Page 137 of Wait for Him

Blaire gets to me next. Her hand cups my cheek and her thumb wipes the tears from my skin with all the tenderness of an actual sister.

"Pussy," she says through her own tears. "It's just a birthday party. Get ahold of yourself."

"Fuck off."

I laugh, a teary, undignified laugh, and haul her into a bear hug that lifts her off her feet. She squeaks and locks both arms around my neck, squeezing back twice as hard, and neither of us acknowledges that she's crying harder than I am.

I make my rounds after that. Someone presses a glass of champagne into my hand before I've finished the first, then another appears, and at some point I stop keeping track. Food covers every table. Bennet went overboard, or more likely Blaire went overboard and let him take credit for it. There's supposedly a cake hidden somewhere in the kitchen that I've been specifically threatened not to look at yet. Emily hugs me and apologizes for lying to my face about going home, which I inform her will absolutely be reflected in her annual review.

Jade clinks her glass against mine with a look I can't quite read.

"Can I talk to you on the balcony for a sec?"

Something in her tone cuts through the noise enough that I nod without asking why.

She follows me outside, and the city rushes up around us while the party dims behind the glass into voices and movement. It's cold, real February cold instead of whatever Los Angeles usually gets away with calling winter, and Jade wraps her arms around herself while I wait for her to say whatever she brought me out here to say.

She's the one who asked for the balcony.

She can suffer first.

"You look better than I expected," she finally says, studying me with the same face she probably uses when opposing counsel has said something stupid in writing. "Bennet had me half-convinced you'd wasted away into a sad little office ghost."

"I've been keeping busy."

"I've heard. Distressed assets." Her mouth twitches. "Cute."

"You didn't bring me out here to review my portfolio."

"No. I didn't."

She takes a breath, and something changes in her posture. The attorney drops away, and suddenly it's just Rose's best friend standing in front of me with something she's clearly been carrying for a while.

"I need you to understand the rules first."

Is that a palpitation?

"I'm not going to tell you where she is. I'm not going to tell you how she's doing beyond what she chooses to tell you herself. Don't ask me, because making me say no to you on your birthday is a shitty gift and I refuse to give it."

"Jade—"

"Second rule." She holds up one finger and steamrolls directly over me, and God, no wonder she and Rose found each other. "Whatever's in it, you take it at face value. You don't dissect it. You don't look for clues. You don't start triangulating postmarks and building some lovesick FBI corkboard in your apartment."

Despite everything, my mouth almost twitches.

"She gets to come back on her own schedule, in whatever shape that looks like. And you..." Her voice softens just slightly. "You get to be trusted with this because she trusts you. Don't make her wrong."

I can barely get the words out.

"What is it?"

Jade reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a card.

She looks at it for a second before handing it over, and an expression crosses her face that I can't quite figure out. Maybe just the weight of being the bridge between two people she loves who haven't been able to reach each other for seven months.

Then she places it in my hand like it's something breakable.

Rose's handwriting is on the envelope.