44 JANIE
JANIE
Janie: Well you were wrong, and I’ve never felt worse about being right in my life.
Janie: He left. Can you come over?
Skye: Walking out already, text me your room number
Janie: Stop for supplies
[Skye Liked “Stop for supplies”]
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“I got every flavor CVS had, I didn’t want to find a grocery store,” Skye says as she comes in carrying bags of ice cream pints and various flavors of Doritos in one hand. She has a huge bottle of wine in the other. She stops in her tracks when she sees me, “Oh crap, this might not be enough.”
I start sobbing.
Again.
She sits with me and rubs my back and hands me tissues as emotions run through me. Finally, when I can take full breaths, she sits back.
“First, we’re going to get out of that dress and into sweat pants.”
“Okay.” I say. After she helps me change, because I’m finding it hard to function, she pours the wine into the hotel coffee mugs and opens the ice cream cartons. She puts them in a line between us and we each grab a spoon.
“I don’t know if I can eat,” I admit.
“Alright, just tell me what happened.”
I inhale as deeply as I can but it’s shaky. “Well, he said he overheard you and me talking.”
“Ohhhh,” she starts to think through our conversation.
“Yeah. So he heard, Skye. He heard that I love him. And he said ‘Well, you were right, I am bored,’ and then he wired me all the money and left to spend Christmas in London!”
“Wait. He doesn’t love you back?”
“I mean, he was emotional about it but he was being honest. He said he’d always care about me and…and we could’ve worked in another life,” on the last word out of my mouth, the sobs come back. Skye hugs me through it, muttering about what an idiot he is.
Eventually I shake my head to disagree, “I can’t be mad at him for being him, right? I called it from the start. This was why I was guarding myself, keeping my distance.”
She grimaces, “But were you really?”
“Apparently not!” I cry out, gesturing at myself, a total wreck.
“As much as I want to hunt him down and cut off his ball sack, I feel like we should discuss the wiring of the money and the whole text threats from the mob. Can you please pay them? Like right now?”
I blink hard a few times to process what she’s saying.
All that debt, finally gone.
Yes.
“Yes,” I repeat out loud. “We should do that.”
“Okay, can we do a wire transfer?”
“Yeah, I think so, here,” I offer her my phone with trembling hands. She helps me find the message they sent with the instructions for the first transfer. Then she scrolls through the barrage of reminders.
“They’re trying to charge you interest now?”
“I guess so,” I say, going numb.
She scoffs at my screen, “Did you have anything in writing?”
“Yeah, Skye, the mob loves a paper trail.”
“Oh,” she deflates, “Right. But all these texts are a trail.”
“They change numbers and contacts. I never see or hear from the same person twice. Plus, I don’t care, give them all of it. I just need a little bit left to fix Gran’s place. Please, Skye, I just want it to be over.”
“Okay, girl, okay. We’re not giving them all of it but we will give them exactly what they asked for most recently.
The remainder plus an extra 100K, which makes me sick but if I tell dad and we get our lawyers involved, which is what I want, it will become a whole thing in the press, then we’re in bed with the mafia and tied up in court—”
“No! No, I know and I don’t want any of that. That’s why I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Okay, I get it.” She taps around on my phone for a while and eventually sits back. “There. Done.”
“Thank you,” I say, taking a sip of wine.
“What the hell is this that popped up? Called The Album and it’s filled with Theo?”
“Exposure therapy,” I reply, my voice sounding as dead as I am starting to feel.
She considers what I said, “To get over Theo?”
“Yup, to remember that love sucks and men suck and I shouldn’t be fooled again. Ha! Didn’t work, did it?”
“Mmmmkay I’m going to go ahead and suggest you delete this. It’s time.”
“That’s fine. I don’t care. I want to sleep now.”
“You’re headed home in the morning, right? Want me to stay with you tonight?”
I sit back up, “Wait, Ben took his plane. How am I getting home?”
“We’ll take care of it. You go to sleep. I’m just down the hall and I’ll check in on you, okay?” I don’t sit back so she grabs my shoulder. “I’ve got you, Janie. The group text is already all over it.” My eyes go wide. “I just said Ben was called away and you need a ride. Don’t worry. Just sleep.”
“Alright.”
I lay back and ask God to knock me the hell out.
Thankfully, by some Christmas miracle, He listens.