josie.
“The closeness you have to my abuela is bizarre,” Josie said, shaking her head. Of course, things between Josie and Harvey had never been something you could boil down to one easily term. She said they were best friends, college friends, whatever variation of their friends term she could think of in the moment that she explained it to people, but they had never been just that. They were trying to be now, but wasn’t easy. Her abuela didn’t help matters (additionally, neither did her mother) by being so chummy with Harvey. He even seemed to be in the family group chat - something Andrew didn’t need to know considering that would only make him even more on edge. He was already giving her the ‘I don’t like you hanging out with him’ talk often. Soon enough, she’d be hearing ‘want’ instead of ‘like’ in that statement. Andrew was insecure about Harvey, and Josie supposed she couldn’t blame him about it. She told herself that she should be a better person, but making the best choices had never been her strongest suit. Josie shook her head as she tied her apron, keeping the grin that threatened to expose itself back. “Nope - I’m going to blame it all on you if this goes bad. Just a forewarning.” A wave of nostalgia hit her when he brought up that old memory, and she continued to talk just to keep her mind from lingering on other activities that had happened during that day. “I’m pretty sure I was high when I tried that, so I don’t feel like I can accurately take credit for adding anything else to make it better,” Josie laughed, knowing it probably wasn’t much of an exaggeration. She spent most of her college years either drunk or high, or maybe riding off a hangover or a high. Not one of her shining moments, but it was the truth. “Do you know what we’re making?” Josie asked, peeking around to see if there were any instructions, or if it was something where they’d have to follow the instructor. She didn’t see any instructions, but it didn’t mean the person in charge wasn’t prepared to pass them out and send them off on their own in a few minutes.
"You’re just jealous.” Although it wasn’t her who was actually jealous, and he knew that. Andrew was the one who had an issue with them being friends. Which he had no reason to -- yet. Whenever Harvey was dating someone he always did his best to keep them separate from Josie, even though that was easier said than done. He wasn’t oblivious to the dynamic that the two of them shared, but it still took him a while to realise that no woman he dated was ever going to be fully comfortable with Josie. He supposed he couldn’t blame them - she was beautiful, the two of them had a past, and clearly they both still cared about each other. Her name had come up in a few of his breakups back when they were in college, but he’d also cheated on them all with her. So fair’s fair.
“So, that’s a lie.” He knew they weren’t supposed to even really talk about how things used to be, but there were times when he couldn’t help himself. And Andrew wasn’t around, which made it even easier to forget about his existence. As long as he ignored the ring. He passed Josie the little recipe card they’d been given - the instructor was wondering around to help here and there. If his hand lingered on hers while he spoke, then sue him. “We were both very sober. I know, because I’m pretty sure I didn’t you didn’t make it out of the bed for a few hours before you played chef.” He tapped on the recipe card as she asked, his demeanour switching to be more casual. “Spaghetti carbonara, apparently we’re even making the pasta." He poured the flour and salt into the bowl as they were told to. “Pretty sure we’re hand mixing this, are you gonna get it under your nails?” He teased, making a well in the center of the mixture and sliding the bowl infront of her so she could add the eggs.
