Chapter 24

Ariel

“Okay, so I put chicken in the Crock-Pot and all you have to do is stick these baked potatoes in the oven for dinner about five,” I proudly instructed Heather. I was successfully putting into practice several strategies I had learned from Justine. The girl nodded, an intense look on her face as though she was memorizing my every word.

“I left a list of instructions here for David so if you’d just make sure he sees it. He should be home about six. But that’s if his flight is on time and if nothing comes up last minute.” I looked around the house, suddenly convinced I had forgotten something despite my best efforts at organization. Guilt laced my thoughts as I wondered what kind of mother leaves three small children with a sitter so she can go have fun. Are mothers even allowed such luxuries?

“It’s fine, Mrs. Baxter,” Heather said, reading my mind. “Go have fun.” She looked over at Justine, who stood in the doorway twirling her keys like an anxious teen ready to drive for the first time.

Justine smiled at her and then looked at me. “She’s right,” she said with a sympathetic smile. “They’ll be just fine without you.”

I thought about David’s words to me that morning. “We won’t even know you’re gone,” he had teased. When I was home, I wanted to be less needed, but as I stood readying myself to leave for two days, I wanted to be irreplaceable. Go figure.

“Wait!” I said, digging my camera out of my bag. “Let’s get a picture together before we go!” I looked at Heather. “Will you take it?”

She nodded and followed us out to the car while we posed with our thumbs up, mugging for the camera. When we were done, I tucked the camera back into my bag and turned to the boys. “Okay, hugs good-bye!” I pressed each one of them to me, memorizing their dirty little boy smells. I looked into their eyes and said that I loved them, that I would be home soon. They nodded politely, looking bored and maybe a tiny bit sad. Really they just wanted me to go so that Heather would play games with them.

I sat down beside Justine in the car, and she rolled down the windows, letting the thick, humid Southern summer air wash over us as we backed out of the driveway and pointed the car toward the entrance to the neighborhood. It felt decadent to be using Mark’s sporty sedan instead of our requisite minivans, and I rested my elbow on the windowsill and let the rush of air take my breath away. We passed by her house on the way out, and I noticed Mark and the girls in the front yard. I started to wave at them, but Justine didn’t even look over. I quickly lowered my hand and kept my face forward as she did, focusing on the adventure ahead and not on what we were leaving behind. It seemed I needed to be taught how to leave.

Justine had our day all planned out from the moment we arrived until the moment darkness fell. As I slumped on the bed, pleasantly exhausted from a kid-free day of sunbathing and a visit to the spa on her parents’ condo property, I smiled to myself. I scrolled back through the photos I’d taken during the day. Justine relaxing on a raft in the pool. Me getting my toes done at the spa. Both of us posing beside the sign that read “Massages Included!” I smiled and stretched luxuriously as I rolled over to watch Justine. She was out on the condo balcony, talking on her cell phone again. She had fielded phone calls all day from Mark and the girls. I tried not to rub it in, proud that Heather and the boys were apparently doing fine. I hadn’t received a single call. As she slipped back into the room, tucking her phone into her beach cover-up pocket, I smiled at her. “Everything okay?” I asked.

She nodded, biting back the smile that played on her lips.

“Is Mark missing you already?” I teased.

“Are you having fun?” she asked.

I gave an exaggerated ahhh. “I could get used to this,” I said.

“I’m glad to hear it.” She looked around. “I could get used to this too. It’s always nice to get away. I don’t do it enough, ya know?”

“Yeah, if I had this place at my disposal, I’d be here every weekend,” I said. I turned to watch the ocean waves crashing in on each other. A family on the beach was packing up to go in. The mom chased a little girl, picking her up and carrying her once she caught her, while the girl thrashed. She was a chubby toddler in a pink bathing suit with a spiky ponytail on top of her head. My heart lurched. Even when I wasn’t on mom duty, I could muster up a serious case of ponytail envy.

Justine and I had spent the afternoon at the condo pool—a fancy affair with a long, lazy river. I had mentioned taking a walk later, before dinner, but she had never answered me. “Think you’d like to walk before dinner?” I repeated, hoping she would want to squeeze in a walk. I loved the beach in the evenings when it wasn’t so hot, the sun wasn’t so brutal, and the sand wasn’t so crowded with people. I’d love to get some shots of us out on the beach in the soft evening light.

“Maybe after?” she said, slipping out of her cover-up and grabbing towels for the shower. “Let’s get ready and go get an early dinner. I thought tonight we’d just watch movies here in the room? We can save our big going-out night for tomorrow.”

That sounded lovely. Every minute of this weekend had already been exquisitely lazy. I sighed deeply and lay on my back, propping my head on my arms. “I could stay right here for the rest of the night,” I said. “Just bring me some food and I don’t need to move. If there’s a good chick flick on, all the better.”

She giggled. “That’s why I brought you, Ariel,” she said. “You’re so easy to please.” I heard the shower door shut and closed my eyes. I thought of her saying I was easy to please and knew David would beg to differ. Funny how I was different with different people, I mused as the noise of the water lulled me to sleep.

When I woke up, Justine was fully dressed and standing on the balcony again, the wind from the shore whipping her hair around as she spoke into the phone, an angry expression on her face. With the door closed, I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I knew it wasn’t good. I wondered what had happened—and whether I should ask. I watched as she lowered the phone and stood for a few minutes, staring out at the ocean. Then she dialed a number and started talking again. Mark followed by her mother? I wasn’t sure, but I wondered why she didn’t just come and talk to me. I would’ve understood. Feeling like a voyeur, I turned away and slipped into the bathroom to shower before she caught me watching. She would tell me when she felt ready. This weekend was about growing closer and forging a new kind of friendship. And it was only just beginning.

Justine was gone when I woke the next morning. I looked around the room, remembering that I was there without the boys or David, far away from family responsibility. I grinned and kicked my feet like a little girl waking on Christmas morning. The hours ahead of us stretched out long and blissful. I sat up and decided to make coffee to get myself going, ready for whatever adventure the day would bring.

I was nearing the end of my second cup when Justine bounced into the room, glistening with sweat and smiling broadly. “This place has a great gym,” she said as she reached into the refrigerator and grabbed a bottled water. She took a long pull from it. “I didn’t dare wake you though. You looked like you were enjoying your sleep.”

I smiled and drained the last of my coffee. “Yeah. Sleep is a precious commodity. I can exercise another time.”

“Hmm. Not me.” She bent at the waist and touched her toes as silence filled the kitchen. I looked out the window at the beach. I had never been to the beach before and not gone out on it.

“Think we can go to the beach today?” I asked, sounding like one of her children instead of an adult with an equal vote. Why, I wondered, was I letting her call all the shots?

She made a face. “I know this sounds weird, but I just don’t care for the beach all that much. All that sand everywhere.”

I suppressed the urge to say, “The sand’s the point.” I shrugged instead and pulled my knees up to my chin, wrapping my arms around my calves. “So then what would you like to do?”

“Shopping?” she asked. “Lunch somewhere we’d never take the kids?”

I thought about it for a moment. Unwilling to let her entirely plan our day, I countered, “How about we shop and have lunch, then come back here and lie by the pool for a bit, get some sun?”

“Sounds great. Then we’ll get all prettied up for our big night out!”

“Do you have something planned?”

“We’re going dancing!”

I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. I had thought she was kidding that day at the pool. “Eh, you might need to go without me. I am not into grinding with a bunch of young kids. We’re sort of past that stage of life, aren’t we?”

Her tone was cutting. “Speak for yourself.” I looked over at her, shocked. She grinned like she was just joking around, but there was that—something—behind her eyes that made me think she was very serious. My friend wanted to go dancing for some reason, something apart from me and my mature outlook, apart from rationale. This weekend was about more than just a new friendship; it was about doing something different from the norm. Justine didn’t want to be the queen of the neighborhood this weekend. She wanted to be anonymous, out of character. Some part of me understood that.

“Fine, you win,” I said with a laugh that sounded more playful than I felt. I was irritated. “If you want to go dancing, then we’ll go dancing.”

“Salsa,” she added.

Oh brother. “You want to eat Mexican?” I teased, masking my consternation. It wasn’t that I was afraid of salsa dancing, it was just that it was the opposite of my idea of relaxation.

“No, silly. Salsa dancing. It’ll be fun!” She did a little pivot right there, moving her arms back and forth. She looked over at me. “We’ll need clothes for salsa dancing. Hence the shopping trip.” She seemed to be suddenly catching my antisalsa vibes. “Come on, Ariel, live a little. Cut loose. You’re far away from everything and everyone you know. You can be anyone you want just for tonight. Doesn’t that excite you?” She smiled the most genuine smile I had ever seen on her face. For just a moment I saw the real Justine—not just the one she wanted me to know. This Justine was passionate and vivacious, uninhibited. This Justine was, frankly, a little scary.

“Sure,” I lied, to be agreeable, to make her like me. “That sounds just perfect.”