—Present Day—

"Hold on. Back up a second." My cousin Sophia Wilde blinks at me in disbelief. "He gave you a what?"

I frown. "Do I really have to repeat myself?"

She nods, her round blue-green eyes glittering with curiosity.

"He gave me a mug that said World's . . . Greatest . . . Little . . . Sister."

Just as I expected, Sophia bursts into hysterical laughter. The petite blonde woman sitting next to her—her best friend, Mackenzie Goode—is decent enough to hold her laugh until her hollow cheeks puff up and her pale complexion turns bright red. But it doesn't take long before she loses control of herself.

I scoop up a spoonful of my peppermint candy cane ice cream and shovel it into my mouth. The sudden extreme cold is powerful enough to freeze my brain for a few seconds, but it fails to stop the embarrassment from heating my cheeks.

It's been two weeks since that cursed Christmas party, but that heated kiss Ollie and I shared still haunts me. I can't sleep, eat, or even brush my teeth without thinking about him, and worse, every time I see his face on my phone, I need to drink a gallon of water and take a super-long, ice-cold shower.

Needless to say, I need help to regain my sanity.

Professional help.

When Sophia—a fashion designer slash beauty influencer slash self-proclaimed relationship expert—said she and her friend needed a place to stay in LA for a few weeks, I thought it was God's answer to my prayer. I told her they could stay at my place for free in exchange for helping me with my life-threatening problem.

Little did I know, I was digging my own grave.

"Look at the bright side, V." Mac chuckles, a comforting smile on her wide lips. "At least you got to kiss him."

Sophia snorts, her broad shoulders shaking with mirth. "Yeah. So now you can . . . die . . . in . . . peace!"

Their uninhibited guffaws bounce off the ice cream parlor's pink walls once more, drawing the attention of everyone around us.

I hide my head between my shoulders and thrust spoonful after spoonful of ice cream into my mouth. My body shivers and my teeth chatter from the immense cold, but my face still burns with embarrassment.

"Are you sure it's not just your hormones, cous?" Sophia asks, her raspy voice hoarser from laughter. "When was the last time you had sex anyway?"

I almost choke on my ice cream. "I'm not gonna tell you that!"

"A long time then." She giggles. As I curl my lip at her, she holds up both hands to calm me down. "Okay, okay. Have you considered having a one-night stand?"

"You know I don't do one-night stands."

"Watching porn?"

"Done."

"Reading erotic novels?"

"Done."

"Online erotic novels?"

"Done."

"Hmm." Sophia folds her hands under her pointed chin and purses her full lips, nodding to herself. "I know what's wrong with you."

I hold my spoon between my teeth. "What?"

"You're in love with him."

My spoon drops onto the table with a clank, and I let out a high-pitched, nervous laugh. "No, no, no. You got it all wrong. There's no way I'm in love with—"

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm—"

Sophia sets her mouth in a hard line and gives me a stubborn glare.

"Let's say you're right." I allow skepticism to seep into my voice. "How do I fall out of love with him?"

Sophia knits her tattooed eyebrows together. "Why would you wanna do that?"

A flush of irritation spreads through my arms. "The guy gave me a mug that says I'm like his little sister and called me sis, Sophia. I have a zero-percent chance of getting out of The Sister Zone, so what else can I do besides falling out of love with him?"

"You know, two out of one-hundred people have successfully gotten out of The Sister Zone," Mac begins, her honey-brown eyes sparkling with knowledge. "So technically, you have a two-percent chance of getting out of The Sister Zone."

An odd spark of hope lights up inside my chest, but a part of me remains skeptical. "And how do you know this?"

"One of my readers was feeling down after being rejected by her childhood friend, who saw her as a little sister. So I did a little research and tried to help her with it."

Mac runs a popular self-help blog called confessionsofthematchstickgirl.com, where she has helped over a million people improve their lives over the past two years. According to the draft of her autobiography, one that Sophia sent me two months ago, she has a bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in statistics. It's possible that she really did her research on The Sister Zone.

Still, doubt lingers in my mind.

"Did your reader successfully get out of The Sister Zone?" I ask.

Mac shifts in her seat and lets out an awkward chuckle. "No." As the spark of hope in me dims, she quickly adds, "But she's gained a lot more confidence now than ever, so I'd say it's a—"

"Don't listen to her, cous." Sophia puts a hand over Mac's mouth, shutting her up. "Your case is totally different than her lovesick teenage reader."

A huge part of me is still skeptical, yet I find myself asking, "Different how?"

"Let me ask you this." Sophia rests her elbows on the table and leans forward, her expression serious. "Your brothers are hot. Would you French kiss any of them?"

Waves of repugnance wash over me at the mere idea of kissing my brothers. "Eww! Sophia!"

"See?" The long-haired brunette leans back against her seat and shoots me a winning smirk. "No one kisses their little sister like that. So trust me when I say he has feelings for you. He might think he doesn't, but he does."

"Okay, okay. You've made your point." I raise a hand in defeat, still shuddering in disgust. "So what do you suggest I should do? I was lucky I'd already planned to use up my vacation days to fly back to Sunnyville for Christmas, so I didn't have to see him again after that disastrous Christmas party. But we're supposed to go out tomorrow, and I still have no idea how to face him without picturing him naked."

"Just cancel the plan then," Sophia replies.

"I can't, it's National Bacon Day."

While Mac chokes on her vanilla milkshake, Sophia breaks into a guffaw. "Why the hell would you celebrate National Bacon Day, cous?"

Even though it sounds silly, National Bacon Day holds a special place in my heart.

Four years ago, Ollie took me to visit five different Lovejoy's outlets across LA on National Bacon Day to cheer me up after the Rayna Sparks incident. It was one of the best days of my life, and that day, I decided to stay in this city and fight for my dreams.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made.

It took me a few years and a lot of hard work, but I managed to climb my way to being Camden Records' first female Asian-American junior sound engineer. And more importantly, I got to spend more time with Ollie in this city—something that wouldn't have happened if I'd moved back to Sunnyville that day.

Ever since then, Ollie and I have always taken a road trip on December 30th, visiting as many Lovejoy's outlets as we can to commemorate the day I decided to stay in LA.

Still, Sophia and Mac don't need to know the details.

"Ollie and I both love bacon," I lie. "Besides, Lovejoy's always offers the best, limited edition menu and merchandise on National Bacon Day, and we both love Lovejoy's."

"Hmm. Speaking of Lovejoy's . . ." Sophia pulls her phone out of her purse and starts typing. Her fingers move rapidly over the screen of her phone, her forehead folds, and her lips twitch once in a while. The amount of sheer focus she's giving to her gadget rings an alarm in my head.

"Bottom line is I can't cancel the plan," I say, trying to get her undivided attention. "It's a tradition for Ollie and me. We always spend National Bacon Day together. And National Lemon Chiffon Day, National Kitten Day, and every other holiday except Valentine's Day."

Well, I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day since . . .

A cold shiver crawls up my spine at the memory of that awful day two years ago. My chest twists into a painful knot, my throat dries, and my breathing shortens. No, no, no. Don't go back there, Vanessa. Don't—

Pennywise's giggles blare from my bag, sending a shot of fear down my spine.

At the same time, Mac gasps and jumps in her seat. "What is that?"

"Sorry. It's my phone." I flash her an apologetic smile and fish my phone out of my bag.

"Whoa. You're serious?" Sophia puts her phone on the table and gapes at me, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "I thought you're afraid of clowns?"

"Yeah, I freaked out when I saw a kid dressed as a clown last Halloween. So Ollie used his Golden Bestie Card and—"

Sophia chokes on air. "He has a what now?"

"It's a long story." As Sophia and Mac giggle, I ignore them and glance at the new text on my phone. The butterflies in my stomach flutter when I realize it's from Ollie.

"It's him, isn't it?" my nosy cousin asks before I can read the text.

"How'd you—"

"I bet you two have never spent a single day without talking or texting each other, haven't you?" Sophia narrows her eyes at me.

"So?"

"I think that's the problem," Mac chips in. "You and Oliver are just too comfortable around each other."

I tilt my head to the side. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"It's good to be comfortable in an established romantic relationship. But if you're too comfortable before your relationship even begins, then he—and you—might not realize the true nature of your relationship. That's why it took you five years to realize you're in love with him. You're just so used to being around each other," Mac explains.

I try to process the new information, but my brain keeps getting stuck on the word that Mac has just repeated three times. Relationship, relationship, relationship.

Ollie and me in a romantic relationship.

A picture of Ollie and me walking hand-in-hand along a beach pops into my mind. Smiling . . . kissing . . . ripping each other's clothes—

"Hello?" Sophia snaps her fingers in front of my eyes. "Earth to Vanessa?"

"Sorry." I flash her an unapologetic grin. "You were saying?"

"You need to distance yourself from him," Sophia answers. "Make him think he's losing you. If you're available for him twenty-four-seven, how do you expect him to realize he can't live without you? He's gonna think he'll have you for the rest of his life without having to fulfill your needs, while he gets a free pass—"

"Okay, okay, I get it." I stop her before any weird images can develop in my head. "But what if he can live without me? What if I end up losing him?"

The idea of losing my best friend scares me half to death. Sure, I'll live. But my life would be so much duller without him, and I just . . .

"V." Mac puts her hand on mine, sympathy in her sweet voice. "Sometimes we have to take risks to move forward."

A faint hopeful voice inside my heart tells me Mac is right. A small part of me wants to seize that tiny chance that I have and fight my way out of The Sister Zone. But the skeptical side of me suggests I should book a one-way ticket to Timbuktu rather than deal with the imminent heartbreak.

"The risk is too high, Mac." I draw my hand away from hers and tuck my hair behind my ear. "It's better if I stay in The Sister Zone for good than losing him entirely."

"No, no, no." A sudden firmness appears in Mac's voice, startling me. "That's why you're stuck where you are. Everything is uncertain in our life and it's scary. But you can't just give up without trying. All good things require effort. And if you want something, you have to fight for it."

Mac's speech awakens the fighter in me—the old Vanessa Hayes-Wong I thought had died after that incident. Still, my demons refuse to raise the white flag.

Should I fight for Ollie's heart? But isn't true love supposed to be effortless?

"Ask yourself this," Sophia says. "Do you wanna continue spending National Bacon Day with him, or do you wanna celebrate International Kissing Day with him?"

A jolt of excitement kicks my imagination into motion, silencing every last bit of warning in my head. Strangely enough, this time, it's not a string of raunchy images that flash before my eyes. Instead, it's a life I've always dreamed of: living in a pink suburban house with a white picket fence, having a little boy and a little girl running around the huge yard, and sharing a life with the man I love.

Well, the man in my imagination looks a lot more like Brad Pitt than Ollie, but still.

As different kinds of scenarios and what-ifs run through my mind, I begin to weigh my options. I don't want to lose Ollie. Yet the voice inside my heart screams that I should stop being a coward and start fighting.

But what if I fail? What if I end up embarrassing myself? What if . . . Ollie has never been attracted to me?

"The endless possibilities are always scary," Mac says, sympathy in her kind eyes. "But sometimes it's necessary to take a leap of faith. You don't want to be stuck in the same place for the rest of your life, do you? And as I said, you can't get something without trying, V."

"Even love?" I ask.

"Especially love," Mac answers, her tone soothing. "I know a lot of people say love should be effortless, but I never really believe that. I believe all good things require effort. Including love. That's what makes it so worthwhile."

"She's right, cous," Sophia chimes in. "For most of the time, love should be effortless. As in you shouldn't change who you are to be loved. But life isn't a fairytale. Things happen, and you'll have a million reasons to give up and walk away. But that's when you have to ask yourself. Is the relationship worth fighting for? Is he worth fighting for?"

Yes. A voice inside my heart screams out the answer as fast as lightning.

I always thought love would find me even if I just sit around and do nothing. But I'm beginning to think I was wrong.

Love might find me in the weirdest places, such as next to a dumpster in a dark alley. But if I don't grasp the chance when it presents itself—if I don't fight for it—then I might lose it for good.

So, I decide to take a leap of faith.

"Okay." I blow out a determined breath. "How do I get out of The Sister Zone?"

"Well . . ." The corner of Sophia's blood-red lips tugs up into a malevolent smirk. "We're going to need serious help for this."

Author's Note:

What do you think about Sophia and Mac?

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