Page 10 of Letting it Ride

I snatch the phone back with a glare. “I’m not giving him your number.”

Annika smiles triumphantly as she bites into her slice of pizza. “A-ha. So you do still like him. No wonder you’re so excited about this cruise. You get to look at your brother’s best friend shirtless for a week.”

“Four days,” I correct. “And he’s not interested in me like that. Plus, how do you know he’ll be shirtless?” Not that I’d complain about that view. I lift my own slice to my mouth and blow on it before taking a bite.

“All the pools and such. But,” Annika says through a mouth full of pizza. She swallows and dabs at her lips with a napkin. “I’ve seen you in a bikini, girl. How could he not be interested? And he’s going on this cruise with just you. That’s something, right? He doesn’t hate you, at least.”

Cam definitely doesn’t hate me. He’s always been nice. Brotherly, which is even worse.

You can fuck someone you hate. You can’t fuck your brother or someone who sees themselves in that way. It does surprise me a little that Cam wasn’t upset about Maddox pulling out of the cruise at the last minute.

Wait.

I swallow my bite as a flash of panic rises in me. “Uh, I think he knows I’m going. Crap. I’d better check.”

Annika just raises her eyebrows and shoves morepizza in her mouth as I wipe my greasy fingers on a napkin and text Maddox.

Maddox

Hey, you told Cam you pulled out of the cruise and are sending me instead, right?

Maddox?

Uh, you told him, right?

Oh, fuck.

My phone lights up with a call from my brother as Annika raises the remote and starts to scroll through movies. I leave my plate on the couch as I stand and walk into my bedroom.

“Maddox? Please tell me you told him. I don’t want to fuck up your honeymoon, but please. Tell me he knows that the whole plan changed.”

I close the door to drown out the noise from the TV as credits from an old movie start up. My duffel bag is waiting on the floor by the closet, packed full of those tiny shorts and bikinis and ready to go. Crap, I hope I’m not springing this on Cam.

“Hey, Addie. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just…” I can hear the wince in his voice. “I was so busy planning the wedding, and then the honeymoon, that I just… forgot.”

“Forgot what?” I twirl a finger in my long hair, pulling slightly. It’s a nervous habit, but one that I don’t plan to give up anytime soon. I finally stopped chewing my nails when I was in college. Let me have this one.

Maddox married his wife Holly a month ago, and they’re leaving on their honeymoon to Italy tonight. I only texted him because I know he’s at the airport, so I’m nottechnicallyinterrupting their honeymoon yet. Their flight leaves in half an hour.

“I, uhh…” He pauses when a mumbled voice in the background announces something about someone being welcome to board. “Fuck, I have to go. They’re boarding our flight. Anyway. I completely forgot to let Cam know I had to back out and that you were going instead. It’ll be fine, though. Cam is cool, and he’ll be there if you need anything. He’ll take care of you. Have fun, okay? I’ll try to send him a quick text right now.”

He disconnects the call, and I stare at the phone in my hand. God, I hope Cam isn’t pissed.

But you know what? That’s future Addie’s problem. For now, I take a deep breath, leave my phone on my bed, and settle back on the couch with pineapplepizza, my BFF, and a classic tale of two old ladies and their little murder habit.

Everything will be fine.

I’m probably forgetting something.

I toss my toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant into the duffel bag, trying to remember if there’s anything else I didn’t pack. I throw in an extra pair of flip-flops and zip the top. I need to get moving, so whatever’s packed is packed at this point. No time to stress over it now. I like to cut it close when it comes to flying. The less downtime in the airport, the better. Why should I spend my time being bored there when I can just get there when I need to?

Annika is still snoring on my couch as I tiptoe through the apartment. With how often she and I stay over at one another’s places—almost every Friday night, after a couple of hard ciders—we should really just find a two-bedroom and move in together. But she says we’re adults and that twenty-seven-year-olds shouldn’t have roommates, and she’s not wrong.

I trust her to lock up when she leaves later on. Annika is a much more functional adult than I am. She remembers to change the oil in her car, pays billson time, and has matching mugs in her kitchen. When the light on her hallway ceiling burned out, she found a ladder and replaced it.

I just used alternate lighting sources for three months until Maddox came over and replaced the bulb. He’s tall enough to reach it without a ladder.

Part of me understands why Cam still sees me as a kid. The rest of my family does, too. It’s probably things like the lightbulb. I’m sure Maddox has told all his friends the stories about me, like the time I drove to Vermont and back for a friend’s wedding and didn’t realize I’d need to fill up with gas to make it all the way back. He was the one I called, trying to figure out why my car had just stopped and why I was stranded on the Garden State Parkway.

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