AllFreeNovel
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“Meg,” I scold, not bothering to hide my disgust. “Do you live in the smallest town in the States, and he was the only breathing male?”
“If only that were my excuse,” she says. “I actually thought I loved him.” She shakes her head.
“But you didn’t?”
“No,” she says, determined and defensive. “If Kyle Wells is love, I want nothing to do with it ever again.”
“So, he really is as bad as he seems?”
“Worse.” She exhales a heavy breath. “So much worse.”
“When did you figure that out?” I ask, glancing her way. She doesn’t watch me back. Her fingers grip the dash, and she watches out the window.
“A few weeks after I uprooted my life in Colorado and moved to Wyoming for him.”
“You moved for him?”
She nods and peers over at me. “We’d been in a long-distance relationship for a year and a half.” Her head tilts and she looks thoughtful. “It’s difficult to tell what a dirtbag someone is when you live an entire state apart. I moved to Love, the little town in Wyoming where I live now, and his selfishness and lies weren’t so easy to hide anymore. That, and the fact that he had another girlfriend…one that already lived in Love.”
I watch the road and mountain we climb, listening to all she’s said. What a creep. “You still live there? Why not move?”
“Says the man who has never once left his home state.”
“Yeah, but that’s different. It’s my home. I like it here. I love it here, in fact. Look around. Nothing else can compare to Hawaii—so why leave?”
“Well, the world is a pretty big place, Kalani Jex.”
“Exactly, yet you stayed in a small town. Not your home. And Wyoming…Doesn’t it snow there?” A small shiver runs its way over my body. That does not sound pleasant.
“It was the middle of the school year. I couldn’t just leave my students. The move put me closer to my family in Billings. And I never would have met Autumn. I’ve only known my best friend for the ten months I’ve been in Love, but she is literally the best. I’m not sure what I’d do without her at this point. She’s the one who helped me confront Kyle.”
“Good friend,” I say, meaning it. I don’t know this Autumn person, but I heard her on that call with Meg. I know she sent the red bikini. And she helped her ditch Kyle. Already I like her. “Is that enough to stay?”
“I like Love. I love my job and my students. I love my rental. It’s the cutest house in town. It has a teal door and a pretty white porch that I’ve decorated with pink plastic flamingos and a string of solar lights.” Her smile is sweet and thoughtful. She does love that place. It’s no act.
“You never mentioned pink flamingos. I mean, I get it now. Of course, whenever pink flamingos are involved, I’m sold.”
She giggles. “Strangely, I’ve always had a thing for them.”
“See, Spontaneous Meg was in there all along.”
“Pink flamingos are spontaneous?” she asks.
“One hundred percent.”
21
Meg
Here’s the thing. Being spontaneous is fun. And while my clothes literally falling off of my body and swimming in the ocean at night with a man I barely know would normally have horrified me—none of those witnesses come home with me. Kal doesn’t come home with me. After this week, I’ll never see any of these people again. So, why not be Spontaneous Meg and live a little louder, a little crazier than I normally would?
No one’s posting this on Instagram. No one’s watching me and judging me. But the high I felt when jumping into that cold water, and even when clinging to Kal Jex as if my life depended on it—because, at the time, I was pretty sure it did—was exhilarating. It made me want to live a little differently this week.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my life. I like label makers and filing and organizational bins that fit perfectly into your desk. I like knowing what’s next.
Usually.
But change can be fun too.
