Chapter 3 Escalating Complications
Chapter 3
escalating complications
Monday couldn’t have come fast enough. Freckles was finally gone, and talk about what an awkward drop-off that had been, but it was done and behind her. Now she was dealing with a romantic mishap of an entirely different kind.
“I’m telling you, Cupid is a standup comedian,” Autumn said.
Summer took in the stylized lettering and elegant embossing, and couldn’t find a trace of humor in the ecru, 220-pound weighted cardstock. Usually, getting a wedding invitation was like Christmas morning, but today it felt more like April Fool’s Day.
“Please tell me you aren’t going to go,” Autumn demanded, her expression fierce on Summer’s phone screen.
“I haven’t decided.” Just like she hadn’t decided how it felt to be invited to her ex’s wedding in the first place.
Just ten months ago they’d been talking about their own wedding, because that was the next logical step and Ken was nothing but a logical man. And now he was marrying someone else—she looked at the “MD” after Ken’s fiancée’s name and groaned.
Of course her replacement was a doctor.
She’d known this moment would come, had anticipated it for months, but seeing the proof that her ex had officially moved on so quickly was different. In her heart she’d known Ken wasn’t the one and—as one of Cupid’s Devoted Fans—she was happy for him that he’d found his person. But why couldn’t she have found hers first?
She dropped the invitation on her nightstand and walked to her closet.
“What?” Autumn’s voice was loud enough to reach through the apartment floor and echo off the walls of the bookshop. “I must have heard you wrong, because there is no way you’re considering going to that asshat’s wedding. Look me in the eye and tell me you are RSVPing a big fuck off.” Summer did not look her sister in the eye. She was too embarrassed to see the disappointment lying there. “I can help you draw the middle finger if you want.”
“We parted on good terms,” Summer said.
“He parted. You allowed it to be good terms.”
Summer didn’t see the point of ending things badly. It wasn’t like Ken had purposefully set out to break her heart. He’d been following his own, which had led him to Los Angeles for his dream job. And apparently his dream girl.
“You’re right. I’m not going. In fact, I’m dropping the invitation in the trash right now.”
“Good!”
“On to more important things.” Summer leaned her cell phone against the wall, using a book to hold it upright while she rifled through her closet. She pulled out a dress and held it up to her chest. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. It was simple, sophisticated, and professional. Exactly the vibe she was hoping for. “How about the dress I wore to Mom and Dad’s anniversary party?”
A long, unwelcome tension stretched wider between them. Summer could feel her sister’s judgment smother her through the phone. “The black one with the scalloped collar?” Autumn asked, right as Summer slipped it over her head and stood in front of her phone, giving a little cock of the hip. “Absolutely not. You look like Morticia.”
“When I bought it, you said it was a universal dress.” Otherwise, Summer wouldn’t have purchased it. Admittedly, she was fashion-challenged, while Autumn was the fashion queen. They were the complete reverse of each other, after all.
Summer and Autumn weren’t normal twins. They were mirror twins, which meant that they were asymmetrical. The same but opposite. Autumn’s heart was on the left side of her body and Summer’s was on the right. Autumn’s dimple was in left field and Summer’s the reverse. They were truly two peas in the same pod.
Even their personalities were polar opposites. Autumn hadn’t met a person she couldn’t befriend. She looked like a model, acted like a coed, and lived like an influencer—was even a social media content creator for a midsized advertising company. Her outgoing and bubbly personality—not to mention boobs—attracted men like flies to honey.
Summer was the reliable and introspective one and Autumn was spontaneous and charismatic. Bottom line, Summer was the ying to Autumn’s yang, the Laverne to her Shirley—an unexpected pairing with an unbreakable bond.
“You bought it without my input and then told me it was nonreturnable. What was I supposed to say?” Autumn asked.
“That I looked like Morticia.”
“It isn’t Morticia-bad, but also isn’t podcast-appropriate.”
“That’s the point of a podcast, no one can see me.”
“But you can see you, and how you dress influences how you come across to your listeners. You’re supposed to be a romance guru, not look like you’re going to Auntie Cecilia’s funeral.”
“Auntie Cecilia probably felt that energy you just put out into the universe.” Their aunt was not only a brilliant businesswoman, she also fancied herself a bona fide psychic.
“Hang on, I have a text coming in.” Autumn’s face went pale. “Oh my god,” she whispered. “It’s Auntie Cecilia.”
“Told you.” Summer hid her smile. Cecilia had texted Summer a bit ago asking what their mom wanted for her birthday. Since Autumn and her mom were the most alike, she’d told Cecilia she’d contacted the wrong twin. “How about that blue and white maxi-dress I bought when we went to Mystic?”
“And look like a sailor?” Autumn’s face filled the entire screen now. “Summs, you are gorgeous and genuine and believe in romance the way Mom believes that the key to flawless skin is sunscreen and hats. And the way I believe in you.”
It took Summer a moment to gather herself at her sister’s words, but even then, as she spoke, her voice was thick with emotion. “You have to say that. You’re my sister.”
“And I’d never bullshit you. You have the most beautiful and gentle soul of anyone I’ve ever met. We need an outfit that showcases that.”
“That’s a tall order.” Plus, tomorrow wasn’t just a regular podcast. Tomorrow was Summer’s first podcast where she was interviewing a guest, to discuss May’s most anticipated romance book. With Autumn’s help, Summer had grown her following to over ten thousand and she wanted to impress.
Summer looked at the time, then her sister’s face, and a bad feeling settled in her belly. “How are you calling me? Aren’t you supposed to be mid-flight, somewhere over the Atlantic?”
“About that . . .”
Summer picked up the phone and held it to her face. “No, no, no. I know that voice. That’s the don’t-hate-me voice, and I swear on my entire and complete, first-edition J.D. Robb collection that if you say what I think you’re about to say, the hate will be real.”
“My trip was extended, and it looks like I won’t be home for another couple of days.”
“But my event is tomorrow. The event, I should remind you, that you said was necessary to grow my brand.”
“And it will.”
“You promised we’d do this together. That’s why I agreed to do this, because you had my back.”
No matter where they were in the world, to Summer it always felt as if they were in their nine-hundred-square-foot apartment above the shop. Finishing each other’s sentences, sharing in each other’s successes and hardships as if they were their own. But lately, they’d been like two ships passing in the night.
Summer had felt this slight shift in their usually aligned planets as deeply as the loss of a limb. She’d lost the everyday bonds with many people in her life over the past few months; she couldn’t bear to lose another.
First, she’d lost Ken to his career. Then, six months ago, her parents had moved from Ridgefield to Boca Raton, retiring in the Florida sun in a house next door to Summer’s auntie and uncle. It was difficult to go from seeing her large family every day at the shop to being a business owner of one. No more Friday family dinners or Boardgame Wednesdays to get her through the week. All that was left in Connecticut was her twin. And she really needed her support right now.
“I do. I’ll tune in and everything. Be there remotely. You won’t even notice my absence. I do this all the time with creators. It’s my thing.”
Summer’s stomach shifted queasily. “But it’s not my thing.”
“You’ve got this,” Autumn assured her, but Summer didn’t feel assured. “And if this trip wasn’t a possibly life-changing one, I would be there. I swear. But the content I made about Swifties,” she said, referring to Taylor Swift superfans, “was so good that I’m, uh, being flown from London to Paris tomorrow morning. Paris, Summs! In the spring. How could I pass that up?”
Easy. You say no. That’s what Summer would have said if the situation were reversed.
“Tell me you understand.” Autumn’s eyes were so uncertain that Summer felt her sister’s unease as if it were her own. Summer was a giver by nature, and Autumn tended to be a bit of a taker—but her huge heart made up for it. And having a big heart sometimes meant that you had to follow it.
“I get it. I mean, Paris,” Summer whispered.
“I know, right!” Autumn said, and their through-the-ether twin thing must have been one-way right then because her sister clearly wasn’t reading the room. “Which brings me to a little favor.”
“How little?”
“Depending on how this thing goes, I might need to borrow some money for the trip.”
Summer flopped on her bed. “How much?”
Autumn rattled off some insane amount and Summer sat straight up. That bad feeling turned acidic. “You said just a couple of extra days. Why do you need that kind of money?”
“If Paris goes well, I might end up going to Prague, and then Berlin, and I’m a little short on cash.”
“So am I.” Summer had spent a huge chunk of her savings buying the bookstore from her mom and auntie. Then there was the remodel she’d done to the shop, not to mention the small business loan she’d taken out. “All that I have is my wedding fund.” A fund that had taken her a lifetime to accumulate.
“Which is why I’ll pay you back with my end-of-quarter bonus. Please, Summs. I’ll even tack on interest.”
Summer felt herself caving. It wasn’t like she was getting married anytime soon, and her sister might be a little flaky when it came to the little things, but she never broke a promise. And while Summer was cash-poor, she was passion-rich. So if she could help her sister fulfill one of her dreams, then she was all in.
“How about you let me borrow something romance-worthy from your closet and we’ll call it even?”