It was good, but I’ll never tell him that.
Me:It was underhanded. But I should expect that by now.
Jerkwad:That wasnot underhanded
Me:Says the guy who stole my client
Jerkwad:I didn’t steal anyone. You should have listened to my voicemail.
I send him a rolling-eye emoji, but I wish I could recover his message from my phone. Simply out of curiosity.
Jerkwad:Doesn’t matter, we’ve got public opinion on our side
It’s way too soon for him to be making any judgment calls about whose side people are taking. Tessa has been watching the response, and so far, fans are all over the place—some in River’s camp, some in Bailey’s.
The next couple of days will reveal how this plays out, and neither of us can really know who will pull ahead.
I send him back one word.
Me:Sure
Later that evening, when I’ve caught up on almost everything I can and we’re in a holding pattern as far as Bailey is concerned, I head to the one place I can always count on to lift my spirits—a place where nobody has any idea what’s going on in pop culture, also known as: my parents’ house.
It’s still home, even if my old bedroom is now my mom’s crafting room, and Gigi has taken over Ryan’s. She moved in a while back when living alone stopped working—she’ll tell you she was “forced,” which is technically accurate.
There’s a standing Friday dinner invitation at the Archer household, and I haven’t made it in a while. Tonight I need a home-cooked meal and whatever off-the-wall thing Gigi is going to say. She never disappoints.
“Mom? Dad? Gigi?” I call out as I walk inside, the air-conditioning a welcome relief after driving here in my car that never quite cooled off after sitting in the hot sun all day.
The house has a contemporary feel, with cream-painted walls covered in framed family pictures. Everything from baby photos, terrible school portraits, and candids of me in dance to shots of Ryan playing soccer. It smells like the same linen-scented plug-in my mom has been using for at least a decade.
“What’s up, dummy?” Ryan says. I look into the sitting room off the entrance to find my older brother and his girlfriend, Sienna, cozying up on my parents’ gray leather sofa, looking loved-up and happy. Yay. Just what I need right now.
“Where’s everyone else?” I ask him.
“Hello to you too,” he says.
“How rude of me,” I say, purposefully looking at Ryan’s girlfriend of two years instead of at him. “Hi, Sienna, how are you?”
“I’m good,” she says, giving me a little wave.
“Oh, and I guess hello to you, Fartface,” I say, which is my most used nickname for him.
“They’re on the patio,” Ryan says, pointing toward the back of the house.
I walk through the kitchen and family room and slide open the glass door to find my mom and Gigi settled into wicker chairs around a matching table, my dad at the grill. The warm evening air smells of grilling meat and jasmine from my mom’s garden.
“Claire,” my mom says, getting up from her chair to give me a hug. Her graying hair is pulled into a ponytail, and she’s got a spot of dirt on her white T-shirt that probably came from working in the garden.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” says Gigi, not bothering to get up. I give her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“I know, I’m sorry,” I say while walking over to the grill to give my dad a hug. He’s wearing an apron that saysLicense to Grill, and on his hand is an oven mitt that’s red and shaped like a lobster. There are six chicken breasts on the grill, so mymom is either clairvoyant and knew I was coming, or she made extra for Ryan because he’s a pig. Either way, it worked out.
“Good to see you, Claire-Bear,” he says, calling me by the nickname I’ve probably had since birth.
I leave him to it and sink into the chair next to my mom, across from Gigi. Weekends are usually mine to enjoy, but not this one. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Bailey situation, because that’s what Simone would do. In hindsight, I really should have seen the blood pressure thing coming and should probably start monitoring my own.
“You look tired,” Gigi says, her pixie-cut gray hair blowing in the wind. “The bags under your eyes could be seen from space.”
