My phone started buzzing, so I took it out of the back pocket of my jeans and discovered my sister’s name flashing across the screen.
Huh.
“Hey, Savannah!” Despite my arm being almost pulled out of its socket, I tried to sound cheerful.
“Adelaide. Glad I caught you for once. I hope you’re doing well?”
“Amazing!” I lied straight through my teeth. Savannah never called me, and I wasn’t going to ruin this one-off by hinting at the truth.
“Good, good. I’m very glad to hear that.”
“Yeah, how about you? Everything good up there? How’s Nathan?” I never warmed to her husband, who was as rude as he was wealthy, but I didn’t deliberately try to be rude in return.
“We’re doing fine, thank you,” she replied primly.
There was a brief pause.
“What—”
“Listen, the reason I’m calling you is because I wanted to discuss plans for Christmas.”
My steps faltered, but Princess plowed on mercilessly, dragging me along with her.
“Christmas? That’smonthsaway.” I laughed airily.
“I’m aware. Nathan and I would like to spend it with his family in St. Barths this year and we wanted to check in to make sure you’d be going to see Mom for the holidays so she’s not alone.”
I had no words.Alone?She was literally surrounded by our family. If anyone was alone, it wasme.
“You are going, right?” Savannah pressed.
“Tell her it’s her turn. We can’t keep changing our plans, and she hasn’t even been there once.” I heard Nathan’s voice drone in the background.
Wow. Thanks, Nathan. Not all of us have bucketloads of money at our disposal.
But I bit my tongue. “Uh, I wish I could. I really do. But I don’t really have the money right now and—”
“I thought she had a job?”
Savannah shushed him, and her voice was muffled as she said, “So did I,” like she’d put her hand over the speaker.
“I do have a job.Jobsto be exact, but I don’t have enough saved to—”
“Really, Adelaide? You don’t have enough for one trip? It’s freaking Christmas and it’s months away!”
My shoulders tensed, and I could feel tears pricking my eyes. I blinked furiously. There was no fucking way I was going to cry.
I took a deep breath. “I really wish I could, but I don’t think it’ll happen, to be completely honest. But Mom’s not alone. I mean, the whole family lives right down the road. She won’t be alone and you guys can still go—”
“I knew she’d pull this shit! She’s so irresponsible. When the hell will she fucking grow up?” Nathan seethed in the background.
“I know, I know.” Savannah tried to calm him down. Her reaction hurt more than anything Nathan could have thrown at me.
“You know what?” I said loudly. “It’s been really nice talking to you, but I need to go.”
“What? We’re not done here, Adelaide!”
“Yes, we are. I won’t be able to go see Mom but there’s no reason for you to not go on your trip.” I mustered up as much friendliness as I could.