Page 140 of On My Side
Audrey
Playlist: Crooked Smile | The Weepies, Deb Talan, Steve Tannen
The next morning, I insist Ren go to work, and Piper insists I go to the inn.
“You’re making me claustrophobic!” she whines, burrowing beneath her weighted blanket on the couch.
I remind myself she needs space as I smile at Caroline, one of our front desk employees, when I walk in.
“How was the conference thing-a-mabob?” she asks when she sees me approaching, pausing her scroll to place her phone face down on the desk.
My stomach flips. “Good. I had to leave earlier than planned, but I’m glad I went.”
Caroline grins. “Hell, yeah. We already got a booking from a guest who found you on their website.”
“That’s great,” I reply, grabbing a stack of mail and turning toward my office.
“Oh, also,” Caroline calls. “There's a guest who checked in yesterday and specifically asked to speak to you. Said she was an old friend of yours.”
I turn and stare at her in confusion. Old friend? I don’t have old friends. “Who is it?”
Caroline clicks her mouse until she finds the booking. “Sidney Prescott.”
“Sidney Prescott, like… Neve Campbell’s character inScream?” I don’t think I’ve ever been more confused in my life.
Caroline picks her phone up and shrugs. “I guess?”
I shake my head in bewilderment. “You can tell her to come to my office if she wants to see me.”
I’m making my way through my bottomless email inbox when Caroline knocks on my open office door twenty minutes later.
“Boss lady, Ms. Prescott is here.” Caroline steps to the side, and I choke on my coffee.
“Thank you,” Kat Holt says quietly. Caroline closes the office door and Kat peers at me, our eyes meeting. There are dark circles rimming her dark brown eyes, and she’s wearing sweatpants. Her appearance reminds me of myself when I’m depressed.
“Kat, I… hi,” I stammer, slapping my chest to clear my airway. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I sit?” she asks, motioning to the chair across from my desk with her hand.
I nod, and watch as she flops into the chair. I never thought I’d see the day where Kat did anything that could be described as “flopping.”
We sit in an uncomfortable silence until she speaks again. “I know you don’t want me here, but I didn’t know where else to go,” she says, barely audible as she stares at her hands in her lap.
“You have like the biggest family in the world,” I say, dumbfounded.
She shakes her head. “They’d laugh at me.”
“Respectfully, what the hell is going on?”
“I left Steve,” she blurts out, lifting her head, eyes watery. “I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be his wife, can’t be who they want me to be."
“Who’s ‘they’?” I’m surprised I can get the words out, honestly. I’m shocked by her revelation.
“My parents. God, my whole family. I did everything I was supposed to. Got married, got my law degree, and I think it broke me. My parents will be so disappointed, and divorce is a sin, and my siblings will laugh at me because they’ve always hated Steve, and they hate me, and,god,I don’t blame them. I hate me, too.”
I hand Kat a tissue as her voice cracks, tears escaping from her eyes. “I can’t speak for the rest of your family, but I know for a fact Ren doesn’t hate you,” I say softly. “He loves you.”
She shakes her head. “He wouldn’t understand. No one would… only you.”
