Making Me Sane (Sanity Book 2) (25 page)

Trace glances over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Hit me with it.”

“Rebecca texted me.” What little smile he had is gone. “She asked if I moved, I told her yeah, and she wants to meet for lunch or something. I don’t know if I want to. Or if I should.”

“She hasn’t exactly been a good or helpful friend to you, it seems.”

“Exactly, but she was great in college. I think part of it is Dustin. I don’t like him and he changes Bec. I just don’t know at what point a person lets a friendship go.”

“When it causes more harm than good.”

“So, you think I shouldn’t go?” I ask.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do. You know her better than I do. You can give it one last shot or just not worry about it. Up to you.”

“I guess I’ll meet with her, just to see what she wants.”

“Just let me know if you’re missing dinner.”

“I will.”

When I text Rebecca back, she wants to meet tonight for dinner. I let Trace know and anxiously wait for the hours to pass. I’m not sure why I’m nervous. It’s just Rebecca. Yet I’m distracted and have to redo a couple of things at work because it was full of typos and missing words.

I’m squeezing the life out of my wrist while I wait for Rebecca to show up. She had to be late, didn’t she? Just when I’m about to give up and leave because my anxiety is starting to get out of control, she shows up.

“Sorry. Things ran late at work.”

“It’s okay.”

The waitress quickly appears to take our drink orders, but by the time she returns with our glasses, Rebecca is ready to order, so we do.

“So, you’re staying with Trace now?” she asks with a barely masked frown.

“Yeah. Rent was going up at my place and my lease was about to end, so he asked me to move in.”

“Is it actually working out?”

“Yes,” I answer curtly. “How are things with you?”

She holds out her left hand and it takes me a moment to connect the ring on her finger with what’s happened. “We eloped! I’m officially a married woman.” For the rest of dinner, I listen to her go on and on about how they eloped and even went on a mini honeymoon to the beach. Through all of this, she doesn’t ask how I am, how my anxiety and depression is, or anything about me. She doesn’t know that I’ve gotten better. She doesn’t know that my mom had a heart attack. She doesn’t know anything because she doesn’t take five seconds to ask.

“I’m happy for you, Rebecca.” And I am because she seems genuinely happy. “But what happened to your big wedding?”

She shrugs. “We didn’t want to wait. It’s been good to see you and catch up.” Except we didn’t really. “I have to go, though. Dustin is expecting me home in twenty minutes.” She stands, hugs me, and leaves.

Without even paying her bill!

Grumbling, I pay for our meals and head home.

B
rittany never said what Rebecca did to piss her off. She didn’t want to think about it, much less talk about it. She’s been living here for almost two months now. We’ve both had our good and bad days, but it’s been fantastic. While you can tell a woman now lives with me, my house hasn’t changed too much. I do most of the cooking. We both take our pick of cleaning tasks.

We have at least one date a week, be it going out somewhere, or creating a date here at home. She hasn’t said it, but I think she fully trusts me now. Or, she’s as close as she can be to that point. I’ve done everything I can, so it’s in her hands now.

Tonight, we’re supposed to have a quiet night at home while watching
Dateline
. Just as we’re about to sit down, there’s a knock on the door and we look at each other.

Brittany laughs.

“What?” I ask as I head toward the door.

“Last time someone knocked on the door when we weren’t expecting anyone, it was Clark and Amy.”

“They wouldn’t do that again.” Right? I open the door. It’s not my dad and stepmom. It’s Ben and Melissa, who are still dating. Sometimes, we go on double dates with them. “Hey, come on in.” I step aside and they walk inside, heading toward the living room.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” Brittany asks.

“What are y’all doing this weekend?” Melissa asks, not answering the question.

I look to Brittany, who shrugs. “Nothing. Why?”

“Then you’re free to take off and attend our wedding in Vegas tomorrow,” Ben answers.

“Wait. What?” Brittany asks, just as stunned and confused as I am.

Melissa bounces in her seat next to Brittany and squeals, “Ben asked me to marry him tonight, I said yes, and we’re eloping! We want y’all to come with us. We can fly out tonight, get married tomorrow, and be home before Lily has a chance to miss anyone!”

“And money isn’t an issue because I’m paying for all of us to go. So, what do ya say? Will you come?” Ben adds.

Brittany stares at Melissa like she grew an extra head. She seems speechless.

“Yeah, we’ll go,” I answer, causing her to whip her head around to look at me.

Melissa does another squeal and hugs Brittany. “Great! Especially since Ben already bought our airline tickets and they’re nonrefundable. Get packed and we’ll be back within the hour to pick you up and go to the airport. Thank you so much, Brittany.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome. Congrats, I guess,” she says.

“Yes, congratulations.”

Ben slaps me on the shoulder as I walk them to the door. “We’re glad y’all are coming with us. We’ll see ya in an hour.”

“We’ll be ready.”

They leave and I turn to face Brittany, who is still sitting on the couch.

“What in the hell just happened? Did you know he was going to propose?” I shake my head. “I can’t process this. It’s only been almost three months. THREE MONTHS! What are they doing? What if this is just some crazy idea they came up with? You know they’re impulsive. What if we should’ve talked them out of it? Are we seriously going to Vegas tonight? I...what...how...but...”

I grab her shoulders. “They didn’t ask for our opinion or approval, so we aren’t asking questions. They’re excited, they came here and asked us to go with them because they want to share that moment with us, and we’re going to go and be supportive. Can you do that?”

She nods, but picks up her phone. “What am I supposed to wear to this shindig?” she asks when Melissa answers the phone. I leave her to talk and head to our bedroom to pack. Ten minutes pass and I nearly have both of us packed when Brittany joins me. “I still think this is crazy.”

“That they’re getting married or that they’re eloping to Vegas last minute?”

“Both.” She peers into the piece of luggage and shifts through it. “I hate this shirt.” She pulls out one I snagged off the hanger and goes to get another one. If she hates it, why keep it? I keep that question to myself, though. “I hope she realizes how much I love her. I’m getting back on a plane and going back to Vegas. Just for her.”

“This time will definitely be better than last time. Consider it a do-over.”

She frowns as I toss in our toiletries. “There wasn’t anything wrong with the last trip.”

“I didn’t even hang out with you one day and I bailed early another day.”

“Yeah, but that didn’t make it a bad trip. You couldn’t help it and I wasn’t disappointed.”

I smile. I’ve alway felt a little shitty about that, so it’s good to know she didn’t see it like I’ve been seeing it. “I love you.” I kiss her temple. “Am I forgetting anything?” I ask, looking down at the luggage we’ll be sharing.

“Clothes? Check. Pajamas? Check. Underwear and bras?” She lifts the bra and panties I chose for her with a raised eyebrow.

I take them and toss them back into the luggage. “Check.”

“Hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste? Check, check, check. I guess whatever shoes we wear on the plane will be fine because Melissa said we’re renting outfits for the wedding. I feel like we’re forgetting something.”

“Meds,” I say as it hits me.

“Right.” Brittany grabs the pill bottles off my nightstand and throws them in as well.

“Anything else we forget, we can buy. Let’s make sure Lily is set with plenty of food and water while we’re gone.” I zip up our luggage and carry it to sit by the front door while Brittany gets Lily set. While she does that, I find her purse and start digging through it. The first time I did this, for the same reason as now, Britt freaked out on me. I told her I wouldn’t care if she went through my wallet to get something for me, so what’s the difference? It took a surprising amount of conversation, meaning she didn’t agree with me at first, but then she was okay with it. I grab her panic pill, remembering that she doesn’t particularly like flying.

“Lily’s all set,” Brittany says as she comes into the living room.

“Here. Take these now for the flight.”

“Why now? We’ll be at the airport for an hour and a half before we take off. I don’t need to take them until we get past security.”

“Good point.”

“Wait, no, give me one now. This whole thing is making me nervous.”

I hand her one of the two pills and place the other one back in the bottle while she dry-swallows the medication. “It’ll be fine.” I grab her hand and pull her into my lap.

“It is pretty cool that our best friends are getting married, but I need more notice for a plan like this.”

“I’m guessing you’d never elope?”

“No, but that’s because I’d need my parents to be there and I could never go off and do something like that without them. Oh! I need to call them. Just so they know we’ll be gone and where we are in case something happens.” She leaves my lap to get her phone from her purse. “Chargers! We need phone chargers.”

“I’ll get them. Call your parents.”

I do that and by the time she’s done on the phone, Melissa and Ben are here. We say goodbye to Lily. Then we load up into the car and head toward the airport. Melissa directed me to the front seat, so she could sit in the back with Brittany and recount how he proposed.

By the sounds of it, they were having sex and he popped the question, which ended the sex while Melissa had a meltdown. Ben had to convince her that he was serious and meant it. Once she said yes, sex resumed until she suggested we leave for Vegas. They booked four airline tickets and two hotel rooms after seeing that there was an open reservation at a chapel in one of the hotels on the strip. After that, they came to see us. Apparently, Ben bought a ring after a month of dating her, but has been holding onto it until now. He didn’t even tell me it was that serious.

That’s such a crazy whirlwind of events.

We make it to the airport and through security without any issues. Brittany and Melissa are still huddled together, talking. I glance over at Ben.

“So, going to propose and tie the knot within forty-eight hours?”

“Yep.” He grins and his eyes slide to Melissa. “I’d only do it with her.” He shifts his focus back to me. “You’ve been married. Any advice?”

“It was a marriage that failed,” I point out.

“And assuming you learned from your mistakes, you should have some good advice.”

Well, he has a point. “I didn’t really learn from my mistakes until we broke up last year. So, my advice would be to share shit with her and talk to her about all the stuff you don’t want to talk about or deal with.”

“That’s it?” Ben seems surprised.

“That’s the only mistakes I made, so yeah, that’s it. She agreed to marry you, so you must be doing something right already.”

He grins. “That is true.”

“Stop gossiping like us,” Melissa says as she sits sideways in Ben’s lap and Brittany comes to sit next to me. She’s squeezing her wrist, so I take her hand to make her stop.

“We weren’t gossiping. Trace was giving me marriage advice.”

“Yeah?” Melissa looks at me. “What’d he say?”

“That it’s crucial to do two things.”

“Which are?” she drawls.

“Talk a lot and have sex once a day, minimum.”

Everyone laughs but Brittany. Ben and Melissa start talking quietly to one another and I angle toward Brittany.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper.

“Nothing,” she whispers back.

I keep my gaze on her and wait her out.

She sighs. “It’s nothing. I’m just wondering what your actual marriage advice was, but you asked what was wrong before I could ask.”