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Gabby opened another door. “I’m looking for comfort food. Ahh. Potato chips. Perfect.”
She pulled out a bag of Doritos before moving to the refrigerator and checking out what was inside. When she found what she wanted, she reached in, grabbed a half-finished bottle of wine and held it up, grinning at us.
“So you own a fashion company now?” she asked, strolling past us and plopping down onto the sofa, only to dig her hand into the Doritos bag. After getting herself a handful, she shook the bag at me, offering me some.
Not sure what else to do, I sat next to her and retrieved my own Doritos. “Yeah,” I answered. “I guess. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that fact.”
Gabby snorted as she pulled the loose cork from the already-half-finished wine and took a swig straight from the bottle. After wiping the back of her hand across her mouth, she passed the wine to me.
“Well first, I say you should find yourself a better car, because… Hello. I swear that junker you drive is my alarm clock. Every morning, it wakes me up at seven forty-five sharp by backfiring right outside my window. And then, maybe shop for a new place to live, because, uh, yeah… This may be the nicest apartment in the building, but it still ain’t exactly CEO, room-and-board material, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” Camille agreed with a nod. “Those would probably be my top two immediate-buy things as well, if I found myself unexpectedly rich someday.” She took the bag of chips from me because my hands were full. Then she sat on the coffee table facing us and retrieved her own handful.
I took a long gulp of the wine as I realized, holy shit, I was unexpectedly rich again, wasn’t I? I could buy a bouquet of fresh, new flowers every day. New socks. Underwear. Shoes… Ooh, new shoes.
All because someone had murdered my dad.
My eyes stung when I lowered the bottle. I blamed it on taking too big of a gulp.
“I hadn’t even thought of that yet,” I admitted. Shaking my head, I let out a sad laugh. “I haven’t thought of a lot of things yet. There’s just so much—”
“I bet.” Gabby stole the chips from Camille to restock her supply, so I gave Camille the wine. “I’d probably be flipping the fuck out right now if I were you.”
I nodded. “That’s actually the perfect description of how I’m handling this.”
With a laugh, Gabby passed the chips to me. Camille gave her the wine.
“If it makes you feel any better, you look absolutely flawless in freak mode,” Camille offered. When Gabby and I glanced at her, she shrugged. “What? My nose gets all red and eyes puffy and sometimes I break out in a rash when I’m all emotional.” With a roll of her eyes, she muttered, “I hate my skin.”
Passing the chips to her after taking my fair share, I argued, “Your skin is awesome. I wish I had freckles like yours.”
“Ha.” She rolled her eyes, burying her hand in the bag. “I will gladly share.”
“Want to know something pathetic?” I said, my brain switching gears back to my day.
“Absolutely,” Gabby answered, handing me the wine.
I gulped, dribbled some down my chin and wiped it away with my fingers. “Despite everything that happened, the one thing my mind keeps returning to is Ezra.”
“Ooh, the hottie business suit from the flower shop?” Camille asked, her eyebrows raised with interest.
I nodded. “Yeah. We’ve kinda been… No, actually, there’s no kinda to it. We’ve totally been seeing each other since that day, and…” I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
I proceeded to tell them how he’d been involved in this whole mess. “…And now it just feels all weird. I can’t say he definitely did anything wrong, and yet… Yet I feel so betrayed by him right now. Am I totally off point here, or is this… Is this emotion justified?”
“Feelings don’t have to be justifiable to be felt,” Camille said, smiling sadly. “You can convince yourself all you want that it was a totally selfish desire you had, wishing he’d jumped from his chair in that conference room, ran around to your side of the table and swept you into his arms, supporting you through all of it with no concern for himself, but the fact of the matter remains, that was what you wanted, and when he didn’t fulfill your needs, it hurt.”
“But—”
“Maybe you should talk to him before figuring anything out there,” Gabby said. “I mean, maybe you were high on emotions and reading things into him that weren’t there. Or maybe you were spot on, and he just became enemy number one. But it’s probably something you should figure out from him.”
I nodded. That was a good idea. When I told her so, she preened a little and admitted, “I guess I have some workable brain cells occasionally.”
Camille took a gulp of the wine and weaved a little unsteadily. “I gotta admit, I’m stuck over here, all kinds of curious about what kind of magic wand your Ezra must be carrying around in his pants.”
I choked on the chip I was trying to swallow. Eyes watering, I pounded on my chest and cried, “Excuse me?”
“What?” She shrugged innocently. “I mean, in all honesty, it didn’t take him long to bibbity bobbity boo his way right into your heart. So now, of course, I gotta know what he wooed you so thoroughly with.”
