Holly says, cutting Jennifer off in the middle of her mild rant about how she hadn't seen Duke in a month even though he apparently had plenty of time for grabbing lunch with Viri from next door–"And it's not as if we aren't both his neighbors! Or that he couldn't ask both of us to lunch!"–with a tilt in her voice that makes Jennifer want to punch her.
She tries to answer quickly and fails, "Yes–what?! No! Why–?!"
Holly laughs at her, and that makes the starting blush in Jennifer's cheeks bloom further.
Holly reaches out and pokes her in the cheek, still grinning and still in the thralls of her laughter, "Oh my god look at how red you are!"
Jennifer bats her hand away, "Shut up!"
"You are so jealous!" Holly keeps laughing, reaching out and poking her in her dimple piercings, "Oh my god! I gotta go tell Tina."
Holly she turns to go back to her and Tina's rooms at the back of the shop to tell her about how "jealous" their boss was about where and who with the florist next door was spending his free time. Jennifer slouches against the front counter and continues to try to not think about how much time Duke had been spending with Viri.
Or Cadence.
Or Adelaide.
Or Celli and Abra.
Or Dwight.
Or Audrey and Nathan.
Or anyone else that wasn't her.
And she certainly wasn't jealous.
Duke was just her friend is all–a very good friend whom Jennifer had gotten used to having mostly to herself–and she missed hanging out with him. It felt like it'd been forever since they'd talked last–and okay, sure, some of it had to do with her being busy with the resurgence of her former clientele numbers, and him the same, but that didn't mean they couldn't still talk!
And besides, if he was going to take someone out to lunch, why wouldn't he take her instead of Viri?
She sighed heavily.
Okay, so maybe she was a little jealous.
But that was fine, maybe then she could get to the reason for why she was jealous.
Just as she's about to finally start sussing out her reason for being jealous, though, the door jingles open, and in Duke walks, all smiles and a doggy bag of lunch from Cadence's.
"I figured you'd be hungry." He grins, setting the food down on the counter in front of her. He turns back to her and holds his arms wide for her, "And it's come to my attention that I haven't had a chance to talk to you in a month; you better give me a hug and tell me everything I missed."
She lets a laugh bubble out of her as she hugs him.
Something warm rises in her chest and belly as she does, just like it did when she saw him through the display windows and when she heard his voice, but she doesn't think about it.
Or about how it might be tied to why she was jealous.