Page 5 of Always Been You

I place the card with the others, bundling them together again, before going through the remaining contents. I look at pictures of me with my parents at my high school and university graduations, various pictures with Matt and Gi, and pictures with Hannah, Zoey, and Eliza. At the bottom, I have pictures of Matt, Josh, and me after one of their hockey practices. There are pictures of Matt and Josh playing hockey, some of us in a park on the swings, tickets from a concert I went to with them, and pictures with both of them before my prom. I also have pictures from all the various graduations of Gianna, Matt, Josh, and the girls. Pictures that memorialize the important events in our lives.

It’s weird to think I used to be so close to both Josh and Em when I was younger, and now we all live in the same city again and it’s not the same. We aren’t distant or unfriendly, I just don’t see them as much as I used to.

Putting the lid back on the box, I put it back in the same spot in my closet. My nostalgic thoughts continue to linger. I check the time on my phone, it’s 5 p.m. already. I have time to shower before the girls get here. They are supposed to be here at 6 pm to help me get ready. I have no idea what we are doing tonight. When I started discussing plans for my birthday, they stopped me right away and told me they had it completely handled. So, I left tonight in their capable hands.

After my shower, I head into my bedroom, settle on my bed, open Instagram and post some of the pictures I took on my walk today before scrolling.

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here when I hear my front door open and the voices of my friends carry throughthe apartment. I grab my robe, secure it around my waist, and meet them in the hallway. I am automatically pulled into a group hug.

“Happy birthday, babe,” Zoey says as she pulls back from the group hug.

“Happy birthday, Liv,” Eliza says, giving me a chaste kiss on the cheek.

“Happy birthday,” Hannah says, squeezing me before releasing me.

We all head into my kitchen where I mix myself a rum and Coke Zero and the girls open a bottle of white wine. I won’t drink the stuff, but we each keep a small supply of each other’s drinks since we rotate hosting.

Zoey claps her hands together. “Okay, so I am going to take care of your makeup, Han is going to do your hair, and Liz has got your outfit. All you have to do is sit back and let us work, and of course, drink!”

Zoey grabs my hand and pulls me into my bedroom, pushing me down into the chair in front of the vanity. Hannah connects her phone to the Bluetooth speaker in my bedroom and starts playing our collective playlist. This takes me back to our college days, getting ready for a party together, helping each other as we listen to music and pre-game.

One night years ago, we were all chilling at one of our places listening to music. We all have different tastes, so we created a shared playlist for us all to add to, so we get a mix every time we hang out. One of my songs, “Zombie” by The Cranberries, plays through the speaker.

As Zo rummages through my makeup she asks, “So Mr. Anonymous sent flowers again this year? I saw them when we walked in. I think they might be bigger than last year. They are gorgeous.”

I blush, “Yeah, I still have no idea who has been sending them. Every year they make me smile.”

“I’m glad, you deserve nice things, babe.” She smiles at me over her shoulder. “So, what have you done so far today?”

“Went to lunch with Matt at Blue Spoon, got my nails done, and walked through the park,” I say. I hem and haw whether or not to tell them about meeting up with Josh, and decide that they’re my best friends, I might as well. “Guess who I ran into before lunch, though?”

“Who?” Hannah asks.

“Joshua Lincoln.”

Eliza pops her head out of my closet, which she was rifling through, “You mean your brother’s super-hot, billionaire CEO, bromance best friend, Joshua Lincoln?”

I look over at her and nod, “Yeah, and he ended up joining us for lunch. It was nice being able to catch up. He remembered it was my birthday too, paid for it and encouraged me to try something new. I did, and I actually liked it.”

All three of them swing their heads to me. “You’re saying that Josh got you to try something new at your favourite restaurant, even though your family has been trying to get you to for years?” Zoey asks. Zoey probably knows me the best because we went to grade school together, we met Hannah and Eliza at university, so she knows all about how I always order the same thing at restaurants.

“Yeah, he insisted. It’s not a big deal.” I can feel the blush spread across my cheeks as the girls all give me an as-if look before resuming their tasks.

Hannah uses the straightener on my hair to loosely curl it and tells us stories about the recent cases she has worked on at Vancouver Memorial, the hospital where she works as anurse. She tells us about the guy who came into the ER after running his arm up a Sawzall, the kid who shoved marbles up both nostrils and an artist who attempted to cut off his ear to be ‘more in touch with Van Gogh’. I know it’s wrong to laugh at what these people have gone through, but some of these things just lack common sense.

“You know, even with all those crazy cases, this week wouldn’t have been that bad if it wasn’t for Dr. Maxwell.” I can hear the disdain in her voice as she scrunches her nose up, causing her eyes to close slightly, making the same face she always does when she talks about him.

Grayson Maxwell is a friend of Matt and Josh’s who works in the ER at Vancouver Memorial with Hannah. I have never had a problem with Grayson. From every interaction I’ve had with him, he seems nice enough. I know that he’s close enough with Matt and Josh, that should I ever need anything, I could call him and he’d be there. But ever since last year, Hannah cannot stand the man. She won’t talk about what happened, so we have all let it be, knowing that she will tell us when she’s ready. I guess Liz decides to give it another go, because she asks, “What did he do?” from my closet as she bends over to go through my shoes.

“The usual Grayson stuff, being a stuck-up jerk and leaving his shit lying around the nurses’ station while flirting with every nurse. I end up having to be the one to pick up after him too. God, you’d think the nurses would ignore him, seeing as how much he gets around. But nope, he flashes them that smile and it’s like all their panties melt simultaneously,” she says with a huff.

I hold back a chuckle and say, “You know, Han, if you’re interested in him, you could always just ask him out. You know he’s not that bad of a guy.”

“Han, you should go for it. I think you are in need of a good lay. If you don’t want to take it any further, you don’t have to,” Zoey adds.

Hannah rolls her eyes at Zoey and me through the mirror. “Nope, not going there. I don’t need any STIs, thank you very much.”

“Maybe you need to find another doctor at the hospital then, Han. Maybe a good lay will make Grayson a little less annoying to you, and maybe make him a little jealous in the process,” Eliza adds as she walks out of my closet with an arm full of clothes and a pair of heels in her hand.

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