Sure enough, Howard’s standing next to poor Julia, holding a lavalier mic so close to his mouth that every p pops unpleasantly. The frazzled Oakwood employee manages to wrestle the mic-pack out of his hands and clip it properly to his lapel, which only serves to amplify every muttered curse. It also picks up the slide and rustle of his jacket against the mic as he waves his arms in a useless attempt at directing the search-and-contain team. Thankfully, Julia manages to signal Patty, who’s running the AV booth in the back corner near the kitchen, and Queen Patty kills the feed.
“Awww, boo.” Becks pouts. “I think it’s over.”
The goosey reign of terror does seem to be at an end, as with a final bit of the protesting, the last honking bird is escorted to the pen with its brethren. Although Julia reaches for the mic pack still attached to Howard’s lapel, he bats her hand away and stomps back to his table and lord only knows what kind of speech he might have planned for later in the night.
“Well,” I sigh. “It was nice while it lasted.”
The sisters bop off to resume their server duties, and I’m about to do the same when Liv stops me. “Don’t go too far.”
“Why? I was thinking about changing.” I glance down at my elfiness. “As hot as this look is, the food’s all spiked, and I have a kickass party dress waiting for me.”
“Of course! But you're going to want to stick around for eight maids a-milking."
“Really?” I hate how curious I am about what else Wyatt’s got planned. “Is it cows? Did he raid a dairy farm?"
"Even better.” Liv crooks a finger. "Come on."
We circle the perimeter of the room until we reach the hidey-hole between the two big Christmas trees. Between the twinkling lights and the sharp pine smell, it’s not the worst place to pass the time while we wait for Wyatt’s next stroke of “Twelve Days” genius.
“Getting back to the subject at hand…” she starts, and I groan.
“No! Please, no more Wyatt lectures.” I drop my head into my hands. “I don’t care, okay? I know everything I need to know, and I don’t want to talk about it any more than I already have.”
“You haven’t talked about it at all, though.” Liv sounds hurt, which hurts me. So I listen. “Since we were eighteen, I watched you get into fights and hold grudges and cut people out of your life, and when you do, they just… cease to exist for you. You don’t think about them at all.”
“True,” I say. “My MAGA aunt? That asshole Richie? Miss Stephenson, who put me in the slow readers group in first grade? I don’t know them.”
“Of course you don’t. You’re an international assassin.”
“I’m a corporate consultant, actually.”
She waves off my correction. “But here’s the thing… you think about Wyatt. He exists for you, which means it’s not just hate. My guess is that he hurt you somehow, and that means at some point, he had the power to hurt you. I don’t know how or what or why, but I know it’s way more complicated than just hate for you.”
My jaw falls progressively closer to the floor as my supersmart best friend lands punch after punch to my tender underbelly.
"How did you?—"
“Best friend privilege.” She squeezes my hand. “And I hate that you left me in the dark about whatever happened between you two.”
“I’m sorry, love.” I wrap her into a hug but prop my chin on her shoulder instead of burying my face into her neck like I want to out of respect for the amount of glittery makeup I’m wearing. “I did some things I'm not proud of, maybe the worst things I've ever done. He’s right to think terrible things about me.” A sob catches in my throat. Carrying this thing with Wyatt’s been so fucking lonely, but I didn’t realize how much until right now.
Liv pushes me back to look me in the eyes. “Really?”
“He did terrible things right back,” I say quickly, defensively. Then I sigh and let it all out. “I fell in love with him the night we met."
Her hands fall from my shoulders in shock. “You? My chronically single, flings-only friend?”
“Yeah.” I swipe roughly at the tears on my eyelashes. “And then we—” I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter now. But I tried to fix it, and it just made things worse. Now every time we see each other, it's like we go out of our way to add to the misery, but underneath it all, I think he might actually be the guy that I met that night. And it makes me so furious and so sad for both of us. And then Reese?—”
I’m horrified by the tears that escape to track down my cheeks, and now Liv’s the one wrapping me into a hug.
"He wasn't with her by the time Hollis and I got together, but she sounds horrible. Easily ninety-eight-point-three percent less awesome than you.”
“One-point-seven percent as awesome as me still sounds too high.” I sniffle. “They're actually a lot alike in some ways and really different in others. More importantly, she's a heinous snake who stole something massive from me, and if I were a slightly more evil person, she'd be next on my list."
"Yeah, well, she lost Wyatt,” Liv says, "but I'm not sure you ever did. Not like she has.”
I give a watery laugh. "Sure. One amazing night and then seven years of open hostility, insults, and warfare. And now tonight…”
