Chapter 13
13
H ow bad would it look if your attorney called in sick?
It wouldn’t look professional.
Especially if Adrian shows up and I don’t.
People could look at him as the better attorney.
I have to suck it up for the sake of my career and attend the birthday party.
Rhett lives in the same neighborhood as my grandmother. It’s the wealthiest subdivision in Blue Beech, but his home is smaller compared to the others. I’m sure the HOA will be all over his ass about his poorly manicured lawn.
I turn off my car, groan, and text the XOXO, Gossip Girl chat.
Me: I’m going in. Wish me all the luck.
My phone immediately vibrates with replies.
Callie: Good luck! You got this.
Amelia: Sending you my love. If anyone says anything rude, I’ll knee them in the balls next time I see them. If it’s Rhett, I’ll do it twice.
Mia: Ugh, I can’t believe you didn’t cancel on those assholes.
Ava: Make sure to give Adrian a hello and goodbye hug. Maybe trade some more inside jokes. IYKYK.
Mia: Ava, WTF?
Callie: UM, I DON’T KNOW!
Amelia: Inside jokes? What inside jokes?
Ava: The ones Adrian wrote in a love letter to Essie.
Me: It was not a love letter!
Callie: Aw, love letters are cute! Please tell me he sprayed it with cologne, like in Legally Blonde? That’d be the cutest.
Me: IT WAS NOT A LOVE LETTER!
Ava: You can read it out loud to the class next time we have a girls’ night.
Mia: Can I cancel that night then? Hard pass on anything love-note related. Let me know when we can talk shit about him. I’m already RSVPing to that party.
Callie: I can’t wait until you fall in love, and I can throw it in your face, Mia.
Mia: That will be the day I ask you to plan my funeral.
Amelia: Send a picture of the letter!
Callie: Yeah, proof, or it didn’t happen.
Ava: Oh, it happened! Ugh, I should’ve taken a picture. I apologize for my negligence. I’ll do better next time.
Me: Ava, you’re officially last in line for top friend.
Ava: The line has 4 other people. That’s, like, one whole Kit Kat. I think I’ll be fine.
They’re still texting each other as I slide my phone into my purse. I grab the two birthday cards from the passenger seat, shove them inside my purse, and step out of my car.
I went simple with the gifts for their twins, Wes and Jes. Gift cards to the local bookstore.
A DJ is playing music in the backyard. I’m pretty sure it’s some Kidz Bop version because it just said door when the real lyrics say whore . A woman is dressed up as the Little Mermaid and another as Buzz Lightyear.
Kids are running everywhere, climbing in the bounce house and cannonballing into the pool.
The party is definitely divided.
Brielle’s family is on one side, and Rhett’s is on the other. Although Brielle’s side is smaller than Rhett’s. Rhett is drinking beers with a group of guys we went to high school with. I spot the nanny—Brielle has shown me pictures—next to Rhett’s mother, talking.
I drop the cards on the present table and head in the direction of Brielle and her mom.
“Thank you for coming, Essie,” Rita says with a smile when I join them at their table.
I wasn’t that close with Brielle growing up. She was a cheerleader and sporty, while I was a nerdy gamer. But we did attend a lot of the same birthday parties and girl outings.
Brielle is on one knee, talking to a hysterically crying kid and pointing toward the jump house.
She glances at her mom. “Can I get your help for a minute?”
Rita pulls herself up from the chair. “Of course.”
She and Brielle scurry off, and not knowing what else to do, I sit .
There’s an eerie sense of someone watching me.
I glance around the yard, and my gaze collides with Adrian’s. He’s at a table with an older couple. He nods, listening as they speak, but his attention is half focused on me.
Goose bumps crawl up my arms, and I run my hand over my jacket sleeves.
Has he been watching me since I got here?
He says something to the couple, and they burst into laughter. The woman taps his hand in a kind gesture, and he stands. Adrian waves to them and grabs two drinks—one with a princess theme and the other Toy Story —and a knot forms in my stomach when he starts walking in my direction.
He sets the drinks down on the table and grips the back of the chair beside me. “Is this seat taken?”
“No,” I say, keeping my voice low. “But I’m enjoying a moment of silence and not accepting chair neighbors.”
“What if I want to talk about our clients?”
Eyeing him suspiciously, I motion for him to go ahead. He pulls out the chair, sits, and directs all his attention on me.
“Sooo …” I drag out the word. “What about our clients?”
Other than the fact that they’re a hot-mess express.
“I forgot.” He fights back a smile, and I narrow my eyes at him. “Plus, I’ve also heard it’s unprofessional to speak legalities at parties. Serious conversations are for boardrooms. Parties are for fun.”
I stare at him in annoyance. “Since you lied about your reasoning for sitting and you’re not going to speak legalities with me, shouldn’t you be on the other side of the party? We’re the Anti-Rhett Club over here.”
“I think you know I’m not a Rhett fan.” He slides the princess cup closer to me.
“God, he’s such an asshole,” I groan.
“I can deal with assholes. It’s part of the job. But the shirts? Those are what I’m struggling with. ”
I throw my head back, laughing.
Rhett is dressed in another one of his Hawaiian shirts, this one a neon green.
I’m never one to knock someone’s sense of style. I’m all about self-expression. But he always looks like he’s ready for someone to shove a margarita in his hand and a lei around his neck. It makes him look fun, and he’s far from fun.
“I’m telling Brielle to ask for all the flower shirts in the divorce,” I tell Adrian before motioning toward the table. “Jot that down somewhere.”
“He’d probably give her the house before sacrificing the shirts.”
“Thank you for that inside information. Please tell Rhett he has twelve days to vacate the premises.”
“Nope, I told you, we don’t speak legalities at parties.”
I cross my arms. “What do we talk about, then?”
He drums his fingers along his chin. “How about what you’re doing later tonight?”
“Eh, probably burning your inside jokes note,” I say more teasingly than I should have. I gulp, realizing my mistake, and grab the cup. My lips pucker at the sweet strawberry lemonade when I take a sip.
He smiles in amusement. “Why would you do that?”
“Ava read it and ratted me out to my friends, and now, they want to read it.”
“It’s pretty much written in code. They won’t understand it.”
“Do you honestly think they won’t decode a Taylor Swift lyric?”
“Fair point.” He looks around, draping his arm along the back of my chair. “What was your favorite birthday party growing up?”
There’s a brief silence before I answer. I didn’t walk into this party expecting to have a conversation with Adrian. Though this is how it was in the past too .
We’d spend hours asking each other question after question.
“When we were ten, River let his friend use my video game controller. It was decked out and hard to find, and I’d spent days gluing rainbow rhinestones onto it in a specific pattern. His friend ended up being a sore loser and threw my remote into the pool, ruining it. I refused to speak to River for a week, and our party was that weekend. I insisted we have separate ones. With that short of time, my parents decided the only thing they could do was hold parties on opposite sides of the yard.” I laugh and can’t stop myself from grinning at the memory.
“River convinced my friends to ditch my party and go to his side. I was furious, but when I stomped over to pour punch over his head, I found it was all a setup. He’d put up a table with a decorate your own controller station. And that year, his gift to me was a controller, the same as I’d had, with the same rhinestone design. My mom said he had stayed up all night working on it.”
Sure, as twins, River and I fought, but we never stayed angry with each other for long. One of us would end up sliding a goofy note under the other’s door, or my mother would help us bake the other’s favorite dessert as an I’m sorry .
“I’m a little disappointed you never showed me your rhinestone skills,” Adrian says. “I had plenty of stuff we could’ve decked out in my dorm room.”
I chuckle. “My brother definitely would’ve known something was up then.”
“The rhinestone artwork would’ve confirmed we were dating.”
I wince at the word dating .
We never used the term, but our actions fit the definition in every way. It was nice having our hangouts and conversations in secret sometimes. It was something that only belonged to us.
We were too busy and didn’t want to put a label on anything between us.
We were Adrian and Essie .
No labels. No devotions. No expectations.
I gulp as we stare at each other.
Adrian’s smile is contagious, and like a yawn, you can’t stop yourself from doing the same.
This is so much like old times.
When everyone and everything else faded.
Our trance is broken when a ball flies over our heads.
“Sorry!” a kid yells, sprinting toward us to retrieve the ball and throwing it in the air before catching it. “My bad.”
“What’s your favorite birthday memory?” I ask Adrian.
“My eleventh birthday. My mom and abuela took me to Puerto Rico to meet my family there. My abuela gave me a tour of where she and my abuelo had lived before she moved to the States. It was eye-opening and taught me a lot about my family and what to be grateful for.”
A twinge of sadness passes through me. Adrian never met his father or grandfather. One night, he told me how he wished he could’ve known them, even if for a day, for the memories.
I can’t stop myself from reaching toward him and resting my hand on his. He uses his free hand to cover mine and squeezes it.
“I miss this,” he whispers.
“Miss what?”
“Talking with you.” His thumb runs over my hand. “You’ve always been a comfort to me, Essie. Like home, where I belong. When we shared the highs and lows of our lives, it always put me at ease. No one knows me as well as you do. I don’t think anyone ever will.”
This is dangerous.
Not only is it bad for my heart, but people might also be watching.
Brielle or Rhett might see there’s more to Adrian and me than simply two attorneys against each other.
“Time for cake!” a kid screams.
I yank my hand out of his hold and fall back in my chair .
Disappointment crosses Adrian’s features as I wipe my palm over my face.
Maybe taking this case against him wasn’t such a good idea.
My goal was to win, but now, my goal is to protect my heart from him.