“Lungs aren’t even relevant to your alcohol tolerance,” Jade said.
“It’s non-alcoholic,” Kevin said, speaking behind her. “Don’t tell her.”
Linda relaxed. “My god. Okay, sure, horse-lungs.” She turned to me with her little upside-down smile, looking tired and content in equal measures. “Hey. Thanks for showing. You’ll be unsurprised to learn Cat was pre-gaming.”
“Shocking…”
“Hey. I can see what you’re saying!” Cat said.
“I’m gonna go sit her down,” Jade said, and Cat pouted.
“I’m not a child!”
“I know, you’re a cat. With horse lungs. Now come on.” Jade stopped signing and took her by the wrist, leading hermeandering across the room towards the back, almost spilling her soda water. Linda shook her head before she turned back to me, relaxing with a small smile.
“Relieved now that the chaos is done?”
“I feel like I want to lie down for a week.”
“I’d drink to that if I hadn’t left my wine over with Kaitlyn when I saw Cat trying to order a drink.”
It wasn’t lost on me that Kaitlyn was sitting at a table far away from where Charlie was talking to one of the donors on the rear terrace. If Linda and Charlie were hanging out separately at this kind of event, I could imagine what that meant. “Well, take a raincheck, then,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired. Stressed. Relieved.”
“Relieved about…?”
She slumped against the wall with a sigh. “Is it obvious?”
“Just wondering if anything happened since you and Charlie aren’t…”
“We’ve been having a lot of conversations. Usually not easy ones.”
Even now, there was still that part of me that panicked briefly likeoh my god I ruined their relationship.But I was learning to rise above it. “What kind of conversations?”
“About what we want, about what we need. About how we feel. She was offering to change, to do this differently, and I don’t know…” She shrugged, and then she shrugged again, more dramatically this time, clearly at a loss for words. “Maybe. But I feel like now that I’ve started pulling the bandaid, I just want to get it off. I feel like we should just take a break and see if we actually want to get back into it. I’ve been realizing I don’t think she’s all that happy, either. Trying to rush into having a solid relationship and a nice house and all these things so that she feels like she’s doing well, and then she was getting frustrated Iwasn’t lining up with the life she had in mind. I don’t know. It’s been a lot.”
I softened, touching a hand to her arm, gently, just for a second. That was a massive commitment for Linda, who generally acted around physical touch like it was a rattlesnake trying to bite her, but I was one of the few she let do it. “I’m sure it must be exhausting,” I said softly. “But I’m glad it’s moving forward. Be gentle with yourself if you can, okay? I’m here for you however I can be.”
“I’m more worried for Charlie than I am for myself. I want to be single at this point. I don’t think she does, and I don’t think she wants to get back into dating.”
“I get that. But you’ve got to trust her to take care of what she needs and then do what you need for yourself, right?”
“Guess maybe you’re right.” She elbowed me. “Look at you. So wicked smaht.”
“Wickedsmaht. That’s me.”
“I’m gonna get my drink and go back to annoying Kaitlyn. You wanna join me?”
“Oh, yeah, absolutely, I’ll just be making the rounds a bit first. See Cat and Daniela. Um…” I cleared my throat. “Say, do you think, uh…”
“That they want to fuck?” she deadpanned. “Yeah, probably.”
Want towas an understatement. But I wasn’t about to tell her that part. “Okay, great. Do you think everyone else can see it too?”
“Abby’s planning a party for when it finally happens.”
“Oh, thank god. I found my people. I’ll check in with her on the party preparation.”
