“Okay, so Zayne and I are taking the master on the third floor,” Van begins. “Lolo, you and Mike have your usual room on the second floor. Ash will…”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Loren loudly interrupts. “What did you just say?”
“Um…that you and Mike have your usual room?”
“No…”
“You and Zayne?” Roxie cries out, causing the dogs to bark, and the sound is almost deafening.
“I thought emotional support dogs weren’t supposed to react like this,” I casually throw out there.
“They’re not official emotional support dogs,” Roxie clarifies. “I just need them. And don’t change the subject, Liv!” She turns to Vanessa. “You and Zayne? Seriously?”
She nods, nibbling on her lip. “Yeah, seriously. It just sort of happened and we figured this trip would be a good time to test the waters and see how everyone handles it. So if you’re going to freak out, do it now and get it over with, because I’m genuinely happy and it would be really great if you guys didn’t crap all over this. For the first time ever, I think I’m in love.”
Yikes. I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole. After all, who am I to comment on any relationship? Basically, I’m not part of the inner circle anymore, so I’m just gonna stand here and keep my mouth shut.
“No one’s crapping all over anything,” Roxie says diplomatically. “We’re just surprised, that’s all. You guys hid it really well.”
“Oh. Okay. Whew! I was so afraid you were going to freak out and tell me I was making a mistake.”
Loren hugs her. “We love you and we love Zayne, and we’re all happy for you. So…relax.”
There’s an awkward silence for several long moments before I blurt out, “We are two for two in the crisis department, and we just got here! I can only imagine what’s going to happen next!”
Yeah, that falls flat and my friends just blink at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“Why don’t we all get settled in? The guys should be here in a couple of hours, so we have some time to just unpack and get our online grocery order started,” Van tells us. “We’ll meet in the kitchen in thirty!”
I trudge up the stairs to the second floor and the room Roxie and I are sharing. She’s hot on my heels with the dogs trailing behind her. I come to a stop when I realize our room has a twin bed and a full-size one.
Considering Roxie has the dogs, I’m guessing she’ll take the full one.
Dammit.
I haven’t slept in a twin bed since the fifth grade.
“Hey, roomie! This is going to be so much fun! Like a month-long slumber party!” Roxie announces just as the dogs come in and immediately jump all over the beds.
I’m in hell. I’m officially in hell.
I love animals, but I don’t want to sleep with them. I love my sleep more than is probably normal, and…
“Don’t worry. Mosy and Stella sleep with me, and Gunnar always sleeps on the floor. I swear they’re not going to bother you. We will totally respect your space.”
Gunnar’s nose is currently in my crotch, so I’m not feeling so respected at the moment.
I sigh wearily and scratch his head before carefully moving him out of my way so I can unpack.
“What a wild day so far, right?” Roxie asks as we squeeze around each other and try to find space for all our stuff. “I can’t believe Vanessa is hooking up with Zayne! It’s crazy!”
“And you had no idea?”
“None. The two of them haven’t let on a thing.” She pauses for a moment. “Although I’m not great with that sort of thing. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own mess of a life that unless I walked in on them doing it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.”
“I’m really sorry that I haven’t been here for you,” I say, sitting down on the bed I’m claiming. “You were really going through something and I should have come back to visit or at least invited you to come and stay with me so you could get away.”
“Liv, don’t be silly. I didn’t expect you to come home because of my divorce. Besides, I wasn’t the greatest to be around. Van and Lolo were great, but I even pushed them away a lot of the time because I really just wanted to be by myself. You always called and sent funny memes and believe it or not, it was exactly what I needed. Don’t beat yourself up about not being here.”
