Once we got seated, I got myself as comfortable as I could be in the window seat, but there just wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room. Monty was still on her phone, but I could see one of her eyes twitching, which definitely meant she was freaking out a little.
“We’ll be there in no time,” I said, squeezing her arm clamped on the armrest.
“Sure,” she said, not looking up from her phone. I didn’t think she even knew what she was looking at anymore.
“Lay back and put your headphones on. You’ve seen the safety demo before.” She finally looked up and met me with wild eyes. Yup, she was panicking.
“Here,” I said, rummaging through my purse. I pulled out an eye mask I’d been intending to use myself, but I could sacrifice it for a good cause. Monty put the mask on, her headphones on her ears, and lay her head back. No more doomscrolling. I sat back in my seat and after a few moments, rested my head on her shoulder. Ahhhh, perfect. I snuggled into her and closed my eyes.
I woke up a little as the plane took off, and then it was naptime until Monty was gently shaking me.
“Whaa?” I said, immediately regretting being awake. My body was crunched like a pretzel and I had to pee so bad I thought I was going to need a new pair of jeans.
“We’re here,” she said, and she looked a little less twitchy than when we took off.
“Did you sleep any?” I asked.
“No, but you did. Bitch.”
I laughed through a yawn and looked around as we waited to deplane. From there it was a mission to get our luggage from the overhead and then get in a car to take us to the hotel.
“It’s hot as Satan’s butthole,” I said, regretting wearing said jeans. I hadn’t thought about that when we’d left Maine, but I probably should have.
“I think I told you to wear something looser,” Monty said as we drove away from the airport and got on the highway.
“Well, that doesn’t help me now, does it?” I grumbled. At least the car had air conditioning, and the hotel would too. The first thing I needed to do was take a shower and change. I hoped Monty would get in a short nap before forcing us to partake in some sort of activity. I knew she had an itinerary on her phone that she’d been trying to hide from me.
It was safe to say that Savannah was different than Maine, and not just the heat. So many historic homes and plaques and statues. And the trees, I couldn’t get over them. They were huge and had these heavy tendrils hanging down everywhere. I just wanted to sit under one and drink a sweet tea or something.
Monty checked us in and the person at the desk looked at her account and then beamed at her.
“Congratulations, Mrs. Murray, we’re so happy to have you here.” The blood drained from Monty’s face and I grabbed onto her so her legs didn’t give out.
“Uh, yeah, do whatever you need to do in the computer to get rid of that info,” I said to the confused front desk person, and then explained the situation in hushed tones.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll get that updated right away.” Monty started making a weird gasping noise as the front desk person clacked on the keyboard to remove mentions of Monty being married.
“Ford, are you okay?” I looked into her face and I saw tears starting to run down her cheeks. Shit, this had been a bad idea.
“Here are your room keys, and I’m sending up a complimentary bottle of champagne.” It was the least they could do.
“Sounds good,” I said, taking the room keys, Monty’s arm, and somehow getting the luggage on a cart so we could go up to our room.
Monty started to get her bearings in the elevator, but I still wanted her to lay down for a little while, or maybe take a soak in the tub or something. I’d have to check out what they had for room service options.
After a little fumbling, I got us through the door and then tried to block the view from Monty.
“Go into the bathroom,” I told her.
“Why?” She tried to shove past me.
“Just go in the damn bathroom for a few seconds, Ford.” Monty glared at me, but stepped into the bathroom and shut the door. I rushed to the bed, which was covered in a heart made from fake rose petals. I brushed them onto the floor and shoved as many of them as I could under the bed. There wasn’t anything else wedding related, so that was good.
“Can I come out now?” Monty called from the bathroom, clearly irritated.
“Yes, you’re good.”
“Oh,” she said, looking at the bed, that was a little rumpled from my efforts to remove the petals. “I forgot there’s only one bed.”
“Right.” That hadn’t even occurred to me at first, but it was a big bed. We could share it. No big deal. “I mean, we’ve shared a bed how many times before?”
“Good point,” she said, and then she flopped down on her back on the bed.
“Do you need anything?” I found some bottles of water in the fridge and handed her one. The room was beautiful, and even had a little balcony I could see us having breakfast on in the mornings in fluffy robes like fancy people. Hopefully I could make room for that in her itinerary. I really needed to get my hands on her phone so I could find it and see what I was in for.
“A new life?” she said, shutting her eyes and throwing her arm over her face.
“Sorry, I’m fresh out, but how about a snack?” I found the room service menu but was interrupted by a knock on the door. A waiter had a try with an ice bucket and two glasses, as well as a tray of chocolate strawberries. As if the hotel had read my mind.
“Wow, thank you so much,” I said, and gave the guy a generous tip.
“Compliments of the front desk,” he said with an awkward little bow.
I wheeled the cart into the room.
“Come have a glass of bubbly with me,” I said, and Monty sat up. I opened the bottle and poured her a glass. I set the tray of strawberries on the bed and plunked down next to her.
“To the bestfriendimoon,” I said, holding my glass out. She clinked hers against mine and then downed the whole thing in one go.
This was going to be an interesting week.
I CHECKED IN WITH MY parents, and after gulping two glasses of champagne and munching a few strawberries, Monty crashed out on the bed. I was relieved, so I stepped out on the balcony to enjoy the view and not disturb her nap.
I hung up after giving them the rundown of the flight and the hotel and how Monty was doing (I glossed over a lot and said she was doing fine), I sat on the chair and sipped the rest of the bottle of water. Not too shabby. I knew that this trip was making a rainbow from the absolute shittiest storm possible, but I had one goal for this trip: to force Monty to have some damn fun. I didn’t care what I had to do to make that happen.
She might have made plans, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve too, and she wasn’t going to know what hit her.
IT WAS NEARLY TIME for dinner when Monty woke up. Her eyes were puffy, but she looked a little less grim than she had when we’d first arrived.
“Good evening, sunshine. How was your nap?”
She looked around the room and had such a confused expression on her face that I couldn’t handle it.
“What time is it?” she croaked, running a hand through her hair. She’d slept with it down, so it was just all over the place. Monty normally braided her hair at night since it was so long and got so chaotic if she didn’t.
“Almost six-thirty. Are you hungry?”
She sat up and leaned against the pillows.
“Just give me a few minutes to get my bearings. I think I might want a shower first, even if we don’t go anywhere.”
I turned on the TV and flipped around while she hopped in the shower and changed her clothes. When she came back into the room, she looked a lot fresher, and I could tell her mood was better.
“We could go down to the restaurant here, if you didn’t want to venture anywhere else.” I’d already changed from the clothes I’d had on earlier, so I was good to go.
“Sounds good.” I watche
d as she braided her damp hair without thought and spun it into a perfect loose bun on the back of her head. Her dress fluttered in the air conditioning as she slipped her sandals on.
“It’s the first dinner of bestfriendimoon. Let’s do this,” I said, linking her arm with mine.
“You’re going to make bestfriendimoon into a whole big thing, aren’t you?” she said, giving me side-eye as we walked down the hallway toward the elevator.
“There might be t-shirts and other memorabilia,” I said, and her eyes went wide.
“Please don’t say that Donny made shirts.” My brother Donny was an incredible artist and enjoyed designing t-shirts and other promotional items as a hobby. He’d done the sign for the antique store, and every year for Pride he made new shirts for the whole family that we wore at the parade.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, and she yanked on my arm so I’d stop walking.
“I’m not wearing matching t-shirts.” She crossed her arms and leaned on one hip.
“We’ll see about that,” I said, walking and hitting the down button on the elevator.
“I’m not wearing matching shirts,” she said through clenched teeth as we got on the elevator.
“We’ll see,” I said.
Monty argued with me all the way down the elevator, and it was a relief to see her so feisty.
The restaurant inside the hotel was actually pretty nice, with lovely antique chandeliers casting warm light, and lots of leather chairs, and a really cool bar.
We got a table and glanced at the menus.
“So, what else do you want to do this evening? Just chill? I have face masks and shit.” It had required a miracle to get all of the supplies to make this the bestfriendimoon, but somehow I’d done it. I was so impressed with myself.
“Could we just maybe take a walk? Just wander around?”
Honestly, that sounded amazing. We could do that and also do the other fun things I had in my suitcase of fun.
“I love it, perfect idea.”
Dinner was incredible: fried chicken for both of us, mac and cheese, salads, and fried Oreos for dessert. I opted for iced tea instead of booze for some balance. Plus, if I had any alcohol with all that food, I might have fallen asleep under the table.
“Maybe a walk was a bad idea,” Monty said as she sat back, both hands on her stomach. She groaned and rubbed her belly.
“Let’s sit here for a few minutes and let everything settle. Okay, what do you think their deal is?” I nodded toward a man and a woman at another table. Both were dressed for a date night, but you never knew.
“It’s not awkward enough for a date. And there’s no chemistry. I’m guessing some sort of work thing. And look how he’s talking and talking and talking and she’s doing the ‘politely interested’ thing.” She was right.
“Okay, second question: what do they do for a living?”
Monty studied the people, her head tilted just slightly to the side. I hadn’t had any alcohol, but my skin was warm, and I kept getting distracted by the shine on her hair from the chandeliers. Sometimes I envied her hair and thought about growing mine out, but I couldn’t stand having hair on the back of my neck, so that was a no go. Undercut was my comfort zone.
Plus, I wasn’t pretty like Monty. No one was pretty like Monty.
“Real estate,” she said with confidence.
“I’m voting for lawyers.” They had that lawyer look. We’d never find out the real story, but it was fun to speculate. The two of us went from table to table, making increasingly ridiculous suggestions.
“You ready?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Just a short walk. My tired is catching up with me,” she said as we got up from the table. A group had come in and taken over the bar and they were loud as hell. I wasn’t old by any means, but did they have to be like that? Have some decorum and use your inside voice.
The air was thick with moisture when we walked outside.
“Dear god, how do people live like this,” I said, my skin instantly breaking out in a sweat. It was too late for it to be so hot.
“Okay, so maybe we should have checked the temperature first. But still, it’s so pretty.” She was right, it was pretty. The street was quieter now, and we weren’t the only ones strolling down the sidewalk. Monty and I moseyed along, glancing in shop windows and restaurants. I made mental notes of places we could go throughout the week.
“You ready to go back?” I asked. We’d taken so many turns that I wasn’t exactly sure how to get back to the hotel, but that’s what GPS was for.
“Sure,” she said, and then yawned.
Our walk back was even slower.
“We shouldn’t have walked so far,” Monty said, stopping and looking up at the sky.
“I mean, we could always call a car.”
“That’s a little much, don’t you think?” she said, and then, as if it was fate, a guy peddling a bike taxi started coming toward us.
“Hey! We need a ride!” I yelled, and he rang the bell on the bike and stopped.
“Where to?” he asked, and I named our hotel. Monty sat down with a sigh.
“I wish we had these back home.”
We started moving and I enjoyed the wind on my face.
“The closest thing we have is someone giving you a ride on their four-wheeler or tractor.” That made her laugh, mostly because it was so true. We lived in a weird place.
Both of us were completely beat when we got back to the hotel, so we took turns taking showers and put on pajamas, but covered up with the fluffy robes we found in the closet. There were also slippers.
“I thought this was going to suck, but it’s not sucking as much as I thought,” Monty said, resting back against the pillows as I flipped through the channels. I was tired, but not quite ready for sleep yet. I needed some wind-down time first.
“Are you telling me that this sucks?” I waved my hand around the gorgeous room. “Did you need a cute boy rubbing your feet or something? I can probably order that.” Room service had to have something like that available.
Monty made a face. “Ew, no. I don’t want a man touching my feet, thank you.”
Agreed. I didn’t even let Gus rub my feet much, and he was my fiancé.
“Is there anything else you do want?” I turned on my side and propped my head on my hand. Monty stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know anything anymore, Cin,” she said, and I watched a tear roll down her cheek. I reached up and swiped at it with the sleeve of my robe.
“Hey, talk to me,” I said.
Monty pressed her lips together and shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Tell me and I’ll help you figure it out.” She shook her head again and sniffed. I rolled over and grabbed the box of tissues from the nightstand, passing them to her.
“I really just want to go to bed.”
“Okay,” I said, and she went to the bathroom for a few minutes. I assumed she was brushing her teeth, but I didn’t really know. She came out and her face was a little red. I took my turn, and she was quiet as I tossed the robe on a chair, plugged in my phone, and climbed into bed.
Monty quickly braided her hair back and I settled in next to her.
“Goodnight?” I said, because I couldn’t figure out what else to say.
“Yeah, goodnight.” She leaned over and turned off the lamp on her side and I turned off mine.
The two of us lay in the dark, listening to each other breathe.
“Thank you for coming with me,” she whispered.
“You’re welcome.”
She rolled away from me and went to sleep.
Eight
Monty
I barely slept that first night, but I tried. The nap in the middle of the day hadn’t been the best idea, and had thrown my internal clock off, but there were other reasons why I couldn’t get my mind to settle.
So many thoughts that were shapeless and confusing and strange. I cou
ldn’t talk to Tessa about them, because I didn’t even have words for them. Just a sick feeling in my stomach that kept me up all night.
At least Tessa had slept, because I’d heard her tiny adorable snore.
I waited until she stirred before I pretended to come awake. I rolled over and almost smiled at her sleep-drenched appearance. Hair everywhere, eyes bleary, cheeks with marks on them from the pillowcase.
“Good morning sunshine,” she said, giving me a little smile before stretching her arms over her head.
“Good morning.” She rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom, and I pulled up my agenda on my phone. I’d left yesterday blank because I knew I probably wouldn’t be in the best state to schedule anything, and I’d been right.
Today, though, today I had plans.
Tessa skipped back from the bathroom and jumped on the bed, her eyes bright.
“You’re awfully chipper,” I said. Usually she wasn’t a morning person.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about what I was going to order for breakfast. Help me decide.” She nabbed the room service menu and shoved it in my face. Normally I would have discouraged all the room service orders, but I had a huge budget for food, so we could pretty much do what we wanted. In an ideal world, TJ and I would have been having too much honeymoon sex to worry about food and would have been ordering it around the clock.
Hindsight, you rude bitch.
“Challah French toast sounds incredible, plus some fruit and coffee? I need some fucking caffeine,” Tessa said, and I looked away from her hair. It was stuck up all over the place, like the plumes of an exotic bird.
“Sounds good to me,” I said, not even remembering what she’d just said a few seconds earlier. Tessa grabbed the phone as I finger-combed my braid out. Today was going to require so much coffee. I hoped they brought enough, or else I’d have to make some with the little pods in the room to get me going.
My best friend didn’t seem to need any coffee, she was bright and full of energy and I had to grit my teeth not to yell at her for being so chipper and perky.
Who We Could Be Page 7