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Chapter 1
Sophie
“Sophie, you absolute bitch!”
I whirl around at the sound of my old college roommate’s voice, waving as soon as I see her. A few people give us passing glances, but Fisherman’s Wharf is crowded, and there are much more interesting sights and sounds than two girls in their mid-twenties greeting each other.
“Is that seriously how you’re going to say hello after almost three years?” I ask, but I’m not surprised. This is just how Jacquelyn is. If anything, it’s a comfort—some things never change.
“How can you be even hotter now than you were in college?” Jacquelyn demands before wrapping her arms around my waist in a hug that steals my breath. I squawk as she pinches my ass and squirm out of the embrace.
“You are being ridiculous,” I inform her, but it’s a lost cause. The hug felt so good that I have to have another. It makes me realize how long it’s been since I’ve had a hug though, and that’s a depressing thought.
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Jacquelyn draws back, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder. “It’s not fair. Women are paying thousands of dollars for curves like this, and you just have them. What’s your secret? You can tell me, at least. Is it Pilates? I hate Pilates. Is it, though? I’ll do it.”
“It’s not Pilates,” I say, laughing. It’s probably the first genuine laugh I’ve had since I broke up with my boyfriend of several years last week, and it feels good. “I haven’t worked out in weeks. The only way I’d run a mile was if someone was chasing me.”
“Tell me what you’ve been doing,” she gushes. “I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Well, start by walking and talking,” she cajoles, hooking her arm in mine. “I’m starving. Why did you even want to meet at Fisherman’s Wharf? This place is a nightmare.”
“I like it,” I argue. “I wanted to see something familiar.”
There’s comfort in familiar, in normal, in a place that hasn’t changed since the last time I was in San Francisco. Especially since there’s been so much upheaval in the rest of my life lately.
“Well, Colorado has to have been way different than San Fran,” Jacquelyn muses. “What’s it been like?”
“It’s pretty.”
She guffaws. “Oh no. Is that all? Pretty? You hate it, don’t you?”
I shrug. “I don’t hate it. It’s just … it was always Brad’s home. Not mine. I never felt like I really fit in there.”
“Aw shit. I get that. But it’s going to get better, hon.” Jacquelyn gives me a sympathetic pout, her hazel eyes shining with sympathy. “I know the breakup is still fresh. But it’s not going to feel like this forever.”
“I know,” I tell her, putting on a confident smile that I wish went more than skin deep. “I’ll stay in Colorado until I get my feet back under me, and then I’m planning to move. Now that Brad and I have split, there’s nothing for me there anymore. I’m going to use this as an opportunity to reset my life.”
“That’s great.” She beams enthusiastically.
“Yeah.” I nod, feeling the knots in my shoulders unwind a bit at the reminder that being free of my ex-boyfriend is actually a good thing. “What about you? What have you been up to?”
“Ooh, girl.” Jacquelyn arches an eyebrow, sighing dreamily. “Let me tell you about this insane party I went to last weekend. It made me feel like I was alive again, I swear. Body shots. Letting go of every worry. Strangers becoming intimate friends.”
She waggles her eyebrows before launching into a recap of startling debauchery, and I have to shake my head and smile as I listen to her.
We are so different now.
It’s almost as if we picked completely opposite paths to travel—me toward the professional life I always wanted, and Jacquelyn in the direction of the next best party.
It wasn’t like I was a complete stick in the mud in college. I did my fair share of partying, but I always had an eye focused toward my bigger goal: pursuing a career in marketing. I lost sight of those goals for a while after moving to Colorado with Brad, who never really supported my career aspirations. And after losing both of my parents to a drunk driver a year ago, everything fell apart—including my relationship. But now it’s time to get my life back on track.
“When’s the last time you had something like that?” Jacquelyn asks, dragging my attention back to the present moment as she finishes her raucous description of the party she went to. She shoots me a pointed look, pursing her lips.
“What, someone’s tongue in my bellybutton?” I ask, chuckling.
“No. A good time, I mean.” Jacquelyn steers me up a street at the next intersection as she speaks, having apparently already picked where we’re going to eat. “Life isn’t all about work, you know. You need to cut loose. And tonight, we’re going to do just that. I have a wild time planned for us.”
