Sybil took a bite of her cookie, chewing thoughtfully as she considered my question. “I used to think love was like a roller coaster, you know,” she said. “The heart-pounding thrill of it all. The lows making the highs feel that much more exhilarating. But Jamie’s not like that.”
“What’s he like?” I had only met him once at this point.
Sybil hugged a pillow to her chest. “He’s like… he’s likethe ocean. The feelings are just as powerful, but they’re steadier—like the tide, rolling in and out. Sometimes it feels like he’s the only one who can weather all my storms.”
And then, the dreamy look of deep thought still on her face, she bit off the leg of her gingerbread man.
At the time, I hadn’t been fully convinced, instead just brushing off her ocean metaphor as the semi-philosophical musings of an eggnog-tipsy Sybil. It took seeing her and Jamie interact several more times over the course of their engagement to understand for myself how true her assessment really was. And looking at Jamie’s worried but resolved expression now, here on the Vegas strip, I’m reminded of Sybil’s words. Jamiecanweather her storms. I know he can. By this point, he has to know something is up. But knowing that deep down and having the reality thrust in your face are two different things. Jamie just needs us to shield him from the worst of it. At least, for as long as it takes for Sybil to complete her roller-coaster ride and realize that what she really needs is right here waiting for her.
So I send up a quick prayer to the gods of lying by omission, and say, “So… Sybil really wants some alone time right now.” It’s not a complete lie. In fact, it is absolutely very much the partial truth.
“Alone time… away fromme?” Jamie’s voice stretches thinly over the words.
“From everyone really,” Nikki chimes in, which is also true. After all, no one has been able to get through to her.
For a moment, it seems like Jamie wants to push back, to demand more information, but mostly he just seems… tired. “Well, thanks for passing along the message. I know she’s ingood hands with you girls keeping an eye on her.” I swallow down the lump in my throat. “But the moment”—he pinches the bridge of his nose—“and I mean themomentshe doesn’t want to be alone, you tell her to call me. Okay?”
“I will,” I say, at the same time Nikki jumps in with “Absolutely.”
“Okay, well. The rest of the guys are out… somewhere. But I think I’m just going to go to bed.” His totally deflated look kills me. “Vittal scheduled the plane to go back tomorrow at nine a.m. I’ve texted Sybil the details, but I’ll send them to you too.”
I try to manifest into the universe a vision of Sybil sitting side by side with Jamie on his friend’s jet tomorrow morning, but the odds of that happening feel incredibly slim. We still need to locate herandresolve whatever insecurities sent her running off in the first place, and I’m highly doubtful we’ll be able to accomplish all that before 9:00 a.m., a mere eight hours from now.
We all give Jamie hugs and watch him slump back toward the hotel.
“Lord, that was rough,” Nikki says with a sigh.
“You really think that was the best move?” Finn asks. “Keeping the charade up like that?”
“I didn’t hear you stepping up to drop the bomb on him,” I shoot back. Exhaustion and stress are settling into my bones, and that mind-altering kiss I’d shared with Finn in the elevator seems like a distant memory.
Finn holds his hands in front of his chest defensively. “Hey, I was genuinely asking. I have no idea what the right thing to do is here. I want to respect Sybil’s wishes…” He trails off,rubbing a hand across his jaw. “But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and tell the truth, even if it hurts.”
I know he’s right, but looking at Jamie’s puppy dog face has stoked my protective instincts—the same ones that spun a story for three-year-old Liz about our dad being an astronaut who was on his way to the moon, and therefore couldn’t take her to the daddy-daughter tea after church that Sunday. Eventually she learned the truth, but in that moment, the blow was cushioned.
“Let’s give this one more try,” I say as I navigate over to the tracking app for the first time in hours. “If we have no leads on her whereabouts by the time Jamie’s heading to the airport, we’ll fess up. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Nikki says.
Finn just nods.
As the tracking app loads, I pray that Sybil’s little blue dot is headed toward Caesars Palace… and Jamie.
But I have to zoom out three times to find her. And when I do, my stomach does an unpleasant flip.
Sybil is no longer in Vegas.
And she hasn’t just left the city. She’s left the whole frickin’state.
“Oh shit,” Finn says, peering over my shoulder at the map.
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“It looks like she’s headed to Albuquerque.”
“Albuquerque?” Nikki repeats.
The anxiety that I’ve kept at bay through most of the evening curls around my chest. “How do you know?” I ask Finn.
