Chapter 22
“OK, girl. This is a big moment,” Harper said as they sat down at their favorite ice-cream parlor. “First sundae of the summer.”
“It’s technically still spring,” Madison corrected.
“Sundae season is summer, I don’t make the rules.”
She and Harper were close, almost as close as she was with Everleigh. They hadn’t been able to see each other a lot in the past few months, mostly due to Harper’s hectic schedule. She was an ER nurse and her shifts tended to always get longer. She had also apparently met someone and was in the honeymoon stage.
“So tell me about her. What does she do, what’s her name? You’ve been awfully mysterious.”
Harper smiled, digging her spoon into her banana split. “Her name is Paula. She is a paramedic, 29, and lives in Staten Island.”
“You’ve been seeing each other for how long?”
“Three months.”
Madison gasped. “Three months?! And you didn’t tell anyone??”
Harper shrugged, a very unusual blush creeping up on her cheeks. “You know, it was just… I didn’t want to jinx it. She’s great. Super funny, she loves sports as much as I do. I met her brother and sister and they’re all very welcoming. It’s great, really.”
“You met the family? Oh wow. You sneaky little thing, it’s already serious!”
“Not her whole family. Her parents never accepted she was gay so it’s complicated,” Harper said with another small shrug. “But her brother and sister are awesome, they totally sided with her and supported her. We’d like to all go on vacation together this fall, which… is a little scary, you know? Making plans months ahead? I’m not used to that.”
Madison laughed as she took a spoonful of vanilla goodness. “Yeah, I can imagine. When the default mode goes from ‘let’s not plan anything past this week’ to ‘hey we’ll still be together by the end of the year, we should go on vacay together,’ it’s something else.”
Not that she really knew about that. She and Ben were still in the moment, and neither of them seemed interested in broaching that particular topic, even though they had been hooking up for almost five months now.
She trusted Ben, deeply, and it allowed her to be comfortable with their arrangement. Yes, they were mostly fuck buddies. It had always been a little fantasy of hers, to be honest, to live her sexuality that way. And she knew that if he had said he wouldn’t see anybody else, she had no reason to doubt him. She could have never been that trusting with someone else.
That being said… it was hard to deny the fact that something was growing inside her. A desire to make things more real between them.
“Are you gonna invite her to Ian and Violet’s wedding?” she asked, willing herself to stop thinking about Ben and focus on her friend.
“I think so. I asked Vi and she said it was more than fine. Sorry,” Harper said with a wince. “I promise we’ll stick with you.”
“Huh?”
“You’ll be the only one of us single. We all have a plus-one.”
A large, sudden, painful lump appeared in her throat. “All of us?”
“Yeah. Evie and Chris, Me and Paula, and obviously the newlyweds.”
“There’s still Ben, though, right?” she asked, her spoon playing in her sundae. He wouldn’t go with someone else, would he? Even if the date was just platonic, he wouldn’t do that… right? Here she was thirty seconds ago thinking about how much she trusted him, and now this.
“Oh, yeah, I have no idea about Ben, but he always finds someone to go with him for formal stuff like that. I once went with him to a wedding in the Hamptons, a friend of his from work. His date had a work emergency the day before. You should ask him so you can be paired up. It might save him the hassle to find a plus-one if he doesn’t already have one. Not that it’s hard for him to find a volunteer,” Harper added with a snort. “That guy could charm the pants off any girl he wants.”
Don’t I know it.
The afternoon was sunny and warm, and she enjoyed the weather as she walked back to work after her small lunch with Harper.
The hallways were quiet, and she savored these calm moments where the only sound she could hear was the echo of her steps on the marble floor. She stopped to make herself a cup of coffee then headed to her office, leaving the door ajar. Starting up her laptop, she sipped on her coffee, wondering if she should ask Ben if he was bringing someone to the wedding. A part of her couldn’t even consider the fact that he’d take a date knowing they were secretly hooking-up. The other was wondering why he wouldn’t, seeing as they were only secretly hooking-up.
A knock on her door forced her back to earth, and she twirled around in her chair, wondering which one of her colleagues was in the mood for a chat.
The smile died on her lips when she saw who was standing on the threshold. “Doctor Guggenheim?”
“Doctor Goldstein,” her mentor said with a polite smile. “I was wondering if you had a minute?”
“Yes. Of course, yes. I thought you were in London until the end of July.”
“I am in town for my parents’ wedding anniversary, I’m heading back to London on Sunday. Could we talk?”