Page 93 of It Couldn't Be You
“Week by week, maybe that’s how you take life on? Forget five-year plans.” I looked at us in the mirror, still playing dress up even now.
The next day at work, as I was sliding a plate with a big blueberry muffin toward Gabe, Katie rushed in the door. Immediately, her eyes looked sheepish.
“Hello, Katie,” I said suspiciously as she slipped behind the counter beside me uncharacteristically quiet.
“I have bad news,” she murmured to me, dropping her bag behind the counter.
“What’s the bad news?” I asked, knowing our trip was tomorrow. Knowing how you sometimes do, that you couldn’t even take things week by week. It was day by day, really.
“Rose had to leave this morning. Her brother-in-law is sick. So, she can’t be here. She has to be at the hospital,” she said it all quickly. “Which means I have to be here to run things the rest of the week.”
I nodded, disappointed. But, I mean, none of that was anyone’s fault. I was just really bummed my best friend couldn’t enjoy the trip with me. “I’ll miss you, butyou have to be here. I get that.”
“I’ll miss you, too.” She wrapped me up in a hug. “Have an extra fish taco for me.”
“I don’t even like fish tacos.” I made a disgusted face. “How’s her brother-in-law doing? Is he okay?”
“He’s stable. He had a heart attack. The family just needs help. He and his wife are pretty old, from what Rose was saying,” Katie relayed.
“I’ll say a prayer,” I said. Gabe murmured that he would too.
“Hey, maybe they can use my plane ticket to make your’s first class or something?” Katie speculated.
“It’s actually nonrefundable,” I explained while spraying the counter. I wiped it.
“Yikes.” Katie looked sheepish again. It was awkwardly quiet as Gabriel ate his muffin, I kept spraying and wiping, and Katie stood there chewing on her lip.
“Well,” she said finally, “why don’t you just take someone else? Take Gabe or something.”
The two of us both looked at Gabe, who was dusting muffin crumbs off his hands.
He grinned, that mischievous gleam in his eyes. “You know I’m down for a trip.”
Other people came to mind who could join me, friends who I had zero romantic feelings toward. Even my mom or dad could probably tag along. But there was that thing about Gabriel that put me in some kind of time machine like I was sixteen again and wanting to make the destructive but thrilling choices.
“Okay,” I said, my stomach in happy knots. “Yeah, you should come with me. Can you be ready for a six a.m. drive to the airport tomorrow morning?”
“I’m ready for anything,” he said, all cocky and cool, making me roll my eyes. But I couldn’t stop smiling. Neither of us could.
He stuck around for a while longer. I filled him in on the trip details and forwarded him the flight information. We kept laughing for no reason—all destructive, all thrilled.
Thirty-Four
Gabe
you sure you want me to come?
Me
yes.
Me
Are you sure you want to come?
Gabe
yes.
