AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And wine,” she says, uncorking the bottle. “Lots of wine.”
“Amen to that,” Jules walks into the kitchen. She’s changed into baggy sweatpants and an ancient T-shirt. She’s put her hair in a high ponytail and cleaned the makeup off her face, exposing enviably flawless skin. “I’ve cued up P and P.”
“What?” Toni asks.
“We’re eating pizza, watchingPride and Prejudice, and getting blind drunk,” Jules explains to Toni. “Feel free to join.”
“The girls’ night.” Toni nods her head. “I can get on board with that.Especiallythe blind drunk part.”
I place three wine glasses on the counter and then grab the open bottle from Toni. I pour generously, knowing that there’s always more wine on Clementine Lane and that, tonight, we all need escape where we can find it.
I pass the first to Toni, the second to Jules, and when I pick up the third, I look deep into the glass. Lizzie’s face flashes again. This time, I am lying on the back seat of her car, my mind coming in and out of focus, but my eyes do not falter as I watch the wild woman throw her head back and howl at the moon. “Fuck.” When the tears threaten, I raise my glass. “To Lizzie.”
“To Lizzie.” Juliette clinks her glass against mine.
“Finally running free,” Toni adds, meeting our glasses in the middle. “To Lizzie.”
When she finishes the toast, we all drink deeply.
Lyla
When I enter the house,my first thought is that Lizzie’s throwing a tantrum again. There are dresses and shoes trailing down the stairs and littering the floor. At least four empty wine bottles sit on the table, huddled as if afraid of what lies in the next room.
The girls are sitting in the lounge, chatting. Their voices filter through to me, and when I strain to hear, the words, “Lizzie loved this part,” reach me, reminding me that Lizzie will never throw a tantrum again. I remove my jacket and sling it over the back of a dining room chair.
“Guys?” I walk forward, noting the mess of makeup and nail polish on the coffee table. The girls are slumped on the sofa, side-by-side, each of them wearing a tailored dress. Catherine in emerald green with sequins, Jules in hot pink, and Toni in gold that shimmers like mermaid scales. Despite their inebriated state, their makeup and nail polish has been painted on perfectly, not a single flaw between them. That about sums up the girls.
Strange, as much as I despised Elizabeth, it was always her and me screwing up, be it saying the wrong thing to a client, ruining our makeup, or bending over and accidentally ripping a new dress up the backside.
As I watch, Toni takes a sip of wine straight from the bottle and then passes it to Cat.
“Christ, I was only gone two hours.”
“We had a fashion show,” Jules says, explaining the mess.
“And now we’re watchingPride and Prejudice.”
“Pizza is almost ready,” Cat adds softly.
“Which version?” I glance at the television and find Keira Knightley’s face. Two-thousand and five, I surmise before any of them replies.
“The Keira Knightley version,” Catherine supplies after a long delay. She shifts on the sofa to look at me. “Where did you go?”
“To see Rye.”
But Toni’s dark eyes see more than I am prepared to volunteer. “How are you doing, kiddo?”
“I’m fine.” If my eyes are burning from the bout of hot, salty tears I allowed myself in the safety of Rye’s workshop, I don’t mention it now.
“And Rye?” Cat prompts.
I shrug. “Same as usual. Ornery as a mule. But good.”
“I don’t get you two,” Juliette says with a sad shake of her head.
Walking closer, I hold out my hand for the bottle and take a long swig when Catherine passes it to me. “There’s nothing to get.” But my heart aches a little as the lie leaves my mouth. “We were friends, then lovers, now friends again.”
The truth is so much more complicated. Rye and I may have been lovers, but the truth that only he and I know is that it only happened once before he walked away. I don’t even know if that classifies us as exes, or if I’m just a childhood friend he regretted fucking.
