“Sorry, I spaced out.” I place a smile on my face as I pass her the bottle, while a strange feeling settles in the pit of my stomach.
“That’s okay.” She rings it up, asks for my ID then tells me the price. After I pay, I take the bottle in hand and walk out of the store, and pull up the message again as soon as I get into my car. The text is simple enough, and like I said, Carly and I are not the best of friends. I don’t know everything about her, but I can’t remember her ever mentioning any of her family besides her parents, who had passed away.
With my fingers hovering over the keypad, I try to figure out what to write back, then decide it will just be better if I call her. After pressing the green dot next to her name, the phone starts to ring and ring and ring again, until the call is cut off, and I’m sent to voice mail. With a deep breath I wait until it’s time to leave a message then I just ask her to call me, and tell her that I’m worried about her, and that I just want to hear her voice to know she is okay. Sure, that I’m overreacting, I hang up and hope like heck that she actually calls me back and puts my mind at ease.
With no other choice but to wait, I tuck my phone away, start my car, then head out of my parking space and the lot of the grocery store.
When I get to my cousin’s house thirty minutes later, Carly still hasn’t called me back, so I send her a text basically repeating my voicemail because if she is like some other people I know—namely myself—she won’t actually check her voicemails, but instead deletes them without even hearing what they say.
With nothing left to do, I get out of my car with my bottle of wine and head up to the front door of Aprils house and ring the bell. Not even two seconds go by before the door is open and I’m greeted by her and Malia, who has grown so much since the last time I saw her.
“You’re here.” April engulfs me in a tight one-arm hug while Malia latches onto my hair that has gotten too close to her chubby little hands.
“Oh my god, you need to put her in some Tupperware to keep her tiny, she is already so big.”
“I know.” She pouts, kissing Malia’s chubby little cheek before passing her over to me and taking the bottle of wine. “Maxim is out back on the grill.”
She leads me through the front of the house, which is absolutely spectacular, the entire place looks like it was cut right from the ad of some high-end magazine.
“I’m so glad that you were able to come over tonight,” April says as we walk into the kitchen.
“Me, too.” I bounce Malia on my hip while she babbles away. “I figured that you guys would be in Vegas for the winter.”
“If I did that, my parents might actually murder my husband. They hate their grandchild being so far away.”
“And you,” I point out.
She shakes her head. “No, I mean I know they miss me, but ever since that little one came into this world it’s been all about her. They don’t even ask how I’m doing anymore, and Maxim’s parents are not any better.” She grins. “So, tell me everything. What have you been up to? I don’t even remember the last time we really even had a chance to catch up.”
“Everything is the same. My life is definitely not as exciting as yours.” I laugh when Malia tugs on my hair to get my attention.
“So, you’re not dating anyone?”
“No.” I rub my lips together and her eyes narrow.
“You’re lying. What’s going on?”
“Well, there is someone, but I messed up, and I’m pretty sure he’s done with me.”
“If he’s done with you then he’s not the one for you.” She rolls her eyes.
“I guess you’re right.”
“Now tell me, how did you mess up?” She opens a bottle of wine and pours us each a glass.
As I tell her about Clay, how we met and everything that happened since then, her eyes widen, her lips part, then a smile curves her lips. The smile broadens when I finish with what happened today in my office.
“So now I’m not sure what to do because if I do talk to him, he could tell me that he wants nothing to do with me, which would suck even more than not knowing that.”
“Or it could turn out that he is playing the long game and hoping that you’ll admit to yourself that you like him and go talk to him, which is what I think you need to do.”