Page 63 of She Used to Be Nice
“Do you want to call them back?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Avery plastered a smile on her face like a shoddy paint job. But she could feel it chipping, and was grateful when Pete brought the date back to normal by talking about an issue he was frustrated with at work. Avery didn’t need to focus too much on the details; she could just nod along and validate his feelings about wanting to quit, which was usually what she did anyway when he ranted about his job stressors. She was especially happy to do it tonight, to focus the attention away from her. Her reactions to Noah were spiraling out of control lately, in a much-too visible and obvious way. Unless she wanted everything she’d kept hidden to unravel before the wedding, she needed to get a grip. She was nearly in the homestretch. She couldn’t fuck up now.
After dinner, Pete told her he had an early meeting the next morning and needed to get a full night’s sleep in his own bed. He apologized and seemed disappointed that they wouldn’t be spending the night together, but Avery was convinced that he wanted to get away from her because she’d made everything uncomfortable with the phone call incident. She sighed, annoyed that her brain provided the worst possible interpretation of their evening. Of course a man who wanted a night on his own couldn’t possibly still like her. The only explanation was that he hated her now. Logically she knew this was probably a ridiculous insecure thought, but emotionally she couldn’t help but wonder if it was the most accurate assessment she’d ever made about anyone.
She begrudgingly hailed a cab alone. As she slid inside, her phone buzzed again with a call from the same number. Nervoussweat erupted on her palms; her hands were so slippery she could barely keep her grip on her phone steady. She should’ve known she wouldn’t be able to avoid this phone call. Noah was obviously going to listen to Morgan and reach out to Avery to plan the bachelor party. He’d convinced everyone he was a nice guy, a responsible guy, agoodguy. What a joke.
She pressed the green phone symbol slowly, like she was setting off a timer to detonate a bomb. “Hello?”
“Avery?”
She swallowed. “Yes?”
“Oh, good. I hope I’m not calling too late. It’s Noah, by the way.”
He could not have sounded more normal, like a regular person checking to make sure now was a good time to chat. And did he honestly think that Avery didn’t know it was him, that his voice didn’t haunt her in the deepest corners of her nightmares? Was he overcompensating or stupid? Or did he not care?
She stared out the window of the cab, trying to focus on the East River whizzing by as they sped uptown on the FDR to her apartment.
“You’re not,” she said, her voice blank. “What’s up?”
“Cool. I wanted to chat with you about the bachelor party, if you have a minute? Since you said you were helping.”
The river was moving so fast. The cab had to be going sixty miles per hour right now. “Okay,” Avery said.
“Great. So the house is in Snowmass Village, this town outside Aspen. I could make a reservation at this Mexican place Friday night.”
Avery thought about how cold the water was. “Sure, that works.”
“It’s good, trust me. I hosted my company for a retreat at the house once, and we started our weekend there. And then we can go downtown. Most of the bars are pretty chill.”
There was no way the water was warmer than forty degrees.
“Then, Saturday morning, we’ll go on the hike. It won’t be too bad. Just a walk around the lake, maybe a couple inclines.”
Maybe even thirty degrees. “Cool,” Avery said.
“And I was thinking it might be fun to separate during the day so both parties can do their own thing. There’s shopping and nail salons downtown. The tarot card reader could be fun, too. I can text you some information, and you can book some stuff for the bridesmaids.”
Or twenty degrees? Ten?
“Avery?”
Where in the world was the ocean that cold? “Huh?” Avery asked.
“Does that work?”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Great. Well, I think that’s everything on my end,” Noah said. “Just text me if you have any other questions or ideas.”
Antarctica, maybe.
