Page 41 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

“No body shaming. All is well though?”

I nodded. “Clean bill of health. What?”

“There’s something else, then.”

I sighed. “Jesus, am I wearing it on my shirt? The vet knows Veronica.”

“Whoa. How did you find that out?”

“She said she recognized me from somewhere. Apparently, she and Ally are very happy together. They vacation with the vet and her wife.”

“Gross.” Lisa thought for a moment. “So do you have a picture of this Veronica? She seems to be world-famous, and I want to know what to imagine.”

“I guess.” I pulled out my phone and scrolled through several handsome shots of Ollie until I got to the Veronica era. I chose carefully, nothing suggestive. I came up with one from a day of kayaking on the river. “Here you go.”

“Huh.” Lisa studied it for a long time. “She’s not what I expected when you said lawyer.”

“Her personality is all that and then some.”

“She’s pretty. Looks like she was having a good time.”

I shrugged and scrolled to another. “This is with her new girlfriend.”

Lisa’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“We were all friends.”

“Wow. What they say about lesbians having dated all of one another’s exes is totally true. She’s not nearly as cute as you.”

I could feel my cheeks going hot. I passed her the phone one more time. “Nah. This is from one of the hoity-toity charity balls last fall.”

Now, Lisa’s eyes went wide. I thought she had changed her mind about Veronica only being “pretty” but she looked up at me, floored. “You look fucking amazing. I mean, I prefer this…” She waved at me in my current state. “But Jesus, the hair and makeup and…How do you even do that?”

I grinned sheepishly, sort of sorry I’d shown her that picture but not really. “I can clean up nicely. It’s not really me, though. Enough,” I said, setting my phone down. “I don’t want to think about her anymore.”

The moment I left it on the table, my phone started to buzz. Mom came up on the screen. I stared at it, but did not make a move to touch it.

“Do you want to get that?”

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” I let it go to voicemail, but instead of it showing I had a message in a moment, it rang again. “Oh God damn it.”

“It’s a double call. You better take it.”

I sighed and headed into the kitchen. “Forgive me for what you’re about to hear. Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?”

“Hi, Samantha. Everything’s fine here.”

I made frustrated motions at the refrigerator. “What’s up?”

“Seth’s soccer team is undefeated. Kevin and Missy are so proud.”

“Well, that’s good, so long as he still likes it. Listen—”

“He loves it. He’s the athlete. You know, Asher likes playing, but he’s more of a science person.”