Wildcat: Are you fucking with me?
Emme: A little
Wildcat: Call me when you’re home
“Wow.”Grace turned in a slow circle as she took in Ryan’s condo. “You weren’t kidding about—” She waved a hand at the long wall of full-length windows and the city stretched out before us. “I thought it was going to be cold the way all these ultramodern places are but”—she smiled at the blue sofa, the casual dining table, the white kitchen—“it’s like actual people live here.”
“Do you want to see the den? The bookcases go all the way up to the ceiling. There’s one of those roll-y ladder things.”
She pinned me with a stare made more fierce than usual by the heavy-handed makeup and elegant updo. “I can’t believe you have to ask.”
We wandered through the rooms—she had her Belle in the Beast’s library moment on the rolling ladder—and I pointed out all the luxurious features. The towel warmer in the bathroom,the ice machine that produced twenty different shapes, the windows with adjustable transparency levels to block out light.
When we settled on the roof deck with a bottle of wine to catch the last of the sunset, she said, “This suits you.”
“What? The penthouse condo? Or weeknight drinking?”
“You know what I mean.” She ghosted a hand over the short sleeve of my dress, a cute little thing included in the items selected by Wren. “You look really nice.”
“Thanks.” I was pleasantly surprised by Wren’s work on replacing my clothes. The pieces looked like something I’d choose—but better. More polished, more refined. And the wild thing was that I felt better too. I felt put together and confident, and those things made a difference.
Grace shot a glance toward my ring and smiled. “I’m happy he finally made a move.”
“That he—oh. Yeah.” I bobbed my head too many times and stared into my glass as something twisted inside me. It’d been months of shaving down the truth to keep her wedding on track and it still ached like a muscle stretched in the wrong direction for too long. “Me too.”
“I know you live in a completely different world now.” She gestured to the fireplace that unfolded itself from the wall at the press of a button and the skyline outlined in the last light of day. “But you’re still my best friend. You can’t get rid of me so don’t try.”
“Why would I try?”
Her shoulders lifted to her ears and she cut her gaze to the stone-tiled floor. “I don’t know. You wouldn’t, I guess.”
I wasn’t used to seeing insecurity from Grace. Nothing shook her confidence. Even when she was uncertain, she stood strong.
“It’s been different, you know, since I moved out.” She set her glass on a side table and clasped her hands between her long legs. “And then since Teddy and even more since Ryan. Ididn’t notice it at first because I’ve become exactly who I said I wouldn’t and now the only thing I can think about is my wedding but I haven’t been a good friend to you in a long time and I miss you so much. I don’t want to lose you.”
I perched on the arm of her chair and gathered her in an awkward hug. “You won’t.”
She held me for a long moment before saying, “I don’t know how to tell you this.”
My stomach dropped. “Whatever it is, we’ll be okay. We always are.”
She shook her head and scraped her teeth over her bottom lip. “I interviewed for a third-grade position at the school in our neighborhood last month.” She glanced away. “They offered me the position this morning.”
My stomach tossed itself off the deck and down fifty-nine floors to the street below. “Oh.”
“The commute is killing me,” she hurried to say. “It’s at least ninety minutes each way. And I thought it would be okay, I thought I’d have so much time for audiobooks and pods, but it’s sucking the life out of me and I canwalkto this school. We talked about moving but we just finished work on the house. And it was Ben’s grandmother’s house and it matters too much to him.”
Despite my stomach flopping around on the street and my head filling with static, I nodded. I hadn’t realized the commute was taking such a toll. “Of course the house matters to him. It matters to you too. And it’s going to hurt like hell to see you go but it’s a good kind of hurt. It’s a happy change.” I squeezed her shoulders. “I’m happy for you.”
“I haven’t told anyone else yet.” She took a sip of her wine and blew out a breath. “I wanted to talk to you first.”
Again, she needed me to be all right. So, I would. “Audrey will develop a brunch, happy hour, and girls’ dinner party calendar,and she’ll politely enforce it.” I settled back on my seat because the armrest had left my butt partially numb. “Jamie will have a small tantrum and then beg you to take her with you.”
“Shay will cry,” Grace said with a laugh. “Even though she was the first one to leave.”
“She will cry,” I agreed.
“And what about you? What will you do?”
