Chapter 7
7
CLAIRE
The ringing phone jarred me out of my work. I glanced at the screen, finding Nora’s name flashing importantly. I groaned deeply, swiping on the phone and hitting speaker. Then, leaning back in my chair, I hit the save button on my spreadsheet—probably unnecessary since it claimed to autosave—and closed my laptop.
“Hey,” I said to my youngest sister.
“Hey, Claire,” Nora said, her voice light and airy. Had we not looked somewhat similar, I would’ve assumed Nora had been switched at birth. Emily, Tessa, and I were all serious, studious, and driven. Nora was none of those things.
Nora was planning a honeymoon that involved driving across the country in a van with a mattress in the back. She said it was all the rage online, and everyone she knew would be epically jealous—her words, of course—but I wasn’t even remotely jealous of a long road trip stinking up the back of a conversion van. I wanted a honeymoon in Bali, or the Seychelles. Somewhere warm and beachy with accommodations larger than fifteen square feet.
The last time I’d been jealous, it had been of the woman two cubicles over, who’d begun investing in her 401k earlier and more aggressively than I had. The woman, Marla, already had a boatload of money tucked away for her retirement. Money she certainly wouldn’t be using to buy a van with a bed inside. Inhaling, I leaned farther back in my chair, kicking off my slippers and pulling my knees up to my chest. “How are you? Feeling excited?” I asked.
“To know I’m going to marry the man of my dreams in barely more than a week?” Nora replied dreamily. “I’m thrilled. Honestly, though, I’m also really excited to have you and Emily home. When was the last time we were all under the same roof?”
I hadn’t been home a lot since I’d moved to the city, but it wasn’t my schedule that made getting together hard. Emily’s work was far more demanding. Still, I thought about the question for a minute, then replied, “Labor Day. So what was that? September sixth?”
“I didn’t need an actual date, Claire. My point is, we’re hardly ever together. Even on Labor Day, Em could only come up for the day. She’s taking off five whole days for my wedding.”
“Of course she is, Nora. We love you. We’d never miss this,” I replied, hoping she wouldn’t use my statement against me, reminding me I’d been hesitant to take off enough work to visit for a full seven days.
“I know that.” Nora’s voice caught for a second, like maybe she wanted to say something she wasn’t. “But I want this to be extra-special.”
This was the demand that made me the most crazy. Here everyone was, talking off work and getting together to celebrate Nora, and she wanted more. I rolled my lips between my teeth. The week was likely to be stressful and over-filled with family, but Nora was sweet and naive. It was the exact reason she should wait longer to get married. None of that mattered, though. I had to do what I told Hudson. I would learn to accept Ethan and be happy about this marriage. My sweet baby sister deserved that. I popped my lips back out. “It will be, Nora.”
Leaning forward, I picked up a pen and began to doodle, letting my thoughts drift. It was no surprise those thoughts drifted to Hudson as Nora began talking about her wedding planner. I’d been thinking a lot about Hudson in the three days since the elevator incident. I’d be analyzing numbers and his face would pop into my mind. Sometimes it was him smiling as he’d been while he sat listening to my story, and sometimes it was the blurred view of nose and lips as his head was pressed to mine, in that moment right before he kissed me—that moment when he’d told me how beautiful I was.
I’d been letting Nora talk, feeding her a steady stream of affirmations, when her words pulled me out of my Hudson-filled thoughts and back to the present. “Grant asked about you,” she said.
I sat my pen down, giving the call my full attention. “You know I’m not interested in Grant, Nora,” I said, my voice steady and clear.
I could practically hear Nora roll her eyes through the phone. “You just haven’t given him a chance. He reminds me so much of Ethan, Claire.”
I made a wry face, refraining from mentioning that was half the problem.
“He’s smart and sweet and hella good looking,” Nora added, and while he was reasonably good looking and definitely smart, I’d never seen any evidence he was sweet. This had to end.
“I appreciate the thought, Nora, but I’m seeing someone,” I said. It was a lie I probably should’ve let die, but with Nora and Mom’s setup nipping at my heels, I needed to pull out the heavy artillery. I’d deal with the fallout as it came.
Nora made a disdainful little snort. “Emily mentioned, but I know you, Claire. If it were serious, you’d bring him with you to the wedding. You aren’t, so this is either something very new, or you know it’s never going to work, because I think if you ever found the right guy you’d lock him down quick.” She tittered as if she’d made a funny joke. “That’s why I think you’d be so good with Grant.”
My nose curled irritably. I hated that this was how my family saw me. It wasn’t like I was being purposefully picky. It was depressing to be single. I happened to know that only thirty percent of women my age were still single, and if I dragged my sad, lonely, single self all the way to age thirty, that number would drop to less than twenty percent. It was depressing to know that I didn’t just feel like the only single woman left in the whole city, I quickly was becoming just that.
And yet, all the wallowing and self-pity in the world wouldn’t make Grant the right man.
“I think he may be able to come to the wedding,” I said. They were stupid words. Stupid, crazy words said by a stupid, crazy woman.
“Who?” Nora asked.
“Hudson. If he can get off work. We’ll see.”