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“Wow, Nora,” Mel says, her voice muffled by my shoulder. “Thank you for saying that, but do you think you could let me go? I’m running out of air over here.”
“Oh right.” I release my hold on her, darting a glance over my shoulder. Jack has disappeared. Has he made it to his car? Is the Find My function even that accurate where it can tell the difference between inside the courthouse and outside of it? Maybe we’re worrying for nothing.
Then again, when it comes to being found out, I’m not taking any chances. “Sorry—I just suddenly got overwhelmed with gratitude,” I tell her, grasping her by the forearms and attempting to make gratitude shine out of my eyes.
“You’re being weird,” Mel tells me.
Okay, so maybe I didn't achieve the gratitude thing. But at least she can’t go on her phone with me holding her arms like this.
“Weird— me?” I laugh unnaturally loudly. “Well, if being grateful for good friends is weird then I don’t want to be normal.”
Everyone has gathered around us and is watching this super awkward encounter. I can feel a flush creeping up my neck. I kind of hate that, for all intents and purposes, this is still part of my first impression with Lucy and Emily. Me, making a fool of myself.
That’s no way to kick off a friendship.
I lied before—I do want to be normal!
But then Lucy appears at my side, reaching her arm around me in a side hug.
“You’re not being weird,” she says kindly. “It’s your wedding day. Everyone gets a little overly mushy-gushy.”
“It’s true,” Stafford agrees, stepping up behind his wife. “On our wedding day Lucy stole the mic from Emily mid-toast and started thanking everyone in the room—individually.”
Everybody laughs at this memory—even Lucy. I feel a strange pang of sadness that I wasn’t there. Obviously Jack got his friends in our breakup. Mel was the only one I stayed in contact with, and even that was on the DL from Jack. But if we hadn’t broken up, I would’ve met Lucy and Emily a long time ago. I wouldn’t be standing here feeling as if I’m the outsider.
I’m so wrong-footed by this onslaught of emotional turmoil, that I don’t even notice when Mel slips her wrists out of my grasp and returns her attention to her screen.
“Ahh, here we go,” she murmurs. “That’s odd. It says it’s nearby.”
I snap back to the present with a literal jump. “What’s nearby?” I ask innocently, trying to figure out if there’s another way to get her phone out of her hands. I can’t use the spider thing twice.
Unless I try to pass it off as the same spider.
No. That’s an awful plan. No more fake spiders.
Maybe I should pretend to faint. A glance at the marble floor has me nixing this idea too. The last thing I need to add to my woes is a concussion.
“Jack’s phone,” Mel muses, turning the screen my way and revealing a green circle on a map with the courthouse’s cross streets on either side. My heart sinks a little, at least until I notice the logo for the courthouse on the screen. The green circle is outside of it—meaning Jack must’ve made it to his car. Or at the very least outside. I can work with that.
No spiders or fainting spells needed.
“Oh my gosh,” I exclaim. “I bet he lost it in his car again. That man. He’s always putting his phone in his pockets and then it just slides right out when he sits down. I bet it fell between the seats and he just didn’t think to look there.” I shake my head. “Typical.”
“It fell between the seats,” Emily echoes with a nod. “Of course. That space does seem to lend itself to stuff like that. It’s like the Neverland of lost things.”
“Totally,” I agree, relief spiraling through me at her easy acceptance of my concocted tale. I’m very much pretending I don’t feel bad that ninety percent of what I’ve said to these people has been a lie.
Yup. Not feeling bad about that.
“Where did Reynolds go anyway?” Anderson asks, looking around.
“Um, bathroom,” I say quickly, adding to my lie percentage.
“Really?” Anderson frowns. “Almost eight years we’ve been partners and the guy has never had to stop for the bathroom.”
“Ooh, maybe he’s waiting in there for you, hoping to finish that kiss.” Lucy waggles her eyebrows at me.
“In the men’s bathroom?” Mel wrinkles her nose. “Ewww, that’s so unsanitary.”
