Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 62737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62737 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“I’ll go with you. Two heads are better than one, plus an extra set of hands.” Kennedy pops up. “Plus, I have nothing new to share. Life is, well, I’m not going to say it because then it goes into disarray. Briar is doing amazing in school and with dance. Uncle Jude has her watch all set up, and she’ll be texting everyone non-stop, I’m sure, to give you her requests when it comes to desserts.” I smile. Jude told me he used the best of the best for her watch, making it impossible for her to contact others who aren’t on an approved list while also making sure she doesn’t receive unwanted messages. Plus, the tracking system is designed to keep working even when the watch is dead. He added some kind of internal battery as a backup. It went way over my head, though I listened intently while he talked about it with excitement.
We give our orders to the girls, and I slide some cash out of my purse,
“That leaves Macie. What’s going on with you, and when is Samuel coming back to town?” Winnie asks. I’m lost for a moment. My face most says it all.
“Samuel is my best friend, or my fairy gay mother, as he likes to say. We first met when I started out on a commercial airplane. He now sometimes works with Tys. It’s become few and far between lately,” Macie tells me, catching me up.
“Lucky girl. I bet his style is impeccable, too.” We’ve all met at one time or the other, just not all together at once. Plus, the group chat is always blowing up. Sometimes, it’s a meme, sometimes a picture of an item looking like a phallic object, and sometimes, it’s me asking for advice, like when the whole phone tracker ordeal happened.
When I asked Jude for time to get my head on straight, it took me less than ten minutes to realize I had a built-in advisory board. Each girl piped up, most of them saying that yeah, it comes with the territory, especially when Winnie left unexpectedly after she and Johnny had a big blowup about her sister. Melanie was addicted to drugs and threatened a slew of shit, including her now adopted nephew, Sebastian. They lost years together, and neither one of them looked for the other. When she returned, Jude created an app to track every single person’s phone in the group.
Kennedy and Lennie didn’t mind it, but their men had been up front about it. Obviously, Winnie was okay with it after her debacle. Lyric said Jude had been keeping tabs on her the minute she stepped foot back in town, probably even before then. She was peeved at first, then let it go, since Jagger, her childhood boyfriend and now man, greeted her pretty much right away. Macie floundered. She replied to my text saying, it’s fucked up, but it’s also Jude. The protector, willing to stop what he’s doing to help anyone, and it’s kind of sweet. She also alluded to there being a reason but didn’t go into detail. The exact same thing Jude hinted at, it seemed. Shae told me to make him work for my forgiveness because they all knew I wouldn’t walk out the door and away from him.
They helped me come to peace with my decision, unknowingly gave me the courage to go after what I wanted, and I did exactly that.
“He absolutely is a godsend when it comes to shoes. As for when he’s coming back, I’m not sure. I hate that I don’t see him as much as I used to, but then again, I’m also to blame.” Macie sounds like she’s off in another world for a moment with the heavy sigh she takes. “Anyways, he’s with his boyfriend, and things are getting serious. Maybe I can convince Tysen to go on a trip to where Samuel is in the next couple of weeks.”
“Okay, what did we miss?” Kennedy comes back, hands full of drinks, mostly iced coffees, while Lyric carries a few of the warm drinks.
“Nothing much. Talking about Samuel.” I hop up to help Kennedy hand them out, calling out the description since I wasn’t really paying attention when everyone gave their order earlier.
“Oh, is he coming into town soon?” Lyric asks.
“No, sadly, which is selfish because he always comes to me, and I don’t go to visit him nearly enough. I’m going to convince Tysen soon.” Macie crosses her fingers in hopefulness.
“Something tells me it won’t take much for you to convince him,” I tease her, sitting down and taking a sip of my iced coffee. Macie’s stomach says it all.
“You got that right,” Macie agrees with laughter.
“I do have one question?” The girls give me their full attention.
“If it’s about the bagels, they’re coming.” Lyric licks her lips while rubbing her belly at the same time. I check time on my phone. No wonder, it’s closer to lunch than breakfast. My own stomach lets out a small growl in hunger. I might need more than one bagel today.