Page 114 of Perfect Mess

You’ll see.Gary mouthed back. And before I could press further, he was gone.

I looked across the table as Janet sipped her strawberry cider. Even though I wanted Janet to realize that Jack was not the right man for her, it pained me to see her struggling. I may have been a terrible, no good, horrible, rotten person, but I was still her best friend. The last thing I wanted was for Janet to get hurt. Which is why I had been trying to get Janet to see reason ever since I found out that she and Jack were together. I knew if she kept at this, it would only get worse.

Seeing Janet’s face in that moment only steeled my resolve.

I had to follow through with my plan, no matter what.

ChapterTwenty-Six

When Mike brought Janet a fresh cider, I looked around the brewery to see if I could spot Gary, but Gary was still nowhere to be seen. Jack was in the far corner, still on his phone. Ralph and Karen were still holding hands and making google eyes at each other. Something felt off. Like something was out of place. There was a bad feeling stirring around in my gut, and it was only getting worse.

“How’s the thirty-day thing coming along?” Ralph asked Janet when Mike returned to the bar.

“So far, so good.” Janet took an extra long sip.

I felt my heart skip several beats. The thirty-day thing. Day thirty would come around soon. The end of the friendship period. Then the gloves came off. Along with, potentially, everything else. And if that happened, Janet would be even more attached when he inevitably dumped her and broke her heart. If I was going to stop this train wreck from happening, I had to get my act together fast.

“What thirty-day thing?” Karen asked.

“Well,” Janet began. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

“No, it isn’t,” I interrupted. “It’s actually quite simple. All of Janet’s previous relationships have crashed and burned. We’re talking Hindenburg blimp level catastrophes. She goes too far too fast. She becomes emotionally attached. Suffocation ensues. And then the object of her obsession runs for the hills screaming in terror.”

“It’s not that bad,” Janet mumbled, although her tone was so weak she didn’t look convinced herself.

I continued. “So this time, Janet took a different approach. Before things go anywhere, they have to become friends. Thirty days of nothing.”

“She saw it on TikTok,” said Ralph.

Gary said, “It’s a GenZ thing.”

Karen nodded like it all made perfect sense. “So then, what happens on day thirty-one?”

A devilish grin crept across Janet’s face. “I guess we’ll see.”

“But before then,” I declared, “No hugging. No kissing. Definitely no funny business.” But then I remembered what I had seen after I got hurt at the charity race. When Jack picked me up and held me in his arms. I had seen pink lip gloss on Jack’s lips. Lips that clearly must have come into close contact with Janet’s lips. “Although kissing is allowed now, apparently.”

Janet’s face contorted with indignation. “What? No, it isn’t. Jack and I haven’t kissed. Other than the kiss on the cheek I gave him when he won the medal. Why would you think that?”

Before I could tell Janet that I knew they were kissing because I saw the evidence on Jack’s very lips, Karen asked, “And Jack is okay with this arrangement?”

“Well, he said he was.” Again, even Janet herself didn’t seem convinced.

“Speak of the devil.” Ralph pointed as Jack returned.

“We’re all set!” Jack waved Dick and Mabel over to share the good news. “Ashley made some calls and found out they had a cancellation next month. The place is all yours if you want it.”

Mabel leaped into Jack’s arms. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she gushed. Mabel was so grateful it took a combined effort from both Dick and Jack to pry her off.

Janet’s mouth was smiling, but her eyes were doing something else entirely. “That was so nice of your dear friend Ashley to help.”

If Jack noticed the tone in Janet’s voice, he wisely ignored it. “Even better, the couple who cancelled had prepaid the deposit. Nonrefundable!”

I saw the numbers adding up in Dick’s head. “So you’re saying we can use the place on the cheap? Tell your friend thank you for us.”

“She owed me a favor,” Jack said.A favor for what?Janet’s face made it clear she didn’t look favorably upon Ashley’s favor.

“So what happened? The bride or the groom got cold feet?” Mabel asked.

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