Page 41 of Plays Well With Others

Elodie slumps deeper onto the couch. “And to think I was going to live vicariously through you.”

“I was too,” Juliet puts in.

“Aww, my poor little single friends. We’ll just have to stick together,” I say, then I side-eye my sister next to me. “But you’re actually on the apps, Juliet. Why do you need to live through me?”

Her gaze sears me. “Have you seen my dating track record?”

Fair point, since I have and it’s not pretty. But neither is mine. “Yes, and may I introduce you to the woman who got hoodwinked by her hubs?” I ask with a fake-ass smile. “Oh, speaking of, I really should send Edward a baby gift for his newborn. Histhirdchild. The man impregnated his girlfriendthree timeswhile he was married to me.” A hot rush of shame washes over me again. I was such a fool. The day I learned he’d been cheating, I felt like I’d been hit by a wrecking ball. I was at the store in Venice, doing inventory, when a customer I’d become friends with sent me a text saying, “Looks like your husband’s doppelgänger is here in Palm Springs!”

A seemingly innocent text had opened the floodgates. Only it wasn’t Edward’s identical twin. It was Edward and the mother of his children, enjoying a playdate in the desert on the swings. The other woman wore a T-shirt with roses on it.

That was where he’d been going on all those business trips. To see his other family a couple hours down the coast. The rose necklace he’d given me suddenly made too much sense. The rose necklace had been meant for her. She was the rose lover.

The wrecking ball doesn’t wallop me like it did then, but even more than a year later, the aftershocks of heart, hurt, and humiliation ricochet through me.

I swallow down the ache and stay strong here with my sister and my friend. “I am never dating again. I am never falling in love again. I am going to marry my vibrator and have battery-operated children with it.” It’s a declaration of singletude.

Juliet squeezes my arm. Elodie rests her head on my other shoulder.

“I’ll help raise my vibrator nieces,” Juliet offers.

“Thank you,” I say, pouting, but grateful. Then I try to shake it off.Itbeing the shame, and the flutters.

But when the camera on screen pans in on eighty-eight again as he pulls a cap down over his hair, little brown waves sticking out, I can’t shake off the wild idea that’s been dogging me lately.

I just can’t.

Maybe I need to give it breath.

And this is a safe space. Elodie and Juliet are my people. “I need to tell you an idea I’ve had,” I say as the Leopards take possession.

Their gazes whip to me. “What is it?” Juliet asks, wide-eyed.

“It’s a little wild. We should enlist Hazel,” I say.

“Obviously,” Elodie seconds, and in no time, she’s ringing up our redheaded friend in New York on FaceTime.

“Well, to what do I owe the honor of the assembly?” Hazel says from my phone.

“This might be crazy…”

Hazel’s green eyes twinkle. “The best ideas always start withthis might be crazy.”

But this idea also seems…smart and useful and, strangely, safe. “So, Carter owes Date Night four more dates,” I say, then I tell them what I’m thinking.

To my surprise, they don’t say I’ve lost my mind.

The answer is a unanimousgo for it.

* * *

When I go into the store the next day, there isn’t a line around the block. But there are a few more customers than I’ve been used to. And I could get used to this uptick in traffic.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, I can drive even more.

14

VERY BRAID-ABLE HAIR

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