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I looked down at them. “They are horrible aren’t they?”
“Yeah, but I want to take you out for drinks.”
“Drinks? As in I have to walk down three flights of stairs?”
She sat next to me. “Yes. But I’ll call an Uber. No metro walking.” Her eyebrows arched.
“I don’t know if I’m up for celebrating. I’m exhausted, and my head is about to explode from all the human resources meetings I had to go to today. I think it’s worse for lawyers. They think we’re all going to sue each other.” I smirked.
“You don’t even want to know what I went through when I was moved to the senate committee. Background checks. Family investigation. Special security clearance. It was insane. I’m surprised I didn’t have to sign away the rights to my first-born.”
“Did you read the fine print?” I joked. “Maybe you did.”
She sighed. “There is nothing funny at the Armed Services Committee. This job drains me.”
“I’m sorry.” I could see the look of exhaustion on her face.
“This is not about me. Come on, get up. If you stay here, we’ll never get out. We have to celebrate your first day at work. Your first few days in D.C. Your new life. All of that stuff.”
I groaned. “Can we celebrate tomorrow when my feet aren’t threatening to disown me?”
“No.” She shoved me. “Since you’ve been here we’ve had pizza one night. Chinese the other and last night I didn’t even make it home to eat, so I have no idea what you had. Sorry. You deserve a proper welcome.” She paused. “Hurry up and change. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes.”
“You’re a really pushy roommate. You know that?” I placed one foot on the floor, testing the tenderness.
“You have always loved being my roommate.” She winked.
“Loved is past tense,” I teased her. “We haven’t lived together in five years.”
She shrugged. “Get dressed.”
I still hadn’t unpacked all of my clothes. There were boxes scattered on the floor. I thought about a short blue sundress I wanted to wear, but I wasn’t sure I could find it. I started ripping tape and rummaging through the stacks.
It was folded at the bottom of one of the piles. I held it in front of me. I remembered the days in college when Greer and I would swap clothes. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I was standing in front of the mirror holding my blue dress.
I knew it wasn’t the same. We weren’t the same girls we were back then. We had careers now. Greer had Preston. Life had been sweet and ugly since we graduated from college.
I unfolded the belt from my waist and pulled the dress over my head.
“Hey, Greer. I need to get in the shower,” I called from the doorway. “Give me ten minutes.”
There was no way I was going out with the day still clinging to me.
I quickly rinsed off and slid into the blue sundress. It felt good to have something clean on that didn’t smell like coffee. I shook my hair out and let it fall around my shoulders in golden waves. Good thing the beach hair look was still in.
Somewhere in this room was a cute bag that matched this dress, but I didn’t feel like excavating again.
I walked in the living room. “Do you have a purse I can borrow? I don’t have the energy to unpack.”
Greer sat on the couch, flipping through a magazine. “Sure. I have a straw one that would be cute.”
She returned from her room holding a waffle cut hemp bag. “Thanks.”
And for a second it felt as if we were twenty-two again. We weren’t in Washington D.C., focused on careers and making a difference in the world. We were two girls getting ready to go out for the night to have some drinks. Maybe hit a mixer at the Sigma Nu house.
She put an arm around me. “Preston’s going to meet us in about an hour.”
“Oh? I didn’t know he was coming.” I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice.
