Page 57 of Troubles

“You gonna be alright? That’s a lot of tequila,” Gracyn asks.

“I don’t know that there’s enough tequila in the world to take care of this day. Month, really. Shit.” She shakes her head and smiles. Then the giggles start, and by the time she’s worked up to a full-on laugh, the last thing I expect are the tears.

Not laughing tears, but the real ones.

“Kate, are you okay?” I hand her a wad of cocktail napkins and slide her water glass closer. “What happened?”

“Oh, my Lawrt.” She dabs at her mascara, not smudging it in the least. It’s a skill that I absolutely do not possess.

She looks out the window and sighs. “I’m a walking soap opera. I was early, meeting my boyfriend here for dinner. I’m never early, y’all. Never. And I guess he was banking on that, because”—she swallows hard and stares at the ceiling until she gets herself together again—“because I found him making out with his boyfriend at the gelato place next door.”

My hand flies to my mouth, trying desperately to hold in the shock. Just as the words whiz through my brain, I hear Gracyn bark out, “Well shit, Lis, you don’t have the worst breakup story anymore.”

The silence is deafening for all of ten seconds before Kate’s laugh fills the bistro bar and her perfectly preserved mascara runs down her face.

Gracyn dumps the rest of her sangria down her throat and I can’t hold it back anymore. The laughter bubbles out between my fingers, still firmly clamped over my mouth. We’re for sure making a scene.

“I’m so sorry,” I squeak out, “so sorry. It’s not funny, but?—”

“Oh, it’s funny,” Kate spits out. “It just fucking sucks. I need to find a new place, too, now.” Sighing, she wipes at her eyes and mumbles, “Fuck.”

“Sorry, again.” Nudging Gracyn with my elbow, I ask—silently—and she agrees—less silently.

“I’m looking for a new roommate. I’m Gracyn and this is Lis. She just left me for the love of her life.”

“Are you serious? Because that would be amazing.” Kate leans over me to Gracyn. “I teach kindergarten, well, I start next month, but I can prepay rent until then. I don’t want you thinking I’m gonna mooch or flake or anything. When—how soon can I move in? God, I don’t ever want to see that asshole again. Can you believe I moved up here to be with him? Shoulda known a fine dressing, pretty Southern boy wanting to move closer to the fashion district was too good to be true.”

She’s killing me, all quick wit and Southern drawl. Kate pulls out her phone and shows us a picture. Pretty is most definitely the word for him. His hair is not just styled, but coiffed. His smile is all veneers and the boy is sporting seersucker shorts and original Penguin polo that so needs to be a size larger. I think I saw in Urban Dictionary that it’s referred to as a smedium.

“Isn’t Aidan covering part of fashion week?”

Nodding through my last gulp of sangria, Kate shifts her gaze to me. “Is that your man?”

I show her the picture I took of him at the beach. Shirtless, scruffy, and rugged. Holding his hair out of his eyes and a hint of his crooked tooth where he’s biting his lip.

I love this picture the way he loves the one of me from the reflecting pool. “Yeah, he’s a photographer…very straight, I swear.”

“Mmm—you hope.”

Gracyn is shocked silent before busting out laughing, covering up my giggled If you only knew.

34

Aidan

She’s not answered one phone call. Not returned a single text. No one’s heard from her or seems to know where she is. She’s disappeared.

I’m not sure how I became the one in charge of finding her, but I am. Lorna’s been my best friend for years. I didn’t think twice about being there for her and Michael after his diagnosis. Didn’t flinch at helping her through the end. But I’m three thousand miles away. In another country. I can’t just drop everything and go ’round her flat looking for her.

I’m not sure what else I can do.

For Lisbeth, though, there’s no question. She’s been working her hours at the hospital during the day. Shadowing the nursing staff, and loving every minute of it. But she’s still putting in as many hours at the bistro as she can each week.

As hardworking as she is, she’s just as stubborn. I’ve told her the rent is paid. The bills taken care of. I’ve got us covered with this flat. I want to help alleviate some of her stress, take the load off and give her the opportunity to finish her school and training without having to worry about paying day-to-day bills.

I laugh to myself as I fix her coffee in the huge travel mug she likes. She takes hers to the hospital with her in the wee hours of the morning, so I bought a second one. One for me to treat and spoil her with.

Gracyn pulls up to the curb, just as I lock the door behind me.

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