The 777th Night Was Our Last

From the back cover

For six years, Elena Vance has spent seven hundred and seventy-seven nights in hotel rooms with Carter Vance, the childhood friend she has known for twenty-two years. A drunken graduation party at nineteen crossed the line between them, and she believed that if she waited long enough, he would finally make her his official girlfriend.

Then Carter announces a family dinner: an official blind date with Chloe Sterling, the girl he crushed on throughout high school. He asks Elena to sit beside him as his childhood friend and make her boundaries clear. When she asks what she is to him, he answers that she is his best friend and most compatible hookup partner, nothing more. He never once remembered her severe nut allergy, yet he orders roses and a mild menu for Chloe.

Soaked by the rain, Elena tells her parents she will move with them to Europe and never come back. She throws away twenty-two years of photos, jewelry and a stuffed bear. When Carter demands she attend the dinner, she finds her slippers, cup and pajamas already thrown out of the Vance house.