“Belize looks horrifying,” I say dramatically as Katherine comes onto the screen. She’s in the hotel room and Ed is behind her.
“It’s awful. I miss you. I wish you were here.”
“It’s our honeymoon,” Ed mumbles behind her. “You’re not supposed to miss your sister on your honeymoon.”
I laugh. “Are you telling meyoudon’t miss me, Ed?”
He turns to face the screen and steps closer. “Of course I don’t! Belize is awesome and it feels so good to not be wedding planning or worried about ... anything.”
My heart lifts in my chest at seeing them both so happy.
“Have you seen much of Hunter since the wedding?” Katherine asks, her eyes brimming with hope and excitement. I’m so lucky to have Katherine. She’s genuinely excited when I’m happy. The feeling is entirely mutual.
The question triggers a low, sonorous pain inside me. “Not really,” I say, honestly. “He’s really busy. And ... worried about stuff.”
Ed shuffles Katherine so he’s now sitting where she was and she’s on his lap. “He’s really stressed?” he asks.
“Yeah. I think so.”
“I remember telling him we need to hire more people so we can enjoy our lives,” he says. “It didn’t go down well.”
I sigh. There’s nothing I can say to make this better. I understand why Hunter has taken it so badly. I wish I could make him see that Ed’s trying to help them both. He’s not about to betray Hunter. I know it. All Hunter can see is history repeating itself.
“Can you reassure him I’m not trying to tank our business?” Ed says. “We’ve both worked too hard for us to let that happen.”
“I don’t think he’s in the headspace to hear it, Ed.” Nothing hopeful has room to grow in him.
“Has it made things tense between the two of you?” Katherine asks.
“A little,” I say. “But I’ve been busy at work too. I have to get back to the partner on whether I want to be considered for a firm scholarship to law school.”
“What?” Katherine asks.
I wince inwardly as I’ve realized I’ve used my outside voice for my inside thoughts.
“Didn’t I tell you that one of the partners offered to mentor me? She mentioned that I should consider going to law school in the evenings.” I try to sound casual, but I’m terrible at faking anything.
Katherine’s brow is furrowed, and she gets closer to the camera like she’s trying to read some small text. “No!” Katherine says. “You didn’t tell me that. When did this happen?”
“I don’t know. Before the wedding sometime. It was all a blur.”
“So what did she say? Do you want to go to law school?”
Now the cat’s out of the bag, I may as well come clean. “She thinks I have a lot of potential and that I should apply. But then again, I’m a good paralegal. Do I really want to work for years and not even know if I’m going to become a lawyer? I might be bad at it, or I might not graduate at all. It’s such a time commitment, not to mention all that money. I might waste it all, and—”
“This partner approachedyou, though, Lucy. She thinks you can do it.”
“Right, but it’s for this new program they’ve started, about encouraging women in the firm to fulfill their potential. They probably have some quota to meet or something.”
“It’s incredible that they’ve approached you about this. Why didn’t you tell me before? I’m so excited for you!”
“I just wanted you to focus on the wedding. And I’m not even sure that I’m going to go ahead with it.”
“I’m really sorry, Lucy,” Katherine says. “I’ve been so caught up with wedding planning. You’re going to do it, though. Aren’t you? I always thought it was a shame you didn’t go to law school.”
“You did?” I ask.
“Yeah. Why didn’t you end up going?”
