Page 94 of Bad Luck Club

“Blue,” he said softly, and from his tone she could tell that he felt the same way, “I want you to come to Addy’s opening with me.”

She was already going—the ticket had been bought, the room secured. It was an expensive trip, given her financial situation, but much less so given Maisie and Jack had so kindly offered up the couch in their room. They were all going—Finn, Maisie and Jack, River and Georgie, Dottie, and Lee. But Lee knew that. She could tell he meant something different.

He wanted them to go as a couple. For them to stay together and hold hands at the opening and declare themselves to his family and the city he had once called home.

Except the interview was in New York too, and a tiny, frightened voice inside of her whispered that she might be going there only to lose him. Still, she knew her answer.

“Oh, Lee. Of course.” She smiled. “And not just so I don’t have to play third wheel with Maisie and Jack.”

“You were going to stay with them?” he asked. “They didn’t say.”

She wasn’t surprised to hear it. He didn’t really like Maisie, and he had only recently healed his relationship with Jack.

“You’ll like her, you know, if you give her a chance.”

A corner of his mouth tipped up. “So you and Addy keep telling me. The problem might be thatshedoesn’t much likeme.”

“I think she’ll like you just fine, once she gets to know you. If I could forgive you for soiling my shoes—”

He groaned, and she pulled him to her for a kiss.

“I forgave you that very day,” she said. “I could tell you were hurting.”

“You’re just saying that because I was literally hurting. I’m pretty sure I drank more that night than I ever did in college. Besides, I didn’t even know my life was a lie yet.”

“No, but you were hurting in a different way. You weren’t living the life you wanted. And I know better than most people how much that drains the soul. How much it throws it out of alignment.”

Two months ago, she suspected Lee would have laughed in her face for such talk, but he just smiled. “You sound a whole lot like Dottie, you know.”

“I take that as a compliment of the highest order. More people should try to sound like Dottie. That woman knows everything.”

“I won’t deny it,” he said, with fondness in his voice.

A moment of silence hung between them—Blue knowing it was time for her to go but not quite ready to make a move. Lee was the one who broke the silence.

Studying her, he asked, “Would you ever think of coming with me, Blue? If I got that job, I mean.”

“To New York?”

“It could be good for your career too. Two studios are already interested in your art, and there are hundreds more you could contact. Maybe it would be good for both of us.”

For a moment, she was overwhelmed by the enormity of what he was asking. Could she leave behind her life, her studio, this existence that she’d fought for so hard?

Could she, once again, hinge her life on a man?

It was on her lips to say no, but she had an image of them together, walking the streets of the city. Maybe entering a gallery or a reading together. If he allowed her to be herself, to be Blue Combs, not Enid, maybe. But it was a big ask.

“Lee, I’m not sure.”

He didn’t yell or rage. He didn’t pout. He didn’t even look surprised. He had to know what it would mean to her, leaving this place, the one she had fought for.

He just nodded. “Will you think about it, though? If I get the offer, we can figure this out together.”

Together.

She wanted that, to be anuswith him, and it scared her to high heaven. Perhaps she should seek out Dottie, ask for a half-dozen cups of tea so they could see her future, but she had a suspicion that it was as curvy and unseeable as a thirty-foot-long snake.

“Yes, I’ll think about it.”

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