A Guide to Being Just Friends


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Copyright Notice
 Dedication
 Epigraph
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 Chapter 23
 Chapter 24
 Chapter 25
 Chapter 26
 Chapter 27
 Chapter 28
 Chapter 29
 Chapter 30
 Chapter 31
 Chapter 32
 Chapter 33
 Chapter 34
 Chapter 35
 Chapter 36
 Chapter 37
 Chapter 38
 Chapter 39
 Chapter 40
 Chapter 41
 Chapter 42
 Chapter 43
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 Also by Sophie Sullivan
 About the Author
 Newsletter Sign-up
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 Chapter 1
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Pagebreaks of the print version
 
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 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 About the Author
 Copyright Page
 
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 To Kalie and Amy. You both inspire me every day to be the best version of myself.
 
 
 LOVE CANNOT BE FOUND WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST,
 NOR CAN IT BE HIDDEN WHERE IT TRULY DOES.
 ~William Shakespeare~
 
 
 
 1
 
 September
 Salad paid the bills. At least, it was supposed to. If it wasn’t going to, Hailey Sharp needed copious amounts of chocolate. In all fairness to her very quiet, newly opened salad shop, By the Cup, she would use any excuse to feed her chocolate addiction.
 Which was why she hadn’t gone the bakery or chocolate shop route—she’d eat herself out of profits.
 Looking around, desperate for something to do—or eat—that would take her mind off the lack of customers, she debated going next door to Baked, the coffee-shop-slash-bakery that served the most delicious brownie lava cakes.
 Her Kindle was in her purse, just a few steps away, but if she went back to the book she’d been reading, she wouldn’t come up for air. She was right at that moment when everything was about to get so good, she wouldn’t be able to tear herself away.
 Her stomach growled, distracting her from the temptation of her latest rom-com read. Whip up a salad. Her end-of-summer special was a dessert salad, which she topped with dark chocolate shavings. She wasn’t in the mood though. Had she made a mistake opening this store?
 Why don’t I have customers? This is California for God’s sake. People love their greens and mine come in handy little to-go cups, perfect for the busy Californian.
 A few people walked past the shop window. They didn’t even glance in. Maybe she should change the special. With that in mind, she grabbed a chalk marker and a cloth, heading toward the door of her supposed-to-be-thriving store. It’s been two weeks. Give it some time.
 The heat hit her like a giant blanket when she stepped out onto the sidewalk. She’d lived in California for years now, though she’d only moved to San Verde recently, but some days the steady sunshine still surprised her. Deciding to put her San Verde Sunshine Cup—a mixture of lettuces, assorted yummy seeds, yellow tomatoes, and avocado with a homemade dressing—on sale, she added it to the board.
 Then, because she was only human, she tucked the marker and cloth into the back pocket of her jeans and went into Baked.
 Similar to her own store in