Page 9 of Acting Merry
“Wearing the willow?” I repeat as I scrape plaque off her 24 lingual.
“Grieving,” she clarifies. “Mourning.” Thevin the first word and themin the second get lost in the abyss of her wide-open mouth.
I laugh. “I haven’t been wearing any willows. I’ve been too busy buying a house.”
She smiles, and I wait until her lips relax enough for me to continue my work.
But she keeps talking. “Good for you. You’re too young to be doing anything but having fun and making poor choices you can laugh about when you’re my age. Besides—that’s what no one tells you when you’re single. You don’t find love; it findsyouwhile you’re busy enjoying life.”
I feel like I saw that on a canvas at Hobby Lobby. “You should get into the inspirational home decor business, Laney.”
“I should do a number of things,” she says as I set aside my tools. “But I’m too busy enjoying retirement.” She winks.
I’m still in my scrubs and have just gotten home whenmy phone rings and Hannah’s picture pops up on the screen. I grip the phone between my ear and my shoulder as I unlock my door and answer.
Hannah’s a bundle of energy, and it’s good to hear her voice after a long stint of texts. Marriage hasn’t changed her, but she’s still in the honeymoon phase, which means we don’t call just to chat like we used to do. Maybe we never will. Maybe we’ve just entered a new phase of life—orshehas.
“You’ll be getting to the cabin at three, right?” she asks.
“That’s the plan.” I walk straight to the bay window to cuddle up while we chat. “I was kind of waiting on Meg to decide for sure. I texted her asking if she wanted to carpool, but she hasn’t texted me back to say yes or no.” I kick off my shoes and pull the chunky knit blanket over my legs. Buying a house was worth it for this spot alone. Maybe it won’t be as great the rest of the year, but being able to look out over the street of twinkling Christmas lights from the warmth of my own home is a level of happiness I hadn’t experienced until now.
All I need is some snow falling through the window and some melancholy background music, and I’m ready to star in a breakup montage in a Hallmark movie.
“Right,” Hannah says slowly. “About that…”
My chest clenches. “What?”
Is Megan not coming? Did she decide it’s too weird between us now? Or maybe she just doesn’t know how totell me she doesn’t want to spend over an hour in the car with me.
“So,” Hannah continues in that voice that says she’s walking on eggshells, “I think the reason Meg hasn’t responded is because Brady really wants to come, and she’s been trying to figure out how to handle the whole situation.”
People describe their heart dropping into the pit of their stomach, but my stomach has no pit. It’s an endless abyss, and my heart free-falls until it reaches my toes.
“Oh,” I say, my voice higher than a kite.
I had no idea Meg and Brady’s relationship had progressed to the point of it making any sense at all for him to come to something like our annual Christmas cabin getaway. I mean, there hasn’t been time for that sort of progress to happen. They have to jump through other relationship hoops first, like surviving a trip to IKEA together without breaking up.
Hannah’s bringing her husband, and Tess is bringing the guy she’s been dating for almost a year. But that’s not at all the same as Megan bringing Brady, whoIwas dating two months ago.
Granted, Brady and Hannah’s husband, Tyler, are cousins, so that might have something to do with it, but still…
“She already thinks you hate her, so she?—”
“I don’t hate her!” I interject, horrified. “That’s not even possible.”
“Well,shethinks it is.”
“Oh my gosh, of course not!” I say. “Tell her to bring him! It’s totally cool with me!”
It’s totally not. But it should be. Itwillbe.
My cousin Kim dated a guy for eight months, and he ended up marrying her younger sister. They’ve managed that weird history—married six years now. If they can get through that, I can handle my friend dating a guy I went out with for a couple measly months.
But it means I’ll be a third wheel.
No, a seventh wheel.
You know what has three wheels? Tricycles. Rickshaws. Tuk-tuks.
