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“I’m so sorry. I had a horrible day. I broke up with Alex and?—”
“Oh no! You broke up with Alex? What happened?”
“Let’s just say he’s not the person I thought he was.”
Alice wraps me in her arms and hugs me tight. “I’m sorry, Maia. At least you found out sooner rather than later.”
I nod. “That’s true. Like married with kids.” I blanch. A shiver runs through me at the thought of being married to Alex. I could never.
“Are you sure you’re up for going to the market? I can ask Fran to go with me or Mary.”
“I’m good. I want to go. It’ll be nice to stay busy.”
“Okay. I have the list. Let’s hit the road.”
Alice drives us about ten minutes away to the large grocery store. It takes us about an hour to find everything on the list. But I enjoy Alice’s company. She’s easy to talk to and get along with. We pick out some cookies to bake tonight along with something for dinner, and Alice invites me to stay.
I still have a ton of schoolwork to get done, considering I’ve fallen behind lately, but the last thing I want to do is go home, so I agree to stay.
My decision to stay ends up being one hundred percent worth it. The kids cheer me up and make me laugh. We have fun baking cookies, and I love how excited they get.
After we settle the kids down with a movie, I help Alice, Fran, and Mary organize the Thanksgiving supplies, make an attack plan of what needs to get done for set up and cooking, along with food prep. The list is a mile long.
Fran groans. “I wish we had more hands to help. There’s so much to do.”
“We’ll get it done. We always do,” Mary answers.
Rhett pops into my head.
I’d love to help, he said.
Too late now. I screwed that one up.
“I’ll come by every day when I’m done with classes,” I offer.
“Only if you can, darling. We don’t want you running yourself too thin. School is most important,” Mary says while the other two nod.
“I know. But I want to help. It’s important to me.”
“We know, love,” Alice says as she places a hand over mine and squeezes. “You’re amazing. But you’ve got a lot on your plate. Please take care of yourself.”
“Is everything okay, Maia?” Fran asks, ever the nosy one.
I nod.
“Just the usual college girl stuff. Boys suck, same news, different year,” Alice teases, and I snort.
We bump fists. “Good one,” I say as we burst into laughter.
Mary and Fran laugh too. “Oh, don’t I know that story, dear,” Mary says. “I had many boys in my day come knocking on my door.” Mary winks, and Alice and I dissolve into more laughter.
It’s funny. Mary is the grandma of the group, with Fran being the nosy mom, and Alice like a sister. Others have come and gone in the past few years, but these three have always been here. They’re special to me now.
Later that night, while I’m sitting at my desk trying to get some schoolwork done, my phone lights up with a text.
Rhett: Hey. Can we talk?
It’s not unusual for Rhett to text me. He has a few times in the past couple of weeks which I left unanswered while falling for Alex’s stupid shit. But usually, he cracks jokes or asks me when our next surfing lesson is. Never can we talk.
