“So what are you currently working on?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.”
Riley straightens her back. “It’s not a… cheerful topic, to be honest.” When Charlotte keeps looking at her, she continues. “I’m working on a scientific paper about euthanasia, researching the effects on both the patient and their relatives. I’m trying to defend the morality ofit, hoping it’ll become legal everywhere. There’s a lot of people who don’t find it ethical, saying we shouldn’t be playing God or whatever. I think preventing the option of assisted suicide is playing God, and they are the immoral ones.”
Something dark has cast over Riley’s face, but there’s definitely a sense of passion in her words. Charlotte is taken aback by this piece of information. There’s no way she would’ve thought that happy, playful Riley, holds such a heavy job.
It doesn’t happen often, but: “Riley, I don’t know what to say. I mean—I agree, completely, but… wow.”
Riley chuckles, but the smile doesn’t reach her eyes. “What about you? What do you do?”
“I, uhm...” Charlotte nervously starts rolling up her sleeves, “I’m a life coach. I have my own practice,” she says, like it’s something she should apologize for. It feels silly, compared to Riley’s project. When she looks up there’s a curious glimmer in Riley’s eyes, and something… a hint of something she can’t quite place.
“Poetic, isn’t it?” Riley remarks. Charlotte gives her a confused look, so she continues. “You guide people through life. I guide them through death.”
Charlotte laughs breathlessly. It does sound poetic, but something about it makes her feel uneasy. She keeps imagining Riley, who is so full of life, navigating such dark territories. She imagines her alone, behind a desk, in a lab, or talking to terminally ill people, people whomentally struggle, trying to give them a humane way out. It tugs on her heart.
“Hey,” Riley says, stretching her arm out on the table, some kind of invitation. “Where did you go?”
Charlotte shakes her head, physically trying to get rid of the images in her head. “Nowhere. You— you do incredible work.”
Riley gives her a lopsided smile and nods.I understand, let’s move on.
“I’ll text you the address of that place. Just think about it. And if you happen to go for it and everybody ends up loving it: it was all your idea, 'kay?”
Charlotte nods, absentmindedly tracing a finger over the rim of her cup. Riley closes her laptop and stands up to slip on her trenchcoat. She buttons it up, says: “Thank you for the coffee,” and leans forward, reaching out to briefly touch the collar of Charlotte’s shirt.
“This is a really nice color on you, by the way,” she adds softly before turning back to put her laptop in her bag. Charlotte’s inner fire lights up, not sure if she’s flattered, angry, or about to commit a crime, but probably all three.
“Let me know what you decide, yeah?” Riley says.
“I’ll think about it,” Charlotte replies.
When she gets home, Charlotte does, in fact, think about it. For a whole three seconds she contemplates coming up with a different plan, but she knows Riley’s plan is perfect for her friend.
3
After Charlotte finalizes her plan, she sends the invitations with the time and place to the list of names Gabi has given her. Everybody’s in on where they will be going, except for the brides-to-be.
Christmas comes and goes, and Charlotte doesn’t think much about the party or the wedding. Riley occasionally sends her pictures of wedding decorations that she finds online or in real life; Charlotte responds to all of them with a thumbs-up emoji.
'I’m interpreting that as ‘yes, buy it’, just so you know,' Riley texts her after the fourth or fifth time.
'You’ll be the one making space for it in your suitcase then,' she texts back.
Riley sends her the thumbs-up emoji.
As January rolls around, Charlotte soon finds herself in an elevator with Gabi, Lou, and a person who indeedgets paid to push the floor button for them.
'ETA: 30 secs,'she texts Riley, signaling the people upstairs to get ready.
The giggling couple beside her is holding hands, exchanging nervous glances. They look absolutely stunning. Charlotte had given them the instruction to ‘dress like you’ll catch on fire if you enter a church’. They had clearly understood and taken it to heart.
Lou is wearing a tight leather jumpsuit, with lots of metal details in all the right places. Gabi wears a pink two-piece: a top that’s really nothing more than a band around her chest, and a matching skirt.
Charlotte herself is wearing a sleek black cocktail dress that would’ve been called modest, if not for the criminally low cut in the front, ending just an inch above her belly button. As she grins at herself in the mirror, she straightens her shoulders. Oh, she looksfine.
