CHAPTER TEN
The morning after the dance, the world looked too ordinary. Frost-tipped lawns glittering under the sun, cars idling down Main Street, the faint smell of coffee and brine—all of it so normal that my chest ached.
Teddy texted me to meet him at Bluebell Point.
He sat on the tailgate of his Jeep when I got there, hair pushed back under a cap, fixated on the screen of his camera. He looked up when he heard the sand crunching beneath my boots, and for a second, it almost felt as if nothing had changed.
“You were right,” he said. “About the beach.”
“Huh?”
He smiled faintly, eyes trained on the water beyond the lighthouse. “Got into the program in Santa Barbara. They called this morning.”
The words twisted around my stomach like barbed wire. “That’s great,” I managed, after a beat.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “It is.”
I waited for him to say, “We’ll figure it out,” but the silence stretched as thin and brittle as ice. The waves slapped against the narrow peninsula’s craggy face, the frigid ocean wind nipping my cheeks.
“So, California,” I said, forcing a smile. “That’s… far.”
He peered at me then, his expression soft with something dangerously close to regret. “You’re going to NYU,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“I told you I was thinking of deferring,” I said quietly. “Staying another year.”
He froze, eyes flicking away. “Margot—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” I cut in. “But it’s just one year, and—”
“M, no.” His voice gentled, but there was something final in it. “You can’t plan your life around me.”
I laughed, sharp and small. “That’s not what I’m doing.”
He studied me, and I hated the look in his eyes—the mix of pity and something like guilt.
“I thought we—” I started, but a gust of wind swallowed the rest.
He set the camera aside and stood, close enough that I could see the tiny freckles along his nose. “You’re one of my best friends,” he said quietly. “You know that, right?”
The words shouldn’t have hurt. “Yeah,” I said. “I know.”
He hesitated, his hand twitching at his side before he stuffed it into his pocket. “You’re meant for bigger things than this town,” he said, almost too softly to hear. “I don’t want to be the reason you don’t go.”
I blinked, confused. “What does that even—”
“I don’t want this to get complicated,” he interrupted, louder, voice breaking just a little.
I nodded, because I couldn’t speak.
He reached out anyway, brushing his thumb over my wrist—the same spot he’d held at the dance the night before. “We’ll still talk,” he promised, and smiled that half-smile that already felt like goodbye.
“Sure,” I whispered.
But we both knew we wouldn’t.
He left that afternoon for a campus visit, and I went home and reopened the acceptance letter I’d been hiding under my pillow.
By the end of the week, I’d told everyone I was leaving for New York early. They clapped me on the back with congratulations and expressions of sympathy for poor Teddy, who was no doubt the victim of my big-city aspirations.
I spun it like a dream come true, not the aftermath of one that had fallen apart.
???
PRESENT DAY
I drew a steadying breath and met my own eyes in the mirror.
My dark hair was slicked back into a high ponytail, as crisp as the freshly pressed suit I donned for the occasion. I hadn’t worn it since I crash landed back in Bluebell Cove, and the patent leather heels seemed to squish my toes more than usual, but it still felt like armor to me.
Nodding to myself, then rolling my eyes—because, who did I think I was?—I draped my favorite wool coat over my shoulders and snatched my purse from the bed.
I’d spent every waking moment of the last twelve hours pushing the creeping pandemonium into the furthest corners of my mind.
My estranged father, Teddy, and my mother’s apparent disinterest in her only child.
All I had to do was drag them into their neatly labeled boxes and shove them somewhere deep and dark.
The idealized version of Candice that lived in my brain—the only one I could afford without a regular paycheck—definitely approved of this behavior. She even called it “totally normal” and a “completely healthy coping mechanism”.
I pushed the door to the Morning Bell open, features steeled into an unbothered mask as my gaze swept across the cafe. When it fell on the far corner, the one we affectionately deemed “our corner” in high school, my stomach twisted back into the knots I’d carefully unraveled all night.
Serena Zayas hadn’t seen me since we stumbled into each other’s paths in New York a couple years ago.
As per usual, she was all ease and grace, draped in her own designs that could usually be seen on the youngest members of Manhattan’s upper echelon.
Somehow, she’d convinced me to join her and her new boyfriend for dinner that evening.
There was no point in sugarcoating it: I hated him.
After ordering my coffee, and wasting too much time dawdling at the bar, I cleared my throat and made my approach.
“Margot!” she greeted, slipping gracefully from the couch, all long legs and not an ounce of clumsiness. Serena oozed an impossible amount of sophistication, shoulders swathed by a striped collar peeking from her sweater and a silk scarf around her neck, tied with the ideal degree of nonchalance.
I returned her hug with an admirable attempt at a smile.
“You look so chic, as always,” she said with a gasp, clutching my shoulders. “Who is this?”
“Armani,” I replied. Double-breasted and tailored to perfection—the gift I bought myself for my biggest promotion.
That’s when I noticed the eyes glued to my face. Georgie, perched in an armchair with a straw planted between her lips, and Teddy, one long arm stretched across the back of the couch. My cheeks flushed with an unwelcome amount of warmth before I tore myself away.
“Unfortunately, Wes couldn’t make it,” Serena breathed, floating back to her seat beside Teddy and languidly swinging one leg over the other.
I took a fortifying sip of my coffee before sliding into the chair beside Georgie. “It was a bit last minute, S,” I muttered.
“But that’s alright,” Georgie chimed in, “We’re just happy to see you.”
“So.” I squinted at her, completely ignoring Georgie’s frantic stare. “When did you get engaged?”
Serena dipped her head and fiddled with the outrageous rock on her finger. “A month ago.”
I knew it.
Georgie’s smile fell. Teddy’s brows raised. I crossed my ankles and proceeded to empty the tiny cup of espresso.
Despite all the many ways Serena and I differed, we were also quite similar at our core.
We’d been equally swept up by our “big-city aspirations”, with no real plans to return to Bluebell Cove on the horizon.
Although, I didn’t think she had anything to avoid—her life in New York was just that good.
I could see one of my own guilt-powered maneuvers a mile away.
“It’s been a whirlwind.” Serena punctuated with a wave of French tips through the air. “When we decided on a wedding date, I thought, ‘There’s nowhere more magical than home.’”
I groaned silently.
Georgie leaned forward. “So, who is it?”
“Jesse Newhouse.”
My stomach turned as they launched into a giddy conversation about her ring and something called a wedding theme.
Two years ago, the wannabe future Congressman spent our entire dinner flashing an egregiously sparkly Rolex and checking his reflection in his wine glass every few minutes.
And to top it off, I caught his eyes wandering on more than one occasion when he thought he was being discreet.
I was positive it wouldn’t last—Serena had real depth, and a level of quiet poise that made him appear cartoonishly garish in contrast.
When I retreated to my taxi and watched him pull her into a sloppy kiss by the valet stand, I thought I’d never see him again. I’d been wrong far too often lately.
I glanced up from my empty coffee cup and met Teddy’s gaze. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been studying me with that focused expression, the one that made everything else melt away into a hazy blur.
When had he gotten so good at hiding his thoughts? And why did I want to know what he was thinking?
“You two.” Serena jolted me from my daze with a demure grin and a shake of her head. “You were something else.”
My fingers curled into my palms.
Serena Zayas, with her flare for the arts, also had a soft heart that frequently veered toward a tendency for naivete.
She had been completely aghast when Teddy and I parted ways, claiming for at least an entire year later that we could’ve made long distance work.
I never managed to confess that she was directing her protestations at the wrong person.
I preferred to craft a reality where I was unfeeling and cold; the alternative—the truth—was a lot less fun.
Teddy rubbed the back of his neck and murmured, “Not now, S.”
“Oh, please—that was seven years ago. Surely we’ve all moved on by now.” A twinkle appeared in her green eyes. “I know Margot has.”
Georgie shifted in her seat. I devoted every ounce of my focus on keeping my face schooled into insouciance. Teddy’s gaze narrowed a fraction on Serena’s profile.
“What does that mean?” he replied.
“Well—” She paused to adjust her scarf, which felt more like it was for dramatic effect. “Margot and I ran in adjacent circles in New York. Let’s just say: the men found her elusivity to be irresistible.”
My mouth fell open before I had the good sense to snap it shut.
I could feel the deep blush coloring my cheeks as I smoothed my pants and avoided meeting Teddy’s stare.
Whatever brand of fiction Serena was subscribed to, it was certainly an incredibly generous account of my love life in recent years.
“Serena, that’s—”
“I’m only being honest,” she sighed, cutting me off. “There’s no need to be modest among friends.”
Somewhere, under a heap of ashes, my real love life filed a defamation suit.
Georgie, clearly enamored by the tangled web of lies Serena was weaving, joined in with a, “Was it anyone we know? Margot doesn’t tell me anything.”
Okay, well, apparently everyone was diving headfirst into hyperbolics.
“I really shouldn’t say.”
Finally—the nightmare ended.
Just when I could feel my heart rate stabilizing, Serena motioned for her to come closer. Georgie eagerly scooted her chair with a discordant scrape. Even Teddy, features inscrutable, leaned onto his knees.
“Hypothetically speaking, one of the men might’ve been descended from Hollywood royalty.”
I subsequently choked on nothing.
She gave no room for responses, rising from the couch with a sweep of her hands as if she wielded a fairytale wand. “We should go before we lose the light.”
“Go where?” I all-but wheezed.
Serena smiled. “Scouting for wedding venues, of course.”
I stood, my mind instantly reeling with a thousand excuses. She was faster.
“Georgie told me you’d be free.”
My eye had to have twitched at that. I tossed the woman in question a surreptitious glare, to which she grimaced and tossed her palms to the ceiling in mock-surrender.
“Who’s coming?” I replied through my teeth.
“I have to get to the shop,” Georgie said, snatching her iced latte from the table, already moving toward the door like a blur of copper. “I’m sure you two will have so much fun!” She added brightly, giving Serena a tight hug and wisely avoiding me entirely.
Then she vanished, leaving me with the human alternate-reality-machine and an uncharacteristically quiet Teddy.
Any attempt at an argument seemed to be a completely lost cause when Serena began ushering me to the door. All I could manage was to wrap my coat back around my shoulders and grip my purse with clammy fingers.
The cool air nipping my face shook me from my stupor.
“What was that?” I hissed as I followed her outside.
Serena plucked a set of keys from her bag. “Please, Margot. I saw you two making eyes at each other as if no one else even existed.”
That confirmed it. She’d lost her head somewhere between Manhattan and Bluebell Cove.
“Do you need glasses or something?” I snapped, hugging my coat tighter against a gust.
She pursed her lips and held up a single finger. “Just wait.”
“Look, Serena, I don’t know what Georgie told you, but I actually have a very busy day planned.”
By her squint in return, she didn’t believe a word. And I didn’t blame her—I could hear the wobble in my voice, plain as the symphony of ringing bells as doors shut and swung open up and down Main Street.
“You’re going to want to cancel,” she whispered, grinning somewhere over my right shoulder.
“What—”
I turned on my heel, and there was Teddy, looking somewhat breathless as he finished pulling on a sherpa-lined trucker jacket. “I’m coming,” he explained with a bright smile, flicking the strap of his leather camera bag over his shoulder. “For Travel and Taste.”
Something sour washed over me.
Serena motioned us to her car, a shiny black rental waiting in a nearby parking spot that seemed more like what a President might be escorted in. Teddy brushed by too close to my liking, shooting me a lopsided grin that was nothing if not devastating.
See, if I wasn’t unemployed, I wouldn’t be stuck on a day trip with my ex and our meddling friend.
I really needed a job.