Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
There are no camera crews here, so I figure this party was never on the table as a “filmed” event. It’d definitely limit who’d accept the invite, and I bet they hoped everyone would come.
We end up chatting about Jane’s wedding planning business since Faye and Hudson are getting married soon. They’re the story supervisor and boom operator on Jack’s production unit that Donnelly told me about a while back.
“Will you open your services to the public?” I ask her.
“No, friends and family only,” Jane says, Ophelia purring in content on her lap. “I’d be swamped with requests otherwise, and it wouldn’t be because I’m good at my job but because they’d just want to meet me.” She muses, “I think I’d also struggle to pick out just one candidate.”
I think she would too. Jane has a big heart, and she’d want to be there for too many people at once.
“I love being a mom,” Jane says to me with a glowing look. “But if the right opportunity were to present itself, I’m open to new terribly exciting paths.”
“Except Fizzle CEO,” Sulli puts out there.
“Except that,” Jane says.
The fact that Jane of all people rejected the career path I’m in the running for is a wee bit anxiety-inducing. She’s been a CFO. She’s a math wizard. She has a bubbly, effervescent presence. She’s a Cobalt. On paper, she’d be a perfect selection for successor. Much better than Charlie, even.
Weirdly enough, I’m glad she’s not competing.
I’m glad she’s not someone I need to beat.
I wonder if I’ve grown a competitive bone in my elbow or my toes. Welp, time to get X-rayed. I kinda wish Donnelly were beside me, so I could tell him I need a full body X-ray. He’d get it the most.
But he’s not gone. He’s in reach.
No glass wall separates him from me. Whenever I want, I can step into his arms. And he’ll hold me. He’ll kiss me. And dance with me.
I smile and sip a berry seltzer.
A timer buzzes on Jane’s phone, and Ophelia catapults off her lap. “Merde,” Jane springs from the loveseat. “Their cakes—I forgot to put them in the oven.”
Ben and Winona’s birthdays are close together, and we all wanted to celebrate them a couple days early since we’re all here. Jane, Sulli, and I whipped up vegan cakes for them, and our other roomies made Funfetti cupcakes for everyone else.
The vegan cakes needed to chill in the fridge overnight.
I rise off the armrest to help Jane.
“I have this. You two stay,” Jane says and squints in slight threat, as if she’ll plot our undoing if we move our butts. She weaves through Beckett and Charlie who call after her in French, but she ropes them into following her into the kitchen.
Sulli watches her go. “She’s either babying me while I’m about to burst—or she’s still trying to salvage our friendship for us.”
“The latter, I’d guess,” I tell her. Jane has tried to intervene in reconnecting me and Sulli by leaving us alone together, and it has left us in awkward silence before. Jane tends to fill those pauses. But after a while, it’s made us laugh. So I guess Jane’s attempts have helped, after all. “She knows you like being on your feet and moving around, even if your back hurts.” Sulli is a tough bean.
She touches her belly, hidden in an oversized Studio 9 sweatshirt that might belong to Banks. “I know things will change after this little champ comes, but I want you to know…I’ll always be here for anything you need, Luna. Anything. Even if it’s just a Monday morning talk while we eat Cheerios. And I might need it too because you’re one of my best friends, and I’d miss you.” She’s crying again, and tears build in my eyes.
I slide down into the cushion beside her. We hug, and I say, “I’d love that.” I realize how much I feel loved by Sulli and how much I love her—because aching strands of grief tug at my heart even thinking I could lose her.
Perks of being roommates, I’ll still run into Sulli all the time. We’ll dish about Thatcher’s updated penthouse rules he sticks to the fridge while I give her extra marshmallows from my Lucky Charms. Last time we read his rules, we were attempting to cook blueberry pancakes for the house (Jane left us together), and we saw a new rule about “no sex in the game room” which we both think is a dumb one meant to be broken.
After we pull apart and wipe our faces, we snag new drinks at a refreshment table Moffy set up for the party. Sulli rests her shoulders on the brick wall and unscrews her water. “I’m still shocked Ben came.”
“Me too.” I pop the tab of another seltzer and see Ben alone. He’s sitting on the twisty iron stairs that lead to the rooftop pool. He briefly checks his phone before scanning the noisy party.