Page 72 of While You Were Trending

She grins bigger. “If you think that’s gonna work on me, you’ve never gone viral for flashing your hooha to the whole universe, watched some dickwad feed the video into AI to make your labia sing and dance to seventies’ disco hits, which he sold for subscription fees on GrippaBeav.com, and then found out that said dickwad was actually your brother-in-law who used all of the money he made to try to pay off credit card bills that he racked up playing internet poker games he didn’t want my sister to know about.”

“Got it,” Shade says. “Can we use that?”

“Absolutely,” Cricket replies cheerfully. “You’ll have to do some splicing so it looks like Declan’s mad at me for not letting him drive the fork truck first, but my story is my story, and I’m not afraid of it.” She drops her voice. “I’ve called naming the chardonnay when we rebrand. It’s gonna be Cheeky Beaver Chardonnay. How awesome is that?”

“You know you’re a natural on camera?” Shade says to her.

“Aw, thank you. Idohave a little training. Now. Let’s get this thing fired up before Pip’s back. C’mon, Declan. Let me show you how it’s done.”

The old fork truck starts like it’s been waiting for this moment its entire life, and we spend the morning taking turnsdriving it and learning the controls so that we can use it to lift barrels without damaging them, then show Dori how it’s done as well.

Weather’s supposed to move in by the weekend, so there’s tension in the air when Winona—apparently a neighbor who’s providing experience and advice—arrives to discuss with Dori and Cricket if they’re starting harvest today, or if they’re waiting to see if the forecast changes.

And meanwhile, half my brain is occupied with wondering what Ginny’s doing today.

How much love my dog’s getting.

If Flow will want to leave me for Ginny.

Couldn’t blame her.

I’d leave me for Ginny.

Any guardrails and fences I’ve put around my heart—they disintegrated the minute Ginny smiled at Flow this morning.

Not that it matters.

Be outwardly friendly? Yeah. Ginny will do that.

But feel the same about me as I feel about her?

Not a chance.

This documentary was the worst idea of my life.

14

THE WEDDING WRECKER

Ginny

Flowand I are on the front porch when Declan approaches early in the evening.

He’s alone—Shade’s not with him, nor is anyone else from the winery—and he has his hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks and a grape juice stain on his light blue polo.

The sight of him makes every muscle in my body tense.

Logically, I knew I’d have to see him again if I watched his dog.

Emotionally, I didn’t care because Flow is the best.

She’s not a therapy dog, but she’s always made me feel better. It’s why I kept offering to watch her when the guys had away games, long after I’d given up on the idea that Declan would ever be nice to me.

The first time I offered, he half sneered at me, rolled his eyes, and booked a backup pet sitter in case I couldn’t handle it.

One of the other girlfriends laid into him for it, and I got to watch Flow without much more than a grunt from him after that.

But it was always a grunt or an eye roll and a begrudgedthank you, her shit’s where it always is.