Page 30 of Try Hard
Why am I here?The question screamed itself unrelentingly in my head. Sure, I was reintroduced to three other women we’d gone to school with, but they were in floral dresses. They were bridesmaids. They were people Kim kept in touch with.
I startled when I heard an achingly familiar laugh from somewhere behind me. After all this time, and only one day of being reacquainted, the laughter shouldn’t have been familiar. It absolutely should not have felt like a beacon calling out to me.
I politely excused myself from Kim’s side, grateful she was distracted by one of the other guests, and weaved through the crowd—the biggest brunch gathering I’d ever seen in my life—until there, totally in her element, was Eve Archer, leaning against the bar, one leg crossed over the other. She was the picture of relaxation.
She was also the picture of sapphic dreams the world over. Sage green trousers and a waistcoat. No shirt. No jacket. Just muscles for days.
And she was talking to a woman in skin-tight jeans who had obviously noticed. I watched as she threw her head back, laughed, stroked Eve’s bicep, and somehow managed to cock her hip to show off just how much it looked like those jeans had been made for her.
The whole scene felt like I was intruding on something and made me feel vaguely sick.
“Fia!” a cheery voice called, and my face hardened as the sound cut through my frozen observation of a conversation I was never meant to be a part of.
Right as I turned towards the voice, I saw Eve move—standing up, turning away from the gorgeous woman she was chatting with, and, ever so briefly, catching my eye. I riled against the weird flurry of sickness and awkwardness, forcing on a smile as I looked into dark brown eyes I hadn’t seen in years.
I cleared my throat. “Tanika. Nice to see you.”
She laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Let us hope that’s not true—for everyone’s sake.” I registered the pretty coral dress she had on and its smattering of tiny flowers. “Are you a bridesmaid too?”
She beamed. “I am! Kim and I ended up getting back in touch seven years ago when I started dating her cousin.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. The relationship didn’t last, but my friendship with Kim did.”
“My condolences on the breakup.”
Tanika laughed. “Don’t even worry about it. I met the best guy about six months after we split and now we’re blissfully married.”
“I’m happy for you,” I said, meaning it.
She looped her arm through mine and squeezed me closer into her side. Back in school, linking arms with your friends had been all the rage, so it wasn’t like we’d never done that before,but it had been a good minute. It gave me flashbacks to walking from our English classroom to the sports hall.
“How about you?” she asked, conspiratorially. “Married? Serious relationship? Casual relationships? Married to that wild and wondrous job of yours?”
I breathed an almost laugh, allowing her to lead me forwards, towards the bar. I’d run into her once, quite a few years back, right around the time I’d just started my job. However, in Eddlesworth, she hadn’t needed me to tell her what I was doing with my life. “Something like that last one, I suppose.”
“Oh, well, you know what they say about weddings…”
“Someone’s getting married.”
Tanika laughed and settled us at the bar, mere feet from Eve and her friend. “No, silly. That it’s a great place to meet someone.”
“No. Thank you.”
“You really haven’t changed.”
I rolled my eyes and pretended I couldn’t feel Eve watching me.
Tanika ordered a drink before looking back at me. “Mimosa? Bloody Mary? Something else?”
“Orange juice, please,” I replied, glancing at the bartender. “I’m driving.”
“You got it,” he said with an overly warm smile.
Tanika nudged me as he moved away. “What about him? He’s cute.”
