Page 2 of The Hat Trick

Audrey enjoys her lists. She likes organization, planning, and structure. Which is why we couldn’t be more opposite. I am impulsive, off the cuff, and as disorganized as it comes.

“Read me the list, oh great one,” I taunt.

“We plan a trip to Vail.”

I snort. “And do what?”

“I don’t know, take skiing lessons or something,” she shrugs.

“Pass. Next.”

“Fine. We go on one of those bar or restaurant tours.”

I grimace. “Alcohol at home is so much cheaper.”

I’m not a frugal person, but the visual I have of a bartourdoesn’t sound appealing. I picture an actual tour guide directing us from place to place with a bunch of old people carrying cameras around their neck trying to capture proof of the elusive drunk person.

She rolls her eyes at me. “We join a club or something.”

“A club? Audrey, where did you get these ideas?”

She waves me off. “It doesn’t matter.”

I groan as I slide out of the chair I’m in and make my way to the living room before dramatically throwing myself on the couch. “Just forget it. I don’t want to do anything anyway; I’ll just stay at home and rot away in this very spot until I’m nothing but a lump of nothing.”

“I don’t think it’s possible to be a lump of nothing.”

“Whatever, you know what I mean.” I throw a pillow over my face.

I feel her sit down on the couch by my feet before the pillow is ripped out of my hands.

“You didn’t actually tell me what exactly happened. You just said, ‘Jay’s engaged to that home-wrecker before going off about needing to do something yourself.”

“That’s the gist of it,” I evade.

“Chan, there’s more. How’d you find out in the first place?”

I don’t like to admit that I stalk my ex every once in a while, but I do. It’s gotten less over the last year since we’ve been broken up but he dumped me out of the blue, then suddenly a week later was dating this girl he works with. It didn’t take much to put together there was some overlap.

Jay and I were together for four years. We started dating our junior year of college, and I thought he was going to be the one. Then, one week after our anniversary he says we’re done. Just like that. We lived together so I ended up moving in with Audrey in her townhome. A week later he’s posting pictures with her, and I…well…I didn’t handle it well. Just like now.

“I saw it on Facebook,” I mumble.

“Why were you looking?”

“Don’t judge me.”

“I’m not judging, I’m asking.”

“Sometimes I look, and this time I just so happened to see they are engaged. Plus, tomorrow will be a year since he dumped me and I’m just a mess.”

I realize I probably sound like an idiot, but I don’t really care. I really thought I would be the one marrying this guy, and I hate to say I never got over him, but in a way, I guess I didn’t. And here we are.

“You’re not a mess,” she assures me before going quiet for a few moments. I’m almost tempted to break the silence because it’s making me uncomfortable, but then she speaks again. “I got it, we are going to spend tonight making a list of things you want to do and have never done before. Then, tomorrow we are going to spend the whole day doing them.”

“I don’t know,” I shake my head.

“Yeah, come on, it’s the perfect distraction. You won’t even think about what tomorrow is, and then we will top it all off with your favorite thing in the whole world.”

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