Chapter Fifteen

Caroline was frantic, pacing the floor at Emily’s condo as she checked her phone yet again. “Why won’t Allie answer?” she asked. “Every phone call goes to voice mail, and she’s not responding to texts either.”

Brittany peered out the front window one more time. “It’s like Chicago just swallowed her up, like she vanished into thin air.”

Emily stifled a yawn. “I just made a pot of fresh coffee, ladies, and I don’t want to make light of this situation, but it’s three a.m. and I’m falling asleep.” She was headed for the stairs when a cab pulled up in front of the building.

“Thank goodness! There she is.” Caroline ran outside as Allie stumbled out of the taxi.

“Currlyne,” Allie slurred, “I’m outta cash, and I told thish nice man you’d pay ’im.”

Caroline looked at the meter and sucked in her breath. “Oh, Allie, that’s a huge tab, and I don’t think I have enough…”

Caroline had no choice but to ask Emily. She sprinted back into the house, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. “Allie promised the driver we’d pay him, and—”

“Say no more.” Emily grabbed her wallet from her bag sitting on the coffee table and went outside to pay the fare. Caroline followed closely behind. Emily added on a generous tip and waved the cabbie away, and with Emily on one side and Caroline on the other, they helped Allie stagger into the house.

“Where have you been?” Caroline demanded. “We were worried sick!”

“Part-ee!”Allie laughed and then coughed and gagged. “Clozhed down sevrull barz.”

Caroline shook her head and realized Allie would just have to sleep it off. They could talk in the morning—much later in the morning—when Allie was sober. And probably hung over.

She and Emily helped Allie up the stairs and into the guest room. Allie collapsed on the bed and was instantly asleep. Caroline looked sympathetically at her sister, removed Allie’s shoes, and covered her with a blanket. Caroline didn’t know if what she felt was exhaustion or relief, but when she glimpsed her pale complexion in the dresser mirror, she admitted she’d been scared out of her wits. “Emily, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stay up a while longer, maybe read a magazine or something. My stomach’s all tied in knots, and I doubt I could sleep anyway.”

Emily nodded assent. “I’ll just say good night then.”

Caroline turned off the light and quietly closed the door. She couldn’t help going over and over in her mind the scene with Mark at the bar earlier. Why was Mark so cold to Allie, and why—why?—was he with Misty? Suddenly Misty’s ‘desperate’ shopping trip to Chicago made sense.

****

It was early afternoon when Caroline finally peeked into the guest room. “Allie?”

“Yeah,” Allie croaked.

Caroline opened the door and stepped inside. “You look terrible.”

“Gee thanks.” Allie lifted herself up on one elbow long enough to peer at her reflection in the dresser mirror, and then collapsed back onto the pillow. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes, hair plastered to her head, clothes wrinkled and covered in stains from spills of tropical beverages. She blinked and looked away as Caroline opened the curtains, letting in the sunlight. “I think I drank too much.”

“Ya think?” Caroline felt bad about the emotional state Allie was in, but she wasn’t so sympathetic about Allie’s bender. She handed her a bottle of water. “Here, drink this. You need an aspirin?”

“Ugh, no.” She twisted open the bottle and took a couple of tentative sips.

Caroline sat down on the edge of the bed. “So just how many bars did you close down last night?”

“I lost count after three.”

“All by yourself?”

“Of course not.” Allie tried to smile, but then grabbed her forehead in pain. “The bars were full of men ready to buy me drinks, and I had the company of the cabdriver, too.” She moaned. “Oh, my head!”

Caroline frowned at her sister. She always knew Allie could be overly dramatic, but last night’s bar crawl exceeded any stunt she’d ever pulled. “That’s crazy, Allie.”

Allie eased herself down onto the fluffy pillow. “I got dumped and I got stupid.”

“You ran up a huge bill with the cabdriver, too, which Emily paid, by the way.”

Allie frowned. “Sorry.”

Caroline didn’t think her sister was in any condition to make amends right now. “I’ve got to get back to Indy. I know you don’t feel well, but you need to come with me, put some distance between you and Mark Townsend.” She got up and started putting her belongings into her overnight bag.

“I can’t go home right now.” Allie moaned as she carefully shifted her head to ease the pain.

Caroline zipped up her bag. “I’m sure Emily and Sara and Brittany would be glad to have you stay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. And please don’t tell me you’re going to try to contact Mark again.”

Allie’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly sat up. “No, he made himself pretty clear last night.”

Caroline felt terrible for her sister, but Allie had been so secretive about what had actually happened with her and Mark, and now she wanted answers. “All this started July third. You have to tell me what happened.”

Allie grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “He told me he thought I was getting too serious.”

“That doesn’t sound unreasonable.”

Allie put the chilled water bottle to her throbbing temples. “I told him I was falling in love with him.”

Caroline groaned, her worst fear realized. “Love? You barely knew him, Allie.”

“But we’d spent practically every waking minute together since we met. He told me…or he let me believe…” Allie broke off with a sigh. “He said he was too worried about his dad’s money problems to get involved in a relationship.” Allie laughed a humorless laugh. “Can you believe that? Money problems? We live in a tiny house, no money, no school…”

Caroline gave that some thought. “It sounds like a lame excuse, like he wasn’t really that into you.”

“Starving artist—that’s what he called me,” Allie said with tears streaming down her face.

“Oh.” Caroline was finally seeing the big picture, and she didn’t like the view.

“I just thought he needed more time,” Allie said with a sniffle, “but I guess what he really needed was someone to bankroll his family’s debt.”

“And when he heard the name Benedict, he thought that was you. Then he found out you didn’t have a trust fund, so he moved on to a richer woman—Misty Peterson.”

Allie wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “As strongly as we felt about each other, I still hoped…”

Caroline put up her hand to stop the rest of that thought. “I think you should’ve believed him when he said he wasn’t ready for a commitment. And even if you didn’t believe him, his cyber-silence spoke volumes.”

“But I know he felt something for me!” Allie exclaimed.

Caroline reached over and patted her sister’s shoulder. “Maybe. But it wasn’t enough.” She gave Allie a hug. “I’m sorry you got hurt, Allie, but you have to let him go.”

Allie watched as her sister slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped to the door. “You’re leaving? I’m upset here.”

“I’ve got to deal with another problem now, Allie. Richard and Misty.”

Allie narrowed her eyes. “At least I had a relationship with Mark,” Allie mumbled. “Not like you pining over Richard and never saying a word to him about it.”

Caroline’s mouth dropped open. “Maybe I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve like you do, but the situation is entirely different. I can’t tell him. He’s engaged!”

“To a woman who’s cheating on him!”

Caroline sighed. “I never did think Misty loved Richard, but until last night I had no idea how far her dishonesty went.”

“Now you know, so what are you going to do about it?” Allie demanded.

Every muscle in Caroline’s body tensed up at the thought of either confronting Misty or ratting her out to Richard. She shook her head. “I’m staying out of it. He and Misty will just have to work this out on their own.”

Allie slowly stood up and steadied herself on the nightstand. “But what if they don’t? Richard has a right to know what his fiancée’s been up to! With my boy—ex-boyfriend, no less.” Tears came to her eyes again. “Car, admit it, you’re in love with Richard.”

Caroline caught a glimpse of her steely-eyed look in the mirror, and didn’t like what she saw. “Believe me, Allison, if I thought telling him would change anything…”

Allie grabbed her sister and pulled her into a tight hug. “This sucks!”

Slowly Caroline pulled away. “I know.” She readjusted the bag on her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to come home with me?”

Allie shook her head, so Caroline closed the door behind her and went downstairs. Brittany was flipping through a magazine, and Emily was poring over some MLS listings on her phone.

“So what happened last night?” Emily asked.

Brittany put her magazine aside. “Yeah, is Allie okay?”

Caroline shook her head and slumped into an arm chair. “The condensed version is that Mark told Allie in Indianapolis that he didn’t want a relationship with her, but she refused to believe him and followed him up here.”

Emily pointed to Caroline’s packed bag. “Are you leaving?”

“I have to be at work tomorrow, but Allie wants to stay. I told her okay, as long as she promises to stay away from Mark.”

“Allison is welcome to stay,” Emily said. “We’ll take good care of her.”

Brittany jumped to her feet. “Yeah, I’ll take her shopping, to museums, a concert, whatever. I can cheer her up! She’ll forget about what’s-his-name in no time!”

Caroline smiled. “Thanks, Brittany. She’s lucky to have a friend like you. Either Mom or I can come get her next weekend, or Allie can take the Megabus home if she’s ready before then. Maybe a few days of shopping and sightseeing will do her good.” She fumbled in her purse for her keys.

“Caroline,” Emily said, “who was that woman Mark was dancing with last night? You seemed to know her.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started on Misty Peterson.”

“Peterson? Like Peterson’s Coffee Emporium Peterson?”

Caroline found her keys and pulled them out of her handbag. “One and the same. And she’s engaged to Richard, my boss and Sharlene’s brother. One big happy, dysfunctional family.”