JESSIE
I am feeling beyond guilty for what I’ve done to Nat.
But there is a solution to every problem. I just have to figure out … how she’s not going to kill us in our sleep.
Giovanni and I ordered Thai to be delivered, and over chicken satay, shrimp pad Thai, and crispy wontons, we decided on a plan of attack. Giovanni would come into the bar tomorrow, after we closed, and we would tell Nat together. She only has one good hand—how bad could it go?
We celebrated our plan after dinner and, I have to say, celebrating with Giovanni is my favorite new activity.
And, also, I’m going to hell.
Around two A.M., just as Giovanni is drifting off to sleep, I ask him if I can hear Nat’s messages one more time.
He hands me his phone, tells me his code, and falls asleep.
I tiptoe into my living room and play back the messages. Twenty-seven times. Well, the first one twenty-seven times. The second one maybe only twenty-two. Mostly, I was trying to find anything I could use for evidence that she had already broken up with him.
The problem is, I don’t think she did break up with him.
And I think I just lost one my best friends in the world.
And possibly my bar. Because there’s no way she will stay and work with me, and Holly and I can’t afford to keep the place open by ourselves.
Okay. Think it through, Jessie. Options. Everyone has choices.
Option #1: Tell Giovanni this was great, but it can never happen again. Hope Nat and he eventually break up. Find him five years after the breakup, when the statute of limitations on exes expires.
Who am I kidding? Nat doesn’t believe exes have statutes of limitations. One of her exes once kissed Holly good-bye on the cheek, and Holly had to hear about it for two months.
Option #2: Tell Nat the truth, preferably in a public place where she can’t let her half-Latin tempter get too out of control. Throw myself at the mercy of her court.
Get myself killed—option #2 is totally out.
Option #3: Leave town with Giovanni, change my identity, and write her a heartfelt note of apology on Crane stationery, careful to mail it from a town nowhere near where I will be living, so the postmark doesn’t give me away.
Hawaii is supposed to be nice. I’ll keep option #3 in my pocket for now.