Espresso, Sabrina Carpenter
Paralyzed, Lenny Kravitz
False God, Taylor Swift
Find the full playlist here:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have happened without a little help from our friends…
This book is a time capsule of our lives. It was a stressful time in our little corner of the world. While we were writing this book, the summer was one continuous heatwave, and we also lost a member of our fur family.
We just wanted to give a special shout out to Jenna Kendrick for being a second set of eyes for us while Cari navigated the loss of her beloved Mama Kitty.
And, as always, Tori and Kim keep this ship from running headlong into a mountain. LOL!
We hope you love this story. It was a healing one for both of us.
ONE
I was late to my bestie and colleague Shelby’s bachelorette party. Shamelessly, inexcusably late.
Over an hour, for Pete’s sake. And my reason basically sucked.
My cat had flooded the kitchen floor of my apartment.
Complete with dripping into the unit below me. Freaking great. It had to be Amberly’s place right below me, not the barely-make-a-peep Jerry who scurries down the hall when anyone notices him. Nope, had to be Amberly who was now blowing up my phone with texts—in all caps, naturally—that I was ruining her anniversary with her boyfriend. Oh, and he was definitely not going to propose now after I ruined everything.
How was she supposed to have a romantic night with a dripping hole above her bed?
My head was throbbing as I read text after text about how she’d have to rent a hotel room and that was not in the budget.
Would I be reimbursing her? Like now?
Sure. Let me just pull that out of my magic wallet. No problem.
As it was, I’d already had to put my bachelorette gifts for Shelby on my for-emergencies-only credit card. Running a business with my three best friends was amazing most of the time. Especially since Shelby—the bride-to-be—had brought in the big bucks with her fiancé. Except most of the money had gone back into the business to bolster the slow winter.
Now we were scrambling to find new clients since the weather was getting nicer.
However, I was not marrying Mr. Big like she was. I was still making the meager salary we’d agreed upon in our business plan, as well as paying off my student loans, which were trying to put me into the poorhouse. I loved being my own boss—except for the part where I was the one paying for every expense.
Operating expenses were significant due to the fact we were one of the few design firms near Crescent Cove, which was blowing up with new builds. And if the random news articles were right, the Cove was the baby boom capital of Central New York. It seemed like every website and news show had featured the Cove recently. And I did mean every single one. Which was great news for a burgeoning design firm.
Not so great for the designers trying to play the part of upwardly mobile professionals without much capital just yet. Dexter Shaw had definitely given us a leg up with his massive remodel, but now we had to keep up appearances if we wanted to get the big fish.
Enter credit cards. Many cards.
Now my floor was leaking onto Amberly’s expensive bedding—naturally, she had put on her bougie sheets to get her freak on for her anniversary. Now her three-hundred-dollar sheets were ruined with ceiling debris.
Who the freaking hell paid three hundred dollars for sheets? We lived in a very swanky apartment building, sure, but we were in the one-bedroom units. We weren’t three-hundred-dollar sheets kind of people, dammit. That was the other side of the building.
Where the owner of The Heights lived in his million-dollar loft.
We were the Brooklinen once-a-year sale people. Much like my sheets of the same caliber that I’d scrimped for with a sale and all the coupons I could stuff into my online shopping cart.
Ahem.
Speaking of owners… Ugh. I had a call into the main office about the repairs, but they hadn’t replied to me yet. That was going to be a fun meeting. But right now, I had a bachelorette party to get to—after I sent Amberly money to cover a swanky hotel room for tonight’s fuck fest.
Also, why was literally everyone getting married all at once? How was I supposed to afford gifts for everyone I knew? I played trivia with Amberly a few times a month and we were pretty friendly.
Was that lower tier registry? I sure hoped so. Had to look at the bright side, I supposed. They certainly weren’t very plentiful for me lately.
As I was shuffling around the kitchen floor with a towel under each foot, Shelby texted there was a change of venue for the party. Guess it wasn’t so bad that I was late after all. The Spinning Wheel was currently leaking, as well, though not due to a long-haired black and white cat who insisted on turning on the kitchen faucet at inopportune times.
A very cute cat who wasn’t supposed to live on the premises, so that would be a fun conversation with our property manager.
Nope, their roof was leaking thanks to that day’s endless rain.
The new last-minute location of tonight’s festivities was Lonegan’s bar and restaurant. Hallelujah, that was right across the street from me. I didn’t even have to drag out my car to find parking. Score.
TJ, another of our partners in Designing Women, was Shelby’s maid of honor and had done the legwork to find a new last-minute location. As much as I loved Shelby, I was glad she wanted a small wedding, and I didn’t have the added expense of bridesmaid and all that entailed. I just had to show up with an inappropriate gift to the bachelorette party, then maybe I could sell one of my many purses to get Shelby a really nice wedding present.
