What If You & Me (Say Everything #2) - Roni Loren Page 0,96
toast her.
Andi clinked her glass and settled in. “Fine, fine. I am at your sappy mercy.”
Eliza tucked herself into the cozy chair Andi thought of as her reading spot and grabbed the remote. She signed in to one of the streaming services with her own credentials and pulled up her playlist of romantic movies. “I say we pick one of these. I’m in the mood for a rewatch of a classic.”
Andi eyed the screen. Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Clueless, Overboard, Grease. She laughed. “So we are watching horror.”
Eliza pointed the remote at her in warning. “Don’t go there, Lockley.”
Andi bit her lip, smiling, and lifted her palm in acquiescence. “I’m just saying. Each of those is horror in its own way.”
Hollyn shifted on the couch to look at her. “What—”
“Don’t ask. Don’t ask,” Eliza chanted from above the rim of her glass. “Don’t encourage her.”
Hollyn smirked and her nose scrunched again. “Sorry. I can’t resist. Tell me. How are those horror movies?”
Andi tucked her legs beneath her, bouncing the couch a little, and grinned at her friends. She took a long sip of her wine, preparing her arguments. “Let’s go down the list, shall we? Sleepless in Seattle—Lady hears a dude on the radio talking about his dead wife and then totally stalks him and his kid while she’s engaged to someone else. Creepy. Reverse the genders on that one, and it would’ve been a horror movie for sure.”
Eliza rolled her eyes.
Andi flicked her wrist dismissively. “Next, You’ve Got Mail—Tom Hanks catfishes Meg Ryan and destroys her business. Total dick move. Then he basically gaslights her into thinking that was a good thing.”
Hollyn frowned. “Damn, I hadn’t thought about it that way. Her store was supercute.”
Andi nodded. “Clueless—Eww, she falls for her stepbrother and she is underage.”
“But young Paul Rudd!” Eliza protested. “I’d totally step-incest for young Paul Rudd. He was so…earnest-eyed and adorable.”
Andi snorted but wasn’t going to let a Paul Rudd—hot or not—discussion derail the master thesis she was laying out. “Moving on from Eliza’s step-incest… Overboard—He gaslights the shit out of her and makes her think she’s his wife and mom to his horrible kids. Huge nightmare scenario. And Grease? She literally has to give up who she is to win the guy. That’s messed up.” She shrugged and sipped her wine. “The movie I suggested has a much more solid love story.”
Hollyn blinked a few times. “Wow.”
“Aaaand she ruins all romantic movies for us,” Eliza said with a sigh. “Your mind is a scary place.”
“Truth,” Andi agreed. “But I can’t believe more people don’t see it. Horror stories and love stories are two sides of the same coin. Both can involve obsession. Being overtaken by feelings you can’t control. Being driven to doing crazy, out-of-character stuff. Being at someone else’s mercy. Both involve death.”
Hollyn’s eyebrows went up. “Death.”
“Sure. Horror involves actual death, but love stories threaten emotional death if the person doesn’t end up with the one they love. Or that’s the theory they’re selling us.” Andi lifted her glass toward the TV. “Take any one of those movies on the screen and change one little thing, one motivation, and you have a horror movie. Meg Ryan creepily spying on Tom Hanks and his kid, trying to figure out a way to capitalize on his grief and worm her way into his family. Then it goes from lighthearted rom-com to Fatal Attraction. The line between the two is very thin.” She reached toward the coffee table and grabbed a handful of popcorn. “In real life too. There’s a reason why people refer to dating as a nightmare.”
“Andrea Lockley, true romantic,” Eliza said with a tilted smile. “Does the neighbor know about your dark view of love? That you’re going to break his heart after you use him for his hot bod?”
The popcorn Andi had put in her mouth stuck in her throat, and she coughed. After another sip of wine, she sent Eliza a look. “I’m not going to break his. He’ll break mine.”
Eliza frowned.
“What do you mean?” Hollyn asked. “Are things getting more serious with him?”
Andi eyed her two friends, wondering how much she should share. Embarrassment made her want to wave off their concerns, not reveal what she’d gotten herself into. But Eliza knew her secrets, and Hollyn would never shame her for anything, so she took a breath and let the truth come out. “Things aren’t more serious—at least not on his end. But I may have let my guard down