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Chessy laughs, delighted, and wiggles her toes—very much to the annoyance of the girl doing her nails. “I’ve been so nervous about my job interview tomorrow. Thank you for letting me tag along,” she says, looking at me with a gleeful expression all too similar to Leila’s.
Chessy is younger than Leila, but she has the same upbeat energy about her, and it isn’t hard to see that these two are sisters. They both have the same narrow frames and shiny blue eyes. The difference is that Chessy's mousy brown hair is styled into loose waves, and she prefers to wear heavier makeup. Leila, on the other hand, prefers to tie her hair up and keep her makeup light.
I shut my eyes and have just started to relax when a heavy Brooklyn accent grates on my ears. I look at the door, startled.
I know that voice.
“Plot twist! Why, isn’t this a surprise!” A tall blonde in a tight pink dress walks over to me. Claw-like nails reach out and she parts her red-painted lips as wide as they will go. Shelly Bones. The most annoying girl in high school, who spent a whole semester spreading stupid rumors to get everyone to hate me.
“Shelly, what are you doing here?” I ask. She leans down to kiss me on both cheeks like we’re in Europe or something.
“I just got back from a year in Paris, and I just had to go shopping in the city before heading down to Snowdrop Valley. You know, for the reunion.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Paris. I’m not sure I fully believe her. Shelly was a compulsive liar at school. She’s not done, though. “Crazy story. Last time I was in the city, I bumped into another old friend of ours, remember Emma King?”
I do remember Emma. Shelly’s on-off bestie, who was a million times nicer to me than Shelly ever was. She was always drawing pictures of shoes during math.
Last year, she was all over the news.
She and her fiancé raised a ridiculous amount of money for the children’s hospital, just by asking their wedding guests to make donations instead of buying gifts. Then her Schnooze shoes hit the market and she’s been a superstar ever since. It’s another reminder of why I don’t want to be at that dreadful reunion. I’ll be newly single with nothing but a pocket full of broken dreams and a permanent worry line.
I nod to Shelly, not quite finding the words to speak yet. She plops daintily into the empty chair beside me and leans in, ready to dish out the dirt on Emma.
“A couple of years ago, I caught her trying on wedding dresses in that fancy bridal boutique on main.” She chuckles and I get a waft of her expensive perfume. It clings to the back of my throat and I almost gag, but Shelly keeps talking, unaware. “And guess what? She wasn’t getting married. She didn’t even have a boyfriend.”
Chessy and Leila say, “No way!” in unison.
“Why was she trying on wedding dresses?” I ask, not understanding the logic. I figure this is just another elaborate story from Shelly’s overactive imagination.
“She was fired from her job and felt sorry for herself,” Shelly confides, her eyes glinting. “How pathetic is that?” she asks. I close my mouth.
I take it all back, I like Emma again. The poor girl is normal. Just like the rest of us, it looks like she can’t catch a break from gossip. Even now that she’s successful.
Leila laughs heartily. “Well, I think it’s genius. Next time I get fired, I’m totally going to try that!”
Chessy giggles. “I’ll go with you. I’ll bet trying on expensive wedding dresses can turn any day around.”
Shelly’s smile stiffens, and I can tell she’s not happy with the reaction. She probably expected gasps and snide comments. I glance at Leila with a smug smile.
Leila and her sisters are not the gossiping type. It’s one of the reasons why Leila will always be my bestie.
She might think she’s a hot mess, jumping from job to job with no grasp on this adulting game, but she’s the most genuine person in the world. She and her sisters Chessy and Lucy have one thing that the likes of Shelly can only dream of: a true bond. I’m honored to be a part of their sisterhood.
Sensing that her salacious gossip is not welcome here, Shelly makes her excuses to leave. But just as she reaches the door, she stops in her tracks as though struck by a thought.
“Oh, forgot to mention,” she says, swiveling to look at me again. “Logan Black, you know he’s an NFL player now, right?”
I lock my smile in place, resisting the urge to frown at the sound of his name. “Yeah.”
The corner of her mouth lifts and her eyes have that sparkle again, like she can read my body language and knows my ears are straining, waiting for her to dish out the information she has on him.
“He’s just broken up with his supermodel girlfriend.”
My heart stops. Then Shelly leans forward, dips her head, and grins at me like a Cheshire cat. “And he’s going to be at the reunion.”
Something terrible happens then.
A squeal zooms out of my open mouth and ricochets off the salon walls. There’s an awkward silence as everyone in the salon stops what they’re doing and looks around for the owner of the banshee noise. I shut my mouth, but my burning cheeks must be giving me away because now all eyes are on me.
