Page 101 of Lovesick
“Yes!” She laughed a little. “We’ve weathered far worse than this, Lizzy. Of course, you were gone so soon, at seventeen, you missed a lot of it. Ask Ellie,” she said wryly. “This is nothing.”
“Can relationships recover from difficult times?”
The question sounded so innocent and silly coming from a twenty-one-year-old, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know. I wanted to know.
Bethany cupped her palm on my cheek. “The bad days make the good ones that much better. It’s all part of the balance, Lizzy. It can never be all good.”
32
JJ
My windshield wipers attacked the gently falling snow every ten seconds as I waited for the Zombie Mobile to warm up in the parking lot of the grocery store. A bag of groceries sat at my side. Mostly food coloring and novelties. I didn’t really need them, but I couldn’t handle the quiet of Adventura any longer.
After Lizbeth’s departure, I’d been fortunate to land a surprising number of catering contracts, mostly for upcoming Christmas parties. When I wasn’t in the kitchen, I lived on the snowy mountain. It soothed something inside me.
But riled all the rest of me up.
Every attempt to trace what had happened between me and Lizbeth failed. It had unfolded so fast I couldn’t help but wonder if she was reeling in the aftermath too. Her attentiveness, zest for life, and expressive face had utterly destroyed me. My attraction to Stacey had felt nothing like this. In comparison, it was desperate. Lonely. Contrived.
But Lizbeth was real. She was hope. Light. Brightness.
Lost in my thoughts, I blinked when my ringing phone caught my attention. Megan’s name flashed across the screen right before I picked it up.
“Hey,” I said, relieved to talk to my sister.
“Are you brooding?”
I leaned back against the headrest and rolled my eyes. “I don’t brood.”
“Then you wallow. You must be wallowing. Mark said you’ve been an utter recluse. He’s starting to get so lonely he’s talking about a business idea with horses. JJ, you have to stop this. Mark on a horse? The world can’t take it.”
“Meg, what’s the most romantic thing that Justin has ever done for you?”
If the question took her by surprise, she didn’t reveal it. Instead, she responded as if she’d been waiting for me to ask. “He lifts weights with me.”
“That was fast.”
“It was an easy question.”
I frowned. “Really? Weights?”
“Yeah.”
“And you think that’s romantic?”
“It’s very romantic,” Megan said. “It matters to me. It’s ... a connecting point. Time together. We both enjoy it, and then we get protein smoothies afterward. Health and boyfriend? The best.”
“That’s weird.”
“You’re weird.”
That seemed fair. “Thanks,” I said. “I was just curious. You doing all right, Meg? Justin’s been gone a lot this winter. Now I know why he’s all buffed out.”
“I’m doing great. Debts are coming down, work is good, and Justin is better.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, well, he’s hogging you. We haven’t gotten to see you enough.”
She laughed. “I was calling to check onyou. Mark told me about Lizbeth.”
