Page 87 of This Changes Everything

“Hi, Rory. I’m Maddy. Take my seat.” Maddy slipped off her lounge chair next to me and plopped herself down on Hannah’s, so they were cuddled together.

“Hi, Maddy. I’m not taking your seat,” Rory protested.

“Well, I’m not sitting there anymore, and I’m very stubborn. I’m also a mom. So, this is my mom voice.” She turned to Orson. “Orson, is it? Feel free to take this wide-open seat that no one is using,” Maddy said very loudly.

Orson looked at Rory, unsure what his next move should be, but he didn’t have time to think because a guy standing behind us overheard Maddy and placed his hand on the back of the chair. The stranger shifted into position to slip his body into the seat, then looked over at me and smiled. “Hello.”

“Nope. Get outta here.” Rory threw himself into the seat, splashing in the water.

We all laughed as Zoë and Kara made their way over to join our own little private pool party. Kara and Hannah were excited to talk with Rory and Orson. The next couple of hours were so unnaturally natural that I found myself quieter than usual. Hannah and Rory ended up sharing a chair for a long while so they could catch up properly. Orson sat on the edge of Kara’s lounger, comfortably, as though no time had passed between them. Zoë and Orson were also hitting it off, and were buying each other shots as if they were in their early twenties.

“Maddy’s bachelorette was out of control.” Zoë had everyone’s attention as she lay on her stomach in the water, the top of her body resting on Kara and Orson’s lounger. We were all sipping margaritas.

“No. You were out of control,” Maddy corrected Zoë. “That was the night I first met Ellie.”

“Oh yeah?” Rory asked.

I still couldn’t tell if he was looking at me from behind his sunglasses, and I feared that my sunglasses were revealing how much I was looking at him.

“Maddy and her friends came to LA for the bachelorette, and they stayed with me and Zoë in Highland Park,” I confirmed. “Zoë was the maid of honor.”

“Okay, I feel like this is where it’s going to get good.” Orson licked the salt from the rim of his glass.

“You want to take this one?” Maddy turned to Zoë with a cocky smirk.

“Nope.” Zoë laughed, then dunked her head into the water, hiding from everyone.

“Cains?” Rory asked me with a grin.

“Oof. This is . . . girl code.” My head moved back and forth between all my friends. “Do I tell the story or do I not?”

“You do not.” Zoë reappeared from the water. She pushed her wet curtain of dark-brown bangs back in a panic.

“Oooooo-ooo! But it’s so good.” I laughed.

“I’m doing it. It was my bachelorette!” Maddy stepped up to the plate, and we all cheered.

“Wait!” Zoë bellowed. “Let me preface this by saying this was two years ago. I am not the same person.”

“Oh no.” Rory started laughing before we could even get to the story. “I think you’re about to take us on a ride, Maddy. Let’s do this.”

“Zoë had decided that since it was a bachelorette party, someone needed to have their face smacked with a flaccid dick,” Maddy said matter-of-factly.

“Aghhhhhhhh!” Zoë went back under the water.

Hannah choked on her drink, while Rory clutched his chest, his stomach crunching together as he bent forward. Good lord, he was beautiful.

Look away, Ellie! He can see you!

“Since I wasn’t a willing participant, nor was anyone else, surprise, surprise, Zoë offered herself up. Aaaaaanyway . . .” Maddy let out a massive sigh. “She got me an exotic dancer, which I didn’t want, who showed up at two in the afternoon. We all still had our Sephora hydrating face masks on while he was dancing up on us.”

“Oh my god.” Orson squeezed his eyes shut, in hysterics at the visual that Maddy was painting.

“After he humped my ear, she bullied Ellie—”

“NO! DON’T BRING ME INTO THIS!” I cried.

“Too late. You’re in.” Kara laughed.