Page 118 of The Perfect Love

A gift from Gran. She will always be my feminist idol.

“Thank you. Oh my gosh. I hope you all get to meet my grandmother at some point. She’s the one who got this for me, and whatever energy of that type you see in me, I definitely got it from her. She’s a true feminist badass. She has a framed picture of her being hauled away from a protest by police…topless. It’s iconic.”

Sarah and Rae glance at each other.

“She and Gram would get along,” Sarah says with a smile.

“Definitely,” Rae agrees.

A waitress appears next to me. “Can I get you something?”

“I’ll have a butter pecan latte and a chocolate croissant.” Because life is far too short to not eat chocolate croissants.

As the waitress walks away, Mackie looks at me. “So a women’s festival?”

“Yeah. It’s all in the early stages, but the plan is to have workshops and speakers and just general vibes that are all about women. Oh, and promoting local businesses that are women centered too.”

“You should talk to Kristen,” Rae says. “She loves to get Promise involved with local things.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. I’ll mention it to Nadine—the person organizing it. Promise having some kind of booth there might help women who need support to find it. I didn’t know where to look, but God knows I needed it after—”

I stop, glancing between Rae and Amanda. Rae knows my whole story. Amanda knows something happened. I’m guessing Sarah and Mackie have assumed.

My gaze drops to the table. I hate the immediate feeling of shame as I think about telling someone new. Someday, I wantto get to a place where that’s not my gut reaction. I guess I have something specific to work on with my therapist now.

Rae rests her hand on my arm. “You okay?”

I take a deep breath and look around at the girls. “Just working up the nerve to… tell my truth.”

“You know you don’t have to,” Sarah says.

That’s exactly why I want to.

“This is what real friends do. They rely on each other. Or so I’m learning. I don’t want to get into all the details right now, but I guess I want you to know what I’ve been through.”

Sarah’s eyes find mine, filled with understanding. This is me offering up vulnerability. Giving them a piece of my trust. I never thought twice about it with Bridget and Lex, and yet they didn’t give me the support I needed. These girls—women—are different. I see it in the way they act and I feel it in my heart when I look at them.

“So, I’m just going to say this, and then we’re going to move forward like you’ve known the whole time, okay?”

They all nod.

“I was raped at a party in college. It’s why I left school. I went through all the testing and stuff after, but they never caught the guy. Not sure if they ever will. Oh, and Trevor might have known him since we went to the same college and the guy maybe played baseball. I went through a whole dark period, then I moved here because my uncle, who is more like my older brother, went to college here and lives here now. So that’s it. Now you all know.”

For a beat, no one says anything, but finally Amanda looks at me.

“Just know, if they ever find out who did it, it’ll be aNo Body, No Crimesituation. We’ll handle it all, including alibis.”

For some reason, that makes me laugh. A wicked, unhinged laugh. Because I could see them doing it.

If one—or multiple of them—committed a crime like that, no one would ever be able to catch them because their alibis would be foolproof.

“You might have to fight Trevor for that.”

Sarah gives me a knowing smile, like she’d expect nothing less, but it’s Mackie who speaks.

“He’dwantto. But if it came to it, we wouldn’t let him. He’d be the obvious suspect. That’s where we come in.”

Laughing, I look around the table. “I love you ladies.” The words slip out before I realize what they are, but the moment of panic I’m expecting doesn’t come. I’m completely calm. Because despite the short time, I do love them. They’ve shown me what deep female friendships can be, and I’m never going back to being treated like crap by supposed friends again.

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