Remy #2
“Or for passing ridiculously long notes,” Nova says. “You were the reason we always got caught with them! Because we had to keep folding your essays to fit in our hands.”
“I loved your notes!” Melissa says. “Nov would always respond with K or I see that , or a boy’s name followed by cute or nah boxes for us to tick, and yours, Lin, were sixty percent expletives. Rem went into depth.”
“Thank you! I was world-building: setting the scene, building the suspense before revealing all.”
Nova tuts. “Your notes were like homework.”
“How would you know?” I ask her. “You always copied mine.”
Our laughter is interrupted by a call from Melissa’s husband, Felix, letting her know he’s ten minutes away. They’re both visiting his mum for her birthday so instead of going back to their flat in Crouch End, they’ll drive from here to Winchester tonight.
“Ladies, this has been fun,” Mel says, “but shall we get the bill?”
“Already?” Nova whines.
I look out of the window and see it’s pitch-black outside. “We’ve been here for almost four hours,” I tell her.
“Lightweights,” she mutters. “We used to be out until they kicked us out; then we’d find somewhere still open.”
Lin pulls on her blazer. “That’s when we were closer to twenty than thirty.”
“Speak for yourself,” Nova says. “I’m twenty-five so I’m technically closer to both.”
“Except, you’ve been twenty-five for almost four years now,” I say, shuffling out of the booth to use the bathroom before the journey home.
“And I’m going to remain twenty-five until I’m dead,” Nova responds. She looks up at the ceiling. “Right, boss?”
Melissa smiles. “And which deity are you praying to this month?”
Nova sighs. “At this point, whichever one is listening.”
Leaving the bathroom, I spot Felix and Melissa by the door.
I stay where I am because sometimes—and I don’t mean this in a creepy way—I like watching the two of them together.
Lin doesn’t date for the long term; she doesn’t have the time.
Apart from her friends and family, she keeps every other relationship in her life casual.
Nova, big personality that she has, is surprisingly a firm advocate of monogamy—it’s just unfortunate that the man she thought was The One, David, who we all despise with intensity, didn’t feel the same way.
As for me, I haven’t put a label on it yet.
That need to be part of a couple, to find a potential soulmate?
I just don’t have it. Am I worried about what this means in the long run?
Sure. Am I wholly content with the possibility of dying alone?
Not so much. But for where I am now, I get far more joy at the possibility of seeing my friends than I do at seeking a partner.
Despite this, I love observing Melissa and Felix together; he adores her.
If it were him and us four girls and I heard a gunshot, I’d dive to protect Nova or Lin knowing Melissa was well and truly covered.
They met at her cousin’s wedding; after she caught the bouquet, the first face she saw was Felix’s.
She didn’t think much of him at first because she’d recently had her heart broken, but he introduced himself and made her laugh.
He brought her flowers on dates but always kept one in a vase by his window, so he knew when it was time to send her fresh ones.
He always picked up the phone when she called, letting her know what times he had surgeries so she’d know when he couldn’t; he’d messaged me to find out her favorite activities so he could tailor their dates; he remembered our birthdays and went halves with Melissa on our presents.
He proposed eight months in and they were married before the year was out.
Is Felix handsome? Well… it depends on your type.
He’s a couple of inches taller than Melissa with short hair and a neat beard, and the kindest brown eyes known to man.
He was born in Spain but moved here with his parents when he was five, and is forever dressed in shirts, chinos, and Converses.
Lin says Melissa’s out of his league, and Nova thinks he’s “too wet,” but that may have to do with the fact that Felix is a constant reminder of what David could have been but chose not to be.
I love Felix because Melissa’s never been happier, and most importantly, he shares her with us without complaint.
As opposed to David who once said that if Nova spent half as much time with him as she did with us, maybe he would have proposed by now. He then went on to prove himself wrong.
“Did you tell them?” I hear Felix ask.
I frown and watch as he helps Melissa into her coat. She looks up at him and says, “No. I was going to, but it was a celebratory night. I wanted to keep it that way.”
Felix tilts his head. “But this is good news; they’ll be happy for you.”
“I know. I know.”
He sighs and rests his forehead against hers. “You have to tell them eventually. I’ve always admired how little you four keep from each other. You shouldn’t stop now.”
“I’ll tell them soon. I promise.”
“Okay.” He kisses her nose. “How was the food here? Is it a contender for our next date night?”
“Felix, we have to come back! Maybe with Sienna and Adam before they move? They have these okra fries I want to try and…”
I return to the booth where Lin and Nova are waiting, ready to leave. Seconds later Felix and Melissa wave goodbye, and as we wave back, Lin catches the look on my face and says, “What’s up?”
“Huh?”
“You’ve got that crease in the middle of your forehead,” Nova says. “You get that when you’re tryna figure something out.”
“It’s nothing.” I rub my forehead smooth. “I’m just tired.”
Lin throws her arm around my shoulders. “That does happen when you age.”
“You’re only three months younger than me.”
“Which is practically an entire year if you go with the theory that conception is your true birthday.”
“So, I’m twenty-four?” Nova says.
Lin moves over to Nova. “No, honey. You’re still twenty-nine.”
Nova swats her away as we all leave the restaurant. “You always kiss my forehead three times when you’ve had drinks. You’re fucking up my bronzer.”
“I have to kiss your forehead three times because once isn’t enough,” Lin says. “Not with that much ground to cover.”
Nova gasps and covers her forehead. “You bitch! Just for that, you’re buying us ice cream. No, I mean it, I want something.”
As they laugh down the dark street, I try to shake the nameless feeling that’s attempting to settle on my stomach.
What could the news be? Is Melissa pregnant?
She wasn’t drinking tonight but she stopped drinking on weeknights four years ago.
Did the offer on their dream flat get accepted?
Neither of these would be classified as bad news in Melissa’s book so why not tell us tonight?
She tells us everything, from brains to breasts to bunions, we have no secrets.
Is she dying? No, Felix would be distraught, so what is she—
“Rem!”
I look toward Lin shouting down the street. “Catch up! I’m getting Nov and her forehead some ice cream. You want one?”
I run up to them standing outside Soft Serve Society. “I always want one.”
I choose the Berry Special sundae cup and decide that whatever it is that Melissa hasn’t told us can’t be bad news, and that’s enough for now.
I was wrong; it was bad news, and we found out two weeks later.
“I knew it,” I whisper. “I knew something was up when I overheard you two.”
“When?” Melissa asks.
“At Dishoom. I was coming out of the bathroom and Felix was saying something like, ‘You have to tell them.’”
Lin, Nova, and I are sitting on the sofa in Melissa and Felix’s flat in North London. The two Judases are in front of us, Melissa wringing her hands as their news begins to sink in.
“You knew about this?” Nova asks.
“I didn’t know it would be this ,” I say. “I didn’t know they were moving out of London and that they’re pregnant!”
“Okay,” Felix says. “There are a lot of emotions filling the air. Shall we take some deep breaths to cleanse? In through the nose for three… two…”
“Felix, fuck off with that bullshit!” Nova turns to Melissa. “ When are you leaving?”
“I’m only eight weeks along, but…” Melissa nervously tucks her hair behind her ears. “We want to move at least a few months before the baby is born.”
Nova throws her hands in the air and then turns to Lin. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Lin looks down at her lap and Felix says, “You should tell them, Lin.” Mel stops wringing her hands long enough to nod in agreement.
I look among the three of them, attempting to decode the conversation they’ve obviously shared prior to this one. “Tell us what?”
“My promotion…” Lin says, playing with her rings. “It came with a caveat, which I accepted. The position is based in their New York office.”
Nova curses the air red. I close my eyes and start to feel sick because this all means Melissa will start a family away from here and Lin will be five hours behind. My heart breaks a little before it completely shatters because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do without them.
I just thought… well, what did I think? That we’d all be together forever? Yes, that’s exactly what I thought. I imagined a time when we’d maybe see each other less frequently, but hardly at all? That never occurred to me.
“Remy?” Melissa says softly. “Are you okay? Look at me, please.”
I look up at Melissa, my second emergency contact, and I’m hit with the realization that while I am important to my friends, I’m not the priority. Their own families and careers will come before me, of course they will.
Be happy for them , a voice inside me demands. It’s not about you so you have to be happy for them . “I’m so hap—”
“This is a fucking disaster!” Nova gets to her feet. “You all wanna be done? Fine, we’re done.” She walks out and slams the door behind her; Melissa runs after her, and of course, Felix follows.
Lin also gets up, but heads to the kitchen and returns with two shots of vodka in a tumbler. “Here.” She hands the glass to me.
“It’s only eleven.”
“You think peppermint tea will help this one?”
I down the shots in one.
“Feel better?”
“No.”
She pulls me into a hug until I can feel her breath on my scalp. “Look, things won’t—”
“Change?” I shove her arm. “Seriously, Lin?”
“I was going to say things won’t ever be the same again, but maybe I should have gone with the lie.”
I search her eyes. “Why are you okay with this?”
“I’m not, but you know me—I’m the adaptable one,” she says.
“So that’s what I’m doing, and I saw this coming; Mel has wanted kids with Felix since their third date, and yes, together their salaries are decent, but London’s property market right now is a scam.
Mel wants a garden and a white picket fence if she can find one, and if she can’t, Felix was always going to find somewhere to build one for her. ”
“But why does it have to be in Hertfordshire? I don’t even know where that is!”
“No one does. But listen, she’s still close by, you know? Like, just over an hour?”
“You lot complain when you have to get on the Northern Line for thirty minutes to get to my place.”
“True,” Lin says, hugging me tighter, “but I meant, she’s still close by… compared to me.”
I push away and look at Lin, her eyes downcast, bags beneath them, and even her cobalt-blue bangs can’t brighten her face.
I take her hand. “What happened to the plan I made in my head? Mel is the mum who’s always a call and a container of homemade chicken soup away; you’re the one to get us out of jail if we ever land there, and Nova was obviously the one who was going to land us there.”
“And you?”
“I’d write about it when we all got out.”
Lin laughs. “You don’t need us to write. We’re just the Mona Lisas and you’re… who’s that guy?”
“Leonardo da Vinci?”
“As if I’d fucking know.” She kisses my temple. “I’m eight hours away, not dead. I’m always here for you, all three of you. Never forget that.”
FUTURE MILFS GROUP CHAT
Me
Are we still on for dinner tonight?
Melissa
Sorry! We’ve got people coming round to view the flat and Felix is in surgery.
Lin
I have to work late!
Nova
Fan fuckin tastic