By Chance (Accidentally In Luck #1)

16. No Chance It's a Coincidence- Cora

*Cora*

One day. That's all we had left before the tournament.

Over the past week, I saw E every day. We hung out at Alfonzo's each night, complete with awesome service from Luca and glares from E. A few times he even brought Jayden, who was just... interesting. It took him a while to warm up to me because E apparently wasn't supposed to share the fighting secret with anyone, anytime, ever (Jay's words, not mine), but once he trusted that I wasn't gonna tell a soul besides Elle, we got on really well. After the fourth time he came with E, Jay was easily my best guy friend. He'd even taken to calling me C which I found endearing.

Maybe it was stupid, and the title of Best Guy Friend should belong to E but sue me for thinking there could be something more between us someday.

E and I did talk on the phone or FaceTime every night after we saw each other though. Usually the conversations lasted a lot longer than they should have and we ended up talking until the early hours of the morning.

I didn't care if it made me dead tired the next day, I talked to him until I practically fell asleep. Not gonna lie, on several occasions I actually did, and he made sure to not let me forget that I did the next day (usually with photo evidence).

We never talked about much, just random stuff and the little things you learn about people over time. One thing I never realized was how many press activities he had to do per day. It seemed like he was talking about at least three different things he did with the press that day.

I enjoyed seeing and talking to Theo. We could talk about anything from saltines to societal problems of the world and the conversation would just flow because he was so easy to talk to. It reminded me of the very first conversation we had at Alfonzo's.

I thought back and remembered Luca. I felt horrible for how E had always talked to him and wanted to make that right somehow. Making a split-second decision, I went to my room to get ready.

It was Friday night and I'd be damned if I was going to spend it curled up in sweats on my parent's couch watching cheesy romance movies.

I almost called Elle, but she was on an apology dinner with her mom. Apparently, Stacy hadn't taken to Elle's up and leaving vacation six days early. Elle's dad had left her and her mom when she was young, and her mom actually handled it well. Or so we'd thought. Turns out, she just fell back on drinking and screwing her now ex-husband's best friends as a coping method. Anyway, Elle told me a few days after she got back that her mom decided to have "parties" when she thought Elle was sleeping in the other room. The "noises" kept Elle awake every night and after 4 sleepless nights, Elle swiped one of her mom's credit cards and hopped on a plane home without telling her mom.

So, taking Elle to Alfonzo's would have to wait which meant that tonight it would be just me and my pizza. I could live with that, I decided.

Less than a half an hour later I was walking out the door in the outfit I got with Elle again. Hey, what can I say? It was quickly becoming one of my favorites.

It was a good thing that I like walking because there was no way I was taking a cab. I hate them so much. They smell, they're disgusting, and God knows what happens in the back of those suckers. Sure, I took one last week, but that was only out of necessity.

I knew that Alfonzo's was only an hour or so walk away and it wasn't like I didn't have time. It was five o'clock on a Friday: I could spare the time.

An hour later, I walked into the pizza shop and was greeted by the amazing smell of pizza and a yell.

"Miss Cora! You're back!"

I smiled. "Just Alfonzo. Long time, no see. How are you?"

The pudgy man gave me a toothy grin in reply. "Better now that you're here. You bring some beauty to this old place." He did that Italian kissy-fingers thing and I giggled. Alfonzo was one of those people that immediately make you feel like you're wanted and that you're the best thing since sliced bread. I'd met him twice and he already felt more like family to me than some of my family.