Page 24

"Wait, what are we doing?" I ask.

"We're burning it," Tatum says, already digging through her purse for a lighter.

Since my bungalow sits at the end of a dead-end street with a giant, overgrown empty lot behind it, I don't have neighbors close enough to call the fire department, so I shrug and go with it.

Ten minutes later, the four of us are hauling the king-size mattress out the back door. We dump it in the center of the overgrown grass. Andie douses it in a bottle of lighter fluid she found in my garage, and Tatum flicks her lighter and tosses it on the bed.

The flames roar up, bright and hot in the twilight.

Scout cheers like we just won something, while Ellie pulls out her phone to record the whole thing. Andie has the garden hose stretched across the grass beside her, because at least one of us thought past the let’s light this thing on fire part of the plan.

I pull out my phone.

Sumner and I agreed this morning that we were just going to be friends. We both have massive messes to clean up in our own lives, and neither of us is in any place to start a relationship.

But friends text each other, right?

I snap a picture of the blazing mattress and send it to him.

GOLDIE: taking out the trash, just like I said I would

My screen doesn't even go dark before the typing bubble appears.

SUMNER: Good

SUMNER: Fuck that guy

Another message comes through right behind it.

SUMNER: Please tell me you have a hose out there

I glance at Andie, who has one foot planted on the garden hose while she argues with Tatum about whether they should all get naked and dance around the fire.

Probably best not to give him all the details.

GOLDIE: we have a hose

GOLDIE: my house is safe

SUMNER: Good

I smile at the screen, watching the flames chew through one corner of the mattress while the girls argue behind me about whether it needs more lighter fluid. Andie is firmly in the absolutely fucking not camp. Scout, unsurprisingly, is not.

Then I remember Sumner had his own disaster waiting for him when he left St. Pete this morning.

I chew on the inside of my cheek for a second before typing.

Goldie: did you end up talking to your wife?

The typing bubble appears almost immediately, disappears, then comes back.

SUMNER: Yeah

SUMNER: I ended it

My smile fades a little.

Well, shit. He really did it.