“You guys finally made it!”
A couple days later and after several hours of flying across the United States, Reagan and I pulled up to the villa we’d all booked for Jenn’s bachelorette weekend in Palm Springs. To our great delight, Jenn, Becs and Robin came running out of the front door—drinks in hand—to greet us just as our cab swung into the driveway.
“We’re heeeeeere!” Reagan screamed out in response, practically hopping out of the car without any concern that she would trip in her tan three-inch sandals that crisscrossed at her ankles. “Laissez les bons temps rouler!”
In awe, I watched as she grabbed her matching tan tote and took off in a short sprint to grab and hug on each one of them. It was like watching an Olympic track racer come off the starting block—if they had chunky heels and cutoff shorts on. Meanwhile, I stayed behind to tip the driver after he’d pulled our luggage out of the trunk to let the original close-knit crew have a moment before I intruded as the person who was still building a friendship with most of them. Sure, I’d been invited on their special trip, but I understood the friendship hierarchy in play and respected it.
If Reagan’s all-out run toward them hadn’t told me that, then the fact that I’d clearly missed the memo on what they’d all meant by “casual chic” certainly did. To a person, they each looked incredibly elegant, somehow complementing each other’s style without any of them dressing fully alike, and there I was—dressed cute, yes, but nothing like them. Reagan, who had paired her cutoff jean shorts and heels with a tan button-down blouse that she’d let casually flow into a one-corner tuck into her shorts was also “casually” rocking a bunch of gold accessories—multiple-sized bracelets, two slender necklaces that dropped down her chest and slightly grazed the only two buttons she’d closed on the blouse, sunglasses that also matched her skin tone and a black-and-gold belt that pulled it all together. To top off the ’fit, she wore a red-and-tan headband, which pulled her long, wavy curls off her face, and matching red nail polish on her hands and feet. But I’d been traveling all day with her, so that wasn’t surprising.
It was the way the others matched her Housewives swag that let me know I was going to need to step my game up the rest of the weekend. This was why I’d asked about attire when we’d FaceTimed the other night, but I also should have remembered that Robin was the same person who’d shown up to my flat for a girls’ night in with a matching two-piece nude-pink lounge set complete with knit joggers and a crop top. So I should have guessed that her best friends would have a similar idea of “casual.” True to that realization, the Palm Springs version of Destiny’s Child was dressed far more appropriately for a fancy brunch than a day of travel. Like Reagan, Robin was also wearing jean shorts, in more of an acid-washed color that fell around mid-thigh on her, but that was about where the casualness ended. She paired hers with a dark coral blouse that tied in the front but hung loose in the back so that the bottom of it fell past her shorts, along with some gold slip-on kitten-heel sandals that any older Hollywood diva would have absolutely adored.
Rebecca was giving pregnant holiday chic with a black satin slip dress that fell about mid-calf on her and showed off her ginormous baby bump in all the best ways. With it, she wore a light jean jacket, bedazzled flat sandals and a tan fedora that actually really worked on her—despite the fact that no one had looked good in fedoras since the early 2000s.
And of course, the lady of the weekend stood out the most, with her flowy full-length white halter dress that literally grazed the ground as she moved and somehow didn’t seem to pick up any dirt. The high-necked sleeveless halter cut looked amazing with her dark brown pixie-cut hair, statement earrings and crystal clear heels that had a striking gold stiletto that looked like it could be a dagger if you weren’t careful.
Meanwhile, I’d at least got the jeans memo—wearing shorts that were not quite cutoffs but shorter than Rob’s, paired with a short-sleeved scooped-neck black blouse and gladiator sandals that wrapped around my calves—but I clearly needed more oomph to fit in with these girls. I made a note to myself to do better tomorrow.
As the driver pulled off, leaving me with our bags, Robin came bouncing toward me with two glasses in her hands, followed by Reagan, who presumably finally remembered that she didn’t have hers with her.
“So sorry, Liv,” Reagan said as she jumped in front of Robin and grabbed her medium-sized luggage with the rollers on it. “I didn’t mean to leave you with the bags—I just got so excited to see my girls.”
“It’s okay—I get it.”
“No, it’s not,” she replied sincerely. “Definitely let me know how much you tipped him, and I got you on half, okay?”
As Reagan began rolling her luggage to the front door, Robin stepped in and wrapped her arms around me tightly, squeezing and rocking me for what felt like a few minutes.
“Livvieeeee,” she said, dragging the nickname she had for me out into two long syllables.
After a few more shakes within the hug, she loosened her grip and handed me one of the drinks. “It’s so good to see you, friend. London hasn’t been the same without you.”
“I know this is going to sound bad, but I’m really happy to hear that,” I admitted somewhat shamelessly. “I miss it and you so very much.”
“Doesn’t sound bad to me at all! I’m the one who’s been hoping you enjoy your time in New York but not so much that you decide to stay. You know I hear all the rumblings in the office. You’re killing it, which I knew you would, but still, I get so worried they are going to make you an offer you can’t refuse and convince you to stay.”
“Ha! Thanks, sis,” I replied. “But you don’t have to worry about that. I’m loving my time in the States so far, but London is home. Brixton is home, you know? I don’t want to be too far from there for too long.”
“Okayyy, I hear you. I also know what it’s like to move to a place and realize it might be your new home. Don’t forget you’re saying this to the woman who moved from America, fell in love with your brother and now can’t see herself living anywhere else anytime soon.”
“Your situation was very different. You wanted to find love in London—that’s not in my plans.”
“And yet...that little sparkle that shines on your face when anyone says Thomas’s name... I’m not saying it’s love,” she said, throwing up her hands in defense before I could counter her. “But it looks familiar, that’s all.”
I chuckled awkwardly and sniffed the glass to try to move us to a different conversation. I hadn’t yet told anyone how much I’d loved everything about the date he and I had gone on just two days before and how safe I’d felt in his arms as we’d ridden to and from East Harlem that night, mostly because I wasn’t ready to think about what that meant for me going forward. But I knew if I engaged Rob any further, it was going to come up, and I certainly wasn’t ready to dissect it with her before I even knew what I wanted.
“Enough about all that,” I said. “More importantly, what’s in this drink you just gave me?”
“Oooh! So, it’s a new concoction I made just for our trip called Jenn’s Sweet Treats. It’s pineapple and mango juice mixed with white rum and tequila with just a splash of champagne to cut the sweetness.”
“Robin! Are you trying to kill us?”
“I promise, no, but just try it! It tastes so good.”
She raised the glass to my lips, and as I sampled it, I knew just how dangerous it was going to be. You could barely tell it had any liquor in it despite the fact that she’d just told me three were in it—a sure setup for failure. With the conversation successfully veered, the two of us began walking toward the rest of the ladies, who were still amazingly waiting outside of the villa’s front door.
“Okay, I hope you have lots of food inside,” I replied, taking another sip as we neared the others.
“Yes, of course—there’s a whole spread waiting on the counter. I don’t need anyone getting sick on the first day. I’ve got too many things planned for this weekend for that to happen.”
“Ohhh nooo,” Reagan cried out as we came within earshot. “Did I hear Rob just say the dreaded ‘plans’ word?”
“Don’t start with me, Rae.” She laughed in response.
“No, c’mon, we all know you can go a teensy bit overboard with trip planning if you’re not careful.”
“That’s true,” added Rebecca as she carefully but lovingly grabbed my arms and pulled me into a baby-filled embrace, whispering how good I looked before she continued her comments to Robin. “Do we need to remind you of the itinerary you made when we first came to visit you in London? It was at least fifteen items on your list. I swear, the only reason we convinced you to narrow it down was because I was pregnant. Otherwise you would have had us on a very strict schedule.”
“No, you don’t need to remind me,” Robin replied, rolling her eyes. “And this one isn’t as extensive. But we needed something, or I know us—we’d just end up sitting around the villa all day, lounging by the pool.”
“From my perspective, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that,” Jenn chimed in, peeking her head into the discussion before giving me a long hug as well. “I could use a relaxing break from the students and all their drama.”
“All right, everyone, calm down,” Robin began in protest. “Of course we’re going to do that, too. But it’s not a bachelorette weekend if we don’t end up dancing on someone’s table by the end of the night at least once.”
“Okay, now that’s true,” Jenn admitted. “I do want that, too.”
“Of course you do!” Robin replied.
The five of us continued laughing and joking about Robin’s tendency to overplan trips as we finally stepped into the villa that was surrounded by the most fantastic mountain views I’d ever seen and yet really only took my breath away once I walked inside. With walls made of floor-to-ceiling windows covering at least three-fourths of the house, it was like our own private oasis complete with pearl-white and light wooden furnishings, a pool big enough to take laps in it and multiple lounging opportunities throughout. There was even a firepit surrounded by five white and wooden lounge chairs and a second dining table located by the pool, perfect for eating at sunset or sunrise.
“I’m down to hear your plans, babes,” I interjected, admiring the scene before me while also wanting to stand up for all the overplanners everywhere. That had been one of the reasons Robin and I had bonded in the first place, so while it was fun to laugh with the crew about it, if anyone understood her need to organize the chaos in her mind, I did.
“Thanks, Liv,” she said with a smile, and then quickly took the opportunity to run to her room to grab the stapled set of papers she had at the ready.
“Yes, thanks, Liv,” the other ladies repeated sarcastically.
I shrugged my shoulders in reply and waited for her return.
“Okay, it’s not as bad as you all think. Just listen,” Robin began as she walked back into the sitting room, clearing her throat before she proceeded. “Today, of course, we’re all getting settled. I figured we could chill for a bit and have a sunset dinner outside before maybe doing some in-home karaoke to cap off the evening.”
“All right, Rob,” Reagan chimed in. “That sounds nice and not over-the-top at all. Maybe we were being a bit too judgy.”
Robin looked back at her with an mmm-hmm, I told you so look and then continued reading.
“So then tomorrow, I thought we could have an early breakfast. If anyone wants to come with me to Joshua Tree, I was thinking we could leave here around 7:00 a.m. That way we’re back about ten or eleven o’clock for prime pool time. Then, I figured we could go to one of the resorts that the villa is associated with. They have a bunch of different restaurants, a water park, a spa, even a swim-up bar, so we could hang there for a few hours. Note—if we want to make a spa appointment, we probably need to do that today, though. And then, we come back here and get dressed for our night out on the town, where we have table reservations at two different clubs.”
As Robin took a break from reading her list, the rest of us eyed each other, stunned into silence. Now, I was all for planning, but this was even too much for me.
“Uh-uh, see? Now this is what we mean! That’s too much!” Reagan cried out.
Her protest was followed by a round of mmm-hmms throughout the room.
“She’s right, Rob,” Jennifer added. “You know we love you, and I sooo appreciate you wanting to make my bachelorette weekend as epic as it can be, but, like, yes, there’s twenty-four hours in a day, but we don’t need to use them all. You know that, right?”
“What?” she asked innocently. “I didn’t say we had to do all these things. I just threw out some suggestions for options!”
“Cher, the only things I want to do out of that whole list you just read are the pool time, the spa and the dancing on tables. All the rest of that can go.” Reagan laughed. “And honestly, I don’t even need the spa as long as we keep drinking these cocktails you made.”
“No shade, but I agree with what she said,” Jennifer added.
“Same here,” Rebecca chimed in after having spent the last few minutes trying to hold back tears of laughter. “I mean, did you hear yourself when you said you were leaving the house at 7:00 a.m....while on vacation?”
“Well, that’s just because I didn’t want it to eat into the pool time! Tell me, how often are any of us going to be this close to Joshua Tree again anytime soon?” Robin asked in her defense.
She turned to me as her one last hope, but this time I couldn’t help her out. While she was absolutely my connection to the group, I fully agreed with the rest of the ladies this time and was happy to see I wasn’t the only one hoping this holiday would be more relaxing than anything else. I put my head down in my response before Robin could even direct her question my way, hoping it would curtail some of the sting.
“You, too, Liv?”
“Sorry, Rob,” I replied softly.
“No, no, don’t do that to her,” Reagan said, sauntering up beside me and putting her arm around my shoulder. “You can’t try to get Liv on your side because y’all met first. She’s part of the whole crew now, so she gets to tell you when you’re being ridiculous just like the rest of us.”
Robin rolled her eyes and sighed deeply before plopping her papers onto the counter in defeat. Meanwhile, I was happy to hear Reagan say explicitly that I was legit part of their crew and have everyone agree. I hadn’t realized until being around them all again in person that I’d still needed that validation, but I guessed I had and could breathe a little lighter now.
“You know what?” Rebecca asked as she walked up to Robin with the drink pitcher in her hand. “How about I take that itinerary and you take another pour of what I’m sure is an amazing drink that you’ve made, huh?”
Robin laughed at Rebecca’s continued drinking solutions to everyone’s problems in lieu of her being able to partake and grabbed the pitcher from her before complying.
“Fine!” she replied. “But you all are going to regret not going hiking two months from now when you’re back home and someone randomly mentions our national parks. Mark my words.”
“In what world is that happening, Robin?” Reagan asked, continuing the chorus of laughter in the room.
“Certainly not in any of ours,” Jennifer interjected.
“Whatever,” she replied, playfully rolling her eyes again as she filled up her glass. “Mark my words.”
Robin paused momentarily and looked around the room before raising her glass high into the sky. “I guess now that I have a full glass again, we should at least toast to the start of a great weekend. Is that an okay plan for everyone?” she asked.
“Now that’s a plan we can all get down with,” Reagan responded.
The four of us gathered around Robin, near the grazing counter, and lifted our glasses high into the air as well.
“To Jenny,” she began. “We all love you more than we could ever fully say, and we want nothing but the best for you. I hope this bachelorette weekend shows you even a snippet of that love and also brings us all even closer together.”
“Cheers!” we replied in unison, and clanked our glasses together before everyone but Becs took a healthy swig of Robin’s homemade concoction.
As Reagan struck up a conversation with Rebecca about what her mocktail consisted of—hulled strawberries, lemon ginger beer and a lemon slice for garnish, from what I could hear—I started making my way through the villa to find one of the remaining empty rooms to settle into. After rolling past two that were occupied, I came upon one that looked like it hadn’t been touched yet and had everything I needed—a king-size bed with a white comforter, a sliding glass door that took up the whole back wall and led to the pool, and a soaking tub.
This is going to do just fine, I thought as I rolled my luggage in and sat down for a breather, taking my phone out of my back jean shorts pocket at the same time. Without overthinking myself out of it, I snapped a photo of the view from my bedroom and sent it to Thomas, letting him know that I’d made it safely.
Glad to hear, he replied just a few minutes later. I hope you have a lot of fun with your friends. But don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. I know how y’all like to get down on bachelorette trips.
Well, I texted back, there do seem to be plans for table dancing at some point.
And what makes you think that’s something I haven’t done? he asked.
Oh, I’m sorry, let me not put you in a box lol, I replied.
Thomas: Yes, you really shouldn’t. I’ve still got a lot of surprises up my sleeve.
I smiled reading Thomas’s messages and thought back to Robin’s comment about how my face lit up when someone mentioned his name. If they could see it now, I was sure I’d be getting clowned. I texted back, trying my hand at flirting.
Me: Now, see, if there’s one thing I fully believe, it’s that. I already told you that you never cease to surprise me.
Good, he answered. And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
I clutched my phone in my hand and fell backward onto the bed, my cheeks burning from a grin that wouldn’t disappear. What am I going to do about this man? I wondered. I guessed time would tell.