Luke made me feel a little down, the memory was one of our good ones. We laughed so hard we were nearly crying. I remembered now why I was friends with Gabby. She was hilarious.
“Okay, let’s get down to business,” she announced, her words only slightly slurred.
I was almost ready for my second drink and feeling the effects. It had been awhile since I’d had a drink, probably since my birthday, several months back.
“‘Down to business?’ Is this an official meeting?” I asked as Jimmy brought us another round.
“Kind of. Everyone knows Luke had dinner with you and your dad tonight. Did anything happen?”
She wanted gossip. The joys of a small town.
“No. I guess he’s been hanging out with Dad a lot, so it was only natural for him to keep that up. But I’m here now, so he won’t be around,” I said.
“It’s a small town, Mal.”
“Yeah. And I have made myself perfectly clear to him. He needs to stay away from Dad and me. Can we talk about something else?” I was dying to change the subject. “Why haven’t you married some local and settled down with babies yet?”
“I was married two and a half years ago, Mal,” she said, her voice drenched with sadness. “We’re in the process of a divorce.”
“I had no idea, Gabby. I am so sorry,” I said. Apparently I wasn’t the only one drowning my sorrows in liquor. I raised my glass. “To divorce!”
Our glasses clinked but before we could drink, another voice joined ours.
“Don’t tell me you girls are already hammered without me! And toasting Gabby’s impending divorce, no less,” the woman said.
I took in her dark hair and eyes, her high cheekbones and shimmering smile. It took me a minute to place her.
“Rainey?”
I was shocked. Not only was she no longer the chubby high school girl I remembered, she was the hottest girl in the bar. Her waist was slim and she had on a summery dress that revealed her long legs underneath. Her eyes were caked with make-up, though, which indicated dark circles.
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t show for your homecoming party, did you?”
She gave me a hug and went over to the bar to discuss her drink selection with Jimmy. She returned with a Bahama Mama and sipped it as she sat.
“I thought you were living in LA,” I said numbly.
My two best friends from high school were both in town celebrating … My homecoming? I hoped they didn’t think this would become permanent.
“I’m on vacation. Mom’s been pressuring me to visit, so when she mentioned you were coming home, I figured I should make an appearance. Get the whole gang together, you know,” she remarked.
She was a far cry from the shy girl in my memories.
“Wow. It’s so great to catch up with the two of you. But I should tell you, I’m not here forever. My roommates are holding my bedroom in our apartment.” I didn’t want them to get too excited about my presence.
“Well, yeah, we figured. But if you’re here for the summer, it’s good enough for me,” Gabby said.
“No kidding. I’m only here for the weekend, but I am thinking about moving back to town on a more permanent basis,” Rainey whispered.
Gabby perked up. “Ooh, gossip! Why are you coming back?”
“Oh, you know, tired of the city life. I need to get back to who I really am. Everyone in LA is so fake. It’s hard to take sometimes,” she admitted.
I raised my glass again. “To Gabby’s divorce and Rainey’s move back home!”
I clinked my glass against theirs and felt true happiness and friendship for the first time in years.
My roommates in Boston were great. They were considerate and clean, but they weren’t my best friends. The truth was, I didn’t have a best friend anymore. There wasn’t anyone I could talk to about my father, about my past with Luke, about anything. As I sat there listening to Gabby and Rainey go on about their lives, I realized how much I missed the small-town life. I never thought I would, but the ache for being a part of this world again hounded me.
I sipped my cocktail and stayed silent, happy not to draw attention to myself. Gabby and Rainey rambled on about what had been going on in town and who was dating who for nearly an hour. I listened intently, certain the conversation would eventually turn back to me. Around ten, the conversation turned to our love lives.
“So, Rainey, do you have