She takes an audible breath. “I have to go,” she replies flatly and hangs up.
Wtf?
I remove my arm from the blanket to redial her, but she sends me to voicemail. Seriously? I have all day. I’ll keep calling her until she answers.
“What, Juliette?” She sighs.
“Mind telling me why you just hung up on me?” I sit up, annoyed.
“Don’t play dumb. You know exactly why I hung up.” She covers the phone and mumbles to someone. “Listen, I don’t have the time to play games. Tell me what’s going on. Otherwise, I need to get back to work.”
Crap.I can tell by her tone she’s pissed off, which doesn’t happen often, or at least not directly at me. “I’m really sorry, Becks.”
She speaks, but it’s hard to hear her. I can tell she’s outside. There is loud honking and chatting in the background. “Hold on a sec.” I wait, and then the background noise silences. “What’s going on, Jules?”
“I’m sorry for avoiding you, truly. I’m feeling a bit out of my skin lately. Come over later, or let’s get dinner tomorrow so I can make it up to you.”
“You’re free tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I miss you,” I tell her truthfully. Now that we’re talking, I wish she was here so I could tell her everything I’ve been feeling.
“I miss you too, Jules. I don’t like feeling cut out, especially by you, so since you’re free, you can make it up to me by being my sidekick tomorrow.”
“Okay, no problem,” I tell her quickly, knowing it will make me feel better after avoiding her if I do something for her. “Where are we going?”
“Remember I told you about that new rooftop bar in SoHo opening? Tramonto? Their launch is this weekend, and it’s Matteo’s birthday.”
Ah, fuck.
“Oh, come on, Becks, haven’t I hit my quota of wing woman this month, and if it’s Matteo’s birthday, Harrison will be there.”
“He won’t be. From what I’ve gathered from Matteo, he doesn’t go out much either, and he’ll have his daughter this weekend, so he can’t come. I’m just excited I finally get to have you as my wingman. You could never go out like this before.”
“Okay,” I finally give in, unable to come up with a reasonable argument for why I can’t go besides wanting to cozy up with Mom and watch a movie. “I blew off Adriana today. Do you think we can invite her too?”
“I’m sure it will be fine, and maybe I’ll invite Carrie. Her mom is finally flying in from Vancouver for the summer to help, and I think she deserves a night out.”
“Perfect, send me the details. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I bounce on my feet as we wait in line to get into the club to meet Becks. It’s chilly for a May night; luckily, it’s invite-only, and the line should go quickly.
“Can you believe I’m at a club? At midnight, nonetheless.” I smile over at Adriana, who understands my former life more than anyone else in this whole place. Although Adriana is also a professional dancer, her schedule is much less demanding since we held different roles in the company.
Carrie frowns. “Do you not like to go out? You’re twenty-four. Live it up, girl. Trust me, the never-ending energy ends eventually. I’m not much older than you, and I still had to nap in preparation for tonight.”
“Oh, it’s not that. My former profession had me tied down. I didn’t have much of a life, but I was okay with that; it was my choice. It just feels strange now.”
Carrie flinches. “Shit, sorry, Juliette. I forgot. Becks told me about the accident.”
I wave her off. “It’s fine, just adjusting to all the changes.”
“Well, since I put my foot in my mouth, let’s change the subject to finding me a man tonight.”
My eyes widen. “Yeah?”
Adriana high-fives her. “Well, I second that. I need to find a man, too. I would die for a boyfriend.”
