Chapter 49
49
Lucy
My fingers tear at the sliced bread in my hands, and I pop a small piece into my mouth. I reach for the glass of water sitting in front of me, the condensation dripping into the fancy white cloth draped over the table, and gulp down almost half of it.
“Are you nervous?”
I turn to Dexter sitting next to me and huff a tense laugh. “Understatement of the century.” He chuckles smugly and rubs a hand over my shoulder opposite to him. I take a deep, cleansing breath and warily lift an eyebrow in his direction. “Why aren’t you nervous?”
He shrugs. “What are they going to do? Ground us?”
I roll my eyes and look over at the entrance to the restaurant just as I see Hayden and Nat walk through the heavy glass doors. My heart rate kicks up several notches, and I swear my armpits feel damp.
Dexter and I both stand from our seats at the same time Nat approaches our table, and she and Hayden have the same confused looks on their faces.
“Lucy? What are you doing here? ”
Dexter gently places a hand at my back. I know it’s to reassure me, but it only adds to the anxiety crawling through me when Nat notices his hand placement.
“Seriously, what are you doing here?” she asks again when I don’t answer.
“Why don’t you have a seat,” I urge. She and Hayden take the seats sitting across from me and Dexter, and they both eye us like they’re bracing themselves for bad news.
A waiter approaches our table, placing menus in front of us while murmuring items off the wine list.
“I’m sorry,” Nat tells the waiter, looking impatient and annoyed. “Can we have a moment, please?” The waiter silently nods and walks away, leaving Nat to glare in my direction. “Lucy, please tell me what’s going on.”
I play with the bread on my plate before I look at her and sit up straighter. “So, I, uh…I guess I should start with the fact that I don’t work at Mr. Bean’s anymore. Those early mornings were wreaking havoc on my skin with how little sleep I was getting anyway. And you know how much I struggle with those gross bags under my eyes when I get anything less than eight hours of sleep. So it’s been a total godsend for my skin. I can practically hear the little voices coming from my pores going, ‘Thank you, Lucy! You saved our lives!’” I say that last part in a high-pitched voice like a cartoon character, and Nat looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“You’ve come all the way here from Seattle to tell me you don’t work at the coffee shop anymore?”
Okay, maybe starting with a joke was a bad idea.
“And why are you here with Dexter?”
I sigh and look over at Dexter. He reaches for my hand resting on the table, right where everyone can see, and he gives me a gentle squeeze.
“I, uh…I’ve been in New York. For the past three months.”
“What?! ”
“I rented this micro apartment. Like, ninety square feet, and it came with a hot plate and everything. And then it got robbed. It was horrible. They broke down my door, stole my MacBook, and ruined that sweater I borrowed from you. You know, the baby blue cable knit one with the cherry print? So I, um, called Dexter because we-we, uh, ran into each other.” Nat looks at Dexter like she forgot he was there. He waves and smiles one of those nervous smiles where his bottom teeth are more exposed than his top before she throws a glare at him. “And he let me stay with him until I went to Hawaii for your wedding.”
“I’m so confused. You just randomly woke up one day and decided to quit your job and move to the city without telling me?”
“Not exactly.”
“Okay,” she says, her wide eyes demanding answers. “So…”
I pause, hesitating to tell her the next part. I turn to look at Dexter, and he gives me an encouraging nod. “Remember that internship I told you about?” I ask. “The one Mom told me not to apply to?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I applied for it, even though she didn’t want me to. And I got in. So I quit my job and moved out here since it was for this big ad campaign and they were shooting in Brooklyn.”
Her face softens when she realizes why I didn’t say anything. She reaches across the table for my hand and clutches my fingers. “Lucy.”
“And I’m so happy I did because it was so amazing,” I continue through a sudden burst of emotions making my voice waver. “I learned so much, and they’re going to offer me a job. Like, a real job. And I don’t have to keep filling out those stupid job applications and send my resume to a hundred different places I don’t even want to work at.”
I look up at Nat and see her looking at me with apologetic eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Nat. I wanted to tell you, but when you told me it was good I didn’t apply…I didn’t know how to tell you without letting you do wn. I was already such a disappointment to Mom and Dad. I couldn’t keep disappointing more people.”
“Lucy…” she cries softly. “I didn’t mean…I’m so sorry. I was only thinking about what was best for you. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you were letting me or anyone down.”
“It’s not your fault,” I assure through a shaky voice. “I just couldn’t pass up on this opportunity, and I knew Mom wouldn’t understand. I was scared and worried at the time, but I understand now, this was something I needed to figure out on my own.”
A rumble of laughter at a table nearby brings us back to reality, where we realize we’re in a public space and people can see our tears and sad faces. We both quickly dab at our eyes with our fingers, Hayden and Dexter looking over us in awkward silence, before Nat smiles at me. “Okay,” she says, letting out an embarrassed chuckle. “So, um…why are you here with Dexter?” she asks, looking between me and Dexter.
Silence falls over the table. “We’re sort of a, uh…thing,” Dexter finally says, answering her question for me.
“What?!” This time, Hayden jumps in. He leans forward, bracing his hands on the table, and looks at us in shock.
“Surprise,” I say sheepishly.
Nat starts laughing, her tears long forgotten, and she clutches Hayden’s arm. “I told you so,” she says in a sing-song voice to Hayden. She faces me with a wide grin. “I told him I saw something between you two in Hawaii.”
“So, uh…um, when did this happen?” Hayden stutters, waving a loose hand across the table.
“While she was staying with me,” Dexter answers. He peers at me thoughtfully before adding, “Actually, I guess it happened way before that.”
“What do you mean, before that?” Nat asks with a confused look on her face .
“We sort of…hooked up, like, three years ago.”
“When?!” Nat shrieks, and a few heads turn in our direction. I swear, this up and down of her emotions is going to give her whiplash.
“When I was visiting,” I answer.
“But how? When did you…” Nat stares off into space like she’s trying to pluck out a moment somewhere in her timeline that involved me and Dexter and us two hooking up.
“After we met at that party you had at your apartment.”
“Ohmigod,” she whispers. Her hands move to her mouth, and she gapes at us in shock. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
Dexter sits up and leans his face toward Nat in an attempt to gain her wavering attention. “Look, Nat. We didn’t mean to keep things from you guys, but things were a little complicated between us. Lucy was living all the way in Seattle, and I’ve been here. We didn’t know what was going to?—”
“Wait a minute,” Nat interrupts, raising a hand in front of her. “What do you mean was ?” She turns to look at me for an answer.
“I moved out here. While you two were on your honeymoon,” I explain. “I’m staying with Dexter for now. At least until I figure things out work wise.”
She’s speechless. I can see it in the way her head swivels to face Dexter, then Hayden, and then back to me with her mouth hanging open.
“We talked about moving to LA since Lucy’s work is going to be there, but I can’t right now, not while Janet starts her radiation therapy, but we’re figuring things out a day at a time.”
“Is she okay?” Hayden asks.
Dexter nods. “She got admitted again, but she’s stable now. It was kind of scary at first, but she’s finally off the ventilator, and they moved her out of the ICU. I think her doctor’s going to discharge her in a week or so, depending on some more test results. ”
We’ve been shuttling back and forth from Dexter’s apartment to the hospital since I moved and settled in. I watched as Janet regained a lot of her strength and her doctors grew more hopeful about her prognosis. She was ecstatic when we told her I moved into Dexter’s apartment, and she’s been calling or texting me every day since. While she isn’t in the clear in any way, it’s still a good sign that she’s fighting this. She needs as much of her strength as possible before she starts her radiation therapy after she’s discharged.
I look at Nat and watch as she still continues to process everything. “I already talked to Mom,” I start to explain. “She knows I’m out here with Dexter. I told her about the job and everything, and she’s really happy about it. And she’s so relieved we’re all in the same city.”
“Ohmigod,” Nat says through a sharp gasp. “We’re all living in the city.” She grins at me, and her eyes light up. “You, me, and Carmen. We all live in the same freaking city. We’re in the same time zone, and I don’t have to fly across the country to see you!”
I laugh. “Yeah,” I say, grinning at her.
“We have to tell Carmen! We should go straight to her place after this. She’s going to be so excited!”
“Oh,” I say. “About that…”