She laughed. “Sorry, honey, I’m already married.”
I tipped back my head and drank half the wine.
Her left eyebrow lifted higher. “Rough day?”
I set down the glass and sighed. “You have no idea.”
She and I had been best friends since we were passing notes in English class at twelve years old. We went to different colleges after high school—she studied in California while I stayed in Texas—but we remained best friends throughout those four years.
I was the maid of honor at her wedding and godmother to her two kids. Our closeness meant that when she separated from her husband, Owen, I was the one she called. Not her judgmental family who insisted she try to work things out or any of her other friends—me, the one person she said she could always count on. So for the past few weeks, here we were, two women and two little girls, crammed into a one-bedroom apartment. At night, they slept on my sleeper sofa, and each day Leanne hoped her husband would come to his senses and demand she return home.
Unfortunately for her, that hadn’t happened yet.
“Want to talk about your day?” she asked.
“Aunt Julia!”
Leanne’s six-year-old daughter, Paige, came rushing into the kitchen. Like her sister, she had a head full of dark curls and blue eyes.
“Look.” She proudly held up a sheet of white paper with a drawing on it.
“Wow. That’s... something,” I said, not really sure what I was looking at. I shot my friend a look, hoping for a hint, but all she did was shrug. Apparently, she had no idea what Paige had drawn, either.
“Do you know what it is?” Paige asked.
I was afraid she’d test me, which was why I’d sought assistance from her mother. “Is it...”
I tilted my head, studying the image. I was pretty sure I saw four legs, and maybe ears. Or were they horns?
“Is it a horse?”
“No!” Paige giggled.
I tapped my chin. “Oh, I see. It’s a dog, isn’t it?”
“No!” She dissolved into laughter, shaking her head so hard that her curls whipped across her face. “It’s a cow!”
I smacked my forehead dramatically. “Of course! I see it now.”
I glanced at Leanne, who was biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. I shot her a dirty look.
Paige swung toward her mother. “Mommy, can we put it on the fridge?”
“Of course, baby. Let me get some tape.”
Leanne pulled tape from the junk drawer and affixed the drawing to the right door of the refrigerator, below Paige’s other drawing that was allegedly a picture of her and her sister playing with a puppy.
“Thank you, Mommy.” Paige beamed with pride.
“You’re welcome. Good job!” Leanne gave her daughter a high-five, and Paige pranced out of the room.
“You’re so fake,” I told my friend.
“Oh look, the pot is calling the kettle black.” She pulled on oven mitts. “You were going to tell me about your day before Paige came in.”
Though space was limited in my apartment because she and her daughters were staying here, I didn’t mind. I had lived by myself for a long time and always assumed I was a loner, but I enjoyed the company. As a plus, every day I came home from work, Leanne had dinner ready or almost ready. I was gettingspoiled and would miss her and the girls when she and Owen reconciled.
“It was one of those days,” I said, watching as she pulled a bubbling baked ziti out of the oven. “I won’t bore you with the details, but I had two court appearances today—one was a child custody case, and the other was to testify about an interview I had with a nine-year-old who was being abused by a parent.”
