I think about the email from LoveLinks. My friends know I was stood up and ghosted, but I’ve brushed it off and made light of it the few times it’s come up. Stuff like this happens all the time and I don’t want to dwell on it. I’m not even mad about it so much as…embarrassed? Disappointed? And slightly worried Spencerdidshow up, decided he didn’t like what he saw, and bolted.
Finally, I say, “Not against it so much as uninterested. At least for now. I’ve got a few projects I’m working on at the center, plus with Christmas coming I’ll have a lot going on in both work and life. Maybe after the holiday season I’ll be more open to the idea of dating again.”
“Do you think you’ll give online dating another try?” Stella asks.
I shudder. “God, no.”
Stella laughs at my forceful tone. “Noted.”
“Maybe the guys have friends they could set me up with in the new year,” I say. “Don’t mention it to any of them, though. The next month or so will be busy enough as it is.”
Stella’s gaze darts away from mine. Her expression makes me suspicious until she says, “Right. No set ups until the new year. Got it.”
“If youreallyfeel like playing matchmaker, let’s find a way to nudge Fergus in Louisa’s direction,” I say. “She still thinks he’s not interested in her, but have youseenthe way he looks at her?”
Stella nods, her eyes gleaming. “Methinks our little Lulu isn’t the only one who’s smitten.”
Across the room, Evie closes the door behind Wesley and leans against it with a dreamy sigh. She still has that walking heart-eye emoji look about her. It amuses me, but also pokes at the longing I keep tucked away in the vicinity of my heart. I want to love and be loved that way, and sometimes I worry it’ll never happen.
“Have I mentioned lately how much I love your brother?” Evie says to Stella as she joins us.
“Only about fifty times a day.” Stella knocks her shoulder against Evie’s. The two of them have been living together in Evie’s condo since Stella returned to Bellevue this past summer. Stella spent the last few years living in Toronto with her now-ex husband; after they split, she knew it was time to return to her real home and the people who love her most.
Louisa emerges from the hall where the bathroom and bedrooms are. “Movie time? I can get the popcorn started.”
“Is it bad that I want another slice of cake?” Stella asks.
“It’s your birthday, you can do whatever you want,” I tell her.
Evie goes to help Louisa with the snacks while Stella cuts another slice of cake. She plops down on the couch beside me and offers me a forkful, which I accept. Stella chooses the movie she wants to watch and I have it cued up by the time the others join us.
As the four of us crowd onto the couch, passing snacks and laughing in unison to the movie, I think back to my conversation with Louisa in the blanket fort. My life might not be what I expected it to be—it’s not glamorous, I haven’t found lasting love, and there are still a lot of things I want to accomplish—but in a lot of ways, life is even better than anything my teenage self could have imagined, and I’m grateful for that.
CHAPTER TWO
After pondering my wonderful yet not-so-glamorous life at Stella’s birthday party, I feel it’s necessary to eat those words only two days later. I knew my friends were planning an early birthday celebration for me, but all they would tell me was that I needed to take part of Monday afternoon off work, dress up, and let Fergus drive me to an undisclosed location.
Fergus pulls up in front of my house right on time. He scrambles from the driver’s seat and jogs around to greet me with a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.
“You look lovely, Hollie,” he says, opening the passenger side door and offering me his hand.
“Why, thank you, Mr. MacKinnon, so do you.”
My friends were vague with their definition of ‘dress up’, so I went with my favorite turquoise dress with long, flowy sleeves and a flared knee-length skirt. Despite the chill in the air, Fergus isn’t wearing a coat, so I have a full view of the dark-blue suit he’s wearing. His white dress shirt is open at the collar and he’s not wearing a tie. I can’t wait to see the look on Louisa’s face when she lays eyes on him.
Fergus and I chat about work on the drive. He works for his cousin at the MacKinnon Group, an international enterprise that owns various properties and does philanthropic work. They’re one of the sponsors of the organization I work for, the Belle Vie Community Services Center. Fergus has been put in charge of working directly with the center—which means working withmemost of the time—on various initiatives, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time together over the last few months and have become good friends.
We’re only in the car for about five minutes before Fergus pulls into the long driveway of Montrose House. The beautiful, stately inn was built in the late 1800s and has made quite a name for itself in the last few years as a destination for international travelers. I’ve heard it’s difficult—and expensive—to book a room, but the dining and tearooms are open to the public by reservation. Evie’s mom treated the four of us to dinner here when we graduated from high school, but I haven’t been back in the seventeen years since.
My heart does a happy little jig when we round the circular driveway and stop out front. Evie, Stella, and Louisa are standing at the top of the porch stairs, waiting for us. Fergus undoes his seatbelt and starts to open his door, but lets it fall shut when my friends dash down the stairs and fling the passenger door open.
“I’ll go park and meet you all in there,” he says over the excited chatter of my friends as they pull me from the car.
I’m barely aware of Fergus driving away as the girls converge on me, hugging me and telling me how beautiful I look. A second after I notice they’re all wearing hats of some sort, Stella produces a black fascinator, which she carefully pins into my hair.
“We know your birthday is weeks away, but this place is booked solid through December, and today was the only day we could get in,” she says.
“We also know how disappointed you were that you didn’t make it to England this year like you’d hoped,” Evie says.
