Chapter 30
Thirty
ADDIE
It was no wonder that Eli looked exhausted. He was living in a continual loop of adrenaline high into adrenaline crash over and over again.
I’d done one shift where I only had to call dishes and make sure the plates were clean before they went out to customers, and I felt like I had run a marathon.
I barely had the energy to remove my shoes, make sure they weren’t a trip hazard, flop onto the sofa, and start playing Solitaire on my phone.
I was halfway through my second game when an image came through from Clara. I clicked it and promptly felt like she had reached through the phone and punched me in the face.
The first thing I noticed was the fact that the one bare finger on Clara’s hand was now adorned with a silver band that once upon a time had belonged to our mother.
Engaged.
That was what that meant.
That wasn’t the reason I felt like I had been gutted by a blunt knife, though.
No, I was happy for her. This was what she had been planning for.
I had no idea what plan she had landed on, but this was on the horizon for the two of them.
The thing that made me nearly drop my phone on my face in shock was the fact that right behind the newly engaged couple were the twins and Rachel with matching looks of excitement on their faces.
Because they got to witness the moment my sister got engaged.
I zoomed in on the picture, like making it bigger would reveal that the three of them had been superimposed in or something.
No such luck.
As I wiped under my eyes, I sent Clara a perfunctory ‘Congrats!’ before I took one final look at the photo, which I knew was slowly making its way to all the relevant people.
I wondered if anyone else would notice the fact that, despite our parents always saying that we were a fearsome fivesome, one of us was missing from the picture.
I locked my phone and threw it on the sofa, finally finding the energy to get up and go to the bathroom.
I did all my best crying in the shower.
An hour later, with a pounding headache and stinging eyes, I texted Clara again and sent a slightly more enthusiastic message asking how everything finally came together.
Then I looked for the biggest pan we owned.