Page 8 of Keeper
My cheeks grew hot with embarrassment. She obviously hadn’t hung on to my number. I guess I couldn’t blame her. We’d said some pretty bitchy things to each other when everything went down.
Then again, I was at a fork in the road and didn’t know which way to go. Why not try and see if she was open to patching things up? What could I really lose?
I held my breath as I sent another text. “This is Ainsley.”
A few seconds later, she rang my phone. I answered the call, but I wasn’t sure what to expect. “Hello?”
“Ainsley Carter?!” she squealed, and I felt immediate relief. I could hear it in her voice: she’d moved on. And as long as I’d moved on, too, everything between us would be cool. “Holy shit! How long has it been?”
“Way too long,” I said.
“Yeah, seriously,” she agreed. Her voice sounded a little lower and a touch raspier than I remembered. “That’s why I called as soon as I saw it was you. We have so much to catch up on—and there’s no way my thumbs can handle that much texting. So what’s up? Howareyou, babe?”
“I’m …” I trailed off. We hadn’t had a real conversation in what, almost three years? I couldn’t dump all my bullshit on her out of the blue. “I’m pretty good,” I lied. “How are you?”
“I’mgreat. God, it’s been so long since we talked. Did you know I live in Dallas now?”
“Dallas?” I asked, acting as if this were news to me. “What do you in Dallas?”
“You’re not going to believe this, but I’m actually an ‘influencer’ now. I know that word is cringy, but whatever, it’s what I do.”
“An influencer?” I asked, still pretending as if I never bothered to check up on her. “Like on Instagram?”
“Yeah, exactly. Get this—I’ve got over a million followers. Can you believe it?”
“Whoa, that’s insane! But it also makes total sense for you.”
“Right?” she snickered.
“So how does it work?” I asked. “Do you get paid?”
“HellyeahI get paid! Plus, I get tons of clothes and beauty products and so much other random free shit sent to me, I don’t even know what to do with it all. Oh, and I also get to travel to the most beautiful places on Earth, rub elbows with the rich and famous, and hookup with hot guys all over the world.”
“That sounds awesome!” I said, forcing a cheer.
“I know, right? Trust me, it is.” She paused. “So, Ainsley, what are you up to these days? Andpleasetell me you’re still taking pictures.”
“I am,” I said with a small smile. “Actually, I’m majoring in photography now.”
“Pft.You don’t need school for that. You’re already a pro.”
I chuckled. “I don’t know about that—I’ve still got a lot to learn. But thank you.”
“I always said you took the most beautiful portraits, remember?”
“Thank you.”
“Hey, you should totally come to Dallas sometime so we can hang out and catch up proper.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’d be fun.”
“Hell, Ainsley,” she began, and I immediately recognized the tone in her voice: it was the same one that had talked me into so many spur of the moment road trips. “Why don’t you come visit me right now?”
“Now?” I stammered, staring out at the long road ahead of me.
A silent pause filled the airspace between us.
Was I seriously considering her offer? I knew how volatile our friendship could be. And even though we were acting like everything between us was cool, we’d never actually cleared the air about what happened with Brendan. Wasn’t this the definition of a bad idea?
