“Why? It’s your house too.” Her reply was a little too loud.
I gave her big eyes and put my finger to my lips. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to hear us talking. He’d been short with me when he came home, and I didn’t want to anger him further.
Her unfiltered mouth was the reason I had thought about rescinding my invitation.
“It is, but when someone has a bad day, you try and make it better not—”
“You can always leave,” Jenner sounded off from behind Sophie.
How had he snuck up on us? He had literally been like twenty or thirty feet away from us.
Sophie twirled around in her spot, with her green eyes lasered in on him. “You have no idea what this woman has gone through, and she doesn’t need the likes of you making her life any harder than it already has been. If my best friend wants me to come over or live here or fucking take a shit on your floor, I will do it. I don’t care about you or your stupid drunk ass. Just let her live her life and be happy.” Turning back to me, Sophie’s entire demeanor changed. “I’m no longer feeling like a swim. How about a rain check?”
Before I could answer her, Sophie swooped up her bag with her clothes in it and stomped off to the front door. When I heard her car drive off, I twisted toward an equally confused Jenner.
Where had that come from?
“I’m sorry for her outburst. I don’t want you to think I’m unhappy because I’m not. I was talking about trying to make your day better since it seemed something . . . ” I shrugged, unsure how to explain what I’d felt radiating off of him earlier.
His face went blank as he spoke in a monotone voice. “You’d be right. I needed some time to myself and didn’t need her loud mouth going off about me.”
“Again, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
I had no idea where Sophie was coming from. We’d barely talked because she’d been working since we got back, and not once had I complained about Jenner.
He tilted his head as he eyed the grilled chicken lunch I’d prepared for Sophie and me. We were supposed to go outside and enjoy the beauty that was Jenner’s backyard. Looking back toward the front door, I wondered what was really going on with my best friend. This wasn’t like her. Even though she had no filter, she didn’t go off on people for no reason. Even when I had lost interest in Greg, Sophie had never once said anything negative about him.
Waving my hand at the food, I turned to head back to my room and didn’t bother to look back at him. “Have at it. I’ve lost my appetite.”
Once in my room, I pulled up Sophie’s profile on Facebook and started going through her posts. She hadn’t posted in over two months, which was odd in itself. She usually posted multiple times a week. Her last post had been about going on an audition for a movie she desperately wanted.
Next, I went to her Instagram account and scrolled through her pictures. She posted more there and showed her disappointment over and over again about not getting her big break. Why had she not talked to me? I knew I’d been busy with school and moving, but not once had she ever let on what her pictures showed.
Why was now the first time you’ve been on her profile in months?
I had no excuse, and now I needed to do something to remedy what a bad friend I’d been.
Her phone rang twice before she answered. “I’m sorry if I made things difficult for you,” she said in a voice that screamed the opposite.
“It doesn’t matter. I want to talk about you. Today was supposed to be about catching up, and we didn’t get the opportunity.” I didn’t want to start by asking her why she hadn’t talked to me about her acting career. It was a relatively new endeavor she had decided she wanted to pursue within the last six months.
I wasn’t sure why she had a job as a waitress when her father foots the bill for everything, but she said it was part of the process, and I didn’t argue.
“Not much has been happening with me. I’ve been working since we got back, but you knew that.” Her tone was short and defensive.
“Nothing else is going on?” I questioned lightly.
“If you mean have I gotten married to some Hollywood bad boy heartthrob in the last week, then your answer is no. What’s been going on with you?” The lack of interest in her tone threw me for a loop.
“Just trying to get used to everything. I’m kind of hiding out since the grocery store debacle.”
Her email pinged in the background. I wasn’t sure why she did it, but she had the most annoying noises for her notifications. Her email sounded like a nuclear bomb was about to go off.
She gasped and then started laughing, the way she only did when she’d been drinking. I was shocked she was already buzzed; it had only been a short time since she was at the house. Had she been drinking before she got here? If she had, that was completely unlike her. What the hell was going on with my friend?
“Oh my god, Abbi, you’ll never guess what just showed up in my inbox.”
“What?”
“I have an audition for a movie that will launch my career. I’ve been praying for this email and BAM! There it is, right in my inbox. Now that you work at CJJ and your husband is a famous actor, do you think you can put in a good word for me?”
Wait! What? Was she high?
Jenner was famous, but I didn’t think he was in the best position right now to be offering recommendations. If he did, she probably wouldn’t get the job, and I didn’t know anyone yet. Who the hell did she think would to listen to us? If she thought I was going to talk to Catherine about her, she was sadly mistaken. Sophie had only one commercial job, and that was back when she lived in Baton Rouge. I didn’t have the heart to tell her; she had done a shit job of it, and the only reason she got the part was because a guy who’d been pursuing her asked his dad to give it to her. After that, though, she’d caught the acting bug.
“I think after what happened in the kitchen, Jenner isn’t going to be in the mood to help you out.” I tried to let her down as gently as possible.
“When did you start calling him Jenner? He’s always been Reeves to you.”
My hackles rose. As the phone call continued, her tone sounded more and more annoyed.
“Because he asked me to call him that.” I wasn’t going to explain myself any further. Especially not when she hadn’t been confiding in me. How had she changed so much in such a short time?
“Why are you letting him dictate your life?” she spat.
“Why are you being such a bitch to me? Do you think I like the situation I’ve gotten myself into because of one stupid split-second decision to go to Vegas?”
“Oh, so now it’s my fault you got married to that asshole. He’s already changed you, and you know what?” Her voice turned harsh with venom dripping from each word. “If you really feel that way, then I can’t be a part of your life.” In the next second, the line went dead.
Stunned and upset by what had just transpired, I wanted to get away from the scene of the crime. I walked out of my room and kept walking until I was at the security gate of the neighborhood. I would have kept going if it hadn’t been for the three men standing across the street with cameras in their hands. When I saw them, I turned around and headed back to the house. I knew they had gotten a shot of me with my puffy red-rimmed eyes, but at that moment I didn’t care. I couldn’t make sense of what my life had turned into.