“No promises!” Naomi opens the rear door this time and scoots into the back seat while I take the passenger seat. “I’m surprised you don’t have anything better to do this weekend than hang out with us,” she says to Brooke as she buckles her seat belt. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready to start law school? It’s not too late to change your mind and stay here.”
“I’m not starting law school,” Brooke says with forced composure as she starts the car and pulls out of our driveway.
“Oh, sorry! I thought you got in.” Naomi smiles brightly. I turn around and Naomi winks, because old habits die hard and she spent the last several years disliking Brooke in the name of our friendship. Brooke’s knuckles turn white on the steering wheel.
I groan inwardly. At this rate, it’s going to be a very long drive.
I lean my head against the window and pretend to doze off until the steady hum of the car finally lulls me to sleep for real, and I wake up a few hours later as we’re crossing the Detroit River and approaching the Canadian border. We present our passports to the border agent, and she asks a series of questionsabout what we’re bringing with us, and whether we have firearms (“No”), fireworks (“No”), fresh produce (“No”), or live animals (“Not yet”).
Brooke rears her head back in surprise at my answer. “What does that mean?”
I lean across the console. “If I acquire a dog in Canada, will I be allowed to bring him into the US?”
I canfeelBrooke’s mind spinning as she tries to figure out what I’m up to.
“If the dog is microchipped and has had its vaccines, bringing him over the border shouldn’t be a problem,” the agent says.
Fingers crossed the royals took care of that.“Sounds great! Thank you.” I sink back into my seat as Brooke stares at me.
“We’re here so you can ‘acquire’ a dog?” she asks incredulously.
I need to think of a believable lie, but my mind is a blinking cursor at the start of a homework assignment I don’t want to do. I’ve got nothing.
“That’s right.” Naomi saves me by chiming in from the back seat. “Wren saw an adorable chocolate Lab online and she justhadto adopt it.”
“Like there aren’t enough dogs that need adopting in Chicago?”
“This one’s special,” Naomi says, sticking her face between my seat and Brooke’s. “He has beautiful brown hair and blue eyes—”
“Blue eyes?” Brooke asks.
I throw my shoe over my shoulder to shut Naomi up. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
A few hours later (including one stop for gas and one stop forvegan breakfast sandwiches from Odd Burger), we’re in downtown Toronto. I direct my sister toward High Park, where we’re lucky to snag free street parking. Brooke parallel parks like an expert (of course) and gets out quickly, telling us she needs to stretch her legs after the long drive. I grab my backpack and go to open the car door when Naomi puts her hand out.
“Wait!” She leans into the front seat and pulls my door shut again. “Do you want to change first?” she asks. “Or, I don’t know, brush your teeth?”
“Comet won’t care what I look like.”
“You’re so unserious,” Naomi huffs. “Quit living in denial and at least wipe the mascara from under your eyes.” She hands me makeup-remover wipes, which I use to clean up last night’s leftover smudges. Then she starts passing out one product after another, including a bottle of nail polish.
“I don’t need to do all of this,” I insist.
“You want to show him what he’s missing,” Naomi says matter-of-factly. She hasn’t said his name, but we both know she’s not talking about the dog. “I’ll keep Brooke busy while you get ready.” She shuts the car door firmly behind her, leaving me alone with all the thoughts I don’t want to have.
“Don’t get too close—Brooke bites!” I yell through the window. Naomi gives me the finger. Despite what she believes, I’mnotdoing this for Theo. Not for the reasons she thinks, anyway. I don’t need him to miss me.
I glance down at my outfit. Sweatpants and an old Evanston Animal Rescue T-shirt that I cut into a crop top, an inch of my stomach showing above the band on my sweats, and a ring on a chain around my neck, hidden beneath my shirt. I can’t bring myself to change. Not if doing so would signal to Naomi that I still have feelings for Theo, because I don’t.
Naomi frowns when I climb out of the car. She looks at me from head to toe, taking in my third-day hair, baggy crop top, and Crocs. “At least your face looks pretty,” she sighs.
Just the confidence boost a girl needs before seeing her estranged husband.I give her two sarcastic thumbs-up.
My already waning optimism falls even further as we approach the park, where guards are blocking the entrance. Brooke surveys them for a bone-chilling ten seconds before she spins in a slow circle, absorbing our surroundings. I clock the exact moment she notices the crowd-control barriers lining the street and streams of people walking by, craning their necks to see through the tree-lined fence, phones at the ready. All we need now is for the royal procession to drive by, flags flying from the roof of the Bentley.
“What’s going on? Are we even allowed to be here? And this park looks huge. Where are we supposed to meet the dog?”
Brooke’s rapid-fire line of questioning leaves me tongue-tied. “I, um, I—”
