Swing and a Mishap (Summersweet Island 2)

“There are no boundaries when I see a conversation in there about a forty-minute blowjob with Shepherd Oliver!” she fires back, right when my phone rings in my hand, and I look down with a sigh of relief when I see Emily’s name flashing across my screen.

“It wasn’t a blowjob with him. He was just in the same…. You know what, it’s none of your business, and this is exactly why I didn’t say anything,” I tell her, answering Emily’s FaceTime call and not even bothering to give her a smile in greeting as I hold the phone up in front of me when her face comes on the screen. “I told them about Shepherd, and by the way, he’s here on the island. He stopped by work to see me, and now I’m going to drink myself into a coma.”

There’s a beat of silence and a shocked blink from Emily from the couch in her apartment in Beverly Hills. Right when she opens her mouth, most likely to give me some sort of encouraging words, my sister finally remembers how to speak again. Both she and Tess scream at me so loudly Owen is definitely going to come out here and yell at us.

“You told Emily and you didn’t tell us?!”

My kitchen then turns into an episode of Jerry Springer while Emily, Tess, and Birdie argue amongst themselves about me while I’m standing right here, multiple “stupid twat”, “don’t talk to me like that, motherfucker”, and “eat shit” comments flying around the room with ease as Birdie grabs the phone out of my hand to hold it herself.

I pour myself more wine.

It doesn’t take long before I hear an ear-piercing whistle come from my phone, and all arguing about who should have told who about what is instantly cut off. I glace over at my phone in Birdie’s hand and smile at Emily when she pulls her thumb and forefinger out of her mouth after effectively shutting everyone up.

“Yes, Wren told me and only me, because I’m her ride or die,” Emily explains in a calm, clear manner to the other women in my kitchen. “Just like Birdie told Tess all about how she never felt like she was enough for Palmer and Wren didn’t find out until later, and just like Tess told Birdie she thought she was falling in love with Bodhi and didn’t admit it to Wren until she overheard Tess on the phone.”

I point my wine glass at both of them just to wordlessly give my support for what Emily is saying. I was a little sad neither one of them came to me first with such important things, but I understood the type of bond the two of them have.

“This is just… a really big shock,” Birdie says, shaking her head back and forth at me, still unable to believe I hid a yearlong… whatever, with Shepherd Oliver and never told her. “The jock of all jocks, homecoming king and prom king, most popular guy there ever was at Summersweet High, and the guy you had such a massive crush on that you learned everything there was to know about baseball back in middle school, talked to you for an entire year, and you never said a word. I thought something was up with you a few years ago, but I figured I was just hallucinating. I mean, Wren! This is like all your high school and teenage fantasies come to life in an explosion of magic and wonder! Like an episode of Sabrina, but without the Satan worshiping and sacrificing of human souls. And you’re just sitting there drinking wine like it’s no big deal!”

“Speak for yourself,” Emily pipes up from the phone. “I just sacrificed a human soul over lunch yesterday before my mani-pedi. And I’m pretty sure it’s a big deal.” She gives me a sympathetic smile from the screen. “You can scream. I know you want to.”

God, I miss her so much.

“I’ll go outside and do it on the empty beach like a civilized person later,” I tell her, trying to smile but realizing it hurts too much as I glance at Tess and Birdie.

“We were… friends. Or something,” I tell them. “As much as I always forgot that he was famous and a big deal, I still saw the women he took to parties and the ones on his arm for events. He wasn’t sitting around pining for me or anything, so I just enjoyed the fact that I had someone in my life I wasn’t related to who seemed to care about me and how my day went. Or so I thought. He private-messaged his way into my life, made himself such a big part of it until my day didn’t feel whole unless I talked to him at least once, until I trusted him and depended on him, and it felt so good having someone else help me make decisions about Owen for once. And then he ripped it away without so much as an explanation, stopped replying to my messages, and never spoke to me again until he showed up in the back room of the Dip and Twist tonight.”