Page 98 of Dear Ripley

Of course I’d do the baby shower. I’d have done it for Harlow, for Alicia, for Edith, for the simple fact that it was happening and it was my job, but it wasn’t why we were here.

I wanted to congratulate Harlow on her quick thinking. Telling the town gossip about Ellie would be a terrible idea. Providing an excuse for why Alicia and I were eating together also gave us some plausible deniability when Mrs. Sylvester inevitably told everyone about it. The more reasonable people in town would at least question whether it meant we were back together if they knew I was working on an event Alicia was organizing. Plenty of people met over food with their event vendors.

“Well,” Mrs. Sylvester said, “of course you went to Ripley. She’s the best florist in town.”

I smiled sweetly. “Thank you.”

“And modest as ever,” Alicia muttered, loud enough for the others to hear, and with far too much sweetness to be passed off as platonic. If Harlow had provided us an excuse, Alicia seemed determined to destroy it.

I found I didn’t really mind.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave you to your planning, then,” Mrs. Sylvester said, her eyes gleaming like she’d caught the moment between me and Alicia and was eager to spread it all over town.

“Bye, Mrs. Sylvester,” we all said in unison again, watching her leave.

“And, apparently, we all sound like a gaggle of creepy kids from a horror movie when we talk to her,” Alicia said, referencing her earlier comment.

I laughed. “Yeah, well, only one way to interact with her, and that’s to let the chips fall where they may.”

“Right,” Morgan said, returning to her molten lava cake. “She’s going to make up the story she wants on the slimmest of evidence either way. Might as well enjoy the experience.”

Harlow side-eyed me. “Of course, you two didn’t exactly try to get her off your trail, did you?”

“There’s no trail to be on,” Alicia said, holding her head up.

“Sure there’s not,” she snorted in reply. “The only ones who have ever believed that, are you two. And I think even you’re starting to realize it’s bullshit.”

“Do you know,” Morgan started, pausing to swallow, and I knew we absolutely didn’t want to know, “that I caught them up chatting to each other in the middle of the night?”

Alicia groaned and shot me an agonized look.

“Why am I not surprised?” Harlow said, looking at us both with the mostI told you soexpression I’d ever seen.

“Mm. It was all very cozy. Gone midnight, whispering to each other…” Morgan shot me a scandalized look.

“Sounds very romantic.”

“You know, I was thinking the exact same thing.”

I laughed at the constipated expression on Alicia’s face and moved to call off the attack. “Says the one spending her nights drooling over a YouTube gift wrapper?”

“Hey!” Morgan protested.

Before she could get any other words out, I turned to Harlow. “But none of that matters. We’re here to celebrate you, the amazing stand you just took, and the bright future you’re building. And I’m happy to do the flowers for you.”

Harlow’s expression softened. I knew she wouldn’t let me and Alicia off the hook forever, but we did get a temporary respite. “Sorry for springing it on you. I’ve been meaning to ask, but…”

“There’s been a lot going on.”

“There really has.” She laughed before looking seriously at the three of us. “And I’m really grateful for all your help. For putting me up, for misleading Ellie and giving me time to think, for letting me bring the fight to her rather than letting her ambush me, and for being there for me this morning. I really meant it when I said I’d found my village. And, I don’t know what’s happening with you two, but this is the team and you’re stuck with it, so… figure it out.”

I laughed as Alicia pursed her lips and we both avoided each other’s gaze.

“Are we sure she’s really gone now?” she asked Harlow cautiously.

Harlow let out a heavy breath. “Yeah, I think so. She didn’t even try to get me back—or any of whatever this morning was—during the divorce proceedings. And she doesn’t do well with the kind of rejection she received this morning. I doubt any of it was about me or the baby, not really. I imagine she was rejected by whoever she’d been sleeping with, and thought I was an easy ego boost.”

“So, now that you’ve clearly rejected her, she’ll be too embarrassed to come back around again?”

---