Chapter 50
50
Lucy
six months later
“The champagne is in the freezer,” I yell to Dexter from Janet’s living room. “You should take it out now. It’s been in there for about an hour.”
“What?” He emerges from the kitchen, a half-deflated balloon in his hand and his voice sounding like one of the chipmunks.
Nat and I both dissolve into giggles while Nat pins one side of the large banner that reads CONGRATULATIONS in big block letters. I’m on the other side, my arms getting tired while we determine the banner’s level. “I said to get the champagne out of the freezer,” I tell Dexter. “And don’t get high off the helium. Or your voice will stay that way.”
He sucks in a healthy serving of helium. “That’s an urban myth,” he claims in his silly voice as he turns toward the kitchen.
I tack the corner of the sign and step down from the chair I was standing on, admiring my handiwork. “Now we just need to set up the food once Hayden gets here with it,” I say to Nat .
She glances at the clock. “What time did Charles say they were heading over?”
“In about an hour,” I answer. “He’s treating Janet to some cronuts as her first post-treatment treat, and then they’re coming home. I just told him not to seem too eager or she’s going to catch on.”
After two weeks in the hospital and once Janet’s recovery stabilized her enough to be discharged, she came home on oxygen and further follow-up visits. She completed eight weeks of radiation therapy, fighting an unfair fight, one that felt like the opponent always had an upper leg. And she won. After more waiting, more tests, and even more waiting, we got the final verdict two days ago: remission. She’s still weak, recovering from the aftereffects of her hospitalization and radiation therapy, but she’s returning back to her old self. Enjoying company, laughing and joking with me, teasing Dexter about his pouty heartbroken state before I moved in with him.
There’s a buzz on the intercom, and we all jump. “They’re early!” Dexter screams, bolting out of the kitchen to the door.
“Honey,” I call, trying to calm him down. “They aren’t going to use the buzzer in their own apartment. It’s probably Hayden with the food.”
Dexter smiles sheepishly at me. “Oh, right.” He buzzes the door and surveys the room. The balloons—the ones Dexter didn’t inhale—are scattered throughout. The banner, gold and glittery, is placed so it’s the first thing Janet sees when she walks through the door. And we’ve set up the cake on the coffee table, the words “Fuck Cancer” written in cursive over the frosting.
There’s a low knock at the door, and when Dexter opens it, we find Hayden, his arms full of three large aluminum trays carrying something that smells absolutely delicious. “ Jeez . I almost got attacked by a wiener dog that had the face of a pitbull. That was a really weird mix. ”
He strains against the weight before he slumps the trays on the kitchen counter, and he and Nat busy themselves to organize them neatly over the space.
“Thank you for helping,” Dexter croons into my ear, sidling up behind me with his arm wrapped around my waist.
“As if I would miss this.”
He plants a kiss on my neck. “Still, you must be so tired after your flight.”
I turn to wrap my arms around his neck. “Totally worth it.”
“Ew!” We both turn toward the kitchen, where we catch Nat launching a disposable plastic cup in our direction, and it lands square on Dexter’s head. “No making out with my sister!”
“How about after this we go home and take a nice long nap?” Dexter asks, ignoring my sister.
“A nap? Or…”
He smirks. “I mean, we can do other?—”
I clamp a hand over his mouth. “She’s going to throw the whole champagne bottle at you next.”
“I really don’t care,” he claims, planting a kiss on my mouth, proving that my sister’s threats mean squat to him. “I only get to have you for a week before you go back to LA.”
This is what our lives have been like for the past six months. After Elevate finally reached out to me with a job offer, I countered with conditions. I told Ryan I wouldn’t be able to relocate to Los Angeles. I told him I’d be willing to work out what I can to work for the company while preparing myself for the possibility that they might turn me down. But, as it turns out, Elevate was set to open a corporate location in Manhattan…in thirteen months. So Ryan and his team agreed to have me start at the Manhattan branch when it opens. I’ll be handling so much more than I thought with so many future projects for me to head. Ryan and the HR team ex plained how I’d be managing some of those projects, and in the meantime, I could take on projects in LA so I’m prepared when the new branch opens.
So until that happens, I’ve been shuttling back and forth from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Dexter and I spent Christmas in New York City and New Year’s in LA together. We flew back home with Hayden, Nat, Carmen, and David just after the holidays to celebrate my parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary, and now I’m back here to commemorate Janet’s new lease on life.
“So I have an idea,” I say in a low voice.
“Does it involve your vibrator? I charged it after you left?—”
“No,” I scold, though unable to hide my laugh. He laughs too. That boyish smile I missed before Janet got the news that she was finally in remission is back, front and center. “I was thinking, maybe you can come to LA with me?”
“Next week?”
“Just the weekend,” I clarify. “I can take you to that new croffle shop near The Grove.”
“How they mixed a croissant and a waffle together baffles me. Like that wiener-pitbull mix.”
“So yeah?”
“Yeah,” he answers, his brows bouncing up and down.
“Really?”
He smiles, pulling me closer to him. “Have you not learned yet that I can’t say no to you?”
“Dex,” Hayden calls from the kitchen. Dexter pulls away to face Hayden. “You just got a message. It’s Charles. They’re on their way.”
He turns to me, grinning widely. “Let’s get this celebration started.”