9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
T hursday. The day it was all going to start. The day they were going from “crazy thing that Haley was planning on doing” to her actually doing it.
It was a trippy thought. But then, it all seemed trippy to Jane these days.
The first order of business for Jane and Haley, once they belatedly rolled out of their beds, was to head downstairs in their top knots and sweatpants and pick through the remnants of the continental breakfast in the lobby before bringing in the rest of the gift bags from the car.
“I’ve got to get the keys from my mom,” Haley said.
“I want to brush my teeth first,” Jane said.
“Okay,” Haley said. “You brush and I’ll get the keys and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
Five minutes later, the elevator doors opened and Jane stepped out, practically colliding with Haley, who was standing there waiting for her. She looked like the cat who ate the canary. Jane could practically see them, the yellow feathers floating through the air around Haley’s head. She looked way, way, way too proud of herself, way prouder than someone should be for the mere act of rolling out of bed, grabbing a set of keys and heading downstairs to a free continental breakfast in her sweatpants.
“What?” Jane said when she saw her.
“Huh?”
“I don’t like that look on your face.”
“What do you mean?”
“That look,” Jane said. “It’s concerning.”
“Concerning how?” Haley said, her expression all wide-eyed who-me and faux innocence.
“You know how,” Jane said.
“I’ll tell you this,” Haley said. “You should not be concerned. In fact, you should be un concerned.”
“Now I’m definitely concerned,” Jane said. “What is it?”
Haley led her over to the breakfast area on the other side of the lobby and handed her an orange juice. “Do you remember Luke Sanderson?”
“Luke Sanderson who lived in your apartment building in college?” Jane said.
“Yes!” Haley exclaimed.
“The same Luke Sanderson I totally embarrassed myself in front of when I locked myself out of your apartment?”
“The one and only!” Haley beamed.
“This is already a bad idea,” Jane said, scooping some granola on the top of her yogurt. “Whatever it is, whatever you’re thinking, it’s already a bad idea.”
“It’s actually the opposite of a bad idea,” Haley said. “It just so happens that he was in Boston for work this week and just decided to stay in the area until the wedding.”
“Point being?”
“He came here early,” Haley said. “In an amazing and fortuitous coincidence, I saw him checking his bags at the front desk until his room is ready.”
“That’s nice,” Jane said, grabbing herself a chocolate-drizzled croissant and sitting down at a small table in the corner. “Speaking of bags, what about the gift bags?”
Haley stood over her and took her by the shoulders. “He’s here early … alone … looking for time to kill .” Jane refused to bite. “That he can spend being with you .”
“No way,” Jane said.
“Why not?”
Jane tore off a piece of croissant. “First reason: The last time I saw this guy I was hanging off your apartment balcony,” she said through bites. “Second reason: Do you remember what happened the last time you set me up?”
“Okay,” Haley said, taking her hands off Jane’s shoulders and holding them up in surrender. “That’s fair, but also not. That was not an official setup and neither is this. He is keeping you company. You’re keeping each other company. Done and done.”
“Not done.”
Haley looked at her, pleading. “He is so nice, Jane.”
“I know he’s nice,” Jane said. “He came to my rescue when I nearly killed myself trying to get into your locked apartment.”
Haley nodded vigorously, like Jane had just made her point for her. “Chivalrous,” she said.
“Not relevant,” Jane said.
“Actually,” Haley responded, “very relevant.”
“No way,” Jane said.
“Come on,” Haley said. “He will not be weird about it at all.”
“What if I’m weird about it?”
“Don’t be.”
“It’s not fair to ask him to do that anyway,” Jane said. “It’s a totally messed-up situation.”
Haley sat in the chair across from her, blueberry muffin in hand. “What if I already asked him?”
Jane felt her pulse quicken, her fight-or-flight impulse kicking in. “You didn’t.”
“It was like a soft launch,” Haley said. “A test-the-waters kind of thing.”
“We’re not launching anything!”
“But what if the water’s inviting?”
“It’s not.”
“What if it’s warm?”
“ Haley .”
“Okay,” she said, “I didn’t ask him. I didn’t even test the waters. But I did ask him to meet me in the lobby in ten minutes, and that was nine minutes ago, so—”
Jane’s eyes got wide. “You didn’t.”
She heard the voice behind her before she saw him. “Ladies,” he said. “Good morning.”
Jane froze. She stopped chewing, mid-bite in her last piece of croissant. A second later, she felt it start to disintegrate in her mouth and swallowed it down. Then she turned to see Luke Sanderson, standing with a folder under his arm, clad in a navy blue baseball cap and tan shorts, looking remarkably the same as he did eight years earlier. He still had the smize. She saw it right away. Jane and Haley would joke about it, how his smile started in his eyes. A model could practice for days, weeks, years, millennia, and not be able to replicate the Luke Sanderson smize. It was good-natured, and it was kind, and he still had it, those twinkling, smiling eyes.
“Hey, Luke!” Haley beamed. “Luke, you remember my friend Jane?”
“Of course I do,” he said. “How could I forget?”
“Yes,” Jane said through a fake smile. “How could he forget?”
“Hi, Jane,” he said.
She dropped the fake smile and gave him a muted, sheepish one. “Hi, Luke.”
“Nice to see you again,” he said.
“Yes,” Jane said. “And you also.”
Haley jumped in to grab the wheel. “So Luke, what are you doing tonight?”
Luke pointed at himself. “What am I doing? Grabbing a lobster roll and watching whatever’s on ESPN, probably.”
“Perfect,” Haley said.
Perfect ? Jane thought. How was that perfect?
“We’re having a little dinner tonight,” Haley said. “And then we’re going to hang out after since we didn’t really do the whole bachelor/bachelorette party thing.”
“No?” he laughed. “I thought for sure there would be some big Haley Raymond sendoff to being single.”
“I’m older and more mature now, Luke,” she said. “And also, there was no time.”
“Anyway,” Jane said.
“Yes, anyway ,” Haley said. “I was wondering if you wanted to come?”
“Sure,” he said.
“Awesome!” Haley said. “Perfect. I was just going to see if they have blister bandages at the little gift shop up front. Come with me and I’ll give you all the details.”
“Oh, good,” he said. “I needed a blister bandage myself.”
“Haha,” Haley said. “Jane, why don’t you go on ahead back up to the room when you’re done and I’ll catch up with you in a few.”
Go up to the room, knot together the sheets, crawl out the window and scale the side of the building, run away forever , Jane thought. “Sure,” she said.
“Nice seeing you again, Jane,” Luke said over his shoulder as he followed Haley to the front desk.
“You too,” Jane said, and once she was sure he and his smize were all the way around the corner, she buried her head in her hands on the table, her messy topknot falling to the side.
***
Haley was back up in the room fifteen minutes later. “Okay, we’re all good!”
Jane was lying on her stomach on the bed, her chin propped on her hands, contemplating the state of her life and other disasters. “What do you mean, all good?”
“I just explained to him the situation.”
“What situation.”
“The situation .”
“Where are the air quotes?” Jane said. “The way you said it, I expected air quotes.”
“No need for more drama,” Haley said. “Anyway, I just explained to him the circumstances and that you’re here without a date.”
“Great,” Jane said, heaving herself to a sitting position. “So you went for a walk to tell him about the pathetic maid of honor with no date so that you wouldn’t make the pathetic maid of honor more pathetic by saying it in front of her.” She paused. “That was thoughtful, I guess.”
“Give me a break,” Haley said. “You could have brought a date if Tommy had given you time to bring a date. Anyway, he’s fine with it. Definitely fine with it. You heard him, he’s here without a date too and he was just going to be watching ESPN anyway.” She glanced at her phone and then back up at Jane. “Like there’s even any sports going on right now. He’s not going to be missing anything. He’ll probably even thank us for helping him not be bored.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jane laughed. “He’ll definitely thank us.”
Haley sat next to her on the bed. “It’s not a big deal. It’s really not. It’ll be nice to have him around. Don’t you think?”
Jane didn’t answer directly. “You know I’m going to kill you after all this, right?”
“I know no such thing,” Haley said.
“I don’t know,” Jane said, even as a part of her was torn. If she was being honest—one hundred percent, dropping all fa?ade and pretense honest—she wouldn’t mind a wingman. She had Haley, and she had Auntie Miss and her mom and all of the friends they had in common … but she wouldn’t mind a wingman. Someone who would be there at everything, someone who could be her person. Someone who would make it so that the numbers weren’t so obviously off, someone to sit next to at dinner, someone she could turn to in an awkward moment, someone to talk to or dance with when Tommy was doing the same thing with Bree.
Plus … Luke was cute, and he was nice, and he was funny and talkative and self-aware and all of the things you would hope to have in a last-second date to a wedding. It could be worse, Jane knew. It could be a lot worse.
“He still has the smize,” Haley said.
“I noticed,” Jane replied.
“It will be good,” Haley said, grabbing her hand. “I promise.”
Jane thought about Tommy, and she thought about Bree. She thought about having to walk down the aisle with someone who didn’t care about her the same way anymore and she thought about sitting alone at her best friend’s wedding reception. And she knew that whatever felt weird, or contrived, about this whole thing, that didn’t feel right either, not really.
“All right,” she said, looking over at Haley. “I guess I have a date to your wedding then.”