“I haven’t talked to Wesley this morning yet. Do you know if everything went okay last night?” I ask.
Fawn’s face softens as she looks at me.
“Yeah, last night they got a lead that they needed to look into.”
“Does Levi talk to you about his cases?” I ask, wondering if it’s only Wesley who keeps his work from me.
“Never.” She shakes her head as she accepts a cup of coffee from Libby. “I don’t even ask him anymore. He knows if he needs to talk that I’m here for him, but he doesn’t talk to me about work. Does Wesley talk to you?”
“No.” I bite the inside of my cheek. Maybe I should ask my mom if my dad talked to her about work.
“I don’t think you’d really want him to talk to you about his work,” Libby says, wrapping her arm around my shoulder while taking a sip of coffee. “I love horror flicks, but I know there is no way that I would be able to handle seeing someone who was really murdered—or hearing about it firsthand.” She shakes her head, then reaches around me to grab the bag of bagels. She pulls one out. “I think them not talking to you about work is their way of protecting you from how ugly the world is.”
“Who protects them?” Fawn asks as my bagel pops up. “I love that Levi wants to protect me, but I also want to know that he’s not carrying around the weight of everything he sees and does on his shoulders.”
“I think you do that for him,” I tell her honestly. “He may not talk to you about his job, but I don’t think he needs to. I think you’re his escape from all that.”
“Exactly,” Libby agrees, handing me a plate from the cupboard above the sink.
Grabbing a butter knife, I open the tub of smoked salmon cream cheese and slather a thick layer on my bagel. There is nothing better than New York City bagels and cream cheese. Nothing.
“So what stores are we hitting up first?” Libby asks.
I know she’s excited about today. She’s a marathon shopper; I swear that after shopping with her for one day, I need the rest of the year to recover. Today is the one day of the year when she can willingly get Fawn and me out of the house to shop with her. It’s going to be crazy since today and the next two days are the craziest shopping days of the year. Everyone is out, and the stores are crowded, making it almost impossible to even move. Why we don’t shop before today like most people, I don’t know.
“I need to find something for Levi. I have no idea what to get him,” Fawn says as she picks up the second half of my bagel and takes a bite.
“Lingerie,” Libby says before taking a bite of her own bagel.
“Isn’t that more of a gift for me than him?” Fawn frowns.
“No.” Libby snorts, then asks, “Do you even own any lingerie?”
“No.” She frowns.
“Well, then, tell me who would it be for?”
“Him, I guess.” She shrugs.
“Exactly. It would be for him.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“First stop, Victoria’s Secret!” Libby says.
I wonder if I should go with her idea, too, because I have no idea what to get Wesley. What do you get the guy you’ve only been seeing for a few weeks? I don’t even know if I should get him anything.
“I don’t know what to get Wesley, either,” I say.
Libby chews the bite she just took of her bagel, then swallows.
“What part of lingerie do you not understand? It’s the gift that keeps on giving. You don’t even need to tell him that it’s a gift; he will just know when he unwraps it,” she says.
I laugh. “Who the hell is unwrapping your gifts?”
“No one. I unwrap my own gifts, and I’m damn good at it, too.” She winks.
I shake my head as Fawn laughs. “I miss you guys.”
“I miss you, too. We need to have a set night every other week for sister time,” I agree.
When we all lived together, we made it a point to have dinner together at least two nights a month. We would order in pizza or Chinese food, then lounge around in our PJs and watch scary movies until the early hours of the morning. When Fawn moved out, we let that tradition go, but I want to do that again. I miss how close we used to be.
“Yes, well, that is if your men will let you up for air long enough to hang out,” Libby huffs.
I look at her just in time to catch her rolling her eyes.
“You sound a little jealous,” Fawn states, smiling.
“Did I not just tell you how good I am at unwrapping myself? I’m so jealous I’m green. I want a man. A real living, breathing man.” She tosses her hair.
“What about Antonio?” Fawn asks.
I turn to look at Libby.
“No, thank you. He’s way too pompous for my taste.”
“I don’t know . . . when I was in there the other day to pick up my order and saw you two together, your arguing seemed a lot like foreplay.”
“If foreplay is plotting someone’s death in your mind from start to finish, including getting rid of the body, then you would be right,” she says.
I know she’s full of it. She’s attracted to him, and it probably makes her crazy that he isn’t falling at her feet like most men do. Libby is beautiful in a timeless way that calls to men, but most people don’t know that she’s a hard worker, she’s ambitious, she’s outgoing, and she’s one of the kindest women I have ever met. Most men just see a pretty face and a perfect body—one that she does absolutely nothing to make that way. She eats like crap and never works out; if I ate like her, I would weigh five hundred pounds.
“All right, you two need to get ready so we can go. Times Square is going to be insane,” Fawn says.
I shove the rest of my bagel in my mouth, chew, and swallow. I drink the rest of my coffee, then head to my room and get ready to spend the day with my sisters.
Sliding into a booth at the back of Jack’s bar, across from my sisters, I smile at Libby and Fawn as they chat about all the things they bought. Pulling my eyes from them, I look around and realize I haven’t been to Jack’s in forever. The last time I was here was at Halloween with my sisters. Jack’s has always been my favorite bar. I love the TVs in every corner playing different sports games, the worn tables that have dings and dents in them, and the crowd of men and women who are all there to have a good time.
“It’s been a while, Mac,” says Lisa, one of the waitresses, as she comes over to our table to drop off the drinks that we ordered when we first walked in.
I turn to look up at her and notice then that she’s pregnant.
“Are you guys ready to order, or do you need a few minutes to look over the menu?”
“You’re having a baby!” I blurt out.
She laughs, resting both her hands on her very round stomach.
“I’m so happy for you!” I get up and give her a hug. She hugs me back before letting me go and shaking her head.
“Yeah, me and Vick are so excited. I didn’t know I was pregnant until two months ago. I thought I was just gaining weight.” She laughs again, and I laugh along with her.
“That’s great. Tell Vick I said congrats,” I mutter, feeling a weight settle down around me.
I don’t know what I would do if I found out I was pregnant right now. As good as things are between us, I don’t know how Wesley would feel.
“Anyway, enough about me. Are you girls ready to order?” she asks.
“I think we’re ready,” Fawn says.
Libby and I both nod. We always get the same thing when we come here. I will have to work out for a week after this, but it’s always worth it.
“Three cheeseburgers and fries, an order of cheese sticks, and an order of fried pickles.”
“Sure,” Lisa agrees.
My stomach twists.
“I’ll bring your food out as soon as it’s done.”
“Thanks!” we say in unison before she walks off.
“Why do you look so pale?” Libby asks as soon as Lisa is gone.
I don’t
even know how to answer her. I don’t know if I should just tell them that I messed up and had unprotected sex.
“Earth to Mackenzie!” Libby snaps her fingers in front of my face, and I blink.
“Wesley and I have had a couple accidents,” I say.
My sisters share a look before they both frown at me.
“What does that mean?”
“We’ve had sex without protection.”