And that dress. I can’t remember the last time I saw a sweater dress, but she pulled it off. She looked like a quirky, tequila-flavored, lost little librarian, looking for a good time. Hold the lime.
I chuckle to myself when my phone buzzes. My brother, Elias, is calling, and I answer mid-chuckle.
“What are you laughing about?” he asks.
“Oh, just women’s fashion,” I say.
“I’m gonna sidestep around that,” he says, and I laugh.
“That’s probably for the best. What’s up?”
“I’m calling to ask how your dinner date went with Ben and his girlfriend,” Elias says. In the background, I can hear his kids playing, and his wife, Bethany, yelling, “No more Go-Gurts before dinner!”
At forty-four, Elias is only a year younger than me, but he didn’t marry until later in life. Allie and I tied the knot in our early twenties and had Ben right out of the gate. Elias and Bethany have been together for about ten years. Their two kids are young and they have another on the way.
“You mean fiancée,” I correct him with a grin.
“Holy shit,” he laughs. “So the rumors are true! Hey Beth, Benny popped the question!”
“I told you!” I hear her call out. “Put it on speakerphone. Listen, Gavin, we had a running bet going. Elias said he thought he was going to propose in the spring on some epic hike or at the beach or something. But I knew that boy couldn’t wait that long. He has the patience of a toddler.”
“And the ambition of his father,” Elias adds.
“I like to think Ben is way cooler than I am,” I say, stirring my cocktail with the tiny black straw.
“Well, no shit he’s cooler, but you two are the same. Zealous. Rebellious. Fly by the seat of your pants type of men. That’s why Beth and I had a running bet going.”
“What? That he was going to propose before the ice melts?” I ask with a grin.
“No, that he would settle down before you,” he laughs, and my grin dips a little.
I know he doesn’t mean it in a negative way, but it still stings.
“Yeah, well, it’s hard finding the right woman when you were already married to her for 20 years,” I say, taking a sip of my old-fashioned to numb the pang in my heart.
“I get that.”
“You’ll find love again, Gav,” Bethany calls out.
“Maybe,” I say. “Right now I’m not sure I’m even looking for it.”
“Too bad that’s not how love works,” Elias says.
“Nope,” Bethany adds. “True love isn’t something you can hunt down. When it's right, love finds you, and there will be nothing you can do about it.”
I finish my drink in one gulp. I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Chapter 5
Charlotte
“Are you sure?Maybe we are doing it wrong. Maybe I should have actually read the instructions. I never skip reading the instructions.”
“What is there to read, honey?” Josie asks. “It’s like a one and a half step process. Pee on it and wait.”
“Okay, but maybe I peed wrong,” I say.
One of her eyebrows arches, disappearing behind her dark brown bangs. “Peed wrong? I’m no biologist, babe, but I don’t think you can pee wrong,” she laughs.
