Page 27 of Like It's 1999

I can’t go back to the work I did in my twenties. I have no idea what I want to do next. But I think I need to find out.

Later that afternoon, I’m sitting in a chair in the guest room/nursery of Kate’s house, staring out the window and avoiding packing, when Kate sidles up next to me. “I feel like there’s more going on than what you told me.”

“What, five miscarriages and an affair isn’t bad enough for you?”

“You always have been a high achiever.”

“Ha-ha.”

“Sorry.” She moves my suitcase to the side and sits on the bed. “I guess… I mean, why did you marry him in the first place?”

“I told you, I?—”

“No, that’s not my question.” She blows out a breath. “Why did you disappear?”

Something in her voice gets my attention. “Katie, it wasn’t you.”

“It was me,” we say in unison, which cracks us both up.

I squeeze in next to her on the bed and take her hand. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you more. A phone call every once in a blue moon is not enough for me.”

“Pfft.” I gesture around the room. “You’ve got all this.”

“What, my palace?” she says with a terrible British accent.

“Your prince. And your heir and a spare.”

“I do have them. And I love them all more than I could have ever imagined.” She squeezes my hand. “But I can still miss my best friend and wonder why she cut me out of her life.”

A sigh deeper than I thought I had in me huffs out of my lungs. “I’m sorry, Katie Mae. I didn’t do it on purpose, exactly. I guess I knew somewhere inside that if I talked to you, you’d talk sense into me. I never should’ve married Tim. I just felt so guilty for being gone for so long, and all I could think was that I wanted my mom to be happy before she died.”

“But she lived.”

“Yes—which is good, of course—but now I’m in a marriage I signed up for for all the wrong reasons. I guess the only good thing is that Tim’s leaving me, though she’ll probably still find a way to make it my fault.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. It’s a laugh a minute with my family.” I shake my head. “You want to know the funniest part about all this?”

“I’d love to hear anything funny in this story.”

“It’s really all down to Steve.”

“Hot Steve? What does he have to do with this?”

“Well, you know we had a thing.”

“You said it wasn’t a thing.”

“Okay, we had sex.”

“After we announced our engagement.”

I wince. “And after the wedding.”

“What? You minx. You never told me.”

---