AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I know Ryan carries a lot of guilt over my swimming—or lack of swimming, as it were. I know he’d feel better if I were to start doing it again. I’ve told him it’s not his fault. I’ve never blamed him. Still, I think he feels responsible for everything.
“I’ll take it off,” Morgan says. “We can just keep it simple.”
I let out a breath as I look at my best friend. She took time out of her busy middle school–teaching life to make this list for me. She’s put thought and consideration into it. It wasn’t just a cut-and-paste kind of thing.
“Okay,” I tell her.
“Okay to the swimming thing?” she asks, her eyes wide. She must have thought I’d give her more pushback on that.
“I mean, okay to doing things on this list.” I’m not sure how I feel about the swimming thing yet; I need to think about it more. It feels too soon, which is ridiculous since it’s been over a decade.
She claps her hands. “This is going to be great. So, my thought was to start at the top of the list and work your way through it, attempting one each day. And then every day you report back to me.”
“How many things did you put on this list?”
“Just thirty-one things. One for each day of January.”
“Do I win something at the end?”
“Yes,” she says. “Self-respect.”
“Wow,” I say and then give her duck lips.
“Fine. Do it and you can have my red coat.”
My eyes widen at that. “No way,” I say, not believing her. Morgan has the most beautiful red coat she found years ago while thrift shopping. It’s vintage and gorgeous and I have always coveted it. It turns out it’s worth way more than the price she paid for it.
“Do the challenge and it’s yours.”
Oh, I am definitely in now. I know I said I never get dressed up, but I would do it more often if I had that coat. Heck, I’d just wear it over my scrubs.
“Wait, are you saying that because you don’t think I can do it?” I eye her, dubiously.
“Of course I think you can do it,” she says.
I look at number one on the list she sent me: Do something out of character. “For number one can we just count signing up for online dating?”
“No.” She shakes her head. “You’ve barely done that.”
I look down at my phone so she doesn’t see the look on my face that hints I’m hiding something. I have been using the dating app. Just not how she’d want me to.
She grabs me by the wrist and I look up. “But tonight you’re going to stay and play charades. Boss’s orders.”
“Really?” I pout.
“Yes, really. It’s part of the deal.”
She walks me over to the living room where the rest of my family is chatting and we take a seat on the couch, with Morgan between Ryan and me.
“This is just what you need,” she says, leaning into me for a couple of seconds.
“We’ll see,” I say, knowing she means her little challenge and not me playing charades with my family. Which usually ends with me getting mad because Ryan cheated. Nobody needs that.
I can’t help but wonder if her challenge will be good for me. I’ve been living like an old lady for the past decade. It might do me some good to try something different, and I might get a gorgeous red coat out of the deal.
It’s a new year, after all. No time like the present to change things up.
Lucy
