“Hey, sorry I’m late,” I breathed. I tried another smile. It was apparently so bad it broke Eliza out of her living coma, and Ally made a frightened, high-pitched squeaky sound. Note to self, stop smiling.
“You’re here!” Eliza sounded ridiculously relieved. “Ally was just giving me the play-by-play of her ride home with Miles last night. I mean, every detail. Every single one. I really feel like I was there with them. Like right in the back seat.”
I swallowed back a laugh while Ally said, “Did you know Miles drives a Slug Bug? Like an old one. It’s an antique.”
“Herbie,” I confirmed.
“Yeah, he named it. Miles named his car.”
“It’s from an old movie,” I explained.
“And a new one,” Eliza added. “With Lindsay Lohan.”
I glanced at Eliza over my shoulder. “Ooh, Lindsay Lohan?”
“She’s making a comeback,” Eliza confirmed, a sassy smile lifting one side of her mouth.
“I saw that,” I added. “Good for her.”
“Good for her,” Eliza added.
Ally blinked at us. “So you don’t think it’s weird that a grown-ass man drives a yellow Volkswagen Bug, calls her a she, but named her Herbie?”
“Who am I to get in the way of true love?” I asked, then moved over to my computer so I could pull up the last of her training video. This one had to do with workplace safety.
“I was supposed to ride home with Charlie.” She pouted.
Eliza stood and started gathering her things. “Oh no. Sorry. Charlie has been banned from giving rides. It’s not you, darling. It’s him.” She cleared her throat. “Well, and us. Because we’re the ones who made the ban in the first place. But, uh, you get the picture.”
“Did he really sleep with that many servers?” Ally’s eyes were huge, her mouth slack-jawed and loose. This girl loved gossip.
Eliza shook her head. “The problem was, hewouldn’tsleep with servers. And that made some of them mad. And then they quit. Except there was that one with Will. And the other one with the hair...”
“And the one with the scarf,” I added.
Eliza looked into the distance for a minute. “Oh right. But who wears a silk scarf all summer long? This isn’t Paris. Anyway, that was a long time ago. What matters right now is that you take care of yourself. And this job. And Herbie is always available for rides. Uh, car rides. Home. After work. I have to go now.”
I repressed another giggle because Eliza was the best, and pushed play. “There’s a short quiz when you’re done. It will pull up automatically. Just use the mouse and...” I pulled it over toward her. “There you go.”
“You’re not going to stick around?” she asked, sounding disappointed.
Ally was clearly a full-capacity extrovert. It wasn’t that she was looking to be my friend—which might have freaked me out because, honestly, I didn’t always trust girls who thought I seemed fun or personable. Clearly, they were delusional. It was more like she just liked to be around people. She was one of those girls who probably had a hundred friends and never went to the grocery store or bathroom alone. She probably lived in a sorority house and had flexible plans scheduled in her planner every night for the next six months.
None of those things were bad. It was just that... well, I was an introvert by nature who was sometimes forced into public, but I would almost always rather be working out or reading. And eight out of ten times, I’d rather do those things alone.
Small talk was my actual death. The biggest ick I could ever imagine. If I had to talk to you, fine. But don’t bring the weather or shopping or any other bullshitty bullshit up. Real talk only. Thank you.
“I have other work to get to,” I told her. One final attempt at a smile. She tried not to react. I decided today was the day I quit smiling forever. “Just come find me when you’re done. I’ll have you roll silverware and check salt and peppers, ketchup bottles, all that fun stuff. Yeah?”
“Uh, okay, sure.”
“Thanks, Ally. You’re doing great.”
On the other side of the kitchen door, I tried to suck in a deep breath, but all I smelled was good food. My stomach growled angrily at the abuse I’d put it through today, and I realized for the first time since Adleigh had told me our dad had tracked her down that I hadn’t eaten anything but my protein shake and toast.
Ugh, I was starving. And now I was irritated. I usually had a better routine than this. Sure, double stacking Pilates and Muay Thai was normal for me, but when I got home, I would make a massive lunch full of fresh veggies, open-faced toast, and protein yogurt. Sometimes, I’d even splurge on an apple with peanut butter or Nutella. But not today.
I walked over to the fridge and started pulling stuff out. It wouldn’t do any good to faint on the floor tonight because I wasn’t responsible enough to feed myself.
