Chapter Nine
Laila
I stepped out of the shower an hour or so later to, I kid you not, the sound of someone pounding on my door. Seriously, what happened to the courtesy text my generation was supposed to be so fond of?? On top of that, didn’t I have a doorbell? I mean, I was pretty sure I did, but I was really starting to wonder if I was remembering incorrectly. Well, this time whoever it was would just have to wait. I’d learned my lesson.
“Laila, are you here?”
Oh, good grief. In true horror-film fashion, the call was now coming from inside the house. Brynn’s voice being the call, as it were. I might have learned my lesson about not rushing to the door in a precarious state of undress, but there was still a lesson to be learned regarding not handing out my house key to everyone I knew.
I cracked the bathroom door open a sliver. “Are you alone?”
“Hey! Yeah. I have something for you.”
“And Sebastian’s definitely not with you?”
She laughed. “Um . . . I’m pretty sure.”
I pulled my bathrobe from the hook on the back of the door and pulled it on before opening the door wider. “What’s up?”
“We just talked to Cole. He told us you’re coming to New York!”
I sighed and toweled off my hair enough that it wouldn’t drip on the floor before stepping into the hallway and walking toward my bedroom. “Yeah.” I didn’t even have it in me to fake enthusiasm.
“Here.” She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a bottle of pills, opened it, and gave me one. “Take it about thirty minutes before the flight. It will help take the edge off the nerves and keep you from puking before we get to the end of the runway.”
“One pill can do all that? Does it also fight crime?” I chuckled and set it on my dresser. “Thanks, Brynn, but I’m not sure there are enough pills in the world to make me feel better about this trip.”
“This is perfect, Laila. You realize that, right?”
“Why? Why is it perfect? Nothing about any of this seems perfect to me. If anything, I’m just helping him dive deeper and deeper into his little escape plan. I don’t even know why I said I would go.”
Because he’s acting completely irrationally.
Because sometime over the course of the next few days, regardless of where he is, he’s going to start thinking clearly, and I need to be there for him when he does.
Because I can’t stand the thought of today being the beginning of goodbye.
Brynn grabbed my hand and pulled me to sit on the edge of the bed. “Think about it. This is a good plan. Right now, he’s just needing some distance. And, you know, his emotions are heightened and everything. So it’s extreme. But if he spends a few days in Manhattan, then it will almost be the end of the month. The new owners will be in Cassidy’s, and Bill’s stuff has to be out of Spruce House—”
“And who’s going to take care of that if Cole and I leave town?”
Brynn raised her hand and swatted that little detail away like a fly. “They’re talking to people now.”
“Who’s they?”
“Seb and Cole, of course. Come on, don’t act like that will be any big deal for this town. You know they’ll all step in and do whatever they can to help. Mrs. Stoddard and Doc will have it all taken care of in no time, and Cole won’t have to be there for it at all. So he can get the distance he needs without making any sort of big, irrational, impulsive decision.”
I groaned and fell back onto the bed, which actually hurt more than I would have thought. But the pain I was feeling in my back just helped accentuate the misery coursing through the rest of me. “Cole’s entire state of being is one big, irrational, impulsive blob of decision-making right now.”
And that, of course, was why I had to go with him. But New York? I’d never been east of Kansas, and until that morning I’d had no intention of breaking that nearly thirty-nine-year streak.
Oh yeah. Nearly thirty-nine.
I scrunched up my nose. “I hate that I’m going to be away from home for my birthday.”
She gasped and lay down beside me on her side, propping her chin up on her hand. “Are you kidding? I think that’s one of the best parts! It’s going to be amazing. We can go to a Broadway show and some unbelievable dinner somewhere. I’d suggest we eat at Daniel—it’s my favorite, although Sebastian insists it’s pretentious. Or maybe Bar Pitti, which is definitely pretentious, but I’ve never once gone there without seeing Beyonce and Jay-Z, and that’s not nothin’.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. Well, mostly. Like any other reasonable human on planet Earth, I spoke the language of Beyonce, but everything else she was rambling on about—prix fixe and Fotografiska and Kimberly Akimbo—sounded as strange and horrifying as that one time Cole explained foie gras to me.
“Brynn!” I cut her off in the middle of a soliloquy centered around Skinny Dennis, which I think she was maybe saying was a honky-tonk dive bar in Brooklyn, though I was really too afraid to ask. I would just trust that I hadn’t accidentally zoned out while she was referring me to a person by that name. “I’m sorry. I love you, but this sounds sort of awful to me. And you know that as awful as it sounds to me, if Cole was in his right mind right now, he wouldn’t even be entertaining the idea of moving to New York. He’s Colorado through and through, and he will absolutely hate all of this. He’s literally going to kiss the ground when he gets back to Adelaide Springs.”
“Yep.” A pleased-as-punch grin spread across her face, and I suddenly understood why she thought the trip was such a good idea. “I’m counting on it.”
* * *
“As I live and breathe,” Cole greeted me with a laugh as I rolled my suitcase out of the airport and toward the plane. He, Brynn, and Sebastian were standing just beside the steps talking to Steve, the pilot who regularly flew the Sudworths on their connecting flights to and from Telluride. “Is that Laila Olivet I see, all packed and ready for her adventure in the big city?”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
Seb rushed over to me and whispered, “I’m really glad you’re coming,” then took my backpack off my shoulder and my suitcase from my hand. “I’m counting on you to make Cole stop and breathe for at least two seconds.”
“And I’m counting on you to keep your wife sane for, hopefully, the entire trip,” I whispered back. “I don’t know who Skinny Dennis is, but I’m okay never making his acquaintance.”
Seb chuckled and walked my bags over to Steve as Cole and Brynn surrounded me.
“I’m so happy!” Brynn squealed and hugged me tightly enough that Cole winced.
“Be careful,” he told her. “Did she tell you about her fall this morning?”
Brynn released me and backed away as if Cole had just said, “Did she tell you she came down with a bad case of the bubonic plague?” “No. What happened?”
I rolled my eyes. “It was nothing. Really. Besides, you know . . . Doc gave me something.”
Cole’s eyes darted to Brynn and then back to me. “Like, a pain pill?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s starting to help.”
I felt Cole grab my elbow then. At least I was pretty sure it was Cole who did it. And I was pretty sure it was my elbow. Elbow . . . elbow . . . elbow . . .
“Hey, Lai?” Brynn asked, stepping back toward me. “You didn’t take that other pill I gave you, too, did you?”
“Oh no,” Cole muttered as his arm slipped around my waist. “What did you give her?”
“Just something for her nerves. For the flight. I didn’t know she was going to take anything else.”
Brynn said something else that I didn’t quite catch, and then I looked behind me to see what Sebastian had done with my bags. But when I turned around, he was gone. And so was Steve. And the airplane!
“Why is she saying ‘elbow’ over and over?” Sebastian’s voice asked from . . . somewhere.
“It was my dad,” I responded, as if that answered all of life’s questions. “Did you take the plane?” I asked Dad as he walked toward me. “We’re going to need that in order to fly, I think.”
I heard Cole exhale. Like a big, heavy exhale. Like, “Hhhhgggghhh.” That’s my best guess at how to spell it.
“Larry, you drove her here?”
My dad laughed, and then the plane was back. I’m not sure how he did it. “Oh yeah. Doc gave her some pills for her back, but he said they might just make her a little drowsy. I forgot this one doesn’t have much tolerance for anything.”
“Larry, I’m afraid this one’s on me,” Brynn confessed.
She was already laughing a lot, but she started laughing even more when Cole said, “Great. We have to make two connecting flights today, and Laila’s high as a kite.”
Elbow . . . elbow . . . elbow . . . elbow . . .
* * *
My first memory of New York City will always be sitting on Brynn’s enormous rolling suitcase, being anchored on each side by Brynn and Sebastian and pushed from behind by Cole, as a huge I Heart NY sign came into view. It was right about then that the world came into focus again, and not a moment too soon, I figured. Brynn and Seb were used to making less conspicuous journeys through public spaces, I was guessing, and people were beginning to take note.
Have Brynn Cornell and Sebastian Sudworth drugged and kidnapped a woman? Should we call the police? Should we ask if we can take a selfie with them? So many choices!
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty,” Cole greeted me over my shoulder. “Have a nice flight?”
“Can you walk now, Lai?” Brynn asked with a slight huffing quality behind her voice. “There’s an escalator coming up, and as much as I want to believe you won’t end up at the bottom a little sooner than we intend for you to, I really can’t make any promises.”
The world may have come into focus a few moments earlier, but that was the moment when my brain caught up.
“Oh my gosh!” I jumped off the suitcase and looked back at the three of them—Cole and Sebastian grinning mischievously, clearly amused by the entire situation, and Brynn drenched in sweat, her hair having lost all its body, and her cute green dress displaying unmistakable pit stains. “I’m so sorry. How long have I . . .” Okay, maybe my brain hadn’t completely caught up yet. “We’re in New York.”
“What gave it away?” Brynn asked, the huffing having been replaced by thinly veiled snark.
I guess I deserved the snark, considering that in addition to the giant I Heart NY sign we were stopped beside and the images of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and yellow taxi cabs all over the walls, Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York” was blaring across the PA system so loudly we were having to shout at each other to be heard.
“How did we even get here?” I was so confused. The last thing I remembered clearly was settling into a seat next to Cole on the tiny plane out of Adelaide Springs, and then . . .
No. That was it. That was the last clear memory. After that I could sort of remember Cole trying to force-feed me a smoothie, and I may have asked a TSA officer who was frisking me if she had any Jolly Ranchers, but otherwise I had blinked, and I was on the complete other side of the country.
“It wasn’t without its challenges,” Cole responded, that amused, indulgent grin still on his lips. “But as Brynn and I told Seb, as two people who have experienced the all-out paranoia and vomiting fest that is flying with you when you’re sober, this wasn’t so bad. I’ll check with Doc and see if there are any long-term risks, like odds of permanent brain damage or needing a liver transplant. Otherwise, you’re repeating this cocktail for the flights home.”
“Throw in a glass of Chardonnay,” Sebastian added, “and you might just be able to check her with your luggage.”
About twenty-five minutes later we had collected our bags and were following Brynn to the curb where a car waited for us. I’d been alert for less than half an hour, and I was already in sensory overload. I had bumped into more people waiting with Brynn in the line for the bathroom than I had gone to school with, and everything was so loud and bright. It was one o’clock in the morning there, and I was already homesick for 11:00 p.m.
But I had to admit the car was nice.
“I’ve never taken an Uber before.” I’m sure that statement came as a surprise to absolutely no one. “I didn’t expect them to be so classy.”
“Hey, Malik.” Sebastian patted the shoulder of the driver who was opening the doors for us all. “Sorry to get you out so late.”
“Not a problem. As if I was going to pass up the chance to be the first to hear about the wedding and honeymoon.” Malik smiled at me and gave a little nod. “Here, may I take your bags, ma’am?”
“Oh.” I looked at Sebastian, who was now making his way back to the trunk to stow his own bag, and decided to follow his lead. “That’s okay, but thank you. My name’s Laila, by the way.” I put my hand out and he shook it.
“Very nice to meet you, Ms. Laila. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Cole stepped up beside me, and Malik initiated a handshake between the two of them. “And Mr. Cole—”
“Just Cole’s fine. Thanks.”
“Here.” Malik took my suitcase from beside me and put his hand out for Cole’s as well. “I insist.” Cole handed it to him, and Malik joined Sebastian in the back.
I leaned in and whispered to Cole. “My mom’s always talking about taking Ubers when she travels, and she made it sound pretty sketch. But this is nice.”
“Hey, Malik!” Brynn greeted him with a brief hug and then handed him the massive suitcase that had recently been, for all intents and purposes, my stroller. Malik lifted it with one hand as if it weighed nothing and slipped it into the cargo area in the back.
“Welcome back, Ms. Brynn. Was Italy completely perfect?”
She sighed. “It really was. We brought you a postcard. I know it would have been better if we had actually mailed it from there, but we forgot.”
“I’m honored you thought of me at all.”
“Of course!” Brynn turned to Cole and me. “Malik is our favorite driver. He thinks of everything.”
“You’re too kind, Ms. Brynn.” He tilted his head down and added, more softly, “I have some Red Bulls for you in the cooler.”
“Bless you!” Brynn opened the passenger side door in the front, stepped up, and leaned in with her bare-below-the-knees legs dangling out. Sebastian quickly stepped in front of her less than ladylike position to protect her from prying eyes and a camera shutter or two.
“I swear, woman,” he muttered. “You’re the worst at being famous of anyone I know.”
“Please, please.” Malik ushered Cole and me toward the third row of the vehicle. “Make yourselves comfortable. There are waters for you there, and of course the energy drinks if Ms. Brynn is willing to share.”
“Nope!” Brynn hopped back down onto the ground and gave Sebastian a quick kiss on the lips—and the camera flashes lit up the darkness.
Malik smiled at me and offered me his hand to help me climb in. “Is anyone hungry? Do we need to make any stops?”
“What’s even open this time of night?”
I regretted it as soon as I said it. Even before Sebastian and Cole started snickering. I was going to have to be very careful not to come across as a country bumpkin every time I opened my mouth.
“I mean, I know stuff is open. I just don’t know how that works. Is everything open? Or just like . . . pizza and hot dogs . . . and . . .” What were other New York foods? “Pretzels and stuff??”
I climbed in after Cole and couldn’t contain a moan of pleasure as my body seemed to become one with the supple dark brown leather.
“That’s it,” he said as he leaned his head back and let his arms flop to the sides. “I’m moving here.” Panicked tightness grabbed at my throat, but it didn’t last long. “We live in this Cadillac Escalade now, Laila. Please have someone forward all our mail.” He sighed and closed his eyes.
I copied his relaxed posture and settled in. “This isn’t an Uber, is it?” I asked the question softly enough that only Cole could hear me. Country bumpkin protocol had been activated.
“I’m guessing not.”
Sebastian helped Brynn into the second row and then climbed in behind her and shut the door. They buckled their seatbelts, and I muttered to Cole, “I suppose we should buckle up too.”
“Nah. The Escalade would never betray us by leading us to our death. It’s fine.”
I laughed and sat up, reached across him and pulled the seatbelt down and clicked it into place, then did the same for myself. “But what a way to go if you’re wrong.”