8. Cora
8
CORA
“ G ood, you’re home!” Jennifer called as I walked through the door. I could see the back of her head over the back of the couch from where I stood in the doorway. The Sound of Your Heart , Jennifer’s favorite Korean soap opera, was playing on the TV. “Jo Seok’s trying to cook for Ae-bong to impress her, and I’m very amused.” Pots were boiling over and flames were shooting up on the TV. “I swear to god this is what the kitchen looks like in Eastfield every time I turn my back.”
My thoughts were as stormy as the boiling pot on the TV, a horrible mix of anger and disappointment. The walk home had done little to soothe my agitation, leaving me free to replay the conversation between Dominic and Aiden over and over in my head. I toed off my shoes, dropped my bag, and headed for the couch.
It was Jennifer’s night off, and she sat there in her favorite, worn Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas, the melodramatic subtitles flashing across the TV screen, with an open box of pizza on the coffee table next to the tube of raw cookie dough from the fridge. Oh boy …These were all her guilty pleasure indulgences at once. Truthfully, she’d been indulging more and more lately. Whenever Jennifer talked about Eastfield, she was either stressed or apathetic, and I’d started to worry she’d lost her enthusiasm for cooking.
Jennifer looked up from the TV and offered me the spoonful of cookie dough that had been on the way to her mouth seconds ago. She frowned, perhaps noticing the look on my face, and immediately hit pause on the episode. “Uh oh!” She stuffed the spoon in her mouth and sat up straighter, patting the spot on the couch next to her. “What’s wrong?” she demanded, the words muffled by cookie dough. “What happened? Who do I have to hurt? Just tell me and I will make their lives a living hell.”
I sank down on the cushion next to her, laughing without any real humor. “Work was shit.”
“What? Wait. I thought you said you liked your team. And that the lab actually is incredible. And that Allie was around for chats.”
“Yes, okay, all that’s great. I guess the work itself wasn’t shit. I made good progress today sorting out the ingredients I want to play with in some of the drinks. It’s more just something I overheard at work today that sucked.”
“Sucked” was actually an understatement.
Jennifer made a noise of concern. “This doesn’t sound good.”
“It wasn’t,” I muttered. Once I started talking—well more like venting—I couldn’t stop, giving Jennifer a blow-by-blow account of the conversation I’d eavesdropped on between Aiden and Dominic. My voice trembled at one point, and I hated how much I’d let it affect me.
By the time I’d finished, Jennifer’s expression had soured, her brows pinched, her nose wrinkled. I leaned back against the couch, surprisingly exhausted as old feelings of betrayal spilled free. “I just couldn’t stop myself from connecting it all back to Levi and the way he ended things with me last year.”
Jennifer wrapped her arms around me, smelling like pepperoni and chocolate chips as she gave me a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s just remember who’s to blame in that scenario,” she said firmly. “Levi. You didn’t do anything wrong. The two of you were together for fifteen damn years. All the way back to high school.”
All the way back to after Aiden dumped me, when I’d been so hurt and confused and had needed someone to make me feel like I was desirable, lovable. Levi had been that someone…right up until he wasn’t anymore.
“Levi never gave you any hint that he wasn’t totally committed to you before he went on that work trip to LA and lost his damn mind,” Jenn reminded me.
I nodded, biting back the swell of emotion that surged up from my chest. It was fine to say that, but I still sometimes wondered if I’d missed red flags. Were there signs that I chose to ignore?
“I think we’ve learned Levi’s the kind of guy who only thinks of himself. And that doesn’t say anything about you, Cora. It says everything about him. Frankly,” Jennifer continued, “I don’t know how you put up with him for as long as you did. He was lucky to have you, and I wish him nothing but blisters and jury duty for the rest of his life.”
I choked on a laugh, blinking back the heaviness in my eyes. “I can’t believe I actually thought he was such a nice guy, like he couldn’t possibly hurt me like Aiden. Goes to show how little I know.”
What was it about me that forced guys to end relationships at the drop of a hat?
“God, men suck sometimes. But hey,” Jennifer said. “Neither of them deserved you. So it’s totally their loss.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Except now here I am, with no Levi, and with annoyingly successful Aiden in my life again. Honestly, if I did have to get stuck with one of them, why did it have to be him?” Levi’s betrayal was the freshest, but at least I knew what had happened there. It sucked that he’d fallen in love with someone else when I thought he was in love with me , but at least he’d been honest about it. I’d probably never know what went wrong with Aiden—and like hell if I was going to ask him after all these years. That would make me look like a desperate fool who was unable to let things go, which wasn’t at all the case. But who could blame me for wanting an answer?
Jennifer nudged my shoulder, chuckling to herself.
“I’m failing to see what’s so funny about any of this.”
“You’re right. It’s not funny. I was just thinking, if you do have to interact with one of your exes on a regular basis, at least you got the walking eye candy. That’s, like, a tiny plus.”
“This isn’t helping,” I said as I fought off a horrendous blush. Yeah, Aiden was a mega-jerk who owned two-million-dollar bottles of liquor, but that didn’t stop him from being the hottest guy I’d ever met. He’d been cute in high school—the big football player type, still getting used to his size and his strength—but damn if he hadn’t aged like fine wine. Or something sexier than wine. Maybe the Macallan Genesis 72-year-old whiskey. God, my cheeks were flaming.
“I’m sorry,” Jennifer said, clearly lost in her own world. “I just can’t get that image of him walking into the bar out of my head.” She groaned. “It’s been sooo long since I’ve had sex. Too long.”
I snorted, plucking at her pilled Pooh-bear pajama bottoms. “Well, maybe if you didn’t spend your days off becoming one with the couch and K-dramas…”
She laughed, and the tension in me eased at the sound. “Fair point,” she said. “But seriously, Cora, don’t let the convo get you down. I say good riddance to Levi. And good riddance to Aiden as soon as you finish this contract. Right?”
I nodded, feeling a flicker of resolve. “I hate feeling like I was fooled again. I really did think Dominic was a decent guy. But you’re right, I need to focus on getting Elixir Free off the ground and making the most of the time I have to use the lab for my Masked Mixer videos.”
“Yes, exactly. You are a successful, badass mixologist. Screw all these guys.” She handed me a slice of pizza. “And screw the way they think it’s fine to just dump women they’ve made commitments to.”
I leaned my head against her shoulder. “You’re really the best.”
“Damn right I am.” She picked up the tube of cookie dough and the remote. “Now would you like to watch some so-bad-it’s-good K-drama with me?”
“Obviously,” I said as Jennifer pressed play on the melodrama hijinks. Dominic and Aiden’s conversation had torn open old wounds, but Jennifer’s pep talk had given me some perspective and reminded me to keep my guard up around them—around Aiden especially. He’d already put me through hell once. I wasn’t about to let him do it again.
Jennifer shoved a glob of cookie dough into her mouth followed by two pieces of pepperoni.
I snorted. “I can’t help but notice that this is your second pizza this week.”
“Yes,” she said, leaving room for my follow-up question.
“Is everything okay? With work, I mean.”
She sighed, staring at the ceiling. “If by ‘okay,’ you mean is it the same old bullshit? Then yes.”
“You never used to call it the same old bullshit,” I pointed out.
“I know. Or, I guess, I don’t know. It’s just what it is currently.”
I hummed. I didn’t like how flat she sounded, like she was resigned to being unhappy, but I didn’t know what else to suggest. Would taking a break or doing something completely different for a while help? Cooking was what Jennifer did. It’s who she was . Jennifer was to cooking what I was to mixology. Was it that easy for someone to fall out of love with something? Or someone , I thought miserably.
“Oh!” Jennifer said, whacking my arm. “This part is so good. Look!” The smoke detector wailed on the screen. Honestly, if this was what work was like for Jennifer on a daily basis, I couldn’t blame her for being disillusioned with her job.
My phone buzzed, and I fished it out of my pocket, glancing at the screen. “Huh?” I said, sitting up.
“Who is it?” Jennifer asked, not really paying attention.
“I don’t know. Looks like a New Jersey number.”
“Probably spam. Don’t answer it.”
I did answer it. “Hello?”
“Cora?”
“Yes?”
“Hey, girl! It’s Trish Baxter. Well, technically Armitage now,” she said, bubbling with too much enthusiasm. Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader, apparently. “Long time no chat.”
“Hey, Trish,” I said. I hadn’t spoken to her since high school. She was a year ahead of me, and we hadn’t talked at all since her graduation. I was surprised she even had my number. “Yeah, it’s been a hot minute.”
“I totally had to track your mom down so I could ask her for your number.”
Ah, there it was .
“Anyhoo, I’m obviously calling about the high school reunion. Reaching out to a fellow class prez.”
“Right.” I leaned back against the couch. I’d gotten the notice that our reunion was coming up for those of us who’d graduated fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years ago. The high school in our tiny New Jersey town was so small someone had decided individual class reunions were a waste of time, so they’d opted to combine reunions for three graduating years at each event. Technically, that meant Aiden and I were in the same reunion group even though I was two years younger than him. “You know I’m not local anymore, right? Or else I would have offered more assistance.”
“Oh, totally,” Trish said. “I get that. You’re living the NYC dream. Trust me, I was happy to take charge of planning. It’s been so fun getting in touch with everyone again.”
Reunion planning was the responsibility of the class presidents from each grouping, but it was usually understood that if one or more of them was local, they’d handle the bulk of the work. “That’s great.” I still didn’t understand the point of her call.
“I’ve honestly sorted out most of the preparations. Like seriously, the work is ninety-nine percent done. ’Cause it’s, like, three weeks away.”
“Trish, I don’t?—”
“So get this,” she carried on. “Mattie, my husband, he just won a radio contest this morning!”
“That’s really…wow.”
Jennifer shot me a look, trying not to laugh.
“You know what they’re giving us?” Trish continued. “Two tickets for a three-week Caribbean cruise! We leave in two days. Problem is, we won’t be back until the day of the reunion. And I am so sorry about this. Like I really, really hate to dump this on you. But is there any way you can take over the final preparations for the reunion? Like I said, most of the heavy lifting has been done. All you’d have to do is follow up with the vendors, be on call if there are any problems, and oversee the decoration setup the day before. Just little things like that.”
“Oh,” I said. “Umm…”
“I know what I’m asking, but Mattie and I haven’t had time away together since the kids were born.” The peppy Trish faded a bit, her voice laden with exhaustion. “And I need this, Cora. You have no idea how much.”
Well, what could I say without feeling like a total asshole? “I mean, if it’s all just little things?—”
“It is! I swear.”
“Then I guess…” I took a brief pause but couldn’t come up with any way to get out of it. “How can I say no?”
“Great! That’s so great.” Trish whistled with relief. “Really, you are a lifesaver, girl. And everyone is looking forward to the reunion. So many people are coming back for it.”
My mind spun with a thousand thoughts as Trish rattled in my ear. High school. Aiden. The breakup. Organizing the reunion.
“Okay, I should be back by the day of the event,” Trish was saying when I joined reality again. “If not, I might also need you to play greeter and hostess in my absence. But you were always such a people person, that shouldn’t be an issue for you.”
“Right. Sure. Greeter.” I looked around. I should find my notebook and start writing some of these things down…
“I will definitely make this up to you,” Trish said. “Really, Cora. I feel terrible for dumping this on you solo.”
She didn’t sound like she felt all that terrible, but that was probably because she was about to head off to the land of sun decks and tiny umbrella drinks.
“But there really wasn’t anyone else to ask,” Trish said, laughing a bit. “I mean, Aiden’s the other class president from our group, and who the heck knows how to get in touch with a billionaire, right?”