Page 38 of Swift and Saddled

I wasn’t good at drawing or painting or anything like that, but I could DIY the fuck out of anything, and that’s exactly what I was going to do with these curtains.

It was near the end of the day, and the crew was starting to clear out, so I began setting up my work for the evening. I laid out three curtains to start, and grabbed the box that held all the wildflowers I’d been collecting.

Evan had just left for the day when I heard a familiar voice at the door. “Ada Hart, you are the only person whose ass looks that good in a pair of overalls,” Teddy said.

I hadn’t seen Teddy in real life since I was nineteen, but even though she looked different—of course she did, it had been seven years—she was unmistakable.

I wasn’t sure if that was because of her looks or just her general presence—probably a little bit of both.

Her copper hair was pulled up in the same bouncy ponytail as the first time I met her. She was wearing black leggings, a white crop top, and a grin. She had a bottle of pink wine in her hands. Behind her, Emmy appeared. She was sporting a red matching sweat set that would’ve made melook like a clown, but somehow she looked cute and comfy, which felt unfair.

“It’s good to see you, Teddy,” I said, walking over to her. I didn’t normally do hugs, but it felt appropriate to greet Teddy with one. I was surprised that Emmy pulled me into one too—but with just one hand, since she was holding a few boxes of pizza.

“I didn’t even recognize it in here,” Emmy said when she pulled away. “It’s great.”

“Thanks,” I said awkwardly. Emmy intimidated me. I didn’t really know why—she was kind to me when we met. Funny too. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her—I just didn’t think that she’d like me.

“I’m literally so happy you said yes,” Teddy said. “Wes told us you’re keeping the colored tile in the bathrooms. He was like vibrating with excitement.”

“I love that pink tile,” Emmy said. “I’m trying to convince Luke that we need more pink in our home.”

“I agree on that,” Teddy chimed in. “Not nearly enough pink in the ClemenLuke household.” She turned to me. “When you’re done here, you should head there and convince Brooks to get rid of the flannel furniture.”

“It’s one flannel chair!” Emmy exclaimed. “He likes it!”

“When did you become a flannel apologist?” Teddy responded.

“Says the woman who I know for a fact has flannel sheets on her bed at this very moment.”

Teddy held up her hand to stop Emmy. “We’re not talking about me here.” I felt a pang in my chest—it was a pang inthe same family as the one I’d felt when I’d first seen Luke and Emmy at breakfast that Sunday.

I didn’t have a lot of friends, and I especially didn’t have a lot of friends who were women. I never felt like I knew how to connect, or speak the right language, always just to the left of the right social cue. My mom never seemed to have that problem; she had only sisters and a group of girlfriends she was close to with whom she’d go to dinners or events. But she was beautiful and vivacious. I’d never seen myself as being like my mom.

So I’d built walls around myself. I didn’t prioritize cultivating female friendships. I employed a severe brand of “I’m not like other girls” and decided that disliking Taylor Swift, not wearing makeup, and listening to obscure indie bands would become my entire personality. All to distract from the fact that I actually wanted to be exactly like the other girls.

But by the time I realized that and got sick of thinking of the things I loved (pink!Twilight!) as guilty pleasures, it was too late. Everyone already had a best friend or a group that I didn’t fit into, and that was even more apparent as I’d watched Emmy and Teddy basically finish each other’s sentences.

“What are you guys doing here?” I said. It came off rude—like most things I said, and I shrank back a little.

“Wes told us you were staying down here for a while for a project; we came to see if you wanted company,” Emmy said.

“Girls’ night,” Teddy said. “And you can’t tell us no.” This whole thing made me nervous. Teddy was great, but I hadn’t spent time with her in years. What if it took less than five minutes for her to realize that I actually suck? “But you cantell us all about the fact that you got caught making out with Wes at the bar.” I gulped.

“Teddy!” Emmy was giving Teddy an “Are you serious right now?” look, but Teddy wasn’t looking at her. She was looking at me, and she was smiling like the Cheshire cat. I guess it would be kind of nice to talk about whatever was going on with Wes and me.

“I’m going to need some of that first,” I said, pointing to the wine that Teddy was holding. “And that,” I said, pointing to the pizza.

“We have a cheese, a veggie, and a double pepperoni,” Emmy said. We walked over to the workbench and set everything down. Teddy pulled a stack of paper plates and red cups from her bag.

“Knock, knock,” another woman’s voice came from the doorway. We all looked up—it was Cam. She walked into the house, still giving off the same power she had when she was in slacks and heels, but now she was in an oversize Margaritaville sweatshirt, biker shorts, and a pair of white sneakers.

“Party’s here,” Teddy said as she gave Cam a hug. Emmy hugged her too, and then Cam came to hug me. I was really going to have to get used to all of this hugging. I didn’t give or get a lot of human contact these days.

“I’m supposed to be picking up Riley,” Cam said, “but it looks like she’s not down here.”

“Who told you she was down here?” Emmy asked.

“Amos. He said he was down here too.”

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