I’d almost bailed on movie night entirely.
The text I’d drafted to the group chat sat unsent in my phone: “Can’t make it tonight, feeling off.” Which was a lie. I was great. Better than I’d been in months. I just wanted to stay in Ellis’ bed, listening to him mutter at his laptop while his free hand rested on my thigh.
But I’d missed the last two movie nights. And the brunch before that.And Calliope’s birthday drinks. Missing again, would’ve crossed a line.
“He lives!” Calliope threw a pillow at me as I walked through Sierra’s door. “I was starting to think you’d been kidnapped.”
“Traffic.” Another lie. The subway ran fine.
Raven sat cross-legged on the floor, tarot cards spread in front of her. She glanced up. “You smell like cologne that isn’t yours.”
“I do not.”
“Cedar and citrus. That’s Ellis.” She returned to her cards. “At least shower before you lie to us.”
Sierra emerged from the kitchen with a bowl of actual popcorn, the stove-popped kind, because Sierra did everything the right way. She took one look at me and something crossed her face that I couldn’t untangle.
“Glad you made it.” She set the bowl on the coffee table. “We saved you a spot.”
I dropped onto the couch between Calliope and the armrest. The apartment was warm, cluttered with Sierra’s framed photographs and the stacks of photography books she kept meaning to organize. Raven’s tarot deck occupied the coffee table. Calliope had brought wine. The whole scene was so familiar it ached.
“So.” Calliope poured me a glass without asking. “When do we get to meet him?”
“Meet who?”
“Ellis. The famous Ellis who’s apparently replaced us as your entire social life.”
“He hasn’t replaced anyone.”
“You missed Raven’s tarot night.”
“I was working.”
“My birthday drinks.”
“I sent you flowers.”
“Two movie nights.” Calliope held up fingers. “Two. That’s unprecedented. Eight years you’ve never missed two in a row.”
She was right. Eight years. Four kids who’d kept each other alive since that cafeteria table.
And here I was, letting something come between them.
“I’m sorry.” Not enough. Not close. “I’ve been consumed.”
“We know.” Sierra’s voice carried no accusation. “We’re happy for you. But we miss you.”
“I miss you, too.” I took a sip of the wine Calliope had poured. Cheap and sweet, the kind she’d been buying since we were nineteen with fake IDs. “I’ll do better.”
“Bring him to meet us,” Raven said from the floor. “If he’s going to steal all your time, the least he can do is pass the vibe check.”
“I don’t think we’re there yet.”
“You’ve been dating for over a month.” Calliope’s eyebrows climbed. “How are you not there yet?”
Bringing Ellis here would mean merging two versions of me. The Jett who existed with these three women, unguarded and raw, and the Jett who existed with Ellis, still becoming someone new. Those two people in the same room terrified me.
If it went wrong, I’d lose everything.
