Page 45 of Betting on the Brainiac

Chapter Seventeen

Madison

When I wake upmidmorning Sunday to the smell of bacon and grilled onion, I know Josh is here cooking up omelets.

That’s all it takes to get me out of bed an hour earlier than usual after a Gatsby’s shift. I throw on something that doesn’t smell bad when I snag it from a chair in my room and head down for brunch.

“Besties,” I say, blinking at them through bleary eyes, “I am delighted to see you all here.” I barely get the last word out through a huge yawn.

“Feeling your love deeply.” Sami’s tone is dry as she leans against the counter near Josh while he cracks eggs.

“I can yawn and still love you. I love you so much that I got up early to see you.”

“You got up early for an omelet,” Ava says before sipping from her mug of green tea.

“Loving bacon as much as I love you doesn’t mean I love you less,” I tell her. “It just means I love y’all a lot.”

Sami snags a piece of bacon and chews. “As much as bacon.” She nods. “I’m honored.”

Ruby is out on the patio, curled up on the love seat, her back to us.

I lower my voice. “I didn’t get to talk to her much yesterday. She was coming as I was leaving. How’s she doing?”

Ava sighs. “Weekends will be the hardest for a while. That’s when she and Niles hung out the most. She was okay yesterday because she had to work, but she has too much thinking time today.”

“I need y’all to fix her.” Josh peers out through the window over the sink. “It’s pitiful, and it’s bringing me down.”

“Babe, are you trying to say your heart is breaking for her, and you don’t like it?” Sami asks.

“That’s exactly what I said in bro speak.” Josh beats the eggs with a fork, while Sami gives his arm a gentle rub.

“It’s going to take time,” Ava says.

“What do we do, Sami?” I ask.

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re the only one who’s been through an intense breakup. What helps?”

“I withered until I was a former shell of myself going through the motions of my life, so I’m probably the wrong person to ask.”

Josh puts down the bowl of eggs and hugs her. “You poor desiccated thing.”

She pinches his side, and he drops a kiss on her pink-streaked hair before going back to his omeleting. Sami is tiny and feisty, and while she did have a pretty introverted year after her college breakup, she’s found a lot of healing in performing breakup anthems as her rock goddess alter ego and front woman for the band.

“Let’s play to our strengths here,” I say. “Josh, you put extra cheese and bacon on Ruby’s omelet. Also, sue Niles for wasting five years of Ruby’s time. Sami, you write an angry breakup song about Niles, and feel free to use the line ‘it’s no shocker you dumped the guy in Dockers,’”—this makes Josh snort, but Sami gives a thoughtful frown and reaches for the notepad on the fridge—“and Ava, do some science.”

“Do some science?” she repeats. “Could you be more specific?”

“Mix up some chemicals in your lab that will block all the sad feelings and then we could make Ruby take it?”

“You just described Ecstasy,” Ava says. “There’s an entire branch of federal law enforcement dedicated to menotmaking that in my lab.”

“Excuse me, Dr. Kincade. I thought you were a heart specialist. Seems like this would be your wheelhouse.” I know what Ava’s actual research is, so she takes my teasing for what it is and rolls her eyes.

Ava sighs and looks at Sami. “She’s impossible, right? It’s not just me?”

“She’s impossible,” Sami confirms.

---