Chapter Sixteen #2
Taylor stopped abruptly. She was torn between walking around the corner right then so they would all know she’d heard or waiting to see what they said. As she hesitated, the decision was made for her.
“I like Avery!” from Sloane. “She’s great!” from Callie. “A little uptight, but not bad” from Nadia. “Avery’s awesome, but Taylor usually has pretty good taste.” That one was from Erica. Taylor wasn’t sure if she’d added that last part because more than one of Taylor’s exes was at the shower, but she was grateful that Erica had stuck up for both her and Avery, and that the general response to Avery had been good. She was also grateful that Avery hadn’t heard all of this. It must have been hard for Avery to come to this shower, filled with people who all knew Taylor well, as her new girlfriend. She’d probably assumed that people would be gossiping about her, but it was one thing to assume that and another to hear it.
“Exactly,” Liz said. “Taylor does have pretty good taste, and Avery is great, but Taylor also never stays with anyone for very long. So how long do we give this relationship?”
Wow, thanks for that, Liz. As Taylor heard the laughter that followed Liz’s question, she got more and more irritated, especially since she could identify most of those laughs. There was Liz’s laugh, Kelsey’s laugh, and—what the fuck?—Erica’s laugh. Erica? Seriously? Why was she laughing at that?
“I say only a few more weeks, if that,” Liz said. “She’s a little too innocent for Taylor, I think. Taylor will get sick of that soon.”
Despite her annoyance, Taylor laughed to herself at the thought of what Avery would say if she heard Liz call her innocent.
“I was going to say she seemed too well-adjusted for Taylor,” Kelsey said. “Not enough drama. I bet this will be over by the end of the month.”
What the hell, Kelsey? Now you couldn’t have torn Taylor away from her eavesdropping spot.
“Kelsey has a point,” Erica said. “And so does Liz. She’s not Taylor’s usual type; she might get bored with Avery.”
There she was with the fucking getting-bored thing again. Why would anyone think Avery was boring? Taylor had never once been bored in her presence!
“I don’t know, Taylor seems to really like Avery,” Sloane said.
Sloane was standing up for her? That was unexpected. Now Taylor felt even more guilty for being a bitch about her.
“You know Taylor, she’s no good at relationships,” Erica said. “I bet this pregnancy will last longer than their relationship.” She paused for a second. “Actually, really: Would anyone bet that their relationship will outlast this pregnancy? If so, raise your hands.”
What the fuck, Erica?
There was lots of laughter, and then silence, presumably while people were raising their hands. God, Taylor wished she could see through these damn bushes. After a few moments, Erica laughed. “Okay, if their relationship outlasts this pregnancy, each one of us will buy the two of you dinner. If it doesn’t, you two have to buy the rest of us dinner. Nothing too fancy, no French Laundry here, we don’t want to bankrupt you two!”
Everyone laughed in agreement, while Taylor just stood there, stunned. Not only had Erica suggested this bet, but she was on the side betting against Taylor. It was one thing when she and Taylor bet about Taylor’s love life, but this was different.
She couldn’t believe that, of everyone there, the one person who she knew was on her side was Sloane.
“Okay, we have a few more presents!” Speaking of Sloane, she was apparently eager to turn the conversation back to the actual point of the shower. Taylor turned and walked back toward the parking lot, but Avery was already coming toward her.
“Sam had to go,” Avery said. “What took so long?”
Taylor opened her mouth to tell Avery everything she’d just overheard, when a few guests walked out of the party toward the parking lot. Shit, she couldn’t do this here, now.
“Oh. Um, I had to run inside to go to the bathroom, sorry.” She grabbed Avery’s hand and walked back into the garden and forced a grin onto her face.
“What did we miss?” she asked. She was pleased to see that Erica didn’t meet her eyes, but that didn’t really make her feel better.
Taylor got through the rest of the shower by mostly keeping herself busy cleaning up and helping Sloane with the presents, but every time she looked at Erica, she got angrier and more hurt. No, betrayed. Erica should be on her side. She was always on Erica’s side. And she’d thought Erica had always been on hers—had she been lying to herself about this over the years?
It hurt that Erica thought of Taylor’s dating life as fodder for gossip, as something to bet about with other people, to laugh about with other people. It hurt that Erica thought of Taylor and her life as so juvenile that she would make fun of her and her relationship like that. It hurt that Erica had so little respect for her.
She didn’t say anything to anyone about the conversation she’d overheard; this was Erica’s fucking baby shower after all. She didn’t want to make a scene in the middle of it. But once the guests left and it was just her, Sloane, Avery, and Erica, she felt like she was going to snap.
“Sloane, why don’t you take Erica home,” Avery said. “Taylor and I can handle the rest of the cleanup. The guest of honor should probably get some rest.”
Bless Avery. If Taylor had said that herself, she absolutely would not have been able to keep an edge out of her voice.
“Yeah, we can take it from here,” Taylor said, and was relieved that her voice sounded normal. “It’s hot out here, get yourself back inside in some air-conditioning and unpack all of your presents.”
Sloane looked uncertain.
“You’re right, I should get her home, but I don’t want to leave you two to do all the cleanup! I can come back after I’ve dropped her off.”
Taylor draped an arm around Sloane.
“Sloane, you’ve already done so much for this shower. Go home and relax, really. Thank you so much for everything.” She pulled Sloane into a side hug. She meant that far more than Sloane would ever know.
Sloane looked down at her, a hesitant smile on her face.
“It’s been great doing this with you, Taylor. And you, too, Avery. Thanks for being so welcoming.” Oh great, now Taylor felt guilty for how not at all welcoming she’d been to Sloane.
“It’s been great, Sloane,” Avery said. “I’ve had so much fun, and everything went so well.” Taylor took a step back so Avery and Sloane could hug. It would have been natural for her to turn to Erica at this point to give her a hug, but she just couldn’t do it. Instead, she grabbed a box from underneath one of the food tables and started stacking dirty dishes in it.
“And don’t worry about the cleanup, Sloane,” Taylor said. “Callie had a hookup with a rental agency for these dishes, so we only have to pack them all up as is and drop them off. And the rest of this stuff, we can clean up easy.”
Please, just let them leave. She wanted to be able to clean up and get out of here before she exploded.
“I’m going to run inside and get another box,” she said. She waved in the general direction of Erica and Sloane. “Bye, guys! Great party, see you both soon!” And then she fled toward the winery building before she’d have to give Erica a hug.
By the time she got back to the garden, Erica and Sloane and all the presents were gone, and Avery was busy stacking chairs together.
“They got everything?” Taylor asked Avery as she filled up another box with dishes and wineglasses.
“I think so,” Avery said, “though I’m sure we’ll find something left behind; it happens at every party.” Avery finished stacking chairs and came over to help her with the dishes. “I hope it’s okay that I sent them home, but you looked like you’d had enough, and even though you seem to have softened toward Sloane, I thought it might be easier if we did this part ourselves.”
Taylor smiled at Avery. She was deeply grateful for her in that moment, which made her rage at Erica even more acute.
“I can’t even tell you how okay it is that you sent them home,” she said. She dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. “Actually, yes, I can and I will, but that’ll wait until after we’ve gotten out of here.”
Avery grinned, with a little raise of her eyebrows. Oh, Avery thought she’d meant something sexual, when she was being completely literal. Did Avery think she only ever thought about sex? Wait. She forced herself to calm down. She was prone to innuendo like that; it wasn’t Avery’s fault for thinking that. And Avery had no idea what had just happened.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s finish cleaning this up so we can get out of here.”
Sloane had done a good job cleaning up the wrapping paper and ribbons and gift bags. For what felt like the thousandth time that day, Taylor mentally blessed Sloane and then laughed at herself. If someone had told her a week ago that she’d send countless blessings to Sloane on the day of the shower, she absolutely wouldn’t have believed them.
“Oh!” Avery picked something up. “Here’s an unopened card for Erica and Sam; it must have fallen behind the table without anyone seeing it.”
“That’s not like Sloane to have missed it,” Taylor said. Avery made a face at her, and Taylor laughed. “No, I wasn’t being sarcastic, I swear!”
Avery slipped the card in Taylor’s back pocket.
“Well, you can give it to Erica the next time you see her.”
Sooner than Taylor would have thought, they were done cleaning up and just needed to bring the folding chairs and tables back into the basement of the winery building. And who should come strolling outside at that moment but Luke.
“How’d the shower go? Need any help?”
“We definitely do,” Taylor said. “Can you help us carry this stuff? Once we finish this, we’re done.”
Luke picked up a folding table in each arm, while Avery and Taylor each grabbed a stack of chairs.
“How is it that you always turn up here at the winery to help out right when we need you, even though you don’t work here anymore?”
Luke grinned.
“Well, at first it was because I was in love with Margot, and now it’s also because I’m in love with Margot.” Taylor and Avery both laughed at him. “Other than that, though, I was out of town and just got back, so I swung by the winery to say hi, since I know she can’t leave until late. But she’s schmoozing with some VIPs, and I saw you two out here, and I thought I might as well make myself useful while I wait for her.” He looked from Avery to Taylor as Taylor opened the door to the basement. “What more do you two have to do other than get the rest of the stuff out there back in here? Because if that’s it, you guys take off, I’ll take care of this.”
“Luke, you don’t have to do that—” Taylor started. But Avery talked over her.
“You’re the best, thank you so much. And yeah, we’ve taken care of everything else, and there are some great leftovers up in the staff kitchen.” She grabbed Taylor’s hand. “Do you have everything?”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t have to—”
Avery tugged her outside.
“Bye, Luke! Thanks again!” she called over her shoulder. She smiled at Taylor as she hurried her toward the parking lot. “Don’t argue, just let him do it. Aren’t you ready to get out of here? He needs something to keep himself busy until Margot is free. Win-win.”
Avery had a point. Who was she to try to keep a man from doing her work, especially something she didn’t particularly want to do?
Once they were both in Avery’s car, Avery looked at her expectantly. It took her a few seconds to realize why, but she finally got it: Avery must know something was wrong. That’s why she’d gotten rid of Sloane and Erica, and that’s why she’d been so eager to let Luke take over. Thank goodness she could finally relax and not have to keep up the pretense that she wasn’t angry and hurt.
“Well?” Avery said. “Aren’t you going to ask?”
What was she talking about?
“Ask?”
“About your surprise?” Avery said.
Oh. She’d forgotten about the surprise. All she’d been able to think about for the past hour and a half had been Erica’s bet against her.
“Right. My surprise.”
She tried, and failed, to say it with some excitement in her voice. Fuck, now Avery looked hurt. Taylor was furious with herself. Avery was excited about this damn surprise, and Taylor probably would be, too, if she hadn’t overheard her best friend shitting on their relationship an hour and a half ago.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to say it like that,” she said. “Can we try that again? ‘Oh right, my surprise!’?” She winced. Great, now she just sounded sarcastic. “I’m sorry, I swear it’s not you, I’m—”
“It’s fine,” Avery said, in a voice that made it clear that it was absolutely not fine. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She wasn’t good at this shit. Maybe Erica was right about her and relationships.
No, fuck that.
“No, seriously, Avery, listen to me. I’m sorry that I’m being shitty about your surprise, it has nothing to do with you. I’m upset about something that happened at the shower; I was waiting until everything was over to talk to you about it, and I was so focused on getting out of there that I forgot all about the surprise, I’m really sorry.”
Avery’s shoulders relaxed, and her expression softened.
“Oh. Okay.” She started the car. “What happened?”
Taylor took a deep breath. She hadn’t actually planned to tell Avery about this. She didn’t want to spoil the shower for Avery, who had worked so hard, and she didn’t want Avery to feel insecure around her friends. But now she had to tell Avery what she’d overheard. She didn’t tell her someone had called her uptight; Avery didn’t need to know that. But she told her everything else that Erica had said, and everything else she’d overheard.
“Well,” Avery said when Taylor finished her story. “I’m now invested in making sure Sloane wins this bet. We just have to stay together long enough to prove the haters wrong.”
Taylor burst out laughing. Leave it to Avery to make an unexpected joke to cheer her up.
“I’m serious,” Avery said. “No matter when we actually break up, I swear I won’t tell a soul until…let’s see, at least three days after Erica has that baby. Just text me as soon as Erica has the baby, three days later, we’re over. We’ll make sure that Sloane and whoever that second person on our side was will get their free dinners.”
Taylor tried to smile. Maybe that would get rid of that heavy, tight feeling in her chest.
“By the way, I admit I was wrong about Sloane,” she said. “I’m glad I already started to feel warmer toward her before I heard her come to my defense; if I hadn’t, I may have fainted.” She sighed. “But I can’t believe Erica did that. Bet about me like that, with all those people. Like, yeah, most of them are my friends, but she’s my best friend, you know? I was sure she’d stick up for me, defend me. And instead of doing that, or even just being quiet and changing the subject—which wouldn’t have bugged me that much, it was her baby shower, after all—she went the opposite way and made fun of me, too.”
Taylor had always assumed that her friends thought of her as an immature, unfocused commitment-phobe, but to hear it like that, to know it for sure, really hurt. Avery reached for her hand. Taylor was embarrassed by how good it felt to hold on.
“You know they’re all jealous of you, right?” Avery asked. “Like, they’re your friends, and I like them, and they clearly adore you, but they’re jealous that you’re so hot and charming and magnetic—don’t make that face, you know it’s true. They wish they were like you, someone who can just snap your fingers and date any woman you want, present company included.”
Taylor rolled her eyes.
“Thank you, but—”
Avery shook her head.
“Oh, I wasn’t paying you compliments, I was just stating facts. Of course they’re all jealous of you, of course they gossip about you, but it’s not malicious. I’m sure that doesn’t make you feel any better, but it’s obvious to me. And, like, I’m not a huge catch or anything—” Taylor started to interrupt her, but Avery talked over her. “I know what you’re going to say, I just had to say that because what I’m about to say makes me feel arrogant. But that night we went to trivia, before anything happened between us, and they were all flirting with me, and I was flirting back, and you told them nothing was going on between us? And then the next time we went to trivia, you and I were together. Has that happened with you before?”
Taylor sighed. She didn’t like thinking this way.
“I mean, I suppose so.” Avery gave her a sideways look. “Fine, yes, there have been times that everyone was hitting on one person, and they came home with me, but—”
Avery nodded.
“Right, exactly. I’m not saying that means your friends should have said any of that stuff, that sucks that they did! Especially that Erica did! I’m just telling you why.”
Taylor digested that. She understood, she supposed, why Avery was saying this. But—
“But these are my friends! Erica is my best friend. And she’s happily married and about to have a baby! Are all of them so jealous of my, what, ability to get women to sleep with me that they regularly talk shit about me behind my back? That makes no sense! Especially since they’re all far more accomplished and good at life than I am.”
Avery squeezed her hand.
“No, they’re not. But from what you told me, they weren’t talking shit about you. I’m sure they talked some shit about me that you didn’t tell me—thanks for that—but most of what they said sounded like good-natured teasing of a friend, stuff they’d all say to your face. Am I wrong about that?”
Taylor wanted to say yes, but she forced herself to stop and think about it.
“For most of them, that’s probably true,” she admitted. “Like, they wouldn’t have bet on how long my relationship would last if I’d been there, but the rest of it, maybe. But Erica…no.”
“That’s the one you’re really upset about,” Avery said.
“I was expecting her to jump in to defend me,” Taylor said. “Not…not put my love life up for a bet. And then bet against me.”