“Bitch,” Rachel replies playfully before turning serious. “Are we okay?”
“Yes,” I reply. “But can we not talk about it?” I plead. “Can we just chalk it up to body-switching stress?”
“Agreed!” Rachel looks relieved. “I’m sorry, Casey. I shouldn’t have been so careless with your life in New York.”
“Hey! We’re not talking about it!” I tease.
“Right, sorry. I just had to get that out. Moving on.”
“Hey, Casey, where’s your boyfriend?” A man wearing worn jeans and holding a long-lens camera aimed at us jumps out from behind the valet stand.
I glance at Rachel, who’s pursing her lips. What will she say?
“I don’t have a boyfriend!” she shouts defiantly.
“Easy, killer. I was just asking.” The photographer puts his hands up in front of him.
“Look, buddy, we’re just trying to have some girl time. Can you give us a little space please?” I say with a smile.
“Whatever. I heard Snooki and JWoww are just around the corner, which is a bigger story anyway,” he says between gritted teeth, but still snaps a bunch of photos of us before he scurries off.
“Bottom feeders!” I huff.
“Thanks for getting rid of him. I don’t know how you deal with that all the time,” Rachel says as we walk into the lobby of the hotel.
“No problem. I’m used to it. C’mon, I want to show you what we’ve got planned for John’s party.” Inside the elevator, I push the button for the top floor. “I think he’s going to love it!”
“I bet he’ll be very appreciative.” She looks skeptical.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing!” she responds and I decide not to push it.
? ? ?
The elevator doors open to reveal a beautiful ballroom. “It’s gorgeous!” Rachel exclaims as she steps over to the window to take in the view of the beach below. “This space is perfect.” She sets Charlotte down and we both watch her crawl over to a chair and pull herself up easily. “She’ll be walking soon,” Rachel says quietly, turning back toward the windows, the waves crashing into the sand.
“You’ll be back by then,” I say with more confidence than I feel.
“How’s Audrey?”
“Good. She’s getting so excited about the winter formal. You should see how poised she’s becoming! Are you going to come dress shopping with us?”
“Yes, just as long as something doesn’t come up at work,” Rachel says as she checks her email and for a minute I’m shocked at how much she sounds like me. Or rather who I used to be.
“I’d think you’d move mountains to be there,” I say lightly. “She really wants you to come, you know.”
“Of course I don’t want to miss it. But let’s be honest here; she wants her fabulous Aunt Casey with her, not me. And you, of all people, know how it is. I can’t control when the next celebrity is going to fuck up and cause a huge scandal.” She waves down a passing waiter and asks him for a Diet Coke with lime. A flash of irritation passes his chiseled features before he realizes it’s Casey Lee asking and quickly replaces it with a wide smile full of blinding white teeth. “Right away,” he says before returning in record time with her drink.
“Yes, you’re right. I see exactly how it is,” I say pointedly.
She rolls her eyes at me. “Come on. You know what I mean. Don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you don’t understand what I’m going through right now. How much pressure I’m under! The decisions I have to make.”
“Decisions? What decisions?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Rachel says, backtracking.
I’m about to push her more on this when I see someone out of the corner of my eye. It’s Brian. The bartender.
I grab Charlotte off the floor. “Come on!” I say to Rachel as I start to run toward the door.
“What?”
“I just saw Brian!” I call back to her as I pick up speed and see him turn a corner toward the stairs. “Wait!” I scream. “Brian!” I reach the stairs and start climbing, heaving as I struggle to carry Charlotte, remembering Rachel’s words from early on, that I’d feel out of shape in her body. But as I attempt to take the steps two at a time, feeling the strain of muscles I didn’t even know I had, I think of my trainer, Hans, who sculpted Jennifer Aniston’s killer abs and trained Jennie Garth for Dancing with the Stars. I push myself to go faster and I can see the back of Brian’s head as he’s racing up the stairwell in front of me, heading out the door at the top. I look back. Where is Rachel?
I burst through the door and find myself on the roof of the hotel. Brian is standing to the side, casually smoking a cigarette. “You!” I call out as I walk toward him.
“Hi, Casey,” he says and winks.
“Don’t wink at me, asshole.”