The Night We Met by Abby Jimenez

These books are on the level of a murder mystery for me--only nobody dies and there is almost always a happy ending--so while the murder mystery will always be my preferred light reading material, the romance has become more frequent on my book shelf in recent years, and this author is one of my preferred writers. This is the classic love triangle with an actual starting point. Larissa made a choice after a concert. She chose to ride home with a guy who became her boyfriend, Mike—passing up the chance to ride with Mike’s quiet, steady best friend, Chris. Larissa started life in the hole, and her father chose to dig it deeper for her, taking out credit cards in her name and running them up to their limit with no intention of paying her back. So she has a job, a second job, a side hustle and then some--she is smart and creative and ambitious and hard working. Mike is none of these things and he does not appreciate all the good that Larissa is. Chris on the other hand is every mother's dream date for their child--he has a good job, he is kind, and he notices absolutely everything, including Larissa. You see where this is going--Chris can't date Mike's girlfriend, but then again, there is a little bit of the Cyrano De Bergerac thing going on, because many of the things Larissa likes about Mike are Chris' idea and the things she doesn't like Chris has covered up about Mike. You see where this is going, slowly but surely.