AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh. Tell me they’re not…,” I whispered in shock, unable to complete the thought.
Cody swooped down to pick up the leaf I hadn’t realized I’d dropped and handed it to me. “I wish I could, Cher. I really do.”
34
VINH
“Staples?” I repeated into the phone.
“Staples,” Bree confirmed, before continuing in a dry tone, “They were stapling the leaves back onto the branches. Fortuna Casino & Resort: Home of Stapled Magnolias. Maybe a staple gun can be their new mascot.”
I leaned against the railing of my condo’s balcony and watched the waves crest, Bree’s sweet, raspy voice in my ear. “That’s…,” I trailed off, gripping the balustrade.
“I know. I didn’t have any words either. But that’s not even the day’s main headline.”
“Tell me.”
“Cody got into a fight.”
“Isn’t that what you two were planning to do?”
Her laugh sounded clear and bright through the phone. “Yes. But he got into a fight after our fight.”
I clicked the video call button and slid back into one of the two Adirondack chairs on the balcony, noting the half-finished sunset painting propped in the corner among the multitude of new plants and plant stands. Aunt Ari had really made herself at home.
That probably would have bothered me a few weeks ago.
The video loaded, and Bree screeched, incoherent blurs filling the screen for several seconds before the movement stopped and a stationery ceiling fan came into view.
“Uh, Bree?”
“It would’ve been rude or weird to decline the video call,” she yelled, still out of sight.
I rolled my lips in, holding back a laugh as I answered, “Talking to a ceiling fan is kind of weird too.”
A steel-gray eye came into view in the top corner of the screen. “I panicked.”
“I saw. Heard too.”
She groaned, and the ceiling fan disappeared as she came into view.
I tried to keep my expression neutral, but the corner of my lips rebelled against my efforts. “Your face is green.”
Bree’s goop-framed gray stare bored into me. “Just so you know, I’m trying to scowl at you, but my face mask has me frozen. Cody and I are having a self-care evening.”
“I see.” It also looked like she was wearing a robe, and the idea alone had blood rushing south.
A masculine voice cut in. “Oooooh, who is that, your boyfriend?”
The blood rushed right back up.
Bree turned, her profile now taking up the screen. “Cody, I am scowling at you too. Do you feel it?”
“Oooh, so scary,” Cody replied as Bree turned the phone, showing him standing in a doorway, wearing a white robe with a Fortuna logo embroidered on the front. Bree must be wearing the same one.
“Why isn’t your face green?” I asked him.
He scoffed. “I can’t stand that shit on my face. I’m just wearing the robe so I can wear my silk boxers without giving Cher a stroke.” He dramatically flicked his shoulder-length dirty-blond hair. “The sea air is all that my skin needs.”
