Page 2 of My Cosplay Escape
“Viv.” Gwen drums her acrylic nails on the counter and smiles at the brunette behind the reception desk. “I’m gonna show Sarah out and grab my coffee.”
Gwen pulls me along with her to the coffee shop on the corner of Felspar and Cass. “So what’s the deal?” she says as we get in line. “You keep checking your phone.”
“I have a second interview at Fit Gym 24 in fifteen minutes.”
“The one down the street?”
I nod but stay quiet as she buys her coffee along with a scone and a pack of pickles. She offers to buy me a coffee, but I politely decline. Caffeine and I have never gotten along. Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m even here with her. I guess it’s better than awkwardly loitering in front of the gym?
We find a seat outside on the patio, and while you can’t hear the beach from here, you can see bits of the ocean through the cars and buildings, lines of soft blue that push through the clutter of the streetscape.
Ten minutes now until my interview. I should just leave.
“So what do you want?” Gwen says around a mouthful of blueberry scone. “Do you want this job at the gym?”
I want a time machine. I want to erase that one stupid night sophomore year of college and get the life I was supposed to have. But I’ll settle for a free gym membership. I’m definitely not taking a job with Brent and Jen. That would be settling. The forever kind of settling. Just the thought of it turns my stomach.
“I don’t know,” I finally say. “It beats working for my brother.”
Gwen narrows an eye at me. “What did you want to do when you were staring daggers at Dr. Brent?”
She saw that? “That’s a two-way mirror in his office?”
“Ew. Gosh, no.” Gwen laughs. “It’s tinted glass. A two-way mirror would just be creepy.” She laughs again.
And somehow her laugh makes everything okay. I stare out across the street and focus on the blue water hedged by clouds of gray. I smell the dark green jasmine blooming behind us as I inhale deeply, obnoxiously. “My brother brought up a sensitive subject.”
“Your divorce?”
So Gwen did know. Oh, who was I kidding? Everyone knew. For all of San Diego’s size, Pacific Beach itself is a small town. “Yeah. While I was ‘staring daggers’ at my brother, I really wanted to be running sprints. Maybe see if I could get a faster mile down than this morning.”
“I hear that.”
“You’re a runner?” I don’t know why my tone is so hopeful. Goldfish, I sound pathetic.
“Ew.” Gwen shudders. “No, but I can understand being madder than hell over a breakup.”
I sit up straighter. “I don’t miss my ex—”
“Girl, I know. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t go ten rounds with a punching bag and still want to scream yourself to sleep.” Gwen eats a pickle slice from her snack pack. “You want one? They’re spicy.”
I’m about to shake my head but take one instead. “Thanks.”
Gwen smiles. And while her smile is blindingly white and very straight, I notice her teeth on the bottom are all kinds of crooked. “You and I are gonna be friends,” she says. “Now, then, what’s the plan? For the interview.”
My tongue burns from the pickle. “I need to land this job and start ASAP, or else I’ll be forced into working for my brother and sister-in-law, where I will single-handedly drive their practice into the ground.”
“You would not,” Gwen says, taking another bite of her scone.
“Nope, but that’s the fear. ‘Sarah screws up everything she touches.’” I smile. I know it’s a joke. I know some things weren’t my fault. I know that I started the whole fudging mess, though.
Gwen licks a crumb from her finger. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.” I should be done with my undergraduate degree by now, not trying to figure out how to restart it.
Gwen nods. “And school?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t finish college.” My lower lip starts to quiver. Maybe I could do lunges after my sprints. Oh goldfish, my eyes brim with tears for the second time this morning.
