Page 77 of The Rebound
“I didn’t know she baked.”
“She doesn’t. She said she just likes the smell. She’s also growing bangs. It’s a journey I’m trying to support as a friend but it’s not one I would choose for her.” She tosses the wipe to the side and starts rummaging through my makeup bag. “Tyler got in touch last week.”
“He did?”
“He wanted to know if you’d mentioned his offer to me. That’s about as far as he got because he sounded annoyed, so then I got annoyed because he sounded annoyed, and then I hung up. Should I not have hung up?”
I frown as she covers my face in a lemony smelling SPF. “What do you mean?”
“As in, are you two talking?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
“We’re not!”
“Okay,” she says, and I flinch as she tweezes a stray hair from my eyebrow.
“He wanted me to stay in his apartment,” I explain. “While he’s out of town.”
“And you said no.”
“Of course I said no.”
“It’s a really nice apartment.”
“Jessica!”
“It’s just that if it were me, I’d be taking what I could get.”
“He dumped me,” I remind her. “Four months after he proposed he broke up with me like I was a bad business deal. I don’t care if he feels guilty. I don’t need his pity.”
“What about his water pressure? Okay, okay!” She rubs her forehead where I flicked her.
“Are you done?”
“Nowhere close,” she says flatly. “You’re an ugly crier.” She sits back, stretching her arms above her head. “What’s there to do around here? I need some nonrecycled air.”
I shrug, pressing my fingers to my still puffy eyes. “It’s a Sunday.”
“So?”
“So nothing’s open.”
“Something has to be open.”
There’s only one place I can think of.
I feel Jess’s enthusiasm diminish the farther we walk from the house. It’s a gray, chilly day and the main street is almost deserted except for an old man smoking on the corner. Even the art gallery is closed and I know Jess is taking it all in, storing it away to use against me later, so I’m relieved when I see Beth’s door propped open and the woman herself watering the hanging baskets outside, dressed in a bright pink dress despite the weather.
“Beth!”
Her eyes go wide when she sees me, and for a panicked moment I wonder if Luke told her about what happened between us, but then I realize her gaze isn’t fixed on me.
“This is Jess,” I say as we approach. “A friend from New York.”
“Hello,” Beth chirps. One hand goes to her hair, which she tucks behind her ear while the watering can goes slack in the other, dribbling onto the sidewalk.
