Pinching the bridge of her nose, she interrupts. “Yousharea cat?”
“We just saved her from freezing to death, but he’s taking her to the shelter today. They were closed over the holidays.”
“So you’re, like, fully together? How is that going to work?”
My anxiety-driven racing pulse and clammy hands turn into melancholia. With an intense quiver in my bottom lip, my voice cracks when I open my mouth.
“I d—I don’t know, Holls. He keeps promising he’ll come visit, but with the situation at the ranch, it’s too much for me to askwhen exactlyhe plans to do that.”
“Nah, it’s not too much to ask.”
“He wants to… I know he wants to come see me.”
“If he wanted to, he would.” She's practically shouting, her hands clapping together to punctuate each word, causing the neighbouring table of twenty-something girls to look our way and give a hurrah in solidarity.
Sometimes I really love women.
“Okay, okay. You’re right.”
“Always am.” She sits back, crossing her arms over her chest and adjusting the sleeves of her wine-coloured sweater. “I’m actually really annoyed with myself for not thinking of this. You two just seemed so unlikely, given your entirely different lifestyles. But clearly finance bros and tech guys in the city aren’t doing it for you.” After mulling it over for a second, she adds, “You know what? Iamgoing to take credit for this, actually, since I convinced you to go to the ranch for Christmas.”
Her priorities definitely add up here.
“You’re not pissed I didn’t tell you sooner?”
“Well, yeah,duh.If you’d told me, I could’ve found a million sneaky excuses to force that reconnection months earlier than I did.”
My heartbeat’s slowly returning to normal, thanks to the genuine—albeit somewhat conniving—smile on my best friend’s face.
“I think things were meant to happen the way they did,” I say.
“Let me just say, our rule about you showing me every wild dick picture you receive has officially gone out the window. But,God, I love this. I love both of you.”
“Like I said… It doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will ever work out long term. So don’t get your hopes up.”
“Blah, blah, blah. Get me a hot dog bar at your wedding as a thank you.”
Chapter twenty
Eira
January 29
Lucas
Saw this and thought of you
I accidentally cackle out loud on the train home from work when the picture comes through: a mug covered in a pattern of cat butts. An old woman narrows her eyes at me, and I continue to snicker quietly into the collar of my wool coat.
Eira
It feels like I should be offended by that…
Lucas
This crosses the line, but not the flat-assed dude pictures you send me all the time?
Eira
