Chapter 29
“OH SHIT! RORY’S TEXTING!” KARA WAS HOLDING HER TOWEL against her freshly showered body when my phone lit up on the bedside table in the suite’s primary bedroom.
From the bedroom’s ensuite, I could hear Maddy run to her side. They were picking out their outfits for the evening while Hannah, Zoe, and I were in the bathroom, putting on our makeup.
Kara snatched the phone first and called out “What’s your code?” so she could unlock the screen and read the text.
“Nine-one-seven-eight,” I bellowed back. Hannah, Zoe, and I had all brought our hands down from our faces, and our eyes shifted back and forth between one another, waiting for Kara’s report.
“It says, ‘Hey, Ellie. It’s Rory. Thoughts on Topgolf ? We can grab food there, too.’ ”
Maddy was the first to break the prolonged silence that followed, shouting out, “Dude’s probably a millionaire, and he wants to take you to Topgolf for dinner? Red flags, Ellie. Come to Gwen instead!”
Hannah snorted and brought her mascara brush back up to her eyelashes.
“Topgolf ?” Zoe asked, confused. Hannah and I were sharing the mirror, and Zoe shifted over to the toilet, where she sat to apply her eye shadow. “That feels random. Like, we get it, Rory, you’re a golfer.”
Hannah released her laughter this time.
I shook my head, dismissing their initial reaction. “I think he’s trying to be nice and thoughtful, and maybe nostalgic. I’m not surprised by Topgolf.”
“Where were you the last time you saw Rory?” Zoe asked while combing and perfecting her eyelashes. Hannah kept quiet, but her eyes met mine through the mirror.
“At his dad’s funeral.” I plugged in my curling iron to enhance the waves in my hair, but then remembered I was going golfing and threw on my blue Dodgers hat instead.
“Oh, that’s right,” Zoe mumbled to herself.
“That was a rough couple of days.” I dug into my sister’s makeup bag to find her lipstick.
“Couple of days?” Zoe dropped her eye shadow kit down to her knees. “Why am I not remembering that? His dad’s funeral lasted a couple of days?”
Hannah let out a heavy exhale, anticipating my next comment.
“The day after the funeral was the last time I talked to Ben.” My body panged with the back-to-back memories, and I realized I wasn’t breathing.
“Oh, shit . . .” Zoe dropped her voice. “Yeah, rough couple of days,” she said quietly, remembering the series of events.
Hannah, Zoe, and I stayed quiet until Maddy hollered out excitedly, “Another text!”
My palms started to sweat. It wasn’t that I was worried about what my friends thought of Rory. It was that, after all these years, I still thought about him too much.
“He said, ‘Unless you have something else in mind,’ with a question mark!” Kara bellowed. “He’s freaking out right now that you haven’t responded. I bet he’s just sitting there, looking at his texts, waiting for your thought bubble.”
I could hear Maddy laugh, then quietly say, “Let’s write something back.”
I dropped my makeup and sprinted out of the bathroom. I snapped my phone out of Kara’s hands and quickly typed.
ELLIE: Topgolf @ 8. See you there.
I brought my phone back into the bathroom, leaving my meddling friends in the living room to finish getting changed so they could see Gwen Stefani in concert. My big Las Vegas night out was going to be remarkably different from theirs.