4. Sydney
4
SYDNEY
“Hey, doll!”
Sydney held the door open as she leaned in for air kisses with her oldest and dearest friend. “Thanks for stopping by. I know it’s early.”
“Nonsense,” Amelia said, waving away Sydney’s concern. The ends of her leather and silver bracelets dangled from her light brown skin with the motion. “Of course, I want any excuse to see my best friend for the little while she’s in town.”
Sydney tried to hide the slight flinch her face made at the mention of the amount of time she’d be there.
She and Amelia had been friends since Amelia’s family moved to New Orleans from London in the middle of fourth grade. Their teacher sat Amelia beside Sydney with encouragement to make her feel welcome and help her with procedures and such.
Sydney immediately adored the girl’s British accent and her knack for mischief. Sydney had never been one for mischief, and she discovered she liked it.
As they grew older, they were inseparable, always making sure they had matching required college courses and matching accessories. Subtle, so no one would notice. They even got matching nose rings, which Sydney had let close up once she was hired at the accounting firm in San Diego. They hadn’t asked her to remove it, but she got the impression from her coworkers that it was not appropriate to look such a way when dealing with clients.
It wasn’t just the nose ring, looking back. She’d changed so much of herself, made herself so small in San Diego. No one had directly asked it of her. Not her boss or Doug or anyone else. But she’d changed all the same.
Sydney closed the door behind her and gestured at the deep red vintage couch, her favorite piece of furniture in her parents’ home ever since she was a child. “I know I stayed at your house Christmas Eve, but I wanted to see you again. You know, soak up as much time as I can without everyone else around.”
Her parents were at work, and Stephen would soon be there to whisk her away for lunch or shopping or whatever he had planned for her while he was off work. Her other brother and sister also had plans for her that week, so Sydney was trying to steal any moments of quiet she could get.
Amelia plopped onto the plush gray couch and smiled at Sydney. “So… before you steer this conversation anywhere else, I just have to know. Have you been in touch with that woman from the party?”
From the side, Sydney saw her friend had gotten a new tattoo behind her ear. A music note. Amelia was a drummer for a local pop-punk band, so it made perfect sense. The tattoo was placed on the opposite side of the one with a string of piercings and delicate jewelry tracing the curve of her ear.
Part of Sydney ached that she hadn’t been around or felt free enough to match Amelia’s body adornments. It was indicative of how much they’d grown apart. But being with her this week made Sydney certain that it was only the distance that had separated them. They could still pick right up with their conversations as if no time had passed.
“I told you, I didn’t get her number.” Sydney had said this many times after she and Amelia left the party together. “And I didn’t give her mine. It was just… a thing.”
Amelia let out a small sigh as she tilted her nearly shaved head. “I was hoping that was just a cover or something. You know, like when you want something but don’t want to want something, so you downplay what actually happened.”
“I don’t do that.”
“Oh, yes, you do,” Amelia said. “You always do. Always have.”
“Well, either way, there were no numbers.”
That was the truth. She wasn’t lying to her best friend. She just wasn’t telling the rest of the story.
Amelia narrowed her bright brown eyes as her full, dark lips formed a pout. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Why would you think I’m hiding something?”
The question was now more a matter of how Amelia could know that rather than any sincere attempt to control the situation. She wanted to know her tell.
“I just know,” Amelia said. “I know you . How could I not know there’s more to this?”
Realizing she wouldn’t get the answer she wanted—although she appreciated that their connection was still so strong to give her away—she launched into the rest of the story.
“She’s Stephen’s friend. The one he works with at the aquarium.”
Amelia’s eyes opened and grew owlishly big. “Shut. Up.”
“Yup,” Sydney said with a nod. “I went to meet him yesterday after work, and she came out of the building with him.”
“No. Way.” Amelia shook her head as if she could shake the shock away. “What did you do? What did you say? How did Stephen react? I bet he was absolutely over the fucking moon about it all.”
“I didn’t tell him.”
Amelia blinked hard at her. “What?”
“I didn’t say anything about it. And I kind of gave her a pleading look, and she played along as if we’d never met.”
“Cripes, Syd!” Amelia leaned toward Sydney. Then, in a hushed tone, said, “How’d you get away with that?”
“I don’t know. I just… did. I greeted her as if she were a stranger. Because, really, I barely remembered her name. I just kept thinking how beautiful she was, and how nothing was going to come out of it, so I didn’t connect her name with Stephen’s friend. Katie is such a common name.”
“Right. But how’d you get her to play along?”
“I told you. I gave her a look,” Sydney said. “She seemed uncomfortable, but she rolled with it. Stephen had no reason to suspect we were hiding anything.”
“I can imagine she must have been right unhappy about it,” Amelia said. “I’d be more than unhappy with someone pretending we had no history whatsoever.”
“She had as much reason to hide our encounter as I did. She hadn’t told Stephen about being with me.”
Amelia shook her head. “Stephen would have been tickled by the real story. And you definitely had more at stake than her. Weren’t you supposed to not be in town or something? Like, isn’t that why you spent Christmas Eve at my house?”
“I know, I know,” Sydney said. “That’s why I can’t tell him. That would be the thing that would piss him off.”
“I’d be pissed too,” Amelia frowned as she plopped herself against the back cushion of the couch. “This whole thing is absolutely unhinged, Syd. You know that, right?”
“I know, I know. But It’s done, and I won’t be here long enough to see her again.”
She had to force those last words out. Because she hadn’t even told Amelia her thoughts about possibly moving back home. Just like with her brother, she didn’t want Amelia influencing her decision. She needed to settle into how she felt about it first. Then she’d tell them. Both of them.
“Can we talk about something else?” Sydney said. “Because this is all making me a bit anxious.”
Amelia’s lips curled into a soft smile that reached all the way up to her eyes. “Of course, love. Want to hear the latest band drama?”
“Yes,” Sydney said with a breath of relief. “Please. Give me all of it.”
They picked up with more of what they’d talked about on Christmas Eve. More of the goings on with Amelia’s band and with Sydney’s life in San Diego.
After several minutes, the sound of a key in the front door lock captured both of their attention, and Sydney turned to see her brother enter the room.
When Stephen entered and saw them both on the couch, his expression lit up with delight. He had always had a crush on Amelia, but it was a line neither of them had ever crossed.
Sydney could completely understand. She’d always been attracted to Amelia, too, but younger Sydney thought everyone felt that way about their best friends.
Amelia had once secretly confessed once that she found Stephen attractive. But she said it was too cliche to date her best friend’s brother, and they both knew how much she loathed cliches and couldn’t stand the thought of being one.
“Two of my favorite people in one place,” he said. “For the second time in a week. How lucky is that?”
“You’re always lucky to see me,” Amelia said with a playful wink. “But, alas, you’ll have to wait until our next chance encounter. I have some errands to run today, so I’ll leave you two to your day.”
“You don’t have to go on my account.”
She stood and exchanged air kisses with Stephen. “I’m sure I’ll run into you again. Good to see you.”
And Sydney could tell she truly meant it.
Sydney stood to give her friend one last hug and shut the door behind her. Then she gave Stephen her full attention.
“What are you doing here so early? I didn’t expect you over until dinner with Simon and Savannah.”
“I thought I’d take you out for lunch. Assuming you don’t have other plans.”
“I don’t,” Sydney said. “But my stomach isn’t going to like me very much if you’re taking me to eat every day.”
“San Diego has ruined your palate.”
“There’s good food there. It just isn’t New Orleans food.”
“You can order a salad. I won’t judge you. Much.”
Sydney shook her head at her brother but couldn’t hide her smile. They’d spent most of their lives teasing each other. All four of them. It was good-natured most of the time, so she knew Stephen was just poking at her.
“You know good and well that if I order a salad, I’ll just put fried shrimp or oysters on it, anyway.”
“As you should.” Stephen clapped his hands three times. “Come on. Get your shoes, and grab your bag, and do whatever you need to do so we can get moving. I’m hungry.”
“It’s barely eleven,” Sydney protested as she walked to the room she grew up sharing with Savannah and grabbed her comfy blue flats. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“Pasta or poboys. Your choice.”
“Oh no. My favorite pasta place?”
“The one and only.”
“That’s an impossible choice.” Sydney considered the delicious options. “Didn’t mom say she was making spaghetti for all of us tonight?”
“Yes, but that’s different. No offense to Mom, but this is blackened shrimp fettuccine Alfredo. Your favorite.”
It was her favorite. But it was lunchtime, and she didn’t want something that heavy this early. She definitely didn’t want to eat pasta twice that day.
“Poboys. I’m dying for fried oysters.”
She knew exactly the place he was talking about, too. It was a small shop near City Park. The poboy place her family always picked up from when they were kids, because it was on their dad’s way home from work, and they had the best French bread. Hands down.
“All right then,” Stephen said. “Grab that bag of yours and let’s get going.”
* * *
Sydney and Stephen made their way toward City Park in almost total silence. Stephen drove while Sydney looked out the side window, taking in everything that had changed in her absence, as well as everything that hadn’t.
It had been a few years since she’d flown home for the holidays, and it was hard to see all the businesses that no longer stood where they once had. So many restaurants, especially, had closed their doors. Mostly small ones that had popped up and just couldn’t survive. Some of her favorites were still there. Most notably the poboy shop they walked to a couple of blocks away.
The interior remained covered with wood paneling, and there were still two counters, one for ordering and one for paying. Shelves lined with chips and refrigerators filled with drinks crowded in front of the small shop. Most days, the line reached out onto the sidewalk at peak lunch times.
They ordered and paid, then walked to the back room packed with round wooden tables and large wooden chairs. There, at a table near the edge of the room, sat a familiar face.
“Katie’s here.”
In her head, it was a question, but it came out more like a statement with a hint of surprise.
“Yeah, I convinced her to meet me since she couldn’t hang out with us for dinner Saturday night.”
Sydney wondered if he’d been as unclear with Katie as he’d been with her that they’d all be having lunch together. From the look in Katie’s shocked brown eyes, Sydney was pretty sure this was another surprise.
If she didn’t know any better, Sydney would have thought Stephen was working hard on a setup job. But as far as he knew, Sydney had only ever shown an interest in men. Pushing her on his female best friend made zero sense. Even if he thought for some reason that this would get her back home more often.
Stephen was one of the kindest humans Sydney had ever known, and not just as a brother. But he sort of stumbled through life assuming the rest of the world was as kind and open as he was. Not a bad personality trait, but not exactly convenient at the moment. And not conducive to thinking he planned this to manipulate anything.
“Nice to see you again, Katie.”
Katie’s glossy red lips curled into a delicious smile. “Good to see you again, too.”
See, she could do this. Amelia might have thought this was a bad idea, but Sydney could pull this off without lying to Stephen, and without being completely rude to Katie. She wished she had explained all of this to Stephen’s best friend, but since she didn’t have any way to contact her, all she could do was hope Katie would continue this charade along with her.
For now.
Katie had ordered her own sandwich already but had been waiting for Stephen to arrive before eating. Now that they were all together, everyone unwrapped the crisp white paper to reveal their treasures.
Sydney inhaled the smells of the place and her sandwich—half a fried oyster poboy with a crunchy cornmeal batter, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, and the softest French bread she’d ever tasted, with a delicately crispy exterior. The whole atmosphere smelled like home.
Katie washed down a bite with a sip of Dr. Pepper then asked, “So what else is on your agenda while you’re back here?”
“I’m not sure. All I can think of is food, and Stephen’s been full of suggestions for that.”
“What kind of food? Besides this.”
Their conversation felt weirdly comfortable. Just like the night they met. Almost as comfortable as it had been to have Katie’s mouth against hers.
“Well, Mom’s making etouffée later this week, so that’s covered,” she said quickly to regain control of her thoughts. “Maybe that place with the fried fish. The one with the Friday plate lunches. It’s not too far from here, I think.”
Stephen made a tiny moaning sound and said, “Oh, that was the best fish.”
“Was?”
“I mean, I haven’t been there in years,” said Stephen.
Katie frowned. “It closed last year.”
Stephen put a hand to his heart. “No!”
Katie nodded. “Jo, the singer for Rachel’s band, knows the owner somehow. He retired and didn’t want to sell the business. Didn’t want to see it in anyone else’s hands. So he just shut it down.”
“Now I can’t stop thinking about catfish,” Sydney said. “Although these oysters are helping with the grief.”
“See, if you’d visit more often, we could have gone before it closed.”
“Maybe if you didn’t nag me about not visiting, I’d visit more,” she teased her brother back.
Stephen slapped a hand on the table. “I have the best idea.”
Sydney’s stomach sank. This could not be a good idea, much less the best one. She knew she should have talked to him last night and cleared things up. But she couldn’t figure out a way reveal what she originally wanted to tell him without spilling her other secret.
She was fine with him knowing she was bi. She wasn’t fine with him knowing she’d lied to him.
“We need to have a talk about your best ideas and workshopping them first,” Sydney said.
Katie gave a sly smile that made Sydney’s breath catch in her chest. “Oh, he’s always like this. Still.”
“This is me workshopping them,” Stephen said. “With you two. Except it’s already settled. No workshopping necessary.”
Oh, no.
“What’s settled?” Sydney asked, her stomach dropping with what her gut knew had to be a terrible idea.
“Since I have to work tomorrow, but this one’s off,” he aimed a thumb at his best friend beside him. “Katie can take you on a welcome-back-home tour around the city.”