I shake my head, heart thrumming. “I want to. Will told me Zoe wants to reconnect with me, too, but we haven’t had a chance to see each other in person yet.”
I’m giddy just thinking about it, but nervous, too. What a strange twist of fate that the very thing that drove Zoe and me apart is what could bring us back together.
We order another round, sip it down to the ice as we talk about the wedding six weeks from now and the Revenant store opening in one month. A couple of guys send us shots from the bar. We promptly swallow them, send a round back to them as thanks, then ask for our checks and giggle as we bail out of the patio exit before the men have a chance to come over and flirt.
Outside, the weather is screamingKeep drinking.We Uber to Rainey Street.
“I haven’t been here in years,” I say as a bus full of girls drives past.
“Slushies,” Camila says, pulling me into a bar. We grab our juice boxes and people-watch from the upstairs patio. The sunlight dims, crowds flooding the street below us.
“Do you remember,” she says, sometime after the sun has vanished, “that time in college when I peed on the floor?”
“Which time,” I deadpan.
“The other time was just water!”
“It wasnotwater,” I say.
“It was!”
“It. Was. Not,” I say. “I don’t understand why you can admit to peeing on the floor one time but not twice.”
Cami laughs, throwing back her head. “Okay, fine, it was pee both times.”
“I fuckingknewit!” I scream at her, slapping down my empty slushie.
She disappears and comes back with two more. “Do you remember that time when I dated that guy who jizzed on my padfolio?”
“Who leaves a padfolio on their bedside table during sex?” I shriek.
“We met at the job fair!” she shrieks back. “Who hasthatbad of aim?”
“Joe does!” I’m screaming for effect, but also because the nighttimemusic has come on, doubly amplified. “Remember when me and Gio faked a literal death to get you out of that one date with a man named Basil?”
“Oh yes,Bahh-sil,” Camila says fondly. “I hope he’s doing well.”
I laugh a lot harder than the situation calls for. I haven’t had this much to drink in aminute,and it shows.
“Remember when I forced you to start an Instagram page for your designs?” Cami says.
“I remember you used threats of violence,” I say.
“I don’t regret a thing. I don’t—”
She cuts herself off, and I can feel it. She’s getting close to some kind of admission. There are tears she’s pushing back, that she’s trying to blink away.
“You’re my best friend, Josephine. You’re my best fucking friend and I’m never going to forget the way you were there for me, in college, when I was knee-deep in family problems and could barely keep up with my schoolwork and I let men dictate my happiness. I’m never going to forget the rock you were for me, through all that.”
She brushes her thumbs under her eyes. I don’t know whether to say something or let her get this out. I can feel my eyes welling, just watching her try.
“And working with you at Revenant, it’s been a dream come true. I have loved it. I love what we did together. I’m so thankful to myself for quitting my Whole Foods job and doing this with you,” she says, now audibly crying through her words. “I’m so thankful to you, for trusting your best friend with your business. And now we can both leave for days at a time, and it all keeps running smoothly. We gave it legs to walk on,” she says.
“Only took six years of teamwork,” I manage.
She laughs messily. “We don’t give ourselves nearly enough credit for what we built. At our age? It’s amazing.”
I nod, wiping a tear from my cheek.
