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“Y’all are no fun,” Poppy said as an employee led us to the massage room.
The tables reminded me of the ones in Cal’s office, and my chest tightened. The masseur directed me to lie face down, but I stood beside the massage table, my fingers gripping the edge.
“Um, can you give us five minutes before we start,” Lauren said, lifting her head up from the table where she was already face down.
“No,” I said, hopping onto my table and stretching out. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Poppy mumbled. “Crap on a cracker,” she groaned as her masseur worked her shoulders, “why haven’t I done this before?”
“Because it’s $225 an hour,” I said as my masseur got to work on the tight muscles in my neck.
“Mom’s favorite, for sure,” Poppy said and moaned.
“I know your mom told us to get massages," Lauren said, "but I’ll be sending her a very large gift card to Karma.”
I lifted my head. “Mom knows you’re here? I thought y’all just hijacked my hotel stay.”
“Yes,” Lauren said. “She asked us to spend the night and drive you home in the morning. Sorry, it’s going to be early. Cammie is opening, but she has to be at Dr. Cohen’s by eight.”
Poppy groaned but I wasn’t sure if it was in response to the massage or Lauren’s announcement we’d be leaving before the sun rose.
Thinking of Cammie made me think of Cal, which made the corners of my eyes burn. I took a deep breath and pushed his handsome face from my mind. “If we’re missing breakfast,” I said, “let’s have dinner in the restaurant. I haven’t been yet.”
Poppy lifted her head. “Mom said you only ordered peanut butter pie, baklava, and a pot of coffee to the room since you’ve been here.”
“Healthy,” Lauren said with a laugh.
“I guess I wasn’t that hungry,” I said, laying my head back down. The masseur placed hot stones down my back, and I let out a groan to rival Poppy’s.
“If we don’t feed you a real dinner, Mom will never let me hear the end of it,” Poppy said.
“I brought dresses,” Lauren said in a small voice. “We can do our hair and—”
Poppy and I both lifted our heads and looked at Lauren. Her eyes were shut, her lips parted.
“Did Lauren seriously just fall asleep mid-sentence?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Poppy said, lowering her head. “She insisted on driving, so I made her talk the whole time to keep her awake. Lauren has a lot of words.”
I chuckled. “Yes, she does.”
As if to prove how few words Poppy and I had, we went the rest of the massage without talking. I tried to clear my mind and enjoy the luxury around me, but I couldn’t stop wondering if Cal was upset about me or his conversation with Avery.
“Lauren needs another full-time employee,” Poppy said after the masseurs had left us. “She’s at Karma eighty plus hours a week.”
I looked at my best friend passed out on the table and nodded. “She’s working herself to death.”
“Cammie would be perfect, but she needs full time. I doubt there’s anyone else Lauren would trust to run the place while she wasn’t there.”
“Can’t you pick up more hours?” I asked.
“Don’t tell Lauren this, but I hate working at Karma. I know she teases you for being introverted, but at least you can talk to people without wanting to strangle them. I’m not cut out to be a barista. I need a job where I can work with minimal interaction.”
I nodded. “Like decorating cakes. You’re really talented.”
“So are you,” she said, propping herself up on her elbows. “We could do it. Start our own custom bakery. Even if it doesn’t make a ton of money at first, so what? It’s not like we have mortgages or families to support. Mom loves having us all in the house, and I know for a fact she wants to take over your student loan payments. As much as I want my own place, I wouldn’t mind living at home longer while I built my own business. You could handle all the baking and the customer interactions. I could do all the decorating and marketing, honestly, anything that didn’t involve people. If you taught me how to handle the finances, I’d even do that.”
“But that would mean I’d have to stay in Peace Falls.”
