Page 48 of The Life-Changing Magic of Falling in Love

I smile and raise the glass in a toast. ‘But you’re right about small-town roots. My home town might as well be called, Weddingville, seeing as almost everyone there marries their college sweetheart and settles down in a starter home a couple of streets away from where their folks started out together. It’s all very—’ I draw a blank.

‘Copacetic?’

I smile and nod. I remember as Sarah and I got older we talked about what jobs we wanted, what careers. It’s a shock now to realise our plans never included what came alongside or after our flashy city lives.

‘So, if Weddingville fulfils a lot of fairy-tale criteria, you’re still here because?’ Oz asks.

I feel guilty. Why wouldn’t he be confused when I’ve been participating fully in Operation Find Ashleigh A Boyfriend?

‘It’s ironic,’ Oz continues, letting me off the hook for an answer, ‘that you had to leave your home to escape settling down before you were ready to, and I had to leave mine to find someone to settle down with.’

‘But how great that we both found it right here?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe a city is too big a place to keep it – sustain it?’

I swallow. ‘You can’t leave! This is your home now. You have roots here. With Carlos.’

‘Maybe.’

Chapter Fourteen

PROPHECIES AND PROMOTIONS

Ashleigh

‘27A on Northside are separating.’

I’m standing beside Jamal, one of Sparkle’s longest-serving employees, as he says it and right there my ability to be present in the Monday morning rota meeting sinks without trace as I go right back to worrying about Carlos and Oz and the way Oz said “maybe” on Saturday night.

At the end of the evening, right before he handed me a box of brownies to give to Zach on our next date, Oz apologised for insinuating Zach was out with someone else on weekends and told me I was a good friend. I can still feel the butterflies exploding out of my chest like they’d been shot from a confetti canon. All I could think was that I was a crap friend for internally catastrophizing about him and Carlos separating and him leaving.

Or both of them leaving.

Leaving me here.

On my own.

‘27A Northside are always separating,’ Adeena, another cleaner, states.

Jamal shakes his head. ‘For real this time. They haven’t slept in the same bed for weeks. Then there’s the card from a divorce attorney. Flopped right out onto the floor when I was emptying the trashcan in the second bathroom. Right along with an empty tub of next-level face cream. She’s ramped up the retinol percentage by a gazillion and no one’s switching up their beauty regime that much and sleeping in another bedroom while thinking they’re staying. I’m waiting on the request for a Sparkle 5Star Service deep clean because no way he’s affording that place on his own.’

I agree with Jamal’s summation. It’s an unfortunate fact that your cleaner usually knows what’s going on in your life before you, your therapist, or in this case, your lawyer, might.

If I could get a look inside Carlos and Oz’s place, I could get a better handle on what’s going to happen to them…

No.

I have to stop this.

When I popped into Oscars this morning I didn’t get to speak to Carlos because it was so busy, but I did get a cheery “Morning Beautiful” and a flash of his flirty grin to set me up for the day. He looked as carefree as always. So, see? It’s going to be fine. They’re going to be fine. Nothing bad is going to happen. They’re getting a dog together. They’re getting their happy ending. I’ll probably end up asking them to find me a date to their wedding. Become godmother to their kids. They’ll move to a big house in the suburbs?—

Every muscle in my body tightens and then tightens some more as I realise everyone is staring at me.

‘Ashleigh…?’ Rhonda Sparkles, my boss, says. ‘You’re up.’

Rhonda, possibly as a way of mitigating her last name, is way scarier than my boss was at Best Home but being as I like this job, and I like Rhonda, I feel sick I wasn’t paying attention. I’m sure there was something I needed to ask at today’s meeting. ‘Um…’ I look around the room and as I see Janice I remember. ‘Hey, Janice, how are you with snakes? Can you deal?’

‘Sure. Every woman has to a time or two, sweetie. You want me to deal with one for you? Is that what has you looking so upset this morning?’

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