“YOU LOOK FAB,” Mia says when I step into view at the bar she picked for our weekly happy hour.
“As do you, my lady,” I reply with a small bow that makes her snicker. She’s wearing a Victorian-style dress with a bustier that makes her boobs look like they’re going to pop out the top. Her long, blonde hair is curled loosely and pulled back in two sections at the front.
“You’re silly. I talked my parents and Rob into a family Halloween shoot so that I can showcase them around the studio next month, and I didn’t have time to change before coming over here.” She turns to the waitress. “Two lemon drops, please.”
“What in the world are you dressed up as? Queen Victoria?” I ask, looking under the table to see what the rest of her outfit looks like. When I straighten again, she’s looking at me like I’m crazy, and I realize she has no idea who Queen Victoria is.
“No! I’m Cersei Lannister.”
“Ooohhh . . .” I say, taking a sip of the drink the waitress places in front of me.
“Rob dressed as Jamie.”
“What?” I ask, sputtering half of the gulp back into my cup.
The bubbled laughter that escapes her lips soon turns into full hysteria. “I swear,” she says, gasping for air. “You should have seen my mom’s face!”
Robert is Mia’s brother. Twin brother. And . . . clearly, neither are normal.
“You guys are sick. What did they say?” I ask, laughing with her.
“Mom doesn’t know what the hell Game of Thrones is. Dad was horrified when he figured it out. He didn’t want my mom to send out the Halloween cards she said she was going to make, but it was the first time we’d taken Halloween pictures since Rob and I were, like, eight. Anyway, she dressed up as Mary Poppins and Dad was Bert.”
“Aww that’s cute . . . you two are so, so weird though,” I mutter. “Tell me about this Todd guy. Did you find out anything?”
“His last name is Stern—”
“He sounds like a lawyer or something,” I interrupt.
Mia rolls her eyes. “He’s an accountant.”
“I thought he was a curator?”
“I don’t know what Maria was thinking. I swear, sometimes I think it’s a language barrier thing.”
“What is?” I ask, trying not to laugh.
“This is the fifth guy she’s tried to set me up with, and he’s a freaking accountant! Do I look like I would date an accountant?”
“Well, no, but you don’t have the greatest taste in guys, so maybe this is a good thing.”
“Anywayyyyy,” she says, dragging it out before finishing off her drink and signaling for two more. “How was your first night at Vic’s?”
I let out a long sigh . . . my first night at Vic’s. Heartbreaking, lonely, weird, sad, happy, weird . . .
“It was fine.” I shrug.
Mia places her hand over mine to stop me from drawing lines of water on the table, beckoning my attention. “It’s okay to not be okay, Elle.”
“I am okay, though,” I answer with a frown.
“You don’t need to be strong for every single person, you know? You’re allowed to break down. The love of your life died, you’re in the process of selling your house together, and you moved in with your brother. It’s a lot to take in. It’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to take a break from work if you need it.”
“It’s been a year. And I already took a break from work,” I remind her. After Wyatt died, I took two months off work, but that meant being home all the time. I even went to live with my parents for a couple of weeks to get away from the house. I couldn’t take the memories and being there without him, but you can’t turn your back on your struggles and expect them to disappear on their own. It just doesn’t happen. So, I went home and dealt with the fact that he wasn’t coming back. I went to see a therapist and got to a good place, but not staying in the house any more feels like . . .it’s really over.
“Sometimes I feel like a bitch for selling the house,” I say, finally. “I feel like I’m erasing him from my life or something.”
Mia squeezes my hand. “Oh, honey, nobody thinks you’re trying to do that. You need to move on. You’re young, you’re smart, you’re talented as hell, and you’re fun. You can’t stop living because of a ghost.”