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I almost drop my purse in my rush to pull out my cell. No missed calls or messages. Good. I proceed to fully shut my phone down, squashing the little voice that’s telling me it’s rude to shut your phone off when you’re expecting some sort of communication.
But right now, I’m not worried about being proper. My focus is on ringing the doorbell, plastering a smile on my face, and hoping a decent excuse comes to mind before Courtney opens the door for why I’m here, alone, and not on my date with Tommy.
It’s Avery who opens the door and her face lights up with excitement when she sees it’s me.
“Oh my God, hi!” She pulls me into the house with a hug and a squeal and looks along the road. “Wait, it’s your date night, why did you guys come here? Did Tommy park around the corner or something?”
“Something came up and I walked, it’s lovely out right now,” I say, feeling terrible about not just saying what happened. But these are Tommy’s best friends who have been in his life for twenty years. They’re not going to want to believe me, and even if they do, they’ll need to distance themselves from me to make room for Maisy again even though they didn’t really like her all that much.
All I need right now is to not spiral. They’ll find out when they turn their phones on and I’ll leave them. Just one evening of having girlfriends in this little town before everything falls apart seems like something that’s acceptable.
“What came up?” Avery asks, sounding surprised. I don’t blame her…the Tommy I’ve known, my Tommy, would have never done this.
But he's not mine anymore. He’s Maisy’s.
“Something confusing, I’m not sure what the details are.” Again, that’s sort of true.
Thankfully, Courtney yells from downstairs to come down and Avery motions for me to go down.
“I came up for milk with the cookies, I’ll get a glass for you, too.”
“Water is good for me,” I say, not wanting to get sick on top of everything else from dairy, which most people don’t know I have restrictions on.
Tommy knows.
Avery shrugs with a smile, “Fine by me.”
When I’m down the stairs, I see Courtney pulling a fourth chair over to the table filled with home spa night items and a plate of Avery’s oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies in the middle. They’re pretty darn tasty, but my favorite cookie is peanut butter, and she makes amazing ones. But Tommy was the one who asked her to make them for me once. And they won’t need to know that I love peanut butter cookies more than oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies because…
Stop it, Samantha. No more of that tonight.
Courtney is already telling me about the different masks we can try as she hands me the polish remover and some cotton balls. “Avery and I just finished taking off our old polish. The nail polish options are in the cupboard over there if you want to pick one out now. But we should put on our masks before starting our nails, I think.”
She pauses and blinks a few times, so I reach out to grab her hand. I can be brave tonight and not overthink everything.
“I’m sorry he canceled.” It’s so much easier to focus on someone else. Not that I want Courtney to have gone through this again.
She gives a quick smile. “Thanks, guys just suck some days, even if they have a good reason.”
Her watch lights up.
“Wait a minute. I thought we were unplugging?”
Courtney gives me a sheepish look, “Avery hadn’t noticed…”
I realize mine is still on, too. “Okay, we’ll take them off together and we’ll put them under a stack of pillows so we can’t hear them vibrate. Deal?”
“Deal,” she replies.
We both remove our watches and, while Courtney looks like she might regret removing it, I feel a huge sense of relief because I hadn’t thought about my notifications. Shutting off my phone doesn't mean messages won’t come through to my watch one bit.
“How about in the recliner? We’ll be piled on the couch like teenagers after our nails are done.”
“That makes sense, let’s put them there.”
Courtney lifts the cushion and places our watches side by side. I catch her tapping hers one last time before putting the cushion back.
“What is taking them so long? Avery was just getting milk and, even if Tommy wants some, they can both carry two glasses each.” Courtney turns on some music as she comes back to the table.
