.”
Like she didn’t need anything from Margot at all.
Darcy shrugged. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t completely deluding myself, hoping that she’ll say yes.”
“Trust me. I’d be the first person to tell you if you were delusional.”
“That’s what I was counting on.”
Margot cleared her throat. “Well, I think it’s great. I’m—I’m really happy for you. You and Elle . . . I couldn’t hope for a better person to have fallen in love with my best friend.”
Darcy ducked her chin, her smile small and achingly fond. “Thanks, Margot. That means a lot to me.” She coughed lightly and blinked fast before tilting her head to the side, brown eyes scrutinizing as they danced over Margot’s face. “So. You and Olivia.”
Margot’s throat went dry. “Me and Olivia what?”
Darcy stared at her like she could see all the little cracks beneath Margot’s skin. “Margot.”
Fuck. Margot palmed her forehead, a frazzled laugh slipping out, too loud in the narrow hallway. “Am I that obvious?”
Darcy bobbed her head from side to side. “Obvious? No, not really. Can I tell there’s something you aren’t saying? Yes.”
Margot puffed out her cheeks. That wasn’t quite so bad. At least she didn’t have her feelings stamped across her forehead for everyone to see. “I’m, uh, working through some . . . things. Feelings and shit.”
Darcy’s lips twitched. “Feelings and shit?”