A shower sounded amazing. Rosie slipped into her bedroom for a change of clothes, then padded down the hallway to the bathroom. Murmurs from the kitchen reached her ears.
“What are you doing?”
Olivia poked her head out of the kitchen doorway. “Ordering pizza! Go shower. We’ll be right here.”
Rosie shook her head, went into the bathroom, and shut the door. Looking in the mirror, she almost jumped in fright. She didn’t recognize herself. Dark circles hung under her eyes, and her skin looked paler than usual. And her hair hadn’t seen a brush in twenty-four hours. This needed more than just dry shampoo.
After dealing with the tangles, she started a hot shower, and let the water refocus her mind. Olivia was back. The squad was whole again, even if Rosie wasn’t.
She scrubbed, she shampooed, and she even shaved. A bottle of lotion she rarely used came out of the back of the cabinet and she moisturized herself head to toe. Winter was finally breaking now that it was late March, but the dry skin wouldn’t heal itself.
After dressing in leggings and a t-shirt, Rosie towel-dried her hair and combed it through. Then she took a deep breath and reentered her living room.
The whole squad was there. Two boxes of piping hot pizza sat on her coffee table, and they were crowded around it. Nadia and Jade had opted to sit on the floor, and Olivia and Mia were at opposite ends of her couch. Olivia patted the space between them.
“We got some soda; what do you want?” Ice cold bottles of Coke and Sprite sat next to Nadia on the floor.
“Coke, please.” She squished her butt between her two blonde friends as Nadia poured her drink. Once she sat down, Jade passed paper plates around and they ate in silence. By the time her third piece of pizza was down the hatch, the quiet had grown stifling.
“Okay, you fed me. You guys want the story now?”
“If you’re ready, sugar.” Jade’s brown eyes were full of kindness as she patted Rosie’s knee.
“Yeah.” She told them everything about that night, starting with her surprise when Keith called her from Matt’s phone, all the way to Matt dumping her in his hospital room.
“The worst part is, I still love him. I can’t see myself with anyone else.” Tears were flowing freely again; would they ever dry up? “He was my —” she stole a glance at Olivia. “Sorry, Olivia. But he was my first.”
They didn’t say anything about her being a twenty-four-year-old-virgin, like she expected. There was no judgment, only sympathy and understanding.
“You were his, too, remember.” Mia hugged her closer.
Blue, green, and brown eyes bugged out around them.
Olivia had received a double shock. “How didyouknow that?”
“He told me.” Mia shrugged like it was no big deal. “He wanted some advice.”
Olivia shook her head like she was rearranging something inside.
“I’d never even had a boyfriend. The only kiss I’d ever had was a boy who did it on a dare. He was my firsteverything.” Rosie leaned on Mia’s shoulder. “It hurts so bad. Does it ever go away?”
“Yeah, hun. It will.” Mia didn’t meet her eyes, and Rosie wondered briefly if her friend was lying to save her feelings.
“Who wants dessert? I ran out and got ice cream.” Olivia abruptly popped up from the couch, returning with a pint of Rosie’s favorite flavor, triple chocolate. Then she handed out more pints as well as spoons to the other girls.
She dug into her ice cream, but the flavors didn’t explode on her tongue like they usually did. Still, it helped. The conversation drifted to talk about everything other than Matt. Olivia brought them up to speed on a particularly needy client. Mia talked about the terrible dialogue in a script she was editing. Jade told them all about the regional manager’s latest stunt at her coffee shop. And Nadia had some funny stories about Caleb attempting to wash her laundry.
“He can do dishes, but apparently laundry is just too much.”
Looking around the room, Rosie knew she’d never find a better set of friends. Her heart still ached at the Matt-sized hole left there. She’d just have to be content with this.
Chapter 19
Theapartmentdooropenedand then slammed shut. “Matthew Svenson Lundholm,we are going to talk.”
Matt finished up in the bathroom and quickly washed his hands. The only person with a key was his sister. She’d had to keep the extra one in order to fulfill the terms of her lease with the landlord. How had he forgotten to draw the chain across the door? But instead of kicking himself, he had better face the music. Matt suspected he knew what Olivia wanted.
“Hi, Sis. I’m doing better, thanks for asking.” He shuffled into his living room to find Olivia sitting on her red couch with a borrowed t-shirt hanging off her shoulders. It was clearly one of Rosie’s; aDoctor Whoshirt with the blue police box swirling in space. His sister only ever watched that show once or twice in college with her friends. That confirmed his suspicions. Olivia had talked to Rosie. Probably even slept over last night.
