Seriously, could they have picked a worse time to break the news?
Her entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of forty-eight hours, her parents’ announcement being the final nail in the proverbial (and in Theo’s case, nonexistent) coffin.Seemed like as good a time as any to take a last-minute midlife crisis vacation to a foreign country.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Harold asked.
“Oh, I was thinking about a friend.”
“A friend?” Harold raised his brow. “What sort of friend?”
“Not that kind of friend,” she said with a bit of a laugh and then waved her arms around their surroundings. “I mean, look at me. I’m by myself. On a seniors’ singles tour.”
“Why is that, exactly?” he asked, folding his hands in his lap and turning in his seat to face her. “What brings a gal like you on a tour like this?”
Dani sighed and leaned back against the headrest. “I didn’t know it was a sixty-plus tour, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“I figured as much. Been meaning to ask you, but I didn’t want to be rude by asking what in the golly heck brought you here. Thought maybe you were Cosmo’s girlfriend at first.”
Dani scrunched her face at the idea. Cosmo may have been a young whippersnapper when compared to Harold, but he was still at least twenty years her senior.
“So maybe Cosmo’s not your type,” Harold said with a chuckle. “But alone? Don’t you have someone special—or maybe even that friend of yours you’re thinking about—who could have gone on a trip with you?”
Oof.
“Well, when you put itthatway…” Dani said, and let her voice trail off.
Because what was she supposed to say? That, no, she didn’t have someone special because for the last decade she’d dated only casually so she could be available if and when her parents needed her? Or perhaps that her only real friend nowadays, hercoworker Beau, preferred sand and mojitos over crumbling ruins and ouzo. In his words, hewouldn’t be caught dead in hideous hiking boots.
Poor word choice, Beau. Too soon. Much too soon.
Of course, there was always Eddie, butshe’dbe caught dead before taking a trip like this with him. Nothing was worse than when people asked iftheywere dating. Gross. Besides, they got along fine—she might even consider them “friends” given how much time they hung out together with Theo—but things were different now that Theo was gone. It was almost as if his absence was an elephant in the room whenever they got together and they didn’t know how to act around each other without him there.
Most of Dani’s other friends had left Grand Rapids straight after high school, and those who hadn’t, well, there was nothing like showing her face again after moving back home only a few weeks into college. Sure, Dani, the dutiful daughter that she was, could point to her dad’s accident as the justification for her return to Grand Rapids. But she’d heard the rumors:
Did you hear Daniela Guiterrez couldn’t hack it at the University of Michigan?
I heard she flunked out.
I knew she was nothing but talk.
She thought she was so much better than us, and look at her now.
Ah yes, look at her now. Single. Midthirties. And working in the library, of all places. Served her right for that stunt she pulled in tenth grade, reshelving all the books in their high school library by “vibes” rather than author name and genre. Back then, she’d never been one to turn down a dare.
But that was then.
Once voted “most likely to bungie jump off the Eiffel Tower,” now Dani would probably be more accurately described as “most likely to die ofactualboredom.” The only times she felt like her old self were the times when Theo visited.
We figuredyouneededus, her parents had explained, sitting her down at the dinner table to break the news about their impending move.You seemed so unhappy and sad all the time. We thought youwantedto come home.It was difficult to recall the discussion surrounding her return home all these years later. She remembered saying she’d come home without hesitation when her mom first told her about her dad falling down a manhole working for the city’s public works department during a storm event and how he’d be out of work for at least a few months. She’d volunteered because they’d asked. Hadn’t they?
The conversation was a little hazy now.
Her return had nothing to do with the fact that she was homesick. Or that she didn’t get into all the classes she’d wanted. Or that she and her new roommate weren’t getting along. Or that she missed her old friends and family.
Home made sense. At least it did back then.
Could she even call it that anymore, though, when her home was literally being taken from her?
“I’m sorry. There I go, being nosy again,” Harold said.
