Page 80 of Shifting Gears

It happens when Nora least expects it. Everyone is at the River Run taking advantage of the warm evening by making use of the patio when Nora sees something that makes her chest constrict to the point of possible cardiac arrest.

Down Main Street, past the tiny shops and mid-range cars Nora has come to know so well, crawls a shiny black Rolls-Royce. The windows are tinted, but the car and its license plate—readingA5HH0L3,which Ash had been delighted to get past the vanity plate censors—is as familiar to Nora as her own.

Just as she’s making this horrifying realization, the car comes to an abrupt stop just past the River Run. In true Ashwin fashion, it reverses without so much as a rear window check and comes to a halt directly in front of the patio.

Dani seems to have noticed both Nora’s sudden silence and the strange activity of the very fancy car in front of them, and she puts a hand on Nora’s thigh just as the windows roll down and Nora’s worst nightmare becomes real.

“Nora? You okay?” Dani asks, but the end of the question is drowned out by two very familiar, very loud voices.

“Eleanor! I have a bone to pick with you!” Kayla shouts.

Ash lowers his sunglasses, peering past Kayla’s shoulder. “Beep, beep, darling. Where does a homosexual park on this godforsaken street?”

Nora’s best friends are here, hanging out the windows of Ash’s car in the middle of Nora’s perfect summer, and her months-long fantasy pops like a soap bubble.

Chapter 18

Nora is surrounded by everysingle one of her favourite people, and yet, somehow, she has never experienced so much cognitive dissonance in her life.

As soon as Ash is directed where to leave his car, grumbling the whole way about parallel parking, two more chairs are pulled up to the mass of tables and Kayla and Ash are settled in with the group.

Kayla and Ash are here. They’re in fuckingRiverwalk, looking distinctly out of place in their sharp business attire, and it makes Nora wonder if that’s how she looked when she first got here. Pressed and polished, uptight and overly corporate, next to the faded jeans and baseball caps of her new life.

Either way, they’re looking at Dani and the arm draped over the back of Nora’s chair with far too much interest.

“This is a surprise! Nora talks about you all the time, but we had no idea you’d be visiting,” Dani says genially once everyone has been introduced.

Ash’s answer is pretty much the exact opposite of what Nora was hoping it would be. “We’ve come to rescue our CEO from her hermitage!”

Nora’s heart sinks to the soles of her sneakers.

“CromTech is probably on fire with all three of us gone, but we had to see what was keeping our dear Eleanor here,” Kayla says, folding one leg over the other and leaning back in her chair. Though her tone is droll, her smile is genuinely friendly, and Dani reacts in kind.

“We’re so happy to have her, we didn’t want her to leave,” Dani says, smiling. But Nora can see that across the room, other people’s faces are slowly changing. Turning from pleasant curiosity to slow, stunned realization.

Nora’s heart, now back in her chest, is pounding at a mile a minute.

“CromTech?” Naomi says. The pleasant conversation around the arrival of two newcomers has died completely.

“CEO?” Sarah says.

“Yes,” Ash drawls, looking perplexedly between them. “Eleanor, did you not tell them—?”

Naomi makes a tiny, disbelieving noise of surprise, and Kayla’s eyes widen just a bit too late.

“Oh. Oh, no,” Kayla says quietly, touching Ash’s arm.

“CromTech,” Naomi says quietly. Her eyes are drilling into Eleanor’s, their warmth tempered by an intense focus. “Nora.Eleanor. You’re Eleanor Cromwell.”

Kayla and Ash have been here all of ten minutes, and already Nora’s summer of half-truths is blowing up in her face. Everything she’s been avoiding is rumbling toward her in an avalanche, and she’s pretty sure she’s on the verge of a full panic attack.

“Your last name is Cromwell?” Owen says.

Nora wishes desperately for everyone to just stop asking questions, but the universe doesn’t listen.

“You’reEleanor Cromwell,”Naomi repeats. “The MRI technology you talked about at Pride—you’re the CEO of CromTech.”

Nora’s stomach churns. She doesn’t even dare look in Dani’s direction, too afraid of the betrayal and confusion she’s sure to see there, her lies finally coming to light at the worst possible moment. There’s blood pounding in her ears; she can practically feel the pressure of every set of eyes pressing into her skull.

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