Page 16 of Sing For Me

And music. God, always music. Speaking of which, I reach for my phone, select a random playlist, then switch playback to shuffle.

“Okay,” I say, hovering with my thumb over the play button. “Whatever song that plays is going to tell me who’s right: you thinking this is a great idea, or me thinking this is nuts.”

Nora plants her hands on her hips. “You’re not using a song to get out of this.”

Rufus barks.

“Shh!” I say, then hit play.

The first notes of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”stream from my Bluetooth speaker on my bookshelf.

Nora snorts with laughter. “Perfect.”

I groan. “Great. Ambiguity.”

“Or equality? Both could be true.”

Rufus stands up on my lap and jumps off, shaking his butt before disappearing into the kitchen.

I toss the phone behind me on my bed, and Nora catches me by the shoulders to inspect her work. She pulls a strand of hair out from my temple. “Yes. This is good,” she says in her soft voice.

A wave of gratitude passes over me, and I smile, feeling suddenly close to tears. It’s been like this all day, ever since Eli and the crew left the restaurant. I spent the rest of the day in a panicky blur, then I ran right over to the library to grab Nora when she got off work.

“You got this,” she’d told me reassuringly when I blathered out the story of what happened. “We’ve got this.” Then she’d insisted on cancelling her evening plans to come over to my place to help me get ready. My closest confidante has always been my sister Michelle, but ever since she remarried and has a house full of four girls—and I moved to a different state—we don’t talk nearly as much as we used to, and Nora’s filled in. She’s been everything to me, even though she already has a best friend—Eli’s brother, Jude. But he’s a dude. I like to think I take first woman’s spot.

“Thanks, Nor.”

“I couldn’t let you get ready for this on your own. You’d either sabotage things by wearing a paper bag, or not show in the first place.”

“A paper bag!” For a quiet person, Nora really knows how to make me laugh. “You know that’s not what I mean. I mean thanks for being here. For not telling me I’m a total idiot for doing this.”

“I would never think you’re a total idiot. In fact, this is the smartest thing you’ve done in years. Fun, right?”

“Fun,” I say, my vision going blurry again as I squeeze my friend tight.

What’s funny is that in a convoluted way, if it weren’t for Eli, I wouldn’t know Nora at all.

I wouldn’t be here in Quince Valley.

Eli and I met back in Jewel Lakes, New York, where we both used to live. We only dated for three weeks—while he was in the middle of his messy divorce with Kelly, the love of his life, apparently, and I was newly free from a toxic relationship that took over my whole life for over a decade.

I never meant to fall for him. It was only supposed to be casual.

But I did, and Eli dumped me right after.

After things ended, Eli gave me a pity gift of a stay at his family’s hotel, which Michelle insisted I take. One thing led to another, and I met his sister Cassandra in the restaurant. She offered me a job. I probably shouldn’t have taken it. I’d promised myself I was going to get out of the restaurant industry, maybe somehow try to at least step sideways into music again. Not being a singer the way I’d wanted to be years ago of course, butsomething.But this job was managing a high-end restaurant in a resort Cassandra was trying to turn around and make into something spectacular. I’d only ever been a server. Plus, I loved Cassandra. She’s tough and strong and takes no shit from anyone.

Cassandra and Eli’s other brother, Jude, is an ex-tennis pro, and works as the recreation director at the hotel. I first met his best friend when Jude got swarmed by reporters in the restaurant one time when I’d just started—it happened from time to time—and I’d helped hide her in the kitchen. If there was one thing I was good at besides taking a fifteen-person-table’s order with no notes, it was how to hide.

We’d been close ever since.

I look at Nora now as she rummages through my closet, holding out outfits for me to yay or nay.

I realize this whole night has been all about me. And that I can’t remember the last time Nora went on a date. She was seeing this nerdy computer guy for a while, someone she insisted she liked. But she didn’t look at him the way she looked at her best friend.

“Would you ever do something like this for Jude?” I ask suddenly.

“What?” Nora says a bit too sharply. Her cheeks flame. She’s never admitted to me how she feels about her best friend—I suspect she’s never admitted it to herself. But I know he’s her favorite person. She gets this little smile on her face when she talks about him. And in any of the videos I’ve seen that she makes with her video camera—the super high end video camera he special ordered after he found out she was into documentaries—her shots always linger longest on him.

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