“What bucket list?” Annika asks, trying to keep up with the turn in conversation.
“Oh… it’s nothing,” Simone says in a rush. “Shite. Forget I said anything.” She catches up to me and takes my hand, squeezing it tight. “Really, I didn’t mean to bring it up like that. I forgot Annika didn’t know about it.”
I shrug. “I don’t care, tell her. She’ll find out anyway if she’s going to help me accomplish everything on it.”
I actually prefer it this way. I don’t have it in me to explain Winnie to someone again so soon after telling Simone, and I want Annika to know about her. I was going to get around to sharing, but it’s not exactly a topic you can bring up any ol’ time of day.Do you have a second while you’re eating your morning cereal to hear about the saddest thing that’s ever happened to me?
Simone tugs my hand so I’ll turn and look at her. She doesn’t trust that I’m being honest. I know she feels bad about blabbing because I see the remorse written all over her face.
“I mean it,” I whisper. “Tell her.”
Fifteen minutes later, while I’m getting my first group of the night a round of waters, Annika walks right up to me with glassy eyes and a wobbly bottom lip. Oh god. Simone definitely told her. She holds her arms out wide and tells me to bring it in.
When I don’t immediately fall into her embrace, she forces me into it.
“Oh my god, your poor sister.”
“Annika…”
Her arms only tighten around me. “Simone said you two were really close. I justknowshe was the best becauseyou’rethe best.”
“Annika—”
“Life can be so unfair. One day, everyone you love is alive and well. Then the next—poof, they’re gone. My grandmother went just like that. At ninety-four, she had a heart attack while she was eating rødgrød med fløde.”
“What?”
“It’s like a berry pudding. Popular in Denmark.”
“Gotcha.”
“And I had this gerbil once when I was a kid that accidentally managed to get outside, and a bird swooped down andatehim. When I close my eyes, I can still see his little feet dangling out of the bird’s mouth.”
“All right.” I pat her hand and slowly extricate myself from her grasp. “Thank you. That’s… really helpful.”
My sarcasm goes completely unnoticed.
“I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.”
I smile tightly.
“Or if you just want a hug.”
She gives me another one now as if to prove her point. Now I know how Simone felt earlier when I tried to hug her.
“Okay.”I do a little shimmy step backward and point behind me. “I should get to work.”
“You aresobrave!” she shouts after me.
Aura’s summer kickoff party is just as next-level as everyone promised it would be. Guests had to purchase tickets for the event, and I’ve heard whispers of what they cost. It’s enough that every person in here feels entitled to everything within reach.The drinks are flowing, food is getting passed by the waitstaff, and I’m just trying to keep my head above water.
I’m leaning down to better hear a group of women put in their drink orders when I feel the hairs rise on the back of my neck, and I know Cristiano is here even before I turn around to confirm it. Oh, look at that… he’s parting the crowd like Moses. His arrival has caused a barely contained commotion as people clamber to get out of his way just as much as they rush toward him. At his sides, there’s an entourage of adoring fans…fine, maybe they’re his friends. The girls are dressed as scantily as I am. One hurries to keep in stride with Cristiano, but his attention is on the man to his right. The two of them are grinning about something, and before Cristiano can see that I’m staring, I whip back around and get busy finishing this drink order.
It’s annoying that he’s walking through my section. He doesn’thaveto. He could have curved around the side of the club or, I don’t know, bodysurfed over the crowd like the god he is.
“Do you like the frozen sangría?” one of the girls asks as she notices another server walk by with a pitcher of the frothy pink cocktail.
“Love it. A little sweet, a little tart.”
