She cringed as she sucked air through her clenched teeth. “Well, I don’t know. I hada lotof things planned this weekend.ButI might be able to move things around if you agree to my terms.”
“I’m not bringing you to the reunion.”
“No, I was kidding about that.” Her left shoulder lifted. “Sort of. I mean would I give my left arm to see that reunion? Hell yes. But did I actually think you would take me? Sadly, no.”
“What are your terms?”
“Playdates.”
“How many?”
“Two per month for the next year.”
“This is one weekend. No.”
“Yes, one weekend which is forty-eight hours. Playdates are usually two hours, that’s four times twelve, forty-eight.” She smiled widely. “It’s simple math.”
I knew that she was playing me. I knew that she was taking advantage of me in a vulnerable time. And I also knew that I would pretty much agree to anything at this point.
“Deal.”
A wide smile spread on her face. “This is going to be so much fun.”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about me going to the reunion or on the playdates, both had the potential for complete disaster.
I pulled up the information for the hotel where the reunion was taking place and noticed the time. 11:11. My heart caught in my throat. When we were dating, Peyton always used to make us stop everything and make a wish when it was 11:11. And I’d always wished for the same thing. To be with Peyton forever.
Obviously, my wish hadn’t come true.
2
PEYTON
“I think she set me up,”I relayed to the computer screen.
“Who?” Leo asked as he filed his nails.
Typically, this would be a conversation we’d have in person. But since I was in San Francisco checking on my grandma after she’d fallen and “thought” she broke her hip and Leo was back in New York at his brownstone in Brooklyn which was one block from my own, the crisis was being discussed via Facetime.
“Nonna, she’s fine. She’s not even walking with a limp,” I explained. “She has asmallbruise on her left hip and I just found the paperwork for the ‘emergency room’ visit. It was just a regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment to get her blood pressure medication refilled.”
After she’d called and said she’d had an accident and gone to the emergency room and needed me to come out here, I’d hopped on the next plane.
“Maybe she just missed you.” Leo suggested.
“Maybe, but she just told me that while I’m here I might as well go to my high school reunion. Which is ridiculous. I mean I didn’t even graduate from Union High. I only went for six months and during my junior year.” There was still no reaction from Leo so I continued. “I told her there was no way I was going, and she said that she’d already RSVP’d and booked my hotel room. The woman still writes checks for groceries and prescriptions, I didn’t even know she had a credit card. When I told her I’d pay her back, she guilted me by saying that she never got to go to her high school reunion and that I shouldn’t waste my opportunities.”
Leo appeared wholly uninterested in my drama, which should have been my first clue that something was fishy, and it wasn’t the bay. As my GBF he was required to be interested in all my drama.
“Leo!”
He shrugged, “What? She has a point. And it’s aparty! Who doesn’t love a party?”
My jaw dropped. Leo was supposed to be on my side. He was always on my side. It was one of my most favorite things about him. Since he was not adequately outraged at my current dilemma, I knew just the thing to tip the scales in my favor. A fashion crisis.
“The reunion is tomorrow, and I don’t have anything to wear.”
A small grin tugged at the corners of Leo’s mouth as he pointed his file toward the screen. “Check your bag.”
