“Thank you so much, you guys.” Megs swiped the tears from her eyes and followed Haley to the food table. She greeted and laughed with everyone as they filled their plates with food. She ate mini quiche and cut veggies with hummus, then tried all three flavors of cupcakes from Sweet, Sweet Bakery—cookies and cream was her favorite.
People handed her cards and small gifts, which was completely unnecessary, but lovely nonetheless. After an hour of chatting, eating, and listening to music, Haley flicked the lights and told everyone Juicy was officially closing for the night.
Megs, Sylvia, and Frank helped clean up, but there wasn’t much to do since Haley was leaving the decorations up for the week.
“People love a good celebration, even if they don’t know what they’re celebrating.” She put new batteries in the light up pumpkins on the counter.
“Thank you, Hales.” Megs rounded the counter and gave her friend one last hug before walking out the door.
“Can I get a ride home with you?” her mom asked, giving Frank a quick peck before he headed to his truck.
“Frank drove you over?” Megs waved goodnight to him as Sylvia nodded.
“Of course.”
Megs put her certificate and backpack behind the seat, and they got in the car and pulled away from the curb.
“I’m going to miss this,” her mother sighed.
“What? Is this the last surprise party you’re ever going to throw?”
Sylvia laughed. “Heavens, no. I’m going to miss going home together. In two weeks we’ll both be living in different homes.”
“We’ll be five minutes from each other, and you’ll be with Frank. I doubt you’ll even remember I exist.”
Her mom slapped her shoulder playfully. “Not possible, Megs.”
They pulled into the driveway, and it was all Megs could do to gather her things and stumble to her room. Was it really only nine-thirty? She forced herself to take a quick shower since she was dusty and sweaty from the hike, then brushed her teeth and crawled into bed. Her regular cotton sheets felt luxurious against her steamed skin, and she sighed as she sank into the pillow.
Her mind flitted through pictures and colors as her brain clipped connections and powered down. Just as she was about to drift off, Megs gasped and bolted up straight in her bed. She grabbed her phone and flipped through the open windows.
YouTube wasn’t open.
She’d handed her phone to Gideon in the car to watch that YouTube video, but the YouTube app wasn’t open. Megs thought back to that moment in the car. How Gideon had dropped the phone, then put it in the cupholder like it was a poisonous snake. How he hadn’t said more than a few words to her after that, and the ones he did say were clipped. Colder than usual.
She flipped back to her messages with Haley and stared at the text that had popped up on her screen the second she’d opened it.
It’s torture, Hales. Every time he licks his lips in class, I’m right back there in the parking lot with him pressing me up against my car door . . .
She’d gone on.About how being at the auditions made it worse because she had to see him dressed up and laughing with his old college ex. Megs groaned and fell back against her pillow.
Gideon had seen this, he must’ve. The last ten minutes in the car that afternoon snapped into perfect clarity. Gideon knew what she was thinking about him, and then he’d had to sit there in her passenger seat so uncomfortable he couldn’t even carry on a conversation.
Megs plugged her phone back in and curled her body into a ball under the covers. Why had she handed him her phone? Why had her messages been open? How could she possibly show up at class Monday and face him?How could she show up at the bonfire and corn maze?
No audition was worth that kind of humiliation. She doubted the money was either.
Nineteen
In the morningMegs had her wits about her and realized five thousand dollars was definitely worth some embarrassment, and while she didn’t relish the idea of facing Gideon again, she didn’t have much choice. At least not forever. She had to present her mid-term project, and putting it off wouldn’t solve this particular problem. She could either fail her class or show up. It was as simple as that.
She could do this. Maybe she could pretend nothing happened. Pretend she never saw that he saw her text message to Haley, and maybe Gideon would be kind enough to pretend he hadn’t seen it either. They were both adults. They’d had years of practice at stuffing down feelings and pretending awkward things hadn’t happened.
Megs finished her shift at Green Mountain and left John to close up the shop. It felt almost as exciting to walk out that door as it had to take her coding certificate from her instructor the night before. She’d miss chatting with customers, but she didn’t realize how much she needed a change of pace until she was staring it in the face.
Megs crunched over the rustling leaves dancing across the square in the light afternoon breeze. The maple trees along the street were now up to their bellies in orange and red, and somehow the air was laced with pumpkin spice. Must’ve been from the bakery or Joe’s waffles.
Starting tomorrow, she’d have a new view from her parking spot. She’d get to sleep in and start work at eight in the morning at the medical center. As terrifying as that was, Megs was ready. She’d scored an eighty-seven percent on her exam. Probably the highest score she’d ever gotten on a test that required her to be detail oriented and use numbers.
