Page 16 of If This Was a Movie

Your wife,I think.

You know, this is so my kind of luck. The worst day of my life, standing in the cold in a ballerina costume while the entire city of Evergreen Park finds out I’m a moron who doesn’t know to drip my water lines during a cold snap, and the man who fooled me and his wife get a full view of it.

“Sister.”

His sister.

His sister.

His SISTER.

Oh, god. This is definitely the same woman I saw in the grocery store, but if this is his sister…

“God, you guys are fast!” another woman says, and all eyes move to the new face, a girl in heeled boots and a sweater dress, whose face lights up when she sees me. “Jules! Hey!”

I recognize her as Claire’s older sister who has come out with us to get drinks once or twice, and once more, my world tilts on its axis. Her eyes widen as she takes in the fire trucks and chaos.

“Oh my god, look at you! What happened? Is everything okay with the studio? Oh look, Claire is here!” she says, jumping from one topic to the next and looking over my shoulder.

When I turn, Claire is walking toward our little group with a wide smile.

“There you are! I was just trying to call you,” she says to Nate.

No, no, no, I think, as things continue to click into place.

No.

My luck cannot be this bad, can it? But it gets worse when the little girl holding my hand tugs it and speaks. “Aunt Claire, look! It’s her! It’s Ashlyn!”

Claire looks from me to the doll in her niece’s hand and smiles.

“Oh my god, she sure does!” Claire bends to grab and lift the little girl, placing her on her hip.

“I told Santa I wanted to meet the real-life Ashlyn for Christmas so she could fall in love with Dad, and now she’s here!”

I think I’m starting to get lightheaded, and my friend’s smile grows.

“You know Jules?” Nate asks, looking from me to Claire.

“Well, yeah, she owns the studio I work at.” Her brow furrows and turns fully to who I understand is her brother, accusation filling her tone. “How do you know Jules?”

I open my mouth to give some explanation—literally any explanation for how I know this man other than I fucked him a few times before thinking he was a liar with a wife and kid—but Nate speaks first.

“I met her last New Year’s,” he says. It’s not a lie, but thankfully, it doesn’t reveal much. Or so I think, but Nate’s sisters’ eyes go wide before looking at me with wide smiles.

“Oh,” Claire says. I have no idea what thatohmeans, but I somehow know it’s not good.

“No way,” the other sister says, Sloane just smiling wide.

“I, uh…” I start trying to find some way to get out of this hellscape so I can focus on more important issues. Right now, I need to get out of this costume, into my coziest clothes, and figure out how to get my things and where to sleep for the night before I have the world’s biggest breakdown.

“So, wait, what’s going on?” Sloane asks, tipping her chin to the fire engines with their lights on, the crew of men huddled around. They came to turn the water off in the building and are making sure it’s cleared.

“I uh…a water leak. Apparently, it’s just too cold for these pipes, and my upstairs bathroom isn’t insulated enough. Something must have cracked. I don’t know; it flooded my place and the dance studio.” I sigh before shivering from the cold, Nate’s eyes narrowing on me.

“How long has it been, you out here in the cold like that?” There’s an edge to his voice, like he’s annoyed or mad, but I barely feel the cold at this point. I’m numb from it and the million other feelings running through me.

I try and ignore his glare as I look at my watch and shrug. “Not sure, maybe an hour?”

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