Page 122 of Betting on the Best Friend
An excruciating fifteen minutes later, I have her coffee, and another five after that, I’m in the conference center. It’s massive, but there are still far fewer people than I expect. Usually, there’s lots of mingling and chatter between classes.
I check the large floor map to find the room, but my confusion grows as I head to the third floor and down the correct hall. I’m almost fifteen minutes early for the first breakout, but there are only a few people standing around or making phone calls. This has the low traffic vibe you only see when classes are in session.
I pass a meeting room on the right, its door open. The seats are full, the breakout obviously already in session. I check the information card beside the door, listing the title of the class and a 9:45 AM start time.
Ruby gave me the wrong time. So much for trying to clear the air before class begins.
I find the correct room, check the class title, and open the door carefully so I don’t disrupt the presenter.
Except when I step inside, I freeze. The door opens into the back of a room set up for a class, the screen down, the projector waiting for input. But it’s empty except for a woman I don’t know. She points to a chair on the front row. “Welcome, Charlie. Go ahead and take your seat, and we’ll start with a short video.”
She opens a MacBook I recognize as Ruby’s, and although none of this makes sense to me, I know a Ruby trap when I see one.
Without a word, I sit down and wait.
Chapter Forty-One
Ruby
My new friend Beththe Wonder Staffer slips out of the room and gives me a nod.
We’ve been trading emails all week, but until this morning, I’d never met her, so I’m touched when she reaches out to give my hand a light squeeze.
“The video is playing. Good luck,” she whispers, holding the door so I can slip in, hopefully without drawing Charlie’s attention.
“I owe you forever,” I whisper back. Librarians really are the best.
She smiles and hurries off to her next task. I let the door close behind me, stopping it at the last second so it won’t latch and distract Charlie from my video.
“It Had to Be You,” the Harry Connick Jr. version fromWhen Harry Met Sally, plays over a series of photos of the two of us, and there are a lot of them. I wish I could see Charlie’s face as he watches, but there’s some coordinating left to do.
One minute left. You ready?
When I get the affirmative, I watch the rest of the video and feel a flicker of sympathy for Niles as the photos of me with Charlie from the last year start appearing, even the ones from before Niles and I broke up. The truth is written all over Charlie’s face.
But it’s also written all over mine, from my smile to the look of contentment in my eyes. I’m watching a woman who is whole when she is with Charlie.
When the video ends, he stirs like he’s about to turn around, probably trying to figure out what comes next. But Beth and I chose this room because it has two entrances, and the one at the front opens.
Charlie straightens as Ava, Madison, and Sami file in. They’d stayed with one of Sami’s sorority sisters who lives right outside Houston last night, and I fight a laugh when I see them wearing bedazzled “Team Chuby” shirts. They have to know that is the worst version of our possible ship names.
As planned, none of them look at me to avoid giving away that I’m standing back here. Charlie obviously knows I must be around, but hopefully he’ll be expecting me to come in through the same entrance the girls used and not check behind him. I want to watch this play out unobserved.
There’s no dais, but a lectern sits on a table with four chairs behind it. Madison and Ava take two of them, but Sami takes the lectern.
“Good morning, Charlie,” she says, as if it’s any old day at the Grove that he’s stopped by for a visit.
Charlie relaxes, stretching his legs and crossing them at the ankles. “Hey, there, Sami.”
I smile at the resigned amusement in his voice.
“Welcome to Pitch-a-Friend.” She points a clicker and a picture of me appears. “You know our friend Ruby?”
“I do.”
“She’s great.”
“I’m convinced. How do I connect with her?”
