Chapter 19 Best Friend Advice
Chapter 19
best friend advice
“I’m not talking to you,” Cleo said, her judgmental frown big as ever coming through the computer’s screen. Her cropped pink and brown hair was in little space buns on either side of her head, and she had stripper red lipstick on her lips, which were tilted down in a frown.
“That will make our weekly business meeting challenging,” Summer said.
She was sitting outside on the edge of the dock with her laptop, trying to get a rundown on the shop’s weekly numbers. She wore cutoffs and a bikini top, her bare feet dangling in the cool water. Man, could she use another of week of this kind of solitude.
She could use another week of other things too, but she wasn’t going there. Because he’d made it clear that he wasn’t going there. Ever since their almost-kiss at the chapel—and it had been an almost-kiss—she couldn’t stop thinking about Wes and how quickly he’d retreated. Or how much he’d laughed throughout the day. Sure they’d already had full-on lipsing sessions, but not in a place where I-do’s were exchanged.
Summer didn’t think Wes had much to laugh about in his life. He was too busy trying to survive or save the world. But yesterday they’d laughed until they hadn’t. Then they’d shared part of their souls with each other. Then he’d friend-zoned her. Her mortal enemy had conned her into being friends, made her believe that he wanted her as much as she now wanted him, then he’d bailed.
Not only had he gone out of his way after to make sure they were always with the group, he’d headed into the den the moment they’d arrived home, claiming he had business calls to make. Well, she had a call to make as well, which was why she’d come out to the dock with her laptop, because she needed a sounding board. And with Autumn and Randy out for a walk on the beach, she’d phoned Cleo.
“What’s challenging is accepting that my best friend didn’t invite me to her wedding.”
Summer rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t a wedding. It was the Selfie Scavenger Hunt, and you know it always ends at the chapel.”
“Yeah, but you’ve never ended it with 007 as your groom. And he was smiling.” Cleo thought for a moment, then shrugged with indifference. “I guess if I had my hands all over that cute little ass of yours, I’d be smiling too.”
Summer’s heart leapt. She hadn’t wanted to look at the photo. It would make earlier real. Make the connections they’d made real. And the way he’d recoiled real. But her curiosity won out. “He was smiling?”
“Like an idiot. I couldn’t tell if it was because he was constipated or actually happy. I barely recognized him without the resting frump face. But he looked less like a mouth-breather and more... human. And the zip tie gave off a dom vibe. I mean, a hott with two Ts.”
“The zip ties were meant to mess with me. So was pairing me up with Wes. Autumn has been nonstop Randy-fixated. I haven’t had more than a few minutes of her to myself. And when I do, we’re arguing.”
“You never argue.”
“I know. But she’s so caught up in this relationship she isn’t thinking straight.”
“So what’s new? Your sister doesn’t have a responsible bone in her body. If something is exciting and new, she’s all about it. Once it loses its shine, she’s looking for the next big thing, without any thought to the carnage in her wake,” Cleo said, and Summer’s immediate thought was to defend her twin. But she wanted to hear her friend out, because Cleo had never voiced anything negative about Autumn, and Summer wanted to know if she was missing something important that would give her insight into the person she believed she knew best in the world.
“Give me an example?”
“In the past five years she’s had seven jobs, more boyfriends than I have fingers and toes, has covered her half of the rent only on a quarterly basis. Shall I go on?” Cloe asked, even though the question was rhetorical.
Summer knew that was how other people saw Autumn, but she also knew her sister. Knew what made her tick and what made her happy and what made her scared. And losing your home at seven was scary. Even scarier was overhearing their parents talk about how close they had come to being homeless. Watching their dad and uncle load up a U-Haul with all their belongings and moving them into the apartment above the shop with Cecilia and Giuseppe, where none of the things around them were familiar, was traumatizing. It had left scars. Deep scars that never really went away.
That’s why Autumn was the way she was. It was easier to break things off before they were pulled out from under you. Whereas Summer chased connection, her twin ran from it. Which was what made Summer so nervous about the Randy situation. Autumn was making permanent decisions without taking the time to see if she was going feel cornered and run. Or maybe she was attracted to the stability of someone who would never lose their home.
Not that Autumn would ever date someone for their money. But Summer could see the appeal of having that kind of financial net to catch you when things became bleak.
“You know what our childhood was like. Tons of love, not a lot of stability.”
“But you aren’t kids anymore. Autumn is a woman, so any leniency she got when she was younger is used up,” Cleo said. “Has she paid you back?”
“No. But she promised she would.”
“Has she even brought it up?”
“Like I said, we haven’t had much time to talk with Randy butting in. But tomorrow is Twin Day, and you know how important that is.”
“Great. It’ll just be the two of you, so at some point tomorrow you can bring up her loan, because payroll is due again on Friday, and once that goes out we’re going to be stretched thin to make the mortgage.”
Summer’s palms began to sweat, and her heart began to pound painfully. “That bad?”
“It’s just a slow month. Which is why I decided to charge an entry fee to your live podcast.”
Insecurity hit her like a hammer on a nail, causing her to expel all the breath in her lungs.
“No one will come! Who would pay to see me chatter on about books and cake recipes?”
“Not true. The fee for the podcast is a purchase of the book, and they’ve been selling like crazy. It’s nearly a full house already.”
“A full house?” She gulped. “I don’t even know if Autumn will be around to help me.”
“Which is why you and I are taking on the town’s smut coalition.”
“You and I?” Cleo had never participated in the podcast. She had always sat on the sidelines cheering Summer on. She’d said it was too mainstream for all her opinions.
“Girl, you didn’t think that I was going to let you take on your biggest podcast alone, did you? You need a cohost, and I need an audience. Plus, people love me.”
“Um, you’re more of an acquired taste,” Summer laughed.
“It’s called originality. You’re reliable and I’m controversial. And every great show needs some controversy.”
“I’m not sure that Jane Eyre needs the oppression and imprisonment of women as a topic.”
“Of course it does, but that’s for another discussion. This one will be based on the love story, that your listeners will eat up,” Cleo said. “That doesn’t mean that I didn’t direct women to The Wide Sargasso Sea so they can understand Bertha’s origin story.”
“Of course you did.”
“There has been such an interest, I was thinking that one of your podcasts can be on parallel books, where we read a classic and then a modern story, movie or book that used the original work as the inspiration for theirs, like Emma and Clueless , Sabrina and The Summer I Turned Pretty , and then compare them . There are so many to choose from.”
For the first time since the call started, Summer felt a beam of hope. “That’s a great idea.”
“I also think we should come up with questions for the guests.”
“Guests?”
“Yes, like guest authors or romance gurus. You can even bring on a matchmaker. Then we can come up with thought-provoking questions that really get the audience engaged and view romance in a new light.”
“You’ve put a lot of thought into this,” Summer said, with so much apprehension in her voice it cracked.
“And I’m not going to let you shoot down another one of my ideas. Stop being a wuss and live a little.”
Was that how people saw her? As a wuss?
“Thank you so much for that insight.”
“Anytime,” Cleo said. “And to pay me back, you can start by getting your sister to pay you back.”
“She said she’d do it from her quarterly bonus.” That had been the deal, and in Russo tradition Autumn always stuck to her deals. Look at her and Wes. She’d promised to give his family a fair shot and she had. And what had come of that change of heart had been as nice as it had been confusing.
“Did she give you an actual date? What quarter she was even talking about?”
“She’ll pay me back,” Summer defended. “Autumn never breaks a promise over something so important. She knows it came from my wedding fund, and she knows how important that fund is to me. But if we’re short, I can always temporarily borrow from what’s left.”
“But you shouldn’t have to,” Cleo said, and Summer could tell her friend was exasperated. She’d never been all that pro-Autumn even if she’d never said anything overtly negative about her twin, but she didn’t know Autumn like Summer did.
“She’ll pay.”
“Well, I hope it’s soon, because things here are looking grim.” Cleo paused so long that Summer knew there was more to the story. “Did 007 tell you that BookLand has upped their opening date by a month?”
“What? Where did you hear that?” Because this was news to her.
Cleo turned her phone to the side window and aimed
the screen toward a big banner that hung above the front entrance
of the building next door. It read: GRAND OPENING, JULY 1 ST .
“That’s less than a month away. How are they going to pull that off. Before I left for Mystic, they were still putting in the shelves. Except for the window displays, there wasn’t a single book out.”
“They’ve hired another night crew. They’ve started pulling double shifts around the clock,” Cleo said, then her face came back into frame. “He didn’t tell you?”
“We don’t really talk about business,” she said. “We try to keep conversations on topics that won’t start World War III.” But she was still cut. His silence on something so important hurt her in places it shouldn’t.
“We need to come up with a retaliation,” Cleo added. “Something to piggyback on the crowd he’ll draw.”
“Like a big author signing?”
“Exactly that. Sloan Chase has a new book coming out in a few weeks. What if we booked her as a special guest and had a book signing following the podcast?”
“I’m sure she’s already got all her publicity lined up. Besides, Sloan Chase sold more copies than the Bible last year. I think she might be a little out of our league.”
“She wasn’t before she got famous. Who knows, maybe the nostalgia of coming back to where her first book signing happened will be enough for her to say yes. She’s a local girl. Do you still have her contact info?”
“Yes.” A bubble of excitement tickled her belly like champagne on her tongue.
“Then what’s the harm in asking?”
“Nothing,” she said with more conviction. “I’ll tell her my mom, who gave her her first big break, will be there. That we can discuss where she started and where she is now.” It was a brilliant idea. But on the same day as Wes’s opening?
“Why do I feel like there’s a but?”
“Because I don’t want to sabotage Wes’s opening.”
There was a long, pregnant pause where Cleo’s mouth gaped open like she was a fish out of water. “You’ve slept with him!”
Summer didn’t want to lie but she also didn’t want Cleo’s wrath. “We have shared a bed, where there may have been a cuddle.”
“And?”
“I might have kissed him.” Summer closed her eyes. “In the river. While I was nearly naked.”
Cleo was silent again. She reached up and fiddled with one her of space buns. Her expression was one of I’m considering slashing your tires. “You went skinny-dipping with him?”
“I just told you I kissed him and you’re concerned with the state of my dress?”
“Skinny-dipping. Kissing. A faux-wedding. Deep and meaningful conversations. Are you feeling him?”
The real question was, was he feeling her?
Summer exhaled a deep breath. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“What do you mean your boss didn’t approve the time off?” Summer asked Autumn, who was sitting looking guilty as hell in her pajamas. “I thought it was a work trip.”
“It was,” Autumn explained. “Just not how you think.” Autumn puffed her chest out and put her shoulders back. The expression on her face was one Summer knew well. She was about to drop a bomb—one that would derail Summer’s life.
“Explain,” she demanded, but she almost didn’t want to know the answer. She’d been so excited about this new podcast idea that she didn’t want to ruin her mood. But she needed to know that she’d be able to pay the mortgage this month.
“I’m going to become an influencer,” Autumn said proudly.
“Do you know how many fashion and makeup influencers there are out there?”
“Not just fashion—I’m going to become the face of ‘Dress for Sex-cess: How to snag a man in thirty days by manifesting sex-scess.’ Sure, there will be hair, makeup, and fashion tips, but it’s more about building the inner goddess. How to find that right guy and reel them in,” she said, as if all she had to do was put up a few pics and videos and she would become social-media famous. “I mean, look at me and Randy! I was dressed for sex-cess when I met him. I had put in the hard work upfront so that when he appeared I was ready. All the guys and steps before led me to the one.”
“You know that I am the first person to be pro-love, and I will always support you in following your dreams, but quitting your job? That’s a little premature, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t quit. I got fired,” Autumn said, without a hint of remorse or fear of the uncertain. “You took out a loan and gambled your savings on a bookstore—what’s the difference?”
The differences were numerous. “I had Mom and Auntie to help. They let me slowly buy them out, supported me through the transition, and I made sure I had the money to pay for a year of payroll, mortgage payments, inventory, and utilities. I didn’t get fired, then decide to start a business and pray for it to rain Benjamins.”
“That’s why I need your support,” Autumn said, and her confident tone turned saccharine-sweet. There was a big ask coming. “The money I borrowed, I have a few thousand dollars left, and I wanted to know if I could hold onto it for another few months.”
Anxiety soured Summer’s stomach. “What about your end-of-quarter bonus?”
“Turns out when you get fired there is no bonus.”
That sour feeling became an all-encompassing panic that lit her body from the inside out. Betrayal and disappointment only fueled the already-raging inferno. Cleo had been right. Her sister hadn’t just broken her promise. Between her immaturity and selfishness, she’d screwed Summer in the process.
Even worse, she’d kept this all from her. Just like Wes and the new grand opening date, she’d lied by omission. The old Summer would have let things slide, but the new Summer, who was tired of being a doormat that just lay there and took it, was done playing nice to keep the peace.
“I need that money, Autumn. I don’t care how you come up with it, but you will pay me back by quarter’s end.”
Autumn’s brows disappeared into her hairline at Summer’s tone, but Summer didn’t care. That money was her safety net, in case anything happened to her store. And it looked like she’d need that safety net sooner rather than later, when her neighbor opened his doors.
“Can’t you just pull from your wedding fund?” Autumn asked quietly.
“I already did. For you.”
“And I am so thankful. I’m not saying I won’t pay you back, I just need a little more time. And I need your support.”
Summer didn’t know what to say. By supporting her sister’s dreams she would have to put her own dreams in jeopardy.
Old insecurities that she thought she’d dealt with rose up and hit her like a sledgehammer to her chest. She’d always supported Autumn, no matter how rash and outrageous the ask. But Cleo was right, it was time to put herself first.
“Why don’t you ask Randy?”
“And have him think I’m a gold digger? No way. Plus, I don’t want him to know just how bad my credit is and that I’m practically broke.”
“Aren’t those things people talk about when they’re going to move in together?”
“People with money don’t talk about money. They just assume that everyone else has it.”
Summer had assumed the same thing about Wes. But the more she’d gotten to know him, the more she’d realized that his quest for success had become more about taking care of his brother than a money grab.
“But you don’t have money.”
“But I will.” Autumn grabbed Summer’s hands. “I promise you I’m going to make this a success, just like your shop.”
Summer wanted to laugh. She was one grand opening away from going under. Not that she wanted her family to know that. And now she had a plan of action, which hopefully meant she wouldn’t have to tell them ever.
God this was a mess. An Autumn-made mess. Or had Summer played an unknowing role in it? She never should have lent her sister the money with expectations of getting it back in the allotted time. She’d known in her gut it was a risk, but she’d taken that risk because love trumped everything. Her mom and aunt had loved Summer enough to give her a shot at her dreams. What kind of hypocrite would she be to deny her sister another few weeks?
“If you promise to tell Randy the truth, I’ll think about giving you a short extension on the loan.”
Autumn pulled Summer into her arms and rocked her excitedly back and forth. “You’re the best sister ever!”
Yeah, the best.