Page 59 of In a Pickle

“Li-Li!” someone shrieked, and Liana turned around to see her old friend Lucas, standing with Ruth of Forbes 30-under-30 fame.

“Lucas!” Liana shrieked, and James inclined his head, urging her to go talk to her friends. Liana gratefully extricated her hand from James’ and ran over, hugging Lucas and Ruth.

“Girl!” Lucas yelled appreciatively. “You look fantastic!”

“Thank you,” said Liana, and she realized this was the first time in years that she hadn’t felt self-conscious accepting the compliment. Despite having some bad days and a few Crohn’s disease flares over the past two years, Liana’s health had improved dramatically overall. She’d slowly been learning to accept her new body in all of its ups and downs. James had helped a lot in Liana’s journey toward self-acceptance. Liana knew she should be ashamed that she let a man’s opinioninfluence her feelings about herself, but it was hard not to get a confidence boost when James couldn’t seem to get enough of her body.

“Ruth!” said Liana. “Congrats on the Forbes list! I know it’s like, two years late, but it was so great to see. How’s life?”

Ruth shrugged. “Eh, you know. Life is lifing. It’s stressful.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Liana said.

Ruth shrugged again. “I don’t want to talk about me. I want to hear about you. What are you doing these days?”

Ruth was always no-nonsense, and Liana wasn’t surprised that her first question was about work. “I’m a product manager at SunStack. It’s a tech company here in Miami.”

Ruth nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ve heard of it. You are about to have your IPO, right?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about it, but yes. I mean, I’m not really involved in it personally, but yes, the CEO is working on the IPO.”

Ruth waved her hand dismissively. “Oh please. It’s a huge deal for everyone when a company goes public. It’s a big milestone. How long have you been there?”

“I just had my two-year work anniversary.”

“Nice. Do you like it?”

“I really do,” Liana said honestly.

“Our girl is on top of the world right now,” Lucas said. Lucas and Liana talked frequently, and Liana had gone to visit her friend in New York the previous month. A couple of other friendsfrom high school had met up with them, too. Slowly, Liana was becoming social again, taking trips and putting herself out into the world.

“Liana is not only winning the job game right now,” said Lucas, “but she’s also with the hottest man from our high school class.”

Ruth’s mouth dropped open. “Who?”

Lucas indicated a spot over Liana’s shoulder. Liana felt James’ warmth as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “That one,” Lucas said to Ruth. “James Alonso.”

“No way!” Ruth enthused. “James! How are you? Not sure if you remember me.”

“Of course I do, Ruth,” James replied in that easy way of his. “Ruth like the Supreme Court justice, you used to tell everyone. And now you’re out there, saving the world with tech. We’re all very proud.”

Ruth glowed. “Thank you. You look well. Are you doing well?”

“Oh, very,” James confirmed. “Although I have to say, I’ll do better when I can wear one of these in public. James lifted Liana’s hand and indicated the engagement ring on her finger. He ran his hand over the diamond and then pressed Liana’s hand to his mouth. “Mari over there would not stop hitting on me, even after I said I was taken. I honestly wish I were wearing a ring.” Sure enough, Liana saw a pretty girl looking at her like she wanted to shoot laser beams out of her eyes.

Liana rolled her eyes at James. “Oh, the terrible trials and tribulations of being attractive.”

“Stop it, you two!” Lucas said. “Are we just going to glance over the giant elephant in the room? The fact that you two arefreaking engaged!When did this happen?”

Liana blushed. “Yesterday, actually. We haven’t posted about it yet or anything. Wanted to tell our friends and family in person first.” She shot James a look. “I wasn’t really intending to draw attention to it. Just trying to catch up with a couple of people here.”

“Oh, honey,” said Lucas. “Look at that rock! You absolutely must draw all of the attention to it. Besides, we’re your friends! You said you wanted to tell your friends in person; James is just giving you a little nudge.”

“That’s right, babe. I was making sure we told everyone in person.” James kissed the top of her head, and her annoyance melted away. To Lucas and Ruth, James said, “We’re really happy. At least, I’m really happy. Liana… not so sure. She has to spend the rest of her life dealing with my horrible puns and generally terrible personality.”

Liana beamed at him. “When’s the wedding?” Lucas asked.

Liana laughed. “We haven’t set a date yet. We did literally get engaged 24 hours ago.”

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