“Wait.”Natalie looks at both of us carefully.“You think Mason’s still trying to date me?Because he’s not.He said he actually likes Cillian.He likes that he’s kind of bad around kids, because he can be my boyfriend, but not usurp Mason’s role with the kids.”
“Oh, man,” Vanessa says.“He must have some kind of dating coach, because he has upped his game.”
“For sure,” Sam says.“But Natalie, he is one hundred percent still trying to win you back.Is it working?”
Natalie looks totally floored.She looked like this when she lost all that weight and didn’t realize it.For someone with a remarkable amount of insight into others—she immediately used the cottage to help both me and Samantha with our bad nights—she is just oblivious about her own life.“I really don’t think...”She’s frowning, though.
“Okay,” Sam says.“Here’s your litmus.If he’s really happy with you dating Cillian, and you tell him that you two are getting really serious, he’ll be fine with it.”Her grin is diabolical.“But if we’re right, he’ll lose his mind.”
“That’s mean,” Natalie says.“I’m not even sure how serious I am about Cillian.I can’t go around lying to Mason just to test him.Then I’m the bad guy, playing with people’s emotions like that.Plus we’re in a town of, like, forty people.”
“It’s not quite that bad,” I say.
“But I get your point.There’s a decent chance of Cillian hearing about you saying things are getting serious and either freaking out or celebrating, and then you’ve landed yourself in a mess.”Sam nods.“Fine, fine, be an adult.”
“Someone has to,” Natalie says.
“But we’re right,” I say.“We could see you guys at Thanksgiving, and Mason was eyeing you with more greed than he directed at that tiny pile of turkey.”
“I thought the Irish stew was pretty good,” Natalie says.
“Oh my word,” Sam says.
“Is she always this dense?”I ask.
“Only about her own love life,” Sam says.“You don’t remember high school, I guess, but it was just as bad with Tim and Lance.”
“Tim and Lance.”I laugh.“I haven’t thought about those idiots inyears.”
“Can we focus?”Natalie finishes the tour like she’s training to be a real estate agent.“And once we finish the trim here, the lighting here and here, and the faucet in the second bathroom, you can start moving Trish in.”She beams.“Merry Christmas.”
“You two,” I say, “are just the best friends anyone could ever have.I love you both.”
“We love you too,” Sam says.“But the real question is, do you love me enough to incubate your ex-boyfriend’s baby for me?Because that’s how much Natalie loves me.”
I stare at her, completely confused, until Natalie dies laughing.When they explain, I shake my head.“I don’t have an ex-boyfriend, but if Jack and I broke up, nothing on earth could convince me to have his baby for you.”I bite my lip.“Sorry.”
“Oh, no, you’re fine,” Sam says.
“We always knew Natalie was the crazy one,” I say.
“And don’t you forget it.”Natalie smears her hand down my cheek, and I feel something sticky and wet.
“At least she didn’t get it on your clothes,” Sam says.
When I look in the mirror, I realize I now have blue paint on my face, and I don’t even care.I’m just exactly where I want to be with the two people I want to be with the most.It doesn’t stop me from smearing a little on Samantha though, just until she squeals.
Because that’s the kind of friends we are.
Her dress was already ruined anyway, and now we’ll remember this night forever as something good.Not many people can turn sad into happy, but that’s the power of true friendship.
20
Vanessa
When I was in college, there was a girl who hated me.
I took the seat she wanted on the first day of class, and I guess that was enough reason, for a freshman.She was prettier, had a lot of money, and she was a local in Colorado, so she had lots of friends who were enrolled with her.Boy, did she make History 110 an absolute misery.
