Page 119 of Hang the Moon
“Expedia is telling me I can book a seat on a flight out tonight.”
Annie sniffed. “For how much? A thousand dollars?”
“Helping you is priceless, Annie.”
She scrunched her eyes, hot tears spilling down her cheeks. “Please don’t.”
“Talk to me,” Darcy pleaded. “Or else I’ll drop an ungodly amount of cash flying to Philadelphia.”
It was no empty threat. Darcy would do it in a heartbeat. Annie knew it because she’d do it for Darcy, too.
“You were right. About Brendon moving on. He did. And I’m—”
“What?” Darcy had the audacity to laugh. Annie was sitting on her bedroom floor, tears dripping off her chin, and Darcy was laughing at her. “Annie.”
“Don’tAnnieme. I saw what I saw.”
“Whatexactlydo you think you saw?” Darcy demanded, andAnnie wasn’t sure if the anger in Darcy’s voice was directed at her or at Brendon.
Annie rolled her eyes. “Instagram. Elle tagged me and I—I went to his profile and... she’s really pretty and he looks—”
Happy.
Like Annie’s being gone hadn’t affected him at all. He definitely didn’t look broken up over it. Every day, Annie missed him, and every day she grew a little surer that she wasn’t supposed to move to London. Seattle called her name. She woke up and thought about Brendon. She fell asleep thinking about him. She read his texts andached.
And in the short span of twelve days he’d moved on, his texts to her a total sham, throwing her off the fact that he’d found someone new.
Darcy growled. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Instagram,” she repeated, pounding her free hand against the carpet, wishing for more than a dull thud to punctuate her frustration.
“I don’thaveInstagram.” Darcy huffed. “Just give me a second.”
Through the line, Annie could hear Darcy typing, her nails clicking quickly against her keyboard. There was a brief pause before Darcy started to laugh.
“I’m hanging up,” Annie threatened.
“Annie.” Darcy sniffled. “Oh my God. Please calm down.”
“You calm down,” she fired back, lacking a better rebuttal.
“That’s Jenny.”
Whoop-dee-freaking-do.
“She works in the marketing department at OTP.” Darcy spoke in a slow, soothing way that verged on condescending, but Annie couldn’t bring herself to complain because it was working magic on her nervous system. “They work together, Annie. They’re friends.”
She went dizzy with shame. “Oh.”
“Oh,” Darcy teased.
“Shut up,” she groused. “There are, like, a million and one HR violations in that picture. Their faces are touching.”
Darcy cackled. “You’re jealous.”
“I’mnot, I’m—”
“Annie, it’s okay.”
