“Shit, Abby,” I said as I leaned forward and wrapped her up in a hug.
Abby laughed, but I heard the tears threatening to break through.
“It’s okay,” she said as she squeezed me back. “I have no idea what I’m going to do with my life, but I know I won’t repeat my father’s mistakes.”
She wiped some tears from her eyes, and I ran to the bathroom to grab her some tissues.
“Thanks,” she said with an embarrassed smile. “I never let anyone see me break down like that.”
“That’s what best friends do,” I said with a smile. “We help each other through tough times.”
Abby’s smile fell, and she looked down at the floor. “Are you sure you still want to be friends?”
“Of course!” I assured her. “You know I don’t care about how much money your family has. I like spending time with you, and you’re a good friend.”
Emotions flitted across her face too quickly for me to track.
“Everyone else acts like I’m going to steal their money out from under them,” Abby said with a defeated look.
The mean girl comments about Abby floated back through my memory, and I scowled.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “You’re a good person, and I trust you.”
Abby gave me a tentative smile, but her eyes were worried.
“Let’s just watch a movie or something,” I suggested. “We can escape from all of this stupid drama.”
Abby immediately brightened back up. “Can I borrow some clothes?” she asked. “We should have brought snacks. Do you have anything hidden in here?”
She looked me up and down. “Why did I just ask you that? You obviously snack on celery sticks and organic hummus.”
“I’m going to take a shower,” I informed her with a chuckle. “But help yourself to anything downstairs. Mr. Ferguson is serious about keeping the pantry stocked with anything and everything that we could possibly want.” I smiled at her. “And I’m pretty sure that Kingston and the other guys aren’t snacking on celery.”
Abby grinned at me. “I’ll bring something fattening up for you. If you’re going to hide behind frumpy bathing suits, you can afford to have a little pudge.”
I threw my sandal at her, but she ducked and ran towards the door. “Bring cheesecake if they have it!” I shouted after her. “Or brownies.”
Alcohol had definitely soaked into my brain, because the thought of calories wasn’t causing me anxiety. I wanted to take one bite of every delicious sweet that I spent years depriving myself of. Today was my one day of being normal, so I’d better take advantage of this feeling now. I knew that tomorrow I would probably be drowning in a sea of regret, but the alcohol gave me a nice ‘I don’t care’ buzz.
Abby popped her head back in the door at the mention of brownies. “It’s like we’re soulmates or something,” she teased me. “This goes beyond besties.”
I laughed and headed for the shower. I tended to burn in the sun, so I lathered on layers of sunscreen like my life depended on it, and I couldn’t wait to wash it all off. I closed my eyes as the hot water flowed over my head and streamed down my body.
It was good to see Abby acting more like herself, but I was glad she trusted me with her family’s story. All the regret I had over getting into a fight with Elena had evaporated away completely. Abby deserved to have someone fight for her if that’s how she was treated all the time. It made me sad to see her father’s mistakes weighing on her like this, but it also made me understand her a little better. She was always dressed to perfection to avoid giving her detractors any more ammo than they already had. She was happy and bubbly to show them that their cruel words couldn’t affect her. Abby was one of the strongest women I knew if she could put up with that all the time and still be a good person.
I frowned when I thought about my own family issues. I couldn’t get the sight of Kingston’s look of betrayal out of my mind. Why would saying that his father was taking me to work cause such a strong reaction? It hadn’t seemed like a big deal when Richard had asked me.
When I went past the point of clean and started to venture into prune-like, I shut off the water and squished out my long hair. When I opened the shower door to reach for a towel, I screamed. Kingston was sitting on the counter next to the sink and staring blankly into space. He didn’t even seem to realize that I was naked, which was shocking.
“Hey Kingston,” I said softly as I wrapped the towel securely around me. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you ask him to take you to work?” he asked dully, taking a swig right out of the bottle of Patron he had brought up with him. “I really thought Mav was wrong about you.”
“I didn’t ask,” I said with a frown. “He asked me to come and look at the dance stuff that his team is putting together.”
“He just offered?” Kingston asked, hurt in his eyes.
I swallowed nervously. “Um, yeah. We had talked about how his website lacked a dance section during that first dinner, when we were waiting on you and Maverik to get there. I was surprised that he followed up on it.”
“I asked to do an internship there,” Kingston told me quietly. “He said no.”
I frowned at him. “This isn’t anything like an internship,” I explained. “It’s probably just cheaper to ask me than it would be to put together a focus group
