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Everyone had their baggage. That was hers.
Easily inflicted in a household that made her feel small and invisible.
Unwanted.
A burden.
She blinked back tears quickly and took another deep drink of her wine. She had pictured her first meeting with Anton to go differently. So, very, damn differently but that was a fantasy. Something she’d dreamed up, because that was who she was. She was a dreamer. She preferred it to real life. Real life was too real. It was sad and hard. It was the kind of place that gave you a home where your shortcomings were pointed out at every turn.
Grace wanted more for herself, so she’d learned to dream. She’d left that cold and silent place behind when she’d taken her internship with Lou.
Hadn’t she?
Maybe. Maybe not.
And her run-in with Anton told her more than likely the answer was a big fat hell-to-the-no.This was a man that made it known he’d liked her. As silly as it was, she'd felt safe with Anton. That made it hurt all the more, really.
She cleared her throat. “I’m pretty sure he talks to Siri with more manners than he talked to me, okay?” She shook her head and sighed, fingers tightening on the stem of her wine glass. “It wasn’t that he thought I was a delivery girl. It’s not what he called me. It’showhe said it.”
“I know, and it was out of line. I laid into him about it,” Lou told her, prompting a surprised look from Grace.
“Really?”
“Of course. No one talks to my best friend like that and lives to tell the tale unscathed. He swears he didn’t know it was you, but even if it had been a stranger, it wasn’t okay. He knows that, and he wants to make it up to you.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Grace toyed with her wineglass again. She was pleased at Lou’s defense and smiled in spite of her anger at Anton. Who cared if she had nursed a tiny—okay massive—crush on the man?
He wasn’t Lou.
She needed Lou. She didn’t need him.
Lou’s loyalty was unwavering and it was one of the major reasons Grace was determined to face down aliens at Lou’s side. It was the least she could do for the woman who had never let her down. If they got abducted by extraterrestrials, then by god it was going to be together. Grace’s smile widened at the thought and Lou rolled her eyes.
“You’re thinking about how we’re going to get abducted by aliens together again, aren’t you?”
Grace shrugged and looked down at her nails. “Look, all I’m saying is it’s statistically plausible.”
Lou groaned but still raised her wine glass. “To our eventual unsolved disappearance.”
Grace grinned. “But at least we’ll be together.” They clinked glasses and settled back into their seats, but Grace raised an eyebrow when she noticed Lou studying her over the rim of her glass. “What’s with the sly look?” It wasn’t good when Lou got a sly look. The last time Lou had gotten a sly look they’d been arrested for trespassing.
“You like him,” Lou said, tipping her glass towards Grace.
“Like hell I do.” Grace tossed her hair over her shoulder with a flick of her hand. “I don’t have an opinion on him,” she lied. She glanced away when she saw Lou raising an eyebrow. She knew she was lying, but that didn’t mean she wanted her best friend pointing it out.
“So me telling you that he just walked in and is on his way over here is fine?” Lou asked, nodding over Grace’s shoulder at the door.
“What? Where?” Grace’s eyes widened in shock and she whirled around in her chair in the direction Lou had indicated, but she went still when a second later Lou’s laughter rang in her ears.
Lou slapped her hand on the table. “Gotcha!” she crowed.
Grace closed her eyes and breathed. “You’re such a brat,” she hissed at her friend, turning around to see Lou giggling into her wine glass.
“You said you didn’t have an opinion.” Lou shrugged and looked down into her wine glass with a smug smile. “But that reaction has me thinking otherwise.”
“I hate you sometimes. You're aware of this, yes?”
“Yeah, I know. But let’s get down to the real matter at hand.” Lou looked up at her friend with a bright smile. “You areinto Anton. When did that happen?”
