Page 33 of Eternally London

I watch him leave. “How does he look so damn good when I look and feel like death warmed over?” I ask the girls, who are all cradling their cups of coffee, not looking too hot either.

“That’s what sober looks like,” Maggie kids. A nostalgic smiles graces her face. “He’s always been like that after a night of partying. David and I would be walking corpses in the morning after a long night of drinking, and Loïc would be skipping around the house like a Disney princess.”

“He doesn’t skip,” I protest with a laugh that I immediately regret as my head throbs. I throw back the medicine Loïc gave me and take a big gulp of water.

“I know.” Maggie chuckles. “But, when you feel like you’re going to die from a hangover and you have someone next to you who is perfectly fine, he might as well be skipping.”

“Loïc still doesn’t drink?” Georgia asks.

“Nope, never,” I answer.

“Why is that again?” she asks.

“Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. First, he doesn’t want to ever be like the drunks he stayed with in foster care. Plus, I think the idea of losing control is still frightening to him. There’ve been so many times in his life when he wished he had control, and he didn’t. The concept of doing something to purposefully lose control isn’t appealing to him. You know?”

“Yeah, I get it,” Georgia says with a nod.

“I wish I shared the same philosophy right about now.” Paige rubs her temples.

“Seriously, what was in that pink punch you made?” Georgia asks Paige.

“No one speaks of the pink devil juice!” Maggie crosses her arms in a big X in front of her body. “Seriously, just thinking about it makes me want to hurl.”

“Oh my gosh, your mom!” Paige says to me and Georgia.

“She was in rare form.” Georgia slowly shakes her head with a roll of her eyes.

“But she can bend in ways that I can’t, and she’s twice my age. It’s pretty amazing,” Maggie says.

“True that,” Paige agrees. “I’m kind of jealous of her skills. I bet your parents can do all sorts of crazy stuff in bed.”

“Ew!” Georgia and I both yell as I whip a throw pillow at Paige.

“I’m just saying.” She giggles.

“Well, don’t!” I warn. “So…” I change the subject as I say, “I feel like we all talked tons last night, but there’s still so much I need to know. Like, Maggie”—I turn my attention toward her—“spill. Dating anyone?”

She sadly shakes her head. “No.”

“No one?” Paige questions.

“Not yet,” Maggie replies. “Working tons at the hospital and living with my parents still. Nothing in my life has really changed since…” Her voice trails off, but we all know that she means since the funeral.

“He’s been gone for almost four years, Maggie. He’d have wanted you to move on and be happy,” I say to her.

“I know he would have. I want to. It’s just…I’m busy. I work all the time. When I’m not working, I’m with my parents. It’s just not the right time.”

“You work all the time by choice. You probably have enough money saved up from all of that work over the past several years, plus the life insurance money, to buy a really nice house with cash if you wanted. You don’t have to live with your parents,” I say.

“I know. It’s easier. Plus, I don’t want to go home to an empty house,” Maggie says.

“It’s time to put yourself out there,” Paige says.

I agree, “The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.”

“Surely, there’s a hot doctor you want to hook up with,” Georgia suggests. “Aren’t you all doing it in the on-call rooms nonstop?”

Maggie laughs. “It’s notGrey’s Anatomy.”

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