“Woo!” Cindy poured them both full glasses. “Tell me more!”
Myra was laughing so hard she was worried she would spill, so she quieted down long enough to take a big drink, then screeched, “Lady parts!”
Cindy collapsed against her and picked up Myra’s phone from where she’d tossed it on the table. “Selfie!”
Myra grinned at their image on the screen. “We’re blurry, that’s not going to look right.”
“I think that’s you, not the picture.”
“Remember when we were young and we thought forty was old and that old people sat around their living rooms drinking tea and discussing politics and gardens?”
Cindy snorted, snapped a couple more pics. “Of course, if we were actually cool, we’d be doing this on Snapchat with dog ears and bunny noses and stuff.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” Myra howled with laughter.
“That’s ’cause you’re old.”
“Not as old as you,” she said indignantly.
“Yes, but I work online and I’m hip to these things.”
“I don’t think you can be hip if you’re saying hip.”
They dissolved into giggles and finished off the bottle of champagne.
Cindy weaved her way to the kitchen with the empty bottle and Myra picked up the phone. She scrolled through the pictures, squinting to try to make the pictures focus better, selected one that had Cindy holding the bottle of champagne up to her lips, Myra raising her glass to the camera, and texted it to Adam before she could stop herself. See, forty really wasn’t that different than twenty.
Waking up on her best friend’s couch wasn’t exactly a normal occurrence for Myra, but it wasn’t completely unheard of. The good news was she only had a very mild headache, thanks to her fabulous metabolism. She cracked open the bottle of water Cindy had left for her and took a couple of long drinks. She heard the shower turn on and smelled coffee brewing in the automatic coffee maker, and promised herself she could have a cupaftershe finished the water.
She reached over for her phone and pressed the button to see what time it was. The clock showed seven-ten, but her eyes were riveted to the little notification screen that said only two words.
Challenge accepted.
Hastily she swiped the screen to get to the text messages from Adam. The last message had been received at one in the morning, with those two simple words. The only activity previous to that was the picture she’d forgotten she’d texted, until now. It wasn’t blurry at all, Cindy had been right. Myra was laughing in a way that mostly only Cindy managed to bring out in her, her eyes sparkling as she held her champagne glass toward the phone. Cindy had tipped the bottle back and was pretending to drink directly from it.
Myra finished her water and struggled to understand Adam’s message. She remembered her words. Would never forget standing on his cabin porch, telling Adam that she wanted more for him than existence. She wanted him to actually experience life, to be happy, not just alive. “I challenge you to live,” she’d said. And he was accepting her challenge.
In response to her picture? Or was that just a coincidence?
“What?” Cindy asked.
Myra nearly jumped. She’d been so focused, she hadn’t heard her friend come into the room. She looked up and her eyes were huge, she could feel it, as she tried to process what he’d meant.
“I don’t—I’m not sure. Adam texted me, but I don’t know what he means exactly. I think,” she swallowed. “I think he means he wants to try. Being together. But I could be wrong.”
“Call him.”
Myra bit her lip. “Maybe. But maybe it would be better in person.”
“Hmm. Could be. Finish your water and take a shower, don’t try and make any decisions when your brain isn’t awake.”
Myra thought the message had shocked her brain as awake as it had ever been, but she did as Cindy suggested anyway, taking the mug of coffee her friend offered her. She tossed the water bottle into the recycle bin and headed to the bathroom. She hadn’t come up with a single plan of action by the time she was dressed and back in the kitchen. Her wonderful, amazing, fabulous best friend was just putting two plates on the table, which already held a carafe of orange juice and a platter of melon slices.
Of course, all of it was presented beautifully, and Cindy took a minute to snap some photos before they dug in.
“I probably shouldn’t be thinking of this as a done-deal yet, right?”
“Not quite. I need to speak to Deacon and Kendra, see how they feel. Talk to my mom and dad, just because. I think Kyle might not be ready to move from fourth to third, but the pack is plenty strong enough to have that position vacant for a while.”
