Page 97 of Harper's Holiday Romance
“You know that thing in your hand?” Billie nodded towards my phone.
“Yes.”
“Well, that magical thing can solve almost any problem these days. You could book a flight home within the hour.” Billie was right. My noxious anxiety took comfort in knowing I had options.
Sarah took the softer approach as she so often did.
“We will help your mum look after the animals. You have more holiday days racked up than all the countries in the United Nations combined. You owe it to yourself to explore what the two of you have.”
I knew that. I’d spent the past twelve hours telling myself that, minus the six I spent sleeping. They hadn’t been solid sleeping hours. I’d tossed and turned to a point of no return. Billie eventually refused to be in the same bed as me. I knocked on Julia’s door at three in the morning which added to the six hours sleep because we spent the next two hours having sex. I wasn’t complaining, but my eyelids were in full placard protest mode this morning.
“What would you do?” I aimed the question at Sarah. She was neatly folding my unused underwear into the top pocket of my suitcase. She was the definition of a real best friend.
“I would do it. You need to enjoy your life whilst you’re still relatively young,” she teased.
“I’m only five months older than you!” It was something she never let me forget.
“Fourteen months older than me.” Billie stuck out her tongue. “However, I will give credit where credit is due; you look like you’ve been getting Botox since the age of thirteen.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Billie separated her liquids from mine and handed me a neatly packed toiletry bag.
“Here, you’ll also want these for the trip.”
She placed a yellow pack of M&Ms in my hand and two cookies wrapped in tissue from the lobby bar.
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to miss you,” I said. Billie squeezed me from behind, and I felt the air vacate my lungs. The struggle increased when Sarah joined in on the three-way hug. “I’m going to miss you too.”
“I’ll only be gone for a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says, and then they move to America, drive on the left side of the road, eat turkey on that other holiday that’s not Christmas, and join a softball team,” Sarah scoffed.
“Okay.” Billie pulled back. “Who the hell is everyone?”
“I don’t know—people. You see it happen all the time.”
“Do you? Where?” Billie challenged.
“Will you two stop bickering?” They weren’t about to stop bickering. I feared for them on the plane ride home without me playing referee.
“Do you think you can survive the trip home with little to no disruption?” I asked. It was a stupid question.
“No, but I’ve just had a thought; bagsy the window seat.” Billie stuck out her tongue.
“You don’t get to bagsy the seat—” Sarah protested.
Yeah, they were going to be fine. I answered the door in the midst of the chaos. Julia stood in a light grey tracksuit, Converse, her backpack, and she was pulling a giant silver suitcase covered in travel stickers. I liked the one on the front best; right beside the giantEmotional Baggagelogo, there was a small sticker in thick black bubble writing that said, Everything is figureoutable.
“You ready?” Julia grinned. She managed to make a lack of sleep look good. Her hair was buried underneath her cap. Her eyes looked youthful, and I heard the faint echo of a Fletcher hit playing through the headphones straddling her neck.
“Almost.”
I pulled her towards me by the strings on her sweater and placed a quick kiss on her lips.
“You look so hot,” Imumbled.
