Keeping Secrets in Seattle - By Brooke Moss Page 0,8

lost my puppy fat. I asked Gabe what he thought, and he paused. A delicious pause that made my knees weak. He told me that I’d always been beautiful to him, and he leaned in and kissed me.

I’ll admit it…I spent most of the first few weeks after Christmas in a funk.

I tried to put on a happy face every day at work, but Lizzy, my prom dress–wearing drag queen boss, noticed, and made Kim promise to get me out of the house. Apparently coming home to eat ice cream while riding the stationary bike in front of the television every night wasn’t a healthy way to spend my time. Who knew?

But it wasn’t like that was the only thing I was doing with my time. I’d also started looking at jobs in Portland, which was a good two-hour drive south. I didn’t want to leave my beloved Seattle, but starting over in a city where Gabe and Alicia weren’t was infinitely more appealing than hanging around clinging to a man who was in love with someone else.

I guess that glancing at my phone every five minutes waiting for a call or text from Gabe might have contributed to my unhealthy behavior. I hadn’t laid eyes on him since that conversation on Christmas day, and my heart grew heavier with every day that passed, bringing May fifteenth closer. Instead of talking four or five times a day, we’d been reduced to the occasional voice mail and e-mails like this one that came a few weeks into January:

What’s up? Man, I’ve missed you like crazy, Vi. It’s been pure chaos with all the wedding hoopla. Sorry I wasn’t there for your mom and Curtis’s New Year’s party. Did Leandra get hammered and sing the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof again?

(This is when I snorted to myself. My mother got drunk and sang the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof every year.)

…Alicia wants me to ask you to meet up on Valentine’s Day morning for a brunch. They’re meeting at the Silver Cascade at 11:00 a.m. Will you please try to make it? For me?

I’d cringed when I read that message…and might have also said a few choice phrases about Alicia. But I really had to dig deep for any interest in hanging out with Alicia and her posse of pantsuit-wearing aspiring models. If Gabe hadn’t written “for me?” on his e-mail, I would have happily come up with a lovely excuse as to why I couldn’t make it to brunch at the Silver Cascade. Hernia. Shingles. Asian flu, perhaps?

Yo,

You were sorely missed at the New Year’s party. During karaoke I was forced to sing our signature song by myself, and the B-52s are never a solo venture. You owe me. Big time. And now, after you’ve barely spoken to me since Christmas, you’re asking me to go hang out with a bunch of anorexic bridesmaids at one of the most overpriced joints in town? Fine. I’ll go. I’ll choke down a plateful of pretention…just for you. Tell Alicia I’ll be there.

Peace out, V.

“Get up off your ass, and take a shower,” Kim snarled.

I looked at her blankly, blinking a few times to adjust my eyes to the light in the living room. When had it gotten dark? I’d been sitting on the couch since arriving home from work four hours earlier, engrossed in a dating show involving a rock star and half a dozen strippers.

I pulled out my phone and checked for messages. There weren’t any. “I guess I can’t avoid it anymore, can I?”

“Nope,” Kim yelled from the kitchen. “We’re going out tonight.”

Betsy frowned at me. “You’re ruining the couch. It’s got a dent in it, the same shape as your butt. You need to come out with us tonight.”

It was then that I realized Betsy was dressed like a cat, complete with black leotard and pointy ears on top of her head.

“What the hell are you wearing?” I asked.

Kim skipped into my line of sight, clad in a deep-blue leotard of her own, but with several ostrich plumes attached to her backside and a plastic beak hanging from her nose. “It’s Animal Night at The Lotus. We’ve discussed this.”

Ah. I remembered now. As I was rushing out the door to work, Kim hollered something from their bedroom about the sixth annual animal costume contest at our favorite club. I blew it off, having already planned a long evening of trashy TV, some hot, spicy kimchi, and a nap.