Page 18 of Rewriting the Story

The champagne comes, and when the server reaches me, I have to decline. Drinking while on a stimulant medication is a recipe for disaster.

“I’m okay with water,” I say. “Thank you so much.”

The girls are looking at me like I’m insane, and rightfully so. The last time they physically saw me was at Paige’s birthday. I drank an entire bottle of prosecco straight from the bottle.

“So, when are the boys getting here?” I ask, deciding on a safe topic to start.

“In a week. Grant planned some sort of greatest hits road-trip for them all,” Hads tells me. “My brother is less than thrilled.”

“Oh, he’ll be fine. He may act like he hates spending time with the boys, but I know he secretly loves it,” Paige smiles.

“Oh, that man only wants one thing, Paigey—to marry you. The only reason he’s doing all this other stuff is because you wanted to,” Ella says to her. “It’s cute.”

“Oliver has gone soft,” I say. “It’s going to be weird seeing him like that. The last time I saw him, he was as stone-cold as ever.”

“Well, that’s because the last time you saw him was eons ago,” Ella says as Paige spits her champagne back into her glass.

“You’re right, Ells. It has been a long-time,” I say before I can stop it. “I’ve been gone. I’ve been radio silent, and I have no idea what has been going on in any of your lives. But you also don’t know what’s been goingon in mine.” Ella opens her mouth to speak, but I stop her. “And I know that’s my fault. I went through a lot over in England, and I’ll tell you all about it when I talk to each of you.”

All their eyes are latched on to mine. Ella looks pissed off, Hads has more of a neutral expression on her face, and Paige’s are full of something I can’t place.

“But I want to spend dinner hearing about what I missed. So, give me all the stories that come to your mind, even the comments you don’t think you should say out loud. I can handle it, really.”

After a long silence, Paige raises her hand. “I have a story.”

“Lay it on me,” I say to her.

“Okay, so, one day, we all showed up at Hads’ apartment for book club, and everything was normal until we saw something peeking out of the corner behind the bookshelf in their living room.”

“Oh God, not this,” Hads laughs, covering her face with her hands. “I swear, I didn't know he had bought that thing.”

“I still wonder how he got a picture of you for that.” Ella shakes her head in disbelief.

“There was a sheet over top of it, and when we took it off, it was a cardboard cutout of Hads. Grant got it made and hid it from us for months before we found out about it.”

“What?” I say, a small smile coming back to my face. Knowing Grant, that is so on-brand for him. “Why did he have it?”

“Apparently, he gets lonely when Hads stays over at my place or Paige’s, so he bought it so he could talk to cardboard Hads instead of simply talking to himself while he was home alone,” Ella laughs.

“Oh my,” I say with a laugh. “So is that thing on top, or is he?”

Hads lowers her head to the table. “I cannot talk about this again.”

“That was my first question too!” Ella says. “And he still hasn't given us an answer.”

“Because he doesn't do that with a cardboard cutout of me!” Hads shouts.

“You can't actually confirm that, Hads,” Paige giggles. “It’s still in the same spot, and we haven't stopped pestering Grant about it.”

“I think it’s cute, in a way,” I say, looking at Hads. “That boy is clearly in love with you if he misses you that much. I’m sure he loves having that around because it can’t slap him with a ruler either,” I joke, and the three of them laugh.

“My ruler is still kicking. Don’t make me use it on you these next two weeks,” Hads says.

“I won’t,” I say under my breath. “Okay, what else?” I ask, and for the rest of our dinner and late into the night, they tell me stories upon stories of all the memories I missed.

For a few hours, I feel included again, and that small pinch of hope I have gets a little bit bigger.

7

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