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“It doesn’t take that long to get back from Phoenix, does it?” she asked, still glancing back and forth from me to Esme. Hopeless. Completely hopelessly in love.
I shook my head and stole one of her wings.
“No, but Gretchen had this whole sister road trip planned and they booked everything already, so I guess I’m going to be a stand-in sister.” I tried not to gag.
Paige’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit, that’s weird.”
“Yes, it’s going to be weird.”
Another understatement to add to the list.
“Hey, can I get you another round?” Esme asked, leaning on the bar and winking at Paige.
“One more Paloma, please,” Paige said, pushing her empty glass at Esme.
“You got it, baby,” Esme said, and I couldn’t help a little stab of jealousy as she and Paige looked at each other as if the other one hung the moon.
I wanted that. Paige had been trying to get me to try dating apps, but I just wasn’t sure about them. I needed to do something, though. She had Esme, and my other closest friend, Linley, had her boyfriend, Gray. I was the fifth wheel and I hated it.
“Wait, weren’t you and Natalie friends like a million years ago?” Paige asked, and I couldn’t stop from cringing. I’d been kind of hoping she’d forgotten about that. Paige was a few years older than me, and we hadn’t started hanging out until she started dating my brother. I thought she wouldn’t remember what had happened when I was in middle school and she’d already been in high school.
“Yeah,” I said, taking another wing. “Can I get an alcohol, please?” This was directed at Esme, who laughed. One of her favorite things to do was to mix up random mystery drinks and test them on us.
“I don’t even care what it is,” I said.
“You got it.”
She did her thing and pushed a glass with brownish liquid in it toward me. I took a sip and savored as I swallowed. It tasted somehow like ginger ale and smoke and something else. Very nice.
“I like that,” I said.
“Good to know,” Esme said, slapping the bar and then moving on to take care of other patrons. The tourist season was still going strong, and things wouldn’t start to calm down until at least October, when beach season gave way to leaf-peeping season.
“Here’s to your weird week,” Paige said, holding up her glass. I tapped it with mine.
“Let’s get weird.”
* * *
I honestly had no idea what to pack, so I just kind of sprinkled in a little bit of everything. I definitely didn’t want to get stranded without something I needed. I’d already gotten the week off work, so that was set, and all I had to do now was get up at the ass-crack of dawn so Wyatt could drive me to the airport. He still hadn’t thanked me, and neither had Gretchen. She was too busy with her first of many maternity photo shoots. Seriously, she was barely even showing, but did that matter? No. This was going to be the longest pregnancy in the history of time, and we hadn’t even gotten to the baby showers yet. Yes, she was planning multiple showers. The count was up to three already.
If only Natalie wasn’t involved, I would have loved to take a whole week to get away from my family and my boring ass job. But no, I couldn’t have a simple vacation. It had to be complicated and involve the girl who was once my best friend.
Not that I was still bitter about it or anything. It was fine, whatever. I just hoped she appreciated what I was doing for her.
I hated that I knew the reason Natalie didn’t drive was because of anxiety. She’d tried to do driver’s ed with the rest of our class and had such a bad panic attack during the first session that the entire school had been talking about it for weeks.
We hadn’t been talking then, but I’d still wanted to reach out to her and tell her it was okay. It had taken years to destroy that impulse.
Wyatt was on the phone with Gretchen nearly the entire drive to the airport. Having to listen to what should be a private conversation while you were trapped in a metal box was a special kind of torture.
It was a relief to haul my carryon out of the trunk and wave goodbye to him. We weren’t huggers. At least he remembered to tell me to call him when I got to Arizona.
It wasn’t a direct flight, so I had to do some running to get to my gate for my second flight, but other than that, things went relatively smooth. No nosy seatmates, no one putting their nasty feet on my armrest. I slept most of the way.
When I landed in Phoenix around lunchtime, I was hungry and grumpy and wishing I could jump forward in time a week. I still had to go get the rental truck, figure out how to drive it, and then make it to Natalie’s apartment in one piece. Thankfully, Gretchen had hired people to help pack the truck, so my services weren’t required for that, and I had a hotel booked for that night since Natalie lived in a one-bedroom and there was just no fucking way.
As I waited for the car I’d called to take me to pick up the rental truck, a text message from an unknown number came in. I figured it was just a mistake text, but then I read it.
