“If you take a picture, it’ll last longer,” an amused drawl said, interrupting Crystal’s thoughts. Flicking her gaze towards her lunch companion, she stuck her tongue out.
“Real mature,” Ruby, Crystal’s older sister, said.
Crystal shrugged. “Oh well, aren’t you always claiming I’m immature and need to grow up? I’m just living up to your decree, oh wise one,” Crystal teased.
Ruby pursed her lips. “When are you finally going to tell Brendon that you’re in love with him instead of ogling him from afar? And don’t deny it, I just caught you looking at him as he got in his car.”
“You need to mind your own business. I’ll tell him how I feel around the same time you stop denying that your boss makes your panties wet,” Crystal said, smirking.
Ruby crossed her arms and glared at Crystal. “Must you be so crass?”
“Must you have a stick up your ass? Hey, that rhymed!” Crystal said, laughing.
Ruby picked up the menu and perused the options. “You are so juvenile, Crystal. It’s a miracle you’re able to take care of yourself. And for your information, I do not have designs on my boss.”
“Yeah right. Your boss is fine and bossy. He looks like the type to take over in the courtroom and bedroom. You need an alpha man like that, instead of these wimps who you end up ditching after the second date,” Crystal said, picking up her own menu.
They were at their usual lunch bistro in the middle of downtown Springfield. Kat’s was centrally located between Crystal and two of her three sisters’ jobs and was the designated lunch spot for their weekly Thursday luncheon.
“Can we please not discuss my boss in those terms? The last thing I need is to be thinking about what he could do to me in the bedroom…I mean what he could do for me in the courtroom…I mean…hell…” Ruby said, rubbing her forehead.
“Ah ha! So are you finally going to admit that you’re crushing on your boss? That you’ve thought of him in ways that have nothing to do with him writing your check, but in ways that have you screaming, ‘yes, Counselor!’” Crystal placed her menu on the table and leaned forward, eyes wide.
Ruby glared at her and put her menu down, too. “Seriously, Crystal, grow up. You talk like you’re a teenager. You’re twenty-four years old and you make a living hocking products on social media. You have no 401K or any kind of retirement plan, you have no backup contingency in case you find yourself without money…do you even have a savings account? How about you focus on that instead of what I think about my boss,” Ruby said, eyes boring into Crystal’s.
Crystal resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her sister. Ruby was the oldest and took her role as big sister to the extreme. She meant well, but she was annoying to deal with on most occasions.
“So it’s okay for you to comment on my feelings for Brendon, but I can’t do the same about your boss? For your information, I have a nice chunk of savings, and an investment portfolio. I’m not an immature teenager or some brainless chick cashing in on her looks. You seriously need to take that stick out of your ass, it’s not a good look on you.” Crystal took a long sip of her iced water.
Ruby’s eyes narrowed and she sat ramrod straight in her seat. “So, I have a stick up my ass because I refuse to talk about my boss like he’s a piece of meat and because I’m worried about your future? For your information—”
“Uh oh, looks like baby sis and big sis are at it…again. Don’t you two ever get tired of arguing?” a soft voice said.
Crystal smiled at her other big sister, Amethyst. At twenty-six, Amethyst was the sister closest to her in age. Ruby was the oldest at thirty, followed by Jade at twenty-eight. Their mother, Opal, named all of them after gemstones in a nod to her and her mother, their grandmother, Pearl. Their father had capitulated as long as he could choose their middle names, and so they were stuck with the names of gemstones and Disney princesses. There was Ruby Aurora, Jade Ariel, Amethyst Belle, and Crystal Jasmine. The Harris sisters had seen their fair share of teasing based on their monikers.
Crystal stood to hug Amethyst. “Well…Ruby is being an old bore again.”
Amethyst smirked. “Let me guess. When are you going to get a real job? Selling flat tummy tea on social media is not a respectable job,” Amethyst said in a perfect imitation of Ruby.
Crystal cackled and even Ruby cracked a smile. It was hard to be in a bad mood around Amethyst. She was the only sister who could tease all of them and no one would get mad at her—although for Crystal that hadn’t always been the case.
“I’m not that bad…am I?” A smile lingered on Ruby’s full nude lips.
Crystal and Amethyst looked at each other, then turned towards Ruby. “Yes,” they said in unison.
Ruby’s honey skin darkened and she glanced away, smoothing her hands over her immaculate hair. Crystal and Amethyst glanced at each other, concern causing their brows to draw together.
“I just don’t want you to struggle, Crystal,” Ruby said quietly. “You’re the only one without a degree whose job depends on the whims of others and their shopping habits. We all know how badly Mama and Daddy struggled, and I don’t want that for you. You seem to just go about life with no care for your future.”
Crystal reached out and placed a hand over Ruby’s where it lay on the white tablecloth. “I know, sis, but trust me, I’m okay. I know your comments are coming from a place of love, but you’ve got to back off a little…or a lot…and I’m sorry for teasing you about your boss. I’ll stop.”
Ruby nodded and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, too, about making fun of your feelings for Brendon. Also, I’ll try to not bug you about your future, but I make no promises.”
“What’s with the somber looks? Did somebody die?” another voice asked.
All three sisters’ heads snapped in the direction of the new voice. Crystal jumped up and squealed, throwing her arms around her sister, Jade.
After all three sisters hugged Jade, they sat down, broad smiles on their faces as they looked at each other.
“What are you doing here? I thought you had a photoshoot,” Amethyst said to Jade.
Jade was a world-famous fashion photographer, and the sister Crystal was closest to. Amethyst was an executive assistant to a CEO and Ruby was a lawyer on the fast track to partner.
Jade smiled, her thick lips spreading into a beautiful smile. With her curly brown hair that was threaded with natural honey highlights, and hazel eyes, Jade was gorgeous. “You not happy to see me, Beast?”
Amethyst groaned and put her head on the table as the other three sisters cracked up. Once they got over the teasing about their names, they found a way to embrace their uniqueness. They often referred to each other by the fairytale prince associated with their princess. Crystal was Aladdin, Amethyst was Beast, Jade was Prince Eric, and Ruby was Prince Philip. Amethyst was the only one who hated her nickname and wanted to be called Prince Adam instead, but no one knew Beast by his human name, so her request was vetoed.
“Must you call me that?” Amethyst said once the laughter died down.
Crystal smirked. “Come on, you know you secretly like the name. It suits your personality perfectly.”
Amethyst’s eyes widened. “It does not.”
Ruby shook her head. “I hate to break it to you, but Beast does suit you. Case in point, when one of your co-workers took off of work for a week, you went berserk.”
Amethyst let out a small growl, and Crystal hid her laugh behind the large menu as she reviewed the offerings.
“That idiot took a week off and left me to do work that should have been done two weeks before he left! I ended up staying at the office all night completing his work so that we wouldn’t lose a multi-million-dollar account! Do you know how bad that would have been?” Amethyst seethed, arms crossed.
“He took off to go to his granny’s funeral, Amethyst. You went ballistic when he came back. Have a heart,” Jade said, shaking her head.
“Correction, he took off to go on a week-long cruise. He lied about his dearly departed granny,” Amethyst snapped.
“How on Earth do you know he lied?” Jade asked incredulously.
“The idiot posted his pictures to social media, forgetting that we were friends. While I barely use those sites, I happened to log in to…well, it’s not important why I logged in. I did, and there he was going live and drinking tequila out of some woman’s belly button. Needless to say, he didn’t have a job when he came back. Had he done his job before he left, he would have been fine. Apparently, he’d been planning this cruise for months but didn’t have the vacation days left, so he lied about his grandmother dying and needing to rush back home to be with his family.”
The sisters all looked at each other, speechless. “That’s cold as hell lying on his granny,” Ruby said.
“Yeah, so my anger was justified,” Amethyst said, grabbing the menu in front of her.
“Such serious conversations we have these days. I come all the way from Japan and roll up on you looking somber, and then we talk about Amethyst’s lying-ass co-worker. Is this all you three do these days, talk about boring shit?” Jade asked, turning in her seat to catch the eye of the waitress.
Once she walked over, the sisters ordered their food and drinks.
“Come home more often and you’d know what our conversations are about,” Ruby retorted.
Jade rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re going to tell me that you finally got laid, that Crystal admitted to her ‘best friend’ she’s in love with him, and that Amethyst finally told her boss to kiss her ass, I’ll pass.”
All three sisters chimed in at the same time.
“Hey!”
“Shut up, Jade.”
“My sex life isn’t your business.”
“So, same shit different day, got it,” Jade smirked as she sat back.
Crystal grimaced. Her sisters were the only people who knew that she was in love with her best friend, Brendon Marks. They’d been best friends for the last ten years and she’d been in love with him for years.
“Actually, that’s what I was teasing Crystal about before you all showed up,” Ruby said.
Crystal rolled her eyes. “Didn’t we agree to not tease? Are we going back on that truce or nah?”
Amethyst and Jade looked at each other, eyes wide, then turned their gazes back towards Ruby and Crystal.
“Now this sounds juicy! What did we miss?” Jade asked, leaning forward and resting her arms on the table.
“Nothing!” Ruby hurriedly answered, tugging the collar of her shirt.
Crystal shrugged. She didn’t have to stay quiet, her sisters knew her secret, Ruby, on the other hand, rarely confided anything to them.
“Crystal, I know Ruby’s lying, so what’s the tea?” Jade asked, turning in her seat to face Crystal.
“Come on, we don’t know that she’s lying,” Amethyst said.
Jade sucked her teeth, but didn’t respond to Amethyst. “Come on, dish, girl.”
“It was nothing, just the usual bugging about my career and the last time Ruby got laid,” Crystal said, glossing over the meat of the truce.
Jade scoffed. “Ruby hasn’t gotten any action from a real live man since the last time Fitz and Olivia Pope had sex. Her love life is non-existent, unless you count the loving her vibrator gives her on a nightly basis.”
Ruby flushed and the glare she leveled on Jade made Crystal squirm in her seat. All of the sisters were outspoken, but whereas Ruby and Amethyst were more politically correct southern belles, Jade and Crystal were unfiltered, Jade even more than Crystal.
“Look, just because I don’t go whoring—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are you slut shaming?” Jade asked.
Crystal looked at Jade and wondered what she was up to. Sure, it was fun to tease Ruby, but Jade was going a step further than usual.
Ruby stood up. “I didn’t come here to spend my lunch hour arguing with my sisters. When you can—”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I was just teasing,” Jade said, raising both hands in the air.
Amethyst and Crystal glanced at each other, holding their breath. Jade and Ruby were like oil and water, their personalities were so different. Jade enjoyed teasing Ruby, and Ruby was way too serious to take the jokes at face value.
The waitress came back with their orders and Ruby sat back down. Crystal released the breath she was holding. “So, Jade, what brings you back home early? You weren’t supposed to be back in town for another two weeks.” She hoped the change in topic would get them back in better moods.
“Can’t I come home early because I missed you all?” her sister asked, digging into her apple walnut salad.
“Is that the real reason?” Amethyst raised an eyebrow.
Jade put her fork down. “Yes, nosey rosey. Besides, a photoshoot came up last minute and it’s scheduled during the time I was supposed to be home. I rearranged my schedule so that I could come home now, instead of later. Since I was going to be in the Maldives this week on vacation, I decided to come home instead.”
Ruby tilted her head to the side and hummed. “You ‘rearranging’ your schedule wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain celebrity chef moving back home around that time, would it?”
Jade stabbed her fork in Ruby’s direction. “How about you mind your own damn business. That’s your fucking problem—”
“I’m thinking about telling Brendon how I feel!” Crystal blurted out, hoping to avoid World War Three between the warring factions of Jade and Ruby.
Amethyst quickly jumped on the preserver Crystal threw out. “Oooh! Tell us more, like how you plan to go about telling him.”
Ruby and Jade fell silent, glaring at each other over their plates.
“Uh, well…maybe you all can help me come up with a way,” Crystal said, placing a hand over the hand Jade had clenched around her fork. When Jade’s fingers relaxed their grip, Crystal gave her hand a squeeze.
Across the table, Amethyst was rubbing Ruby’s back gently. When the tension left Ruby’s body, and she sat back in her chair, Amethyst gave an audible sigh.
All four sisters had sore spots and Jade’s was any mention of her ex-fiancé. Ruby’s was her dominant, no-nonsense attitude, Amethyst’s was her lack of speaking up for herself with her boss, and Crystal’s was Brendon. Occasionally, they would tease each other, but on days when they were feeling raw, that teasing felt like alcohol being poured over a fresh wound.
Ruby waved her hand in the air. “Just tell the man. What are you afraid of?”
Crystal finished chewing the bite of grilled chicken salad and took a sip of water. “Oh, I don’t know, how about losing my best friend?”
All three sisters shook their head, but it was Amethyst who spoke. “Sweetie, I don’t think there’s anything in this world that can make Brendon Marks stop being your friend.”
Crystal squirmed in her seat, no longer wanting to talk about her feelings for Brendon. “I changed my mind, I’m not ready to have this conversation yet.”
“Putting it off won’t do you any favors. The both of you are single…at the same time. That has never happened since you finally admitted your feelings about him. Tell him already,” Jade said, eating her salad.
“I don’t agree much with Jade, but…she’s right. The timing is right. Besides you thinking you’d lose his friendship, what are you waiting on?” Ruby asked, cutting into her grilled chicken.
Crystal opened and closed her mouth several times, not wanting to verbalize her other fear…that Brendon didn’t feel the same and she’d look foolish.
Amethyst took pity on her. “If you’re not ready, you’re not ready. Let’s change the subject.”
Crystal sent Amethyst a smile of gratitude, her smile growing at Amethyst’s wink. When she shifted the conversation to the latest episode of their favorite reality tv show, Crystal breathed a sigh of relief.
She needed to clear her mind. Later on today, she had a workout with Brendon and the last thing she wanted taking up residence in her head was telling him how she felt while he was barking out instructions. Her sisters were right, however, that she either needed to man up and tell him how she felt or find a way to let go of her feelings for him. This in-between stage was wreaking havoc with her inner peace.