Page 35 of Backslide
At that, we all resume staring at Noah and Lydia. The last gasps of daylight are beginning to fade and flatten, pink to mauve to purplish gray.
Rita toggles her head. “She’s not unsexy though.”
Sabrina elbows her. “Excuse me!”
Rita puts her hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry.”
“But yeah,” Sabrina admits, eyeing Lydia too. “I can see how if you didn’t know her before, you might think that. She has maybe improved with age.”
“Not her personality.”
Noah’s gaze darts over the crowd like he’s a cornered animal looking for safe passage. He catches Rita’s eye. She waves enthusiastically. He shoots her a genuine smile of momentary relief, then a hapless shrug. She laughs, gives him a thumbs-up.
Then he catches my eye, and I look away.
“Should we rescue him?” Rita asks.
“No,” I say. “We hate him too.”
“We do?”
She looks to Sabrina for confirmation, genuine confusion on her face.
“Yup, yup.” Sabrina nods vigorously likeof course we do. “That’s right. We are card-carrying members of the NSA.”
“The National Security Agency?”
“Team Noah Sucks Ass.”
I watch Rita take this in. Frown. “But isn’t there that whole ‘do no harm’ thing with doctors? Isn’t it our duty to save him, so he can go on to save others in the future?”
“No,” Sabrina shakes her head. “That’s not to save doctors. That’s for doctors to save us.”
“I don’t think that’s right.”
“I’m confused,” I sigh. “Who is a doctor in this scenario?”
“Noah!” the two women answer in unison. Like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Like he has a stethoscope tattooed on his forehead.
“Jinx!” yells Sabrina, then she turns to me. “Wait. Are you telling me you didn’t know that? Like you legitimately havenevergoogled him?”
I shake my head. Nope. Have I been tempted? Of course. But I have never given in. I knew it would only make me feel bad.
“Wow,” Rita says. “How is that possible? You’re a hero among women.”
“No more stubborn—or disciplined—a grudge holder has ever lived.” Sabrina grins, raising her glass for a toast like it’s a tribute. “To us. To CB and Ben. Let the insanity begin!”
I think that ship sailed hours ago—at least for me. Noah is adoctor? I am so confused. Like a podiatrist? Or a dentist?
I think about my work debacle. The fact that I’ll be out of a job in a matter of months. I’ll freelance, I know. I’ll figure it out. But he’s a doctor… and I amunemployed.
And it’s as we clink glasses, with this new information processing through my cerebral cortex, that I think to ask, “Wait, Rita. How do you even know Noah? When did you meet him?”
But then there’s a tinkling like fairy wings reverberating through the air and Ben is climbing up to stand on a wobbly chair to make a toast—suggesting that perhaps he has already had his fill of wine. So, we turn toward him, as Rita slides an arm around Sabrina’s waist and Sabrina tips her head onto her wife’s shoulder.
I am so grateful for them and so happy for them and so alone in that same moment.
Until I feel someone settle in beside me too, place a strong hand on my shoulder. I don’t know who I’m hoping to find. But when I look up, it’s Damien grinning down at me like the Cheshire cat. And that was definitely not it.
