Page 43 of Charming Deception

I stand there, heart pounding, as I process this. The feeling that rises up in me, setting fire to my senses and stopping my breath, is unnamable.

It’s as confusing as it is unexpected.

Later, I’ll be able to look back and understand what I felt when I first heard that Megan was gone.

In the moment, it feels like a sudden and all-consuming madness, which isn’t far off.

Chapter 10

Megan

I knock on Nicole’s apartment door, my sad suitcase, once again held together by bungee cords and a prayer, at my feet.

She just buzzed me into the building, which is, as she’d described it, just off South Granville’s “Art Gallery Row,” near the Granville Street Bridge, where a steady stream of Friday night traffic glides in and out of downtown. Nicole’s street is surprisingly quiet, just one block off the main drag. Her building isn’t the newest on the block, but it has security, and the glass lobby looks renovated.

The elevator brings me up to her floor, and when she throws her door open, I hear the comforting voices of women inside, the throb of music, and the hiss of something cooking, like vegetables sizzling in a wok.

“Yes!” My old friend lights up at the sight of me and practically shouts the greeting, and I have to laugh. Nicole was the one who dubbed this my Summer of Yes, after all.

Minutes after I quit my gardening job today, I called to tell her that I needed a new place to stay; she immediately invited me to come stay with her. I said yes, and here we are.

She throws her arms around me. “I can’t believe it’s been so long since I saw you!”

“I know!” Nicole and I grew up together in Crooks Creek, right next door. We’ve kept in touch over the years, and I’ve seen her every few years when she comes home for Christmas or a wedding or a funeral. But it’s been a while. “It never feels like any time has passed at all when I see you, though,” I marvel.

“Girl, same.” She grabs my suitcase without a comment on its sorry state and whisks it inside. “Come in!”

Inside the apartment, I’m immediately greeted by the comfy chaos of too many people living together in a small space. Personal belongings are strewn everywhere. The living room features an unmade futon bed, and the open kitchen is a sea of groceries and dishes.

Two twenty-something women are in the living room, one painting her toenails, the other one lacing up her tall Doc Martens boots. Another one is in the kitchen, making a stir fry that I can now smell: oil, hoisin, and broccoli. That hip-hop song “Stir Fry” thumps through the apartment, kinda loud, but not so loud it’ll annoy the neighbors, maybe.

They all wave at me when Nicole introduces us, rattling off their names. I already know all three of them live here with her.

I do the math. Nicole said there were two bedrooms. She’s in one; that means one roommate on the futon and the other two in the second bedroom?

“Welcome to big-city living, my friend,” she says, maybe reading my overwhelm.

“Are you sure it’s okay if I stay for a bit?” I follow her as she rolls my suitcase up the short hall to her bedroom. “Your roommates won’t mind?”

“Nope.” She pushes open the door to her room, which is at least a lot tidier than the shared space beyond, though it’s smallish. There’s only one bed, a double. “My name is one of the two on the lease. We have more people than we’re supposed to in here, but it makes the rent cheap. They wanna charge three grand, to start, for a decent apartment around here? The modern girl makes it work.”

I blanch as she shuts the door behind us, and the music fades out a bit. Three grand…?

“We’re all busy girls, so everyone just comes and goes. We’re rarely all here at once.” She takes my backpack and purse from me and puts them on her bed.

“This is so generous of you, really. I’m sure you don’t need one more to add to the chaos.”

“It’s no problem. I’m undaunted by chaos.” She smiles at me.

I remember that about her. Love that about her, really.

With her wild brown hair and good-time vibes, Nicole Lalonde is the energy I want to become. Where I’m careful and overly cautious, she never lets anything get in her way. When we were kids, I’d be hovering on the edge of the river, weighing the dangers of jumping in, and Nicole would already have dived right in, without pause or regret.

And our whole lives have rolled out just like that.

Sadly, as cautious as I’ve been, it hasn’t saved me from getting hurt. Nicole went to the big city to expand her life. I stayed put, stayed safe—in theory—and suffered for it.

She slides open a drawer in her dresser. “I cleared out two drawers for you, and I’ll make room in the closet.”

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