Chapter 2
Chapter Two
STELLA
Saturday morning I go for a four mile run before the sun rises.
It’s been an unusually hot summer and the temperature didn’t cool much last night.
By the time I reach my apartment, I’m dripping sweat, but at least I feel mentally strong.
I might not always love the run, but I do love how facing one hard thing each morning prepares me for the day ahead.
Like seeing Caleb and Mallory together tonight at karaoke and not getting hung up on their lies of omission.
Mallory knocks on my bedroom door at nine o’clock and sticks her head inside. “I’m heading out.”
“Wow. Early date.”
“We’re going to Mount Lemmon.”
Mount Lemmon is one of my favorite hiking spots. Mallory and I have been many times.
“Have fun.”
“Thanks!”
I close my book. I don’t want to stay here alone.
The kitchen is still a mess from Mallory’s movie marathon yesterday.
It irritates me that she left without cleaning it.
If I stay, it will bother me enough that I’ll wash every dish before she gets the chance.
I grab my car keys, my book, and a swimming suit. I’ll spend the day at my parents house.
When I arrive, I walk inside and call out, “Mom? Dad?”
“Sewing room!” is the response.
In the sewing room, mom has her quilting frame set up with a baby quilt tacked to the boards. She’s tying it with yarn, so I know it’s a donation for the children’s hospital. A way to keep her hands busy when her eyes go funky from staring at the sewing machine too long.
Over the last few years she’s sewn each of her kids a blanket and is slowly working her way through her twelve grandchildren.
But for those blankets, she has a quilting machine stitch the top and bottom together.
My queen-sized quilt is in a box, too big for the full-sized bed I have now.
I’m waiting to pull it out until I get married.
“Hello,” she says brightly. “This is a surprise.”
I walk to her sewing table and grab a needle and yarn. “I needed to get out of my apartment for a while.”
“I’m flattered you picked me to visit.”
I pull her into a side hug while she’s still sitting and kiss the top of her head. Since her chemo treatment for breast cancer ended three years ago, she’s kept her hair short and gray. She’s never been old to me, but she’s slowed down a lot since then. I don’t like thinking of her as mortal.
“Nah,” I say. “I came to see Dad. Is he here?”
“Golfing.”
I pull up a chair on the opposite side of the quilt from Mom. “I guess you’ll do.”
“How was your date this week? Kissable?”
“This is why I like Dad better. He doesn’t make me feel silly about my kissing standards. Before I touch my lips to a man’s, the least I should know is that he has good oral hygiene."
She laughs. “I take it he failed?”
“Spectacularly.”
Mallory likes to tease me about my kissing standards. She’s the type to kiss every first date to see if there’s any spark. It’s how she determines if there should be a second date. I wonder if she’ll kiss Caleb today. If she does, will she tell me about it?
I’m notorious in our group of friends for refusing to kiss until at least the third date.
I always offer a reason, but I never tell them the real one: I feel too much.
Get too attached. Expect more from the man than he’s ready to give.
I’ve been burned in the past when I felt more than the man I kissed.
It’s better to keep my distance at first and wait until I’m sure he’ll stick around before I allow my emotions to take root.
Mom and I quilt all morning. We have grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
I tag along for grocery shopping in the afternoon.
Dad gets home around four and the three of us sit by the pool for an hour soaking up the sun.
It’s a rejuvenating day, and by the time I leave at five, I’m ready to face karaoke tonight.
I expect Mallory to be home, but the apartment is empty. Every dish in the kitchen is exactly where they were last night.
We have ninety minutes before our friends start arriving, and I cannot stand having them come to a messy house.
I grab an apron, metaphorically roll up my sleeves, and get to work.
I feel like Cinderella cleaning up after her step-sisters.
One evil, the other thoughtless. With every dish I scrub, my irritation grows.
I’m at the kitchen counter cutting tomatoes for the nachos when Mallory breezes through the front door at six-thirty.
She’s wind blown and a bit sunburned, with a huge smile on her face.
Her happiness after a date should be exciting, but mostly I’m resentful.
She doesn’t even comment on the clean kitchen. Let it go, Stella. It’s done.
I plaster on a matching smile. “That was some first date. You were gone the whole day.”
“We had so much fun.” She falls backward over the arm of the couch onto the cushions.
All I can see are her legs sticking over the side.
“We went off-roading on the back road to Mount Lemmon in his jeep. He packed a picnic.” She laughs at the memory.
“When he and his brother are together, they act like twelve-year-olds stuck in adult bodies. So immature, but somehow he’s still cute.
And of course, Krystal kept egging them on. ”
My knife pauses half way through a slice. Krystal and Caleb’s brother were on their date with them?
“It was a double date then?” I ask, my voice higher than normal.
She doesn’t answer immediately. I lay the knife on the counter and step away until my back is against the sink. I cross my arms as if I need protection from whatever she’s about to say.
“No, we ended up not going on a date since his cousin is visiting him this weekend.”
“So it was a group activity?”
My chest constricts. I was left here to clean up after her and get things ready for tonight, while a group of friends went out to play. Being Cinderella means people treat you like crap.
Mallory moves her legs around so she can kneel on the couch and face me. “It just sort of happened. Caleb’s brother Jonas has a jeep too so a group of us ended up going.”
But I wasn’t invited. Back roading up Mount Lemmon is the kind of adventure I love, and Mallory knows this.
“Don’t take it personally,” she says gently. “Like I said, it just sort of happened. Before I knew it, both Jeeps were full. Besides, if I had invited you, would you have come?”
That feels like a dig for how often I haven’t gone out with our friends the last few months. But going out to a club or a loud restaurant isn’t the same as spending time in the sun on an adventure.
I go back to slicing tomatoes and hide my hurt. “Yeah, I would have.”
“Then I’m sorry. Next time we go, I’ll make sure to save you a seat. Okay?”
I have to wonder if that’s true. Mallory has no clue what it feels like to be left out. She’s the center of every get-together and is invited to everything. This weekend isn’t the first time I’ve been overlooked, but since her friendship with Krystal, it’s happened more often.
I shake off my doubt. “Okay.”
“I need a shower, then I’ll come and help get the food ready. Oh! And thanks for doing the dishes.”
At least her appreciation is something.
Mallory is known for how long she takes to get ready. By the time she comes out of her room, runway ready, friends have already arrived. She’s instantly surrounded as she hooks the karaoke machine to our TV.
When Krystal walks through the door, she looks past me and grabs a handful of chips as if I’m invisible.
Our best girlfriends, Virginia, Sandra, and Mackenzie, finish helping me lay the food out on the counter. It’s a decent spread, and I invite everyone to fill an aluminum tin with chips and toppings. The oven is hot and ready to melt the cheese to gooey perfection.
Soon, our small apartment is filled to bursting. I love it. It works for me and Mallory, because she likes being in the middle of friends, and I like being with friends, but on the fringe.
A knock comes at the door, barely audible over the chatter and laughter of two dozen people.
Caleb walks in. He’s as handsome as ever, but with my new knowledge, I mostly feel irritated, which isn’t fair.
He talked to me at the library because he’s friendly.
I’m the one who read more into his actions than he meant.
Two men I don’t know follow him in. One of them looks similar to Caleb, just a darker complexion and an inch or two taller.
That must be the brother Mallory mentioned.
The other is taller than them both, with black hair down to his shoulders.
He wears cowboy boots with worn blue jeans and carries a guitar case. Is this the visiting cousin?
I barely spare them a glance since my attention immediately turns to Mallory.
Her face lights up as soon as she sees Caleb. She gives him a slight nod. He crosses the room in two strides, picks her up, and swings her around. Her legs just miss taking out a friend at the knees.
This isn’t the behavior of two people who have been hanging out but have yet to go on an official first date.
Especially when they kiss.
I’m gobsmacked.
I look around, expecting my own shock to be reflected in our friends’ expressions, but not one of them is surprised. Not our married neighbors. Not Caleb's brother. Not Sandra, Virginia, or Mckenzie.
They all know what’s going on. I’m the only one who is discovering Mallory is in the middle, not the beginning, of a relationship with Caleb.
A second later, Michael Bublé’s “Everything” blares out of the speakers. Krystal sings in the microphone, and others join in, singing at the top of their lungs.