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I cringe, realizing I had put off all of this explaining, and now I have to do it. She’s not going to like this, I don’t think. I’m not even 100 percent sure I like it, but once I have a ball in motion, I tend to follow it come hell or high water.
“Well… Not exactly. Sort of. No. I didn’t.”
She squints at me, nodding shrewdly. “Yeah, I didn’t get any of that. You want to start at the beginning?”
She pulls out a barstool for me and pats the seat, then sets the wine glass down and hops into the other stool to wait. The wine is cool on my tongue, instantly refreshing.
“So, I went to the auction…”
She bobs her head. “Okay, I’m with you so far.”
“Got my little bidding ticket and everything. I even was the winner—”
“Well, that’s great!”
“—for about twelve milliseconds,” I finish sadly, “until frickin’ Ron obliterated me. Just demolished me. Doubled my bid.”
Her eyes widen. “Wait. Just like that? One bid over yours?”
I raise my hands in defeat. “Yeah. There was no way I could compete. I didn’t even realize anybody was bidding against me until I was blown right out of the water.”
She purses her lips judgmentally. “You know you had a whole lot more money though, right? A whole lot more, Penny.”
“Wanda, I already told you—”
“—and I already told you! Damn, you are so stubborn. All you have to do is ask. You are an investment, Penny, not a charity.”
I shift uncomfortably, looking away. If we have had this argument a thousand times, I guess this makes a thousand and one.
“Anyway, I didn’t get it.”
“Well, you coulda,” she mutters stubbornly.
“So anyway!” I start again with new energy. “He outbid me, but I had it all planned out in my mind, so I just marched right up to him and asked him for a job.”
Her mouth pops open. “Wait, you did? What does that mean?”
This is where it gets hard. This is where it is real.
“It means we are going to go to Beaumont? It means… I don’t know? Everything is different now?”
A low whistle escapes her pursed lips. “Wow. Okay. That’s cool, right? That’s good?”
“Yes, I think so?” I shrug, determined not to let doubt overtake me.
“But sudden, don’t you think? Did this just occur to you out of the blue? Just like that?”
I really should have eaten on the plane, or maybe on the way home. Every sip of the wine trickles down the middle of my body, landing in my empty stomach with an almost audible sound.
“I just… I don’t know what I’m doing here anymore, Wanda,” I confess. “Is it like a habit or something? How have I not been promoted? How have I been single for so long? I have to do something, you know what I mean? I have to do something.”
Her cheeks pucker as she pouts sympathetically. “Aw, girl, I know. Life doesn’t always work out right away.”
“It’s like I feel like I’m in a holding pattern or something. Like I’m circling the airport, waiting for instructions to land. Endlessly circling, with no end in sight.”
She thinks for a few seconds, nodding to herself, staring deep into her wine glass.
“Well, I guess you fixed that, didn’t you?” she finally asks with a sly smile. “What are you going to say to Nathan?”
