Page 83 of A Novel Love Story

Gemma said, “I don’t understand half of these.”

Ruby tsked, shaking her head. “You’re so boring, Gems. I bet you and Thomas cuddle for hours and talk about bees. Not a single safe word in sight.”

“We’re not kink-shaming at this table,” Junie said in a matronly fashion.

Ruby put a hand on her chest. “I wouldnever!” Then she grinned at Gemma and leaned over the table, a spark in her eyes. “I just want to give pointers.”

I sat back with my drink, and listened to them, best friends chatting like it was any old day in the neighborhood—and for them, it was. The way they gave each other sideways looks, rolled their eyes, laughed, it reminded me of gossiping with the book club, and most importantly, Pru. I missed her.

I missed her so terribly, and I wished I could send her a text or a voicemail, and tell her how happy I was that she was finally engaged. Truly happy. Ridiculously happy. Because her story wasn’t going to end like mine. Hers was going to be good and lasting.

The more distance I got from Liam, in the years that went by, I began to realize that I’d never really looked too far ahead when I was with him. I was always too obsessed with following wherever he led, making sure that he was happy, that he was loved, and I never thought to want anything in return. Coffee and bagels in the morning,or earplugs for a clock tower, or simple faith that I could do whatever I set my mind to.

It was refreshing, and nice, and sweet—to be given something so I didn’t have to want it in the first place.

“Well.” Gemma tilted her head in thought, boring her gaze into her half-drunk mojito. She shifted in her seat, a little uncomfortable with any talk of intimacy. It wasn’t that she was against it, just that she was private about it all. “Thomas and I really never switch things up … I think he’s just safe doing what he knows. You know him, he doesn’t like variables.”

“You never know until you try,” Ruby pointed out. “Right, Maya?” she glanced over at her best friend, who was looking down the bar at something. Or, more aptly, someone. “Maya?”

In the back of the bar, near the TVs, Lyssa Greene sat with her dad, Frank, sharing chili-cheese fries and watching a wrestling match.

Maya jerked her gaze away quickly, like she’d been caught stealing something that wasn’t hers. “Yes, absolutely. One hundred percent agree.”

Ruby glanced down at Lyssa, then back at her best friend. “You know, you can go over and just talk to her.”

“What? No, no no no,” Maya refused. “I can’t. Not after … I can’t. I’m mortified that I told her that I liked her at all. She’s my best friend—I mean, besides you, Ruby, but Ruby isRubyand Lyssa is … like a moon you just want to be in the orbit of, and what if she thinks I was only friends in hopes of dating her someday? I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it.”

“Thentellher that,” Ruby said, and Maya shook her head.

“But what if I do, and she still doesn’t want to be friends?”

“So you’d rather leave all this in limbo?”

“It’s not so bad,” Maya said quietly.

No, I thought, sipping my wine.It is awful.A romance without an ending—without even a good beginning! Rachel Flowers would never just leave bread crumbs and forget about them.

“And anyway! We’re not here to talk about the sorry state of my love—”

“It is, though,” Junie interrupted, and began to pick at the label on her beer bottle. She’d peeled half the label away, so I suspected I knew the culprit of all the hot sauce labels. “It is bad to not know the ending. I mean, what if she’s not around tomorrow?”

Ruby scowled. “Lyssa isn’t going todie, Junie. You’ve been playing around with that haunted toilet too long,” and in reply Junie groaned, reminded about her plumbing, and put her face in her hands.

At the head of the bar, Anders stepped in, and noticed me at the table. He gave the slightest nod before he took his usual seat at the very end, and ordered his burger.

“Okay, well, thanks, everyone, for your support but I choose to not talk to Lyssa.” And to change the subject, Maya dug her wallet out of her back pocket and took out a few quarters. “I’m gonna go pick some tunes. It’s too quiet in here.”

Ruby finished the rest of Maya’s drink and slid off her barstool. “I’m coming with. You pick the worst songs.”

“I donot!”

“Sure, sure.” She laughed, and together they disappeared toward the nearly defunct jukebox at the other end of the bar. I remembered that it always took Maya and Rubyagesto pick songs, because their taste in music was like oil and water.

Junie got us a flight of shots, and Gemma ordered another basket of onion rings, and when Ruby and Maya returned with their songs picked,they all asked me about my life, and whether I had kids or pets or a boyfriend, and we all fell into a cadence of conversation well into the night, and yet my mind kept going back to what Junie said about not knowing the ending, and how ironic that was in a story that didn’t have an end.

25

Something Wicked This Way Comes

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