Page 40 of Terms + Conditions
Selena sighs. “That’s what I—”
“I’ll fall on my face!” Elijah interrupts Selena.
“Just try it,” Georgie encourages him.
“C’mon babe, just try.” Selena tugs on his arms to pull him forward a smidge more. Elijah groans in protest, and Lola urges Jeremy to demonstrate for him. “See, watch Jeremy!”
Jeremy bends his knees slightly, then pushes off and lengthens his right leg, gliding forward before shifting his weight gradually to the other foot as he lengthens his left leg, alternating his strides. He uses his arms to steer and control, keeping his posture as straight as possible. He makes it look easy. Too easy.
“Think of it like a scooter,” Georgie adds. “You stand on one foot and use the other to propel you forward!”
Elijah hesitates before he slowly pushes his right leg forward. “A scooter,” I hear him mumble to himself as Selena lets go, and his left leg moves forward wobbling. The next thing I know, he’s faceplanted in front of us.
“I don’t think that’s how it’s done,” Noah says, taking a sip of his beer. He appears next to Georgie, watching the scene unfold. When the hell did he get here?
Everyone laughs as Elijah crawls to the edge of the rink, pulling himself up from the ice. With a death grip on the wall, he inches his way toward the exit, absolutelyover it. Selena calls after him, following him out of the rink and onto one of the benches, where he rips the skates from his feet. Jeremy and Lola follow, still chuckling, as they exit.
“What’s that?” Georgie asks, motioning to the bag in Elizabeth’s hand.
“Hm?” Elizabeth questions before realizing she is talking about the doll. “It’s just a nesting doll set. It reminded me of one Mom used to put out at Christmas time.”
She opens the bag gingerly, pulling out the set. As Georgie turns it over in her hands, Elizabeth meets my gaze and smiles softly. There’s a soft tug on my heart seeing her like this. A genuine smile on her pink lips, a smile I was able to put there for the first time in a long time.
“It’ll look great on the mantle of the new place,” Elizabeth says, taking it back from her friend and rewrapping it to put it away.
“New place?” Georgie asks.
Elizabeth’s brown eyes widen at the realization of what she just said.Shit.
“You didn’t tell me you moved.” Georgie looks between the two of us, and I’m just as tongue-tied as Elizabeth.
Shit, shit, shit. Of course she didn’t tell them she had a new place. She hasn’t told them about the separation yet.
“Hey Noah, you’re makin’ burgers tonight?” I ask him, trying to steer the conversation, but the question goes unanswered as the others finally join us.
“What’s going on?” Lola asks.
“Did you know they moved?” Georgie demands.
“Who?” Selena asks.
“These two.” She points at us. “Mr. and Mrs. Perfect.”
Elizabeth rolls her eyes at the nickname. She has always hated that Georgie calls us that—so do I—and it’s only because we’ve been together the longest and always stayed together no matter what. I can only imagine the shit-talking that will ensue if Elizabeth chooses to tell them about the arrangement. I doubt she will because they’ll never let her live it down—Georgie won’t anyway.
“Where did you move to?” Lola seems shocked, they all do. “You guys were so happy there!”
“I’m surprised you’d leave Nina,” Selena adds. “I mean, you loved being so close to her.”
“Yeah, what’s Nina think about you leaving?” Georgie asks, her gaze narrowed.
In my opinion, Georgie has always seemed somewhat threatened by the relationship between Elizabeth and Nina. I don’t know why. Elizabeth loves Georgie, and they are close, but Elizabeth will never be as close to someone as she is to Nina. That’s her sister. That’s a different kind of bond.
Their voices start to blend together as everyone continues to throw out question after question. Elizabeth tries to answer what’s tossed at her but can never quite get a word in. I can’t stop myself. I cut in, putting a stop to their interrogation.
“She just meant the beach house.” Looking down to meet the panicked gaze of my brown-eyed girl, I try to offer her a reassuring smile, but it doesn’t quite reach as far as I’d like. “Where we’ll be spending Christmas this year.”
The words are like a stab to the heart because we both know they’re not true. When we leave here, we won’t be going home to prepare for Christmas together. We won’t be finishing some last-minute shopping and wrapping gifts to bring to the Villas. I won’t be helping her make her Christmas cookies for Mom’s classroom holiday party. She won’t be surprising me at work with lunch plans before going to Nina’s to help her with last-minute Christmas prep…We won’t be doing any of that anymore and I don’t know that I truly,truly, realized it until this moment.
