Like a Best Friend | ✓

chapter sixteen

The bed in our hotel in Page, Arizona, is much smaller than the bed we've gotten used to in our honeymoon suite at the Cascade. There's no spreading out away from each other here. A regular double doesn't cut it for a couple of big girls. When I wake up just before five after tossing and turning until way after midnight trying to get to sleep, Kitty's warm body is pressed against mine, her curls in my face, and there's no space left on my side for me to shift away if I don't want to end up on the floor.

We're meeting outside the hotel at a quarter after six to catch the sunrise at six forty, then we'll have time to come back to the hotel to eat and pack up get ready for the rest of the day. I could get another hour of sleep but I know I won't, even though it's still dark enough outside to trick my brain, so after a couple more minutes of the torture of Kitty's soft skin against mine, I slip out without waking her.

I need fresh air. It's a merciful fifty degrees outside right now, a glorious breeze in my hair when I step outside the hotel and suck in a lungful of pre-dawn air. I'm going to be so fucking exhausted by the time we get back to Vegas, now on my second night of shitty sleep in a row with two more busy days ahead of us, and I don't want to wish the time away but I am looking forward to spending all of Friday lounging on a daybed by the pool.

My entire face contorts in a yawn as I take out my phone and open up my chat with Sally. She texted me last night asking how everything was going with Kitty and my crush and I told her it was okay, but now I text, okay i lied this is actual torture i don't know how much longer i can stand this.

Except in my sleepy haze, it's not Sally I've selected. It's my mom. The second I realize I try to delete the message but two blue ticks pop up almost instantly. Of course. It's eight o'clock for her, the day just beginning. I grimace and wait for her to send me a bunch of question marks but instead, I get a call.

"Hey, Mom, I'm sorry, that text wasn't meant for you," I say in a hushed voice, leaning against the outside wall of the hotel. "Everything's fine. I meant to send that to Sally."

"Everything doesn't sound fine, hon," Mom says. "What's torture? Has something happened?"

"No, nothing's happened. It's really fine, Mom, I swear. Just an inside joke with Sally."

"Hmm." My mom is not stupid. She doesn't believe me and I know that, and I bet she knows that I know. "What're you doing up so early?"

I yawn again, so hard it makes me bend over, and rub my face. "Can't sleep. Kitty and I are in Arizona, part of that tour I planned. The beds are small and she's a selfish sleeper."

"How's it going?"

"Really good. It's beautiful out here. You and Dad would love it," I say, and I give her the lowdown of everything we saw yesterday, sending some of my best pictures to the family chat while we talk. A few are photos Leila took. Kitty and me in the river. Kitty and me at the Toadstool Hoodoos. Kitty and me sitting on the switchbacks in Bryce Canyon, when I thought Leila and Dylan had carried on ahead but apparently not so far that they couldn't still see us. Mom says nothing as she looks through the pictures, but she lets out plenty of coos and gasps. And then silence.

Four seconds pass. Five. Six. She says, "Ah. I get it."

"Get what?"

"Your inside joke."

I go cold, and not just because it's thirty degrees cooler than I've gotten used to. "What does that mean?"

"I mean, I understand. Oh, baby. I'm sorry."

My head's spinning trying to keep up with the conversation. "I'm lost. What're you talking about?"

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" Mom says.