“What are you doing up here?” Ruby asked with an amused smile. It was true, though; Elle rarely visited this hallway anymore now that she’d moved into the owners’ quarters.
“Looking for you, actually,” Elle said. “The guys are going into town for beers tonight, so I thought we should have a girls’ night.”
“Jake told me the same thing,” Megan said. “And I’m totally down for girls’ night.”
“But not at Bar None,” Elle said. “Because that’s where they’re going. Remember that time we accidentally crashed their night when Theo and I were fighting?”
“The night I met Jake,” Megan murmured, still flat on her back in bed with two dogs jockeying for position on top of her.
“Let’s go to that new wine bar,” Ruby suggested. “You can order delivery from any of the restaurants downtown.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Elle said.
And so, three hours later, they were cozied up to a table in the rear of the bar with a platter of sushi in front of them and two open bottles of wine—because Ruby preferred white wine with sushi, while Elle and Megan were most of the way through their bottle of red.
“I have my first dress fitting on Friday,” Elle said. “I’m so excited to see it, you know, not the sample dress, but the actual dress I’ll be walking down the aisle in.”
“Ooh, can we come?” Ruby asked.
“I was kind of hoping you would,” Elle said, something a little sad in her smile. She’d lost her mom when she was ten, so she often leaned on her friends at times like these when she needed someone to fill these mother-daughter moments.
“I’ll bring my camera,” Megan said. “Get some shots of you seeing your dress for the first time.” The sample dress Elle had tried on was ivory, but she’d ordered it with pink rhinestone embellishments around the bodice, and Megan could hardly wait to see it on her.
“I’m so lucky to have you guys.” Elle’s eyes went glossy.
“Likewise.” They leaned in for a group hug, careful not to spill any of their wine.
“We’re all lucky to have each other,” Ruby said as they broke apart, and if Megan wasn’t mistaken, her eyes were a bit glossy as well.
“Any action on your new online dating profile?” Megan asked as she picked up her chopsticks and went for some sushi.
Ruby scrunched her nose. “I’ve had a few messages, but nobody worth meeting. I’ll keep looking, though.”
“Definitely do,” Elle told her. “Who knows, the future love of your life might contact you tomorrow.”
“I don’t know about that,” Ruby said, taking a sip of her wine. “But I’ll keep trying. Maybe soon we’ll all have someone special in our lives.”
Megan’s thoughts drifted to Jake, imagining a future where they hung out with Elle and Theo, and Ruby and her date, before shaking it from her mind. Everything about her relationship with Jake was supposed to be simple and uncomplicated, but right now, it felt like the opposite.
