Laney
HUGS, my friend. Go well?
Better than expected.
Laney
Good!
Maybe?
Laney
You think he’ll find out?
Definitely. The question is HOW SOON he’ll find out. If the café isn’t shut down with a massive SABRINA SULLIVAN IS THE BIGGEST LINE-CROSSING ASSHOLE IN THE UNIVERSE sign spray-painted in the windows by the end of the week, we’ll have half our answer.
Laney
When did you hang up?
Twenty minutes ago.
Laney
You’re not fired yet?
Nope.
Laney
Then I’m trusting your instincts that this was the right step. What’s next?
Waiting to hear. I’ll keep you updated.
Laney
You okay?
No.
Laney
Does it help if I remind you that your complicated feelings and hesitation in doing this mean you’re a good person without a lot of other options to protect something you love that serves a massive purpose in our community?
You are entirely too loyal.
Laney
Nope. Just completely correct in my convictions.
Have you seen Emma this week?
Laney
frowny emoji No, and Theo thinks she might be sleeping at her office.
He’s seen her?
Laney
Briefly.
This is bad.
Laney
He’s been taking her breakfast to make sure she eats, and she keeps telling him she has a lot of work to catch up on.
I’ll take her a pretzel from Sir Pretzelot tomorrow afternoon.
Laney
Good idea. She’s definitely working tomorrow. I had chicken wings delivered to her for dinner, and Theo told me her dad and uncle are checking in on her regularly too. And I know at least three of her clients have brought her giant food baskets.
I…didn’t hear that. OH MY GOD. No one’s talking to me about Emma AT ALL except for you. Are they tiptoeing around me? Do they think I’m awful?
Laney
NO. No. Stop. Deep breath. No one thinks you’re awful. They think you have enough on your plate right now.
No one has ever kept me in the dark like this. I haven’t heard a single WHISPER about Emma in the café. Not about anything since the wedding and the video. They only ask me how she is. They don’t tell me how she’s doing.
Laney
I’m coming over.
I’ll go see my mom.
Laney
I’ll meet you at her place.
I’m trying really hard to tell you not to worry about me and I can’t make myself say it. I don’t fall apart, Laney. Why am I falling apart?
Laney
Because shit’s fucking tough right now.
I love sweary Laney, in case you didn’t know. Sweary Laney is a bright spot in my day.
Laney
Apparently I’ve had a few special words bottled up for a while now. Feels good to let them out.
And I’m sure Theo rewards your efforts appropriately.
Laney
I wasn’t going to rub it in. Are you staying home or going to your mom’s?
I’m going to Mom’s.
Laney
Meet you there.
I’ll pick you up. Theo’s bad side is the last place I can afford to be right now.
Laney
I won’t let him be mad at you.
I sincerely don’t know what I did to deserve you.
Laney
YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON, SABRINA SULLIVAN. That’s what you did. Don’t let having to fight hard for what should’ve been yours in the first place make you doubt that.
You spelled “dirty” wrong.
Laney
You’re not fighting dirty. You’re fighting hard. And you’re not alone, no matter what you have to do. HE could solve this by finding a different way to get revenge on Chandler, and we don’t even know what Chandler did to him. This is not your fault and you’re doing what you need to do.
Stop. You’re making my eyeballs leak. Sit tight. I’m coming to get you and then Mom and I’m treating you both to dinner. No arguments. I have to balance out my karma in the universe.
Laney
Your karma’s already balanced, but if this is what you need, I’m here for you.
21
Grey
Who’s a creeper who heard the neighbor’s front door shut and is now peering out between the blinds of his living room to watch Sabrina stride across the parking area with longer steps than should be possible given her height, her dog trotting happily beside her, as they head for her car?
Me.
That’s who.
I’m the creeper.
Worse?
Watching her is distracting me from the one phone call from a family member that I was willing to return when I finally looked at my voicemails from the past two days.
“Grey?” Mimi says on the other end of the phone.
I make myself step away from the window as Sabrina bends and hugs Jitter before opening the back car door for him. They look so right. And I want to be out there with them.
“Yes,” I say too strongly. “Yes, I think Miami this time of year would be perfect for you.”
“I don’t know,” she says slowly, which is how she does everything these days.
Slowly.
It’s been horrible to watch. Ever since her sister passed away a year ago, she’s gotten slower and quieter, like she’s retreating from life. She visited me a time or two in California—I actively hate being anywhere near the rest of my family and she’s always loved to travel, so I usually pay for her to come see me instead of going to her—but I was always so focused on chasing the next big data point with my bees at work that I didn’t do much good for her.
“Seems like there might be too many old people there,” she finally says.
“Plenty of young people too though. Almost spring break.”
“Oh, that’s too wild.”
“What about the Outer Banks? The Carolinas? Warm. Younger old people. Older young people. Bet you could get your shuffleboard on.”
She laughs a little, and the tightness in my chest eases.
I worry about Mimi.
She and Zen are the only two family members I have who appreciate me for me, and I do my damned best to return the favor. My father is the only child she had, much to my grandfather’s disappointment. The old bastard made sure everyone knew nothing was enough for him.
One kid? He should’ve had six, and they would’ve all been his property. Three houses? His acquaintance had four, all with pools and gardens. Mimi went gray before his friends’ wives and needed to dye her hair. His lawyer’s kid went to boarding school, so his son and his grandchildren needed to go to a better boarding school. Those Vanderbilts had that mansion down in North Carolina, so the Cartwrights needed a mansion on their original apple fields in upstate New York, which is eventually what drained the family trust fund.
But that wasn’t my grandfather’s fault.
It was lazy contractors doing shitty work and asking for too much pay.
Mimi did her best, but my old man turned out just like his old man.
I used to ask her regularly, when I was younger, why she married him.
Because life isn’t always what you hoped it would be was the only response she’d ever give me. But you, young man, have a pure heart, quick brains, and a good soul. Don’t settle for anything less than what you deserve.
I realized after Felicia that she didn’t say I had good judgment when it comes to women.
“I’ll figure out where to go,” Mimi says. “Enough about this old lady. Tell me about you.”
I turn the corner from the living room into the kitchen and nearly jump out of my skin.
Zen’s leaning in the doorway to the mudroom, watching me with the kind of suspicion in their eyes that you’d expect of someone who probably saw me spying on the neighbor and decided to hang out quietly to scare the shit out of me instead of calling me on my stalker behavior.
They’re probably hoping—again—that I pull my head out of my ass, give up on this plan to change the café, and ask Sabrina out.