Page 72 of Not Your Basic Love Story

“I didn’t tell you this before because I didn’t want you to freak out on me, but we have one more person to pick up before we go,” Miranda said, putting her silver Porsche Cayenne into gear.

“Who else is there?” I asked, clicking my seatbelt.

“Nicole.”

“Nicole?! Why the hell is Nicole coming tomyparty?”

Angelina piped up from the back seat. “I told you it was a bad idea.”

Miranda had the audacity to be miffed. “You told me you’d be willing to try and be friends with her, for my sake, remember?”

“For your baby shower, yeah! Tonight’s supposed to be about me! I only wantmyfriends atmyparty.” I crossed my arms and pouted.

“Oh, I’m sorry, who was the one who let you bring the stranger you were banging in Mexico to her wedding? Hmm? Oh, right, that was me! So, I guess you could say you owe me one.”

“That’s hardly fair. It’s a completely different scenario, and you know it. I was all alone, and you were busy the whole time. I was really looking forward to it just being us!”

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll call her and tell her you changed your mind.”

I put my face in my hands. “It’s too late now. She’ll know I told you she couldn’t come and it will make everything worse. Let’s go get her, I guess.”

“You know, I read in a book once that the things we dislike most about other people are the very things we dislike most about ourselves,” Miranda said.

I glared at her, unable to see anything similar between Nicole and me. “You know, three psych classes in nursing school doesn’t exactly make you Sigmund Freud.”

Miranda chuckled but said nothing. A few minutes later, we pulled up to a private gate. Miranda rolled down her window and beeped the intercom. “Nic! Babe, it’s us! You ready?”

A buzzer sounded, and the gates opened, revealing a gorgeous estate with a gabled, stone house. Between Chaz’s hockey money and Nicole’s big-shot marketing cash, they were doing well. To make matters worse, Nicole only lived ten minutes away from Miranda. The two probably hung out all the time. Meanwhile, I was an hour train ride away.

“One second,” Miranda said, hopping out of the car.

Angelina tapped my shoulder. I looked back to see her offering a flask. This kid, I tell ya. Golden. I took it gratefully and chugged back three mouthfuls, realizing mid-way through that it was Jägermeister, coughing on the last swallow. Angelina took it back, had a sip, and then tucked it into her bag.

Miranda and Nicole appeared a few minutes later. I wasn’t surprised to see Nicole with a giant Louis Vuitton bag, way over the top for a single night’s stay. All I had was my carry-on, which matched my suitcase: bright pink with lime palm fronds, and reminded me of Dev.

“Congratulations!” Nicole said, climbing into the back seat next to Angelina. “And thanks for the invite! This will be so much fun! I really need a girl’s night.”

“Yeah. No problem,” I replied, keeping my eyes straight ahead.

Miranda turned on some music, and off we went along the Sea to Sky highway. I kept my gaze out the passenger window, watching all the little waterfalls pass by as I fingered my giant ring.

“Oh mygod,your ring is beautiful!” Nicole squealed. “It’s almost as big as mine!” She shoved her hand up between Miranda and me, showing off the absolutely ridiculous sized diamond, framed with about a thousand other diamonds. So now she and Chaz were engaged, too, apparently. I would have known this already if I had followed Nicole on social media. I didn’t, of course. The last thing I needed popping up on my feed were pictures of her over-the-top perfecteverything.

“Oh, congratulations to you, too,” I said, trying to sound earnest. “When did that happen?”

“A few months ago. We’re just starting to plan now for next year. These things take so long if you want to do them properly. I mean, not that you aren’t doing things properly. It’s different, I guess when you have a guest list of over three hundred and need to decide on which golf course is best suited to the event. You know?”

I glanced at Miranda, who gave me an apologetic smile. Three hundred people! I snorted at the ridiculousness of a wedding of that size.

The trip to Whistler seemed to take forever, with Miranda and Nicole singing karaoke to old Britney Spears classics, Angelina in the back texting, and me staring out the window hoping the night would pass quickly. At least the Jägermeister was kicking in.

We pulled up to a building near the ski resort, the mountainous hillside all green meadow and sunshine in the summer. As we were making our way to the main entrance, a white sedan pulled up. Out came Priya along with Shawan and Jag.

Priya ran up and hugged me hard, as if we’d always been sisters. Then, she turned to Angelina and hugged her the same way, which made me feel a little less special.

I approached Shawan and Jag with a bit of trepidation. “Hey, you two! I didn’t know you’d be up here.”

Jag smiled, his calm demeanour putting me at ease. “Well, Priya really wanted to come, and we felt much better being close by. We’re going to be staying in the area, just in case.”

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