Page 32 of Gorgeous Misery

Maybe it’s always been me who needs her?

Wendy didn’t show for breakfast. Or lunch. And I was just about to start talking myself into the idea that she might not show at all when I heard the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway. Then I didn’t know what to do.

Go outside and open her door, be the first thing she sees upon her return?

Meet her on the porch?

Let her come to me?

In the end, I take too long and when I open the door, she’s already climbing the steps with a garbage bag in her hand.

Smiling.

“Happy birthday,” I say.

She pauses on the top step. And did she always have dimples in her cheeks when she smiles?

I dunno. But she has them now.

“You look surprised,” I say.

“I mean…” She tilts her head at me, cocks it questioningly, like a dog might. “I left pretty unexpectedly last summer and when I came for Christmas, you weren’t here. So…”

“Christmas in the cabin is a thing?”

She nods. “It’s a thing.”

“Huh. I’ll make a note of that.”

She comes forward, stops in front of me. Leans up on her tiptoes, kisses my cheek, then politely pushes me out of her way so she can go inside.

Wendy Gale has never kissed me before. And now that I think about it, she never kissed Chek, either. Maybe she’s getting better at emotions?

Wendy sets her garbage bag down on the table and turns all the way around to face me, leaning against the side of the table as she crosses her arms. “But you’re here.”

“And so are you.”

“And I’m eighteen.”

I nod. “Yep. You are.”

“So what’s that mean?”

“Don’t go there,” I say. And I mean it too. She can tell because her smile drops.

“OK,” she says. “I won’t.”

“Good. Because that’s not why I’m here.”

“Why are you here, Nick Tate?”

“I missed you, Wendy Gale. I like you. We’re friends, remember?”

“I’m the only thing you have left, right?”

And yeah. This girl hits the bullseye every time. Without fail. But I’m not gonna lie, so I nod. “Yep. You’re all I have left. And I don’t even care how that sounds, that’s not what it is. You’re all I have left because you’re the one thing I wasn’t ever gonna give up.”

This makes her laugh and turn away again. “OK.” She shakes her head as she opens the garbage bag and starts dumping birthday cards onto the table. “You’re holding on to me even though you let Lauren and Sasha go?” She’s not looking at me. She’s pushing envelopes around.