“Would you leave Gabe for a job across the country?”
She laughs quietly. “I kind of did that, remember? Circumstances were a little different, I’m going to assume, but we made it.”
“I’m not holding my breath that we’ll be as lucky as you and Gabe,” I acknowledge. “In fact, I’m pretty sure we’ll never recover from this.” I lean my head onto Jess’ shoulder and close my eyes.
“Don’t give up,” she whispers quietly as a tear slides down my cheek.
Jess and I sit at a small table on top of one of the hotels in downtown Phoenix that has a restaurant that spins, giving us a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the Valley of the Sun. It’s gorgeous and offers amazing views of the mountains, downtown Phoenix, and the stunning orange and pink sunsets that have graced the skies lately. We toast to our friendship and eat an amazing dinner. Well, Jess ate and I picked at a piece of grilled salmon.
“So tell me about the wedding,” I ask Jess as I sip on my Appletini. She spins the simple, yet large princess-cut diamond around her ring finger. “It’s going to be small. Just our families and close friends. You’ll be invited.” She smiles and sips on her drink. “I think we’re looking at March. March in California is beautiful. It’ll be in Santa Barbara for sure.”
“Beach wedding?”
“God, no. Gabe’s family would kill us if we didn’t get married in a church.” She rolls her eyes, but a smile tugs at the corner of her lips. I know she’d do anything Gabe asked her to. “They’re Mexican, strict Catholics.” She laughs.
We order one last round of drinks before we decide to head back to the condo. We giggle and loop our arms together as we balance on each other and walk back the four blocks to my condo. Even at nine o’clock in the evening, the Phoenix heat stings my face. We reach the twenty-second floor of my building and walk past Jonah’s condo and I can hear the music blaring through the door and into the hallway.#p#分页标题#e#
“Is your neighbor always that loud?”
“Only when he’s being a dick.” I insert the key into my door and push it open.
“Ladies,” Jonah’s voice echoes through the tiled hallway. I step inside the condo quickly, doing my best to avoid him. I look back over my shoulder and see that Jess has stopped in the hall and is shaking hands with Jonah. He turns his head and peeks into the condo, but I look away, avoiding eye contact with him. They spend a minute chatting before Jess finally comes inside and closes the door.
“That is your neighbor?” Jess giggles.
“That’s him,” I say sarcastically.
“He’s hot, and he invited us over later.”
“Jess. You’re engaged. You’re not allowed to think other guys are hot. And we’re not going over there.”
She rolls her eyes and laughs. “Uh, yeah… I’m allowed to look, and it might be fun. We should stop by.”
“We’ll see,” I mumble as I pull the cork from the bottle of wine that was chilling while we went to dinner.
Jess and I spend the next few hours indulging in wine and reminiscing. For the first time in weeks, my heart is happy. In between glasses of wine, Jess and I make progress on cleaning the living room and kitchen. While I grab the sheets from the dryer, Jess carries her bags to the bedroom and I meet her there with an arm full of clean sheets and pillowcases.
I toss the sheets into the middle of the bed while Jess kicks piles of my clothes into one large pile in the corner.
“Good God, woman.” She laughs at me as the stack of dirty clothes continues to grow.
“I know. I need to get to the dry cleaners and wash some clothes.”
“We’re going to start tackling this tomorrow.” She laughs and shakes her head. I see her reach down and pick something off the floor as I begin making the bed with the freshly washed sheets.
“Lindsay,” she says quietly as she approaches me.
“Yeah.” I turn my head toward her as I tuck sheets under one side of the mattress. She stands holding a condom wrapper. I stop what I’m doing and stand up, brushing the hair out of my face that’s fallen from my messy bun. She watches me with contemplative eyes.
“Here.” She places the wrapper in my hand. “You might want to toss that.” I nod and close my fingers around the wrapper. Jess goes back to quietly piling my clothes and tossing my shoes into the closet, before she starts unpacking her overnight bag. The giggling and laughter is gone, replaced by an uncomfortable air of sadness.
“All done,” I let Jess know as I pull the down comforter back onto the bed. “At least I washed the sheets,” I say, cracking a joke. Jess smiles at me and stops unpacking her bag. She has a small pile of clothes on the nightstand. She walks over to me and pulls me into a hug.