TheRomance of the Seais still sailing through the Caribbean. Lauren isn’t due back until tomorrow.
She sees me, stands up, and waves.
The sun gleams off her perfectly blown-out blond hair. She’s so tall and beautiful, and she’s looking at me with such profound care, that I drop my bagson the sidewalk and run to her. I want to throw myself into her arms and fall completely apart.
She descends the steps. “Hopie,” she says. “Hi, sweetheart.”
She pulls me into the world’s biggest hug. For such a slight person, she has the strength to squeeze the breath out of me.
I squeeze her back.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I left the cruise early so I could meet you. I thought you might need some moral support. Not to mention your phone and your housekeys.”
“Oh, I was going to borrow the super’s. But thank you.”
“I’m so sorry,” she says. “I still feel like a complete shithead. But I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I say. “Even when you’re the absolute worst.”
“Are you okay?” she asks me. “You don’t look right.”
“Yeah,” I say, but I feel woozy. Between the heat and my exhaustion and dehydration from the plane and the crying, I feel like I’m going to faint.
Lauren unlocks my apartment, which thankfully is on the garden level, because I don’t think I’d have it in me to climb stairs. My studio is hot and stale after ten days of no air-conditioning in the intense August heat. I sit down on my bed. Lauren turns on the window unit and gets me a glass of water.
“It’s stifling in here,” she says. “Why don’t we take an Uber to my place. You can nap in my guest room. Or stay over. As long as you want.”
We always hang out in her West Village penthouse rather than my tiny studio. But right now, I want to be in my own space. I want to be home.
To be inmylife. Not someone else’s.
“I think I need to stay here and sleep in my own bed. For like twenty straight hours. The last few days were rough.”
“You weren’t restored by Atlantis?” she asks.
“That part was nice. Until Felix ruined it.”
She holds up a finger. “Um, girl, wait. What happened?”
“God,” I groan. “How much time do you have?”
She sits down beside me and takes my hand. “All the time in the world.”
I tell her everything that happened, beat by beat, concluding with Felix’s assertions about my need to figure out my life.
“I can’tbelievehe would say something like that,” Lauren fumes.
“Fool me twice, shame on me, though, right? I should have kept my distance after the Instagram thing. Obviously he doesn’t think very highly of me. Not sure why I let myself believe that would change in three days.”
She shakes her head. “What a dick. And it’s shocking because he seemed so infatuated with you. Like totally gone.”
“He has a knack for seeming that way right before he assassinates your character.”
“Well, he can go straight to hell as far as I’m concerned.”
I close my eyes. “I liked him so much, Lauren. What is wrong with me?”
