“Are you all right?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I’m... so sorry about your car and... your face. I didn’t mean to.”
“I know you didn’t, and both my car and face are fine.” I tried to ignore the massive amount of puke in my car, not to mention the smell of it all over me. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
Greyson slid over, and I helped her to her feet.
“I... I think I... ,” she began, then clamped her mouth shut.
I pulled her to the bushes lining the parking lot and held her chin-length hair at the back of her head, steadying her as she threw up again, once, then twice, and then a third time.
“Think you got all of it?”
Greyson nodded, and I let go of her hair and tucked it behind her ears.
Greyson and I sat side by side on the curb. I scanned the parking lot, wiping as much of the puke from my hair as I could with the napkins from my glove box. Nina and the girls stood together at the back of my car, but there was no sign of Alex. He was supposed to meet us here right at seven. I had no problem taking care of Greyson, but I didn’t know what Alex would do if he were here.
Just as I took out my phone to call him, headlights washed yellow light over us, and his minivan pulled into the parking lot. It was too dark to make out his face through the window, but he must have seen us, because as soon as the engine shut off, he was out of the van and jogging over.
“What’s going on?” he asked. He sank into a crouch in front of Greyson, his eyes anxious when they met mine.
“Carsick,” I said.
Alex nodded, then turned to Greyson. “How are you feeling, Grey?”
I backed away to give them some privacy, and Alex’s eyes widened when he noticed the state of my appearance. “I see you were in the splash zone.”
I stared down at myself. “Ah, yeah. Fortunately, I have another shirt. I do not have other hair, but it’s nothing some water can’t fix. Which I’m going to take care of right now.”
Leaving Alex with Greyson, I met Mia, Kitty, and Nina at the back of my car.
“Is Greyson okay?” Kitty asked.
I stripped off my shirt, the one beneath it thankfully clean. “She’ll be fine, but I think she’s embarrassed. Maybe you two should go check on her. You can tell her about the time you tested the bounds of the word ‘unlimited’ at Olive Garden.” The girls sprinted off, and I turned to Nina. “Sorry about the shirt.”
Nina dismissed my apology with a wave of her hand. “Now it’s officially a mom shirt. Nothing says ‘mom’ like getting puked on.”
“I guess so.” I ducked down to look into the back seat of my car and sighed. “This is... not good. How am I supposed to clean this?”
“There’s a CVS down the street. It’ll be quicker if we walk there. We can get water, trash bags, some paper towels. I’ll tell Alex to keep an eye on the girls.”
We set off for the CVS when Nina returned. Even at dusk the July heat was stifling, and as Nina and I waited at the crosswalk, I realized she hadn’t spoken since we’d left the parking lot. She stood beside me, staring straight ahead and chewing on her lip. The Walk sign appeared, and I looped my arm through hers, hoping she’d loosen up, but when we made it to the sidewalk and she still hadn’t said anything, I couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“Nina, what is it?” I asked.
Nina opened her mouth, then hesitated. Strange. Nina never held back what she was thinking. “You’re going to be upset.”
Even stranger. “Seriously? You’ve never cared about upsetting me before.”
She gave me a sidelong glance as we neared the glowing red sign of the CVS. “I’ve been... getting this feeling around Alex.”
Here we go, I thought, sure my suspicions about her and Alex were about to be confirmed. I tried to keep it light and nudged her with my elbow. “Gross, Nina, I don’t need to hear about your lady boner.”
“God, Jo, not like that.”
Now I was really worried. Since when did Nina not find boner jokes funny? “Okay. What kind offeelingdo you get around him? Indigestion?”
We pushed through the doors of the CVS and stepped into searing fluorescent lights. Nina moved in the direction of the household items and pulled me into the aisle. She stopped, tucked a roll of paper towels under her arm, and faced me full on.
