All four of us lie down on a grassy area where there are no streetlights around, so it’s darker and easier to see the stars. Rya and Ezra are lying next to each other. I’m next to Rya and Zayn is beside me.
“Wow, I’ve never seen so many stars before,” Rya says with amazement in her tone.
“Really?” I ask. The stars look like tiny sparkles. When my grandma died, my mom said that she’s an angel now. When I asked her what an angel was, she said the stars in the sky are angels that shine bright, staring down at us, watching over us. So now I always wonder whose grandma or grandpa I’m staring at.
“Yeah. Really,” Rya says.
“Where did you live before?” Zayn asks.
“In the city. That’s what my dad called it. He said we had to move to the suburbs because the city isn’t a place to raise a family,” she says.
“Do you like it here?” I ask.
“Of course she does, because she has us as friends,” Zayn says and we all giggle.
She nods her head. “I do like it now. Especially now that I have friends.” She turns toward me and I toward her; our grins widen at our new friendship.
Present Day
“What do you girls have planned today?” Ezra asks, finishing his mimosa. His eyesight lands on me as I watch him set his flute down.
All four of us came to brunch to eat off last night’s hangover. Zayn ordered a pitcher of mimosas for us and my stomach turned from the thought of drinking more alcohol.
We ended up in Vegas for all our thirtieth birthday celebration. I wanted to go somewhere tropical and lounge on the beach, drink pina coladas under the sun, and get a sun-kissed tan. Since it’s the beginning of May and in Utah, the weather is barely getting warm. So, I’m craving somewhere warm. But Rya had other plans. She wanted to go to Vegas and get plastered. We’ve all partied so much in our twenties that I’m ready to slow it down. Somehow, she still enjoys it. Me, on the other hand, I’m sick of waking up every weekend with a hangover.
But here we are.
She got her way.
Plus, I didn’t want to be such a buzz kill. All our birthdays are weeks apart from one another. We’ve always celebrated together since we were kids. So, I wasn’t going to be the one to ruin that for us.
“Shopping.” Rya squeals as she eyes me across the table to agree.
My shoulders slump slightly as my eyes shoot from Ezra to Rya and then back to Ezra. He rolls his eyes slightly as he pours himself another mimosa. “Let’s lounge by the pool today. We went shopping yesterday.”
Rya’s lips curl into a frown. “I wanted to go look for a perfume.”
“Why didn’t you look yesterday?” I ask, pouring my first glass of mimosa from our bottomless mimosas. I wasn’t planning on drinking this early. But if I end up going shopping, I’m going to need some liquor to calm my nerves from the crowds. It’s not that I get anxious around large crowds, but I have to be in the right mood for it. Otherwise, I’m going to be irritated bumping shoulders with people and hearing a thousand conversations. I do love shopping, but we did it all day yesterday and then went out. I hardly got any sleep, so shopping again doesn’t sound the greatest right now.
She shrugs her shoulders and looks over between Zayn and Ezra, who are sitting across from us. “What do you boys have planned?” she asks, raising her voice a little from the loud chatter happening around us.
Which is not helping the hangover, but neither is this mimosa. Or maybe it will.
I exhale, remembering to let loose and have fun. It’s only a weekend of this and I need to relax and enjoy my time here. You only turn thirty once.
“We’re going golfing, babe. I told you,” Ezra says with knitted brows.
Rya waves her hand up in the air as a dismissal of her question. “Oh, that’s right.” She chuckles.
Zayn catches my uneasiness about shopping again. “Why don’t you girls go shopping and then go lounge by the pool before our last night out?”
I raise my brows, facing Rya, and her lips go tight. “Fine,” she says.
It’s probably best if we don’t shop another whole other day because Rya has a shopping problem. Her closet is overflowing with so many clothes, shoes, purses, perfumes, and makeup. She’s such a girly girl. Which I get, so am I, but there has to be some limit to your shopping addiction. Sometimes I wonder how she liked to do the stuff we did when we were kids since we played outside a lot, getting dirty. I love all things girly too, but I’m not as bad as her.
“Babe, can you promise not to spend that much today?” Ezra says, his head tilted down, looking at his phone.
I bet you anything he’s looking over their bank account and seeing everything she spent yesterday. Ezra is very good with his finances. Which is the best thing for Rya because, without him, I have a feeling she would be in so much debt.
