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“Don’t panic,” Sarah said. “You have your phone on you—call someone to come down and yank the door open from the outside.” Her own phone was in her bedroom charging.
“Right. My phone.” Retrieving it from the pocket of her skirt, she scrolled through the contact list.
“Come on, Lia—just pick someone. Almost everyone you know is upstairs.”
“I’ll try Wes,” she said, hitting Dial.
Sarah’s cheeks flushed again at the mention.
Lia eyed her with amusement, her panic momentarily forgotten. “So, Marissa said you two have been joined at the hip lately.”
Not anymore. But her heartache wasn’t something she wanted to discuss with Lia. She still hadn’t even talked to Whitney or Jessica about everything yet. She desperately needed some girl time with her besties. They’d help her figure out what to do next.
“Is he answering?” she asked, nodding toward the phone.
“Why won’t the call connect?” Lia asked as the call refused to go through.
“Try again.”
She did, but once again the call wouldn’t work.
Lia glanced at the display screen. “No bars. There’s no service down here.” Her staggered breathing returned. “Do you have your phone?”
“No.”
“Oh my God…”
Sarah grabbed her shoulders and moved her back toward the cellar wall. “Deep breaths. It’s fine. I’m sure someone will come looking for us when we don’t reappear upstairs.”
Lia nodded. “You’re right. Okay. So what do we do in the meantime?”
Sarah shrugged. “Wait, I guess.” Sliding her back along the stone wall, she sat on the floor. This actually wasn’t so bad. She’d needed an excuse to get away from everyone; she just wished she were alone.
Lia surveyed the concrete floor, contemplating the likelihood of getting dirty, then shrugged and sat next to her. She hit Redial, attempting the call again, then set the phone on the floor next to her when it once again failed.
“I’m sure you’d rather be stuck down here with Wes,” Lia said.
“He probably wouldn’t want that.” Sarah rested her head against the stone wall and crossed her ankles out in front of her.
Lia turned to face her. “Why not? You two were practically all goo-goo eyed for each other that night at the fair, and I’m sure things heated up with Marissa at camp last week.”
Oh, they’d heated up all right. Then they’d fizzled out fast.
Unfortunately, Wes may be able to just walk away from the connection they’d had, but Sarah couldn’t just turn off the emotions. She’d fallen hard and fast for her former crush, and the last few weeks had only reinforced her desire to have other things in life besides her career—a relationship, a family…
“Things are complicated.”
“Life always is,” Lia said. She paused. “I’m sorry if I was a huge pain.”
“You really were,” Sarah said wryly. Though right now, her high school frenemy was the least of her concerns. It was silly to always have compared herself to Lia in the first place.
“Well, I have to give you credit. The way you were able to save the day with Grandmama’s virtual presence might have saved my marriage.”
Sarah looked at her as though she were talking a different language. “What are you talking about? You have an amazing marriage, along with the perfect career…a penthouse in New York…”
Lia scoffed. “My career is slowly killing me, if my husband doesn’t do it first, and the penthouse in New York is beautiful but lonely.”
Sarah blinked as she stared at her. “Wow. I had no idea.” Social media really did make it easy for people to portray their lives in any way they wanted. No one really knew what was happening beyond the internet connection.
