The Icing on the Cake (31 page)

No one answered the phone at my parents’ house. Carrie didn’t answer her phone either. So not only was I practically jobless, but I was also parentless and friendless.

Not wanting to go home to my empty condo, I went to the gym to clear my head of the mess I had managed to make out of my life—and to use my free gym membership for maybe the last time.

I was changing into my sweats when my cell began ringing loudly, causing a girl who was changing next to me to jump about a mile.

“Hello?” I answered hesitantly, not recognizing the number on the caller ID.

“Annabelle, it’s Rona. I’m sorry I didn’t return your call sooner, but I got your message about La Bonne Violette doing the catering, and that’s great.”

Oh man. I had left that message over a week ago, before the whole thing had fallen through. And in all the craziness of everything else in my life falling completely apart, I had forgotten to call Rona and tell her that it wasn’t going to happen.

“Um, Rona, listen,” I began, “I’m at the gym right now so can I call you back later?”

“No need. I’m on my way to the gym right now. I’ll see you there. Bye.”

Rona hung up before I could protest.

I sighed as I flipped the phone closed, and decided that I needed more than ever to run on the treadmill. I approached the treadmills in the cardio room and noticed that all but one of them were in use. I sauntered up to the unused treadmill and saw a small sign posted on it: “Danger: This machine has been having electrical problems. Run at your own risk.”

What’s the worst that could happen,
I thought as I hopped onto the treadmill, not wanting to wait for the other machines. I set the machine and began running vigorously, hoping to release all of the distress from my mind.

“That looks like an angry run,” I heard a voice say after I had been running for about fifteen minutes.

“Oh, shut up,” I said, thinking the voice was my brain.

“Excuse me?” I heard the voice ask.

I turned my head and saw Rona Bircheck standing beside the treadmill. “Oh, sorry, I was talking to myself,” I said as I pushed Stop on the machine.

Problem was, the thing didn’t stop. It automatically started increasing in speed and kept increasing no matter how many times I pounded on Stop. Finally, with a scream, I lunged off the thing and landed on the ground beside Rona.

“Ow,” I said as I picked myself up off the ground.

Rona started laughing.

“It wasn’t that funny,” I said coolly.

“Sorry,” Rona said. She moved her lips around all weirdly, trying to wipe the smile off her face.

I rolled my eyes, thinking that Rona wouldn’t see it.

But she did.

“Annabelle, did I do something to offend you?” Rona asked, the laughter gone and a serious, almost hurt tone taking over her voice.

“Well, it’s not nice to laugh at someone when they fall,” I said, rubbing my now rug-burned elbow.

“I think it’s more than that,” Rona said.

“What makes you say that?”

“For quite a while, I’ve sensed some . . . I don’t know . . . tension between us, I guess.”

I gulped.

It’s time to get things out into the open,
my brain told me.

No way,
I argued with my brain.
Nothing good will come out of that.

It’s the right thing to do,
my brain pressed.

Whatever,
I decided finally.
I guess it’s not like my life can get any worse.

“Well,” I began, speaking to Rona without looking at her. How was I supposed to start the conversation I had successfully avoided for six years? “If you sense tension it’s probably . . .” I paused when I noticed a blonde girl who was jogging on one of the treadmills turn her head slightly, obviously listening to our conversation, hoping to hear something juicy. “Do you wanna get a smoothie?” I asked Rona, eager to relocate.

“Okay,” Rona replied slowly.

Silently, Rona and I made our way to the juice bar where Rona ordered a Fat Buster and I ordered a Weight Lifter’s Choice since it has the most protein. Okay, mostly because it has the most frozen yogurt. I charged both smoothies to my account, and Rona and I chose a secluded booth to sit in.

We sat sipping our smoothies in silence until Rona spoke. “Did something happen between you and Isaac?” she asked.

I didn’t reply. Like I was going to tell her so she could make a play for him. Yeah, right.

“I was just wondering because he seemed really upset on Saturday night after you left,” Rona said.

Again, I didn’t reply. I was too busy trying to prevent myself from blurting the sarcastic, “Yeah, and I’m sure you comforted him real nice,” comments that were on the tip of my tongue.

“I have a confession to make,” Rona said.

I think my heart stopped beating. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, I knew what she was going to say. She was going to tell me that she and Isaac were in love. That they were the ones who were going to buy the house in Carmel and get the horse named Snickers.

But that’s not what she said.

“I’ve noticed this . . . weirdness between us for a long time,” Rona began. “And that’s one of the reasons I decided to plan a shower for Carrie. I was actually going to ask you to plan it with me. But I chickened out, and just asked you to take care of the catering.”

So she hadn’t been trying to edge me out as Carrie’s best friend? No. That couldn’t be right. I looked up at Rona. “I would have loved to plan the party,” I said. “In fact, I felt a little sad that I wasn’t in charge of the shower. It made me feel like a crummy friend.” I looked at my smoothie, wondering if there was some sort of truth serum in it or something.

“But,” Rona said, “when I was about to ask you to help me plan the shower, I felt that familiar tension, and I didn’t think it would be a good idea for us to work together.”

“What do you mean? It would have been fine.” I paused. “Okay, it would have been a little . . . weird maybe.” At this point I took the lid off my smoothie and looked inside. Seriously, what was in there?

“Do you remember the senior trip?” Rona asked out of nowhere.

“The senior trip? Yeah, sure, I remember that. Why?”

“You and I shared a seat on the bus down to Disneyland. Remember? We talked the whole time and read magazines, taking all the little quizzes. We even shared an In-N-Out shake.”

The memory came to my mind. Carrie was sitting with her latest admirer—Carrie has always had tons of guys after her—and so Rona and I sat together. We really did have a lot of fun on that trip. But that was a long time ago. And more importantly, it was pre-prom. Things change. “That was pretty fun,” I said finally.

“So what happened?” Rona asked.

“What do you mean?” I said, although I was pretty sure I knew what she meant.

Rona sighed. “Forget it,” she relented, taking another sip of her Fat Buster.

I looked across the booth at Rona, and all of a sudden I could see the girl I sat with on the bus. And I saw her sipping not a Fat Buster smoothie but an In-N-Out shake. I pushed my smoothie away, deciding there was not only a truth serum in there but also a hallucinogen.

Then I took a deep breath and told the truth. “You want to know what happened? I thought you were my friend, Rona. But then Alex Michaels happened. The senior prom happened. After getting my heart broken, I decided you weren’t much of a friend.” For some reason, when the words came out of my mouth, they sounded strangely petty. They had seemed a much better reason to dislike Rona in my mind.

Rona’s eyes started filling with tears. “I’m sorry I did that to you,” she said softly.

What in this insane world?
I looked at Rona’s smoothie. Did someone put something into hers too? I peered over at the juice bar. There
was
something iffy about the teenagers working behind the counter.

“W-what?” I stuttered, staring at Rona.

“I’m really sorry, Annabelle,” Rona said meekly. Since when was Rona meek?

“You are?”

“Do you know why my Mom and I moved to the Monterey Bay?” Rona asked quietly, dabbing at the tears in her eyes with a napkin.

My mind was blank. I really didn’t know why. “I don’t think so,” I said.

“My dad died from cancer that year. We moved here to live with my grandma. It was the worst year of my life.”

Before I knew it, I was reaching for Rona’s hand. And at that moment something happened. I can’t really explain what it was, but I knew that things were going to be different between us from then on.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I had no idea. I should have known.”

“How could you have known? I didn’t tell anyone. Anyway, without my dad, I went maybe a little crazy. I looked for a guy to take his place or something.” Rona looked at me, unsure, as if she regretted this admission.

“Oh,” I said softly. “So you didn’t, you know, purposely take my date or anything; you just wanted a guy.”

“Well . . .” Rona said slowly. She took a tiny sip of her smoothie.

“So you did do it on purpose? Why did you hate me so much? I don’t understand.”

“Hate you? Are you kidding? I wanted to be you. I was totally jealous of you.”

“What?” My mouth was slightly open as I said the word.

“Come on, like you didn’t know that.”

“How can that be?” I asked. “You were the one with everything. The looks, the guys. In fact . . . I may have had an envious thought about you every now and then.” I shook my head slightly. “I can’t believe how dumb this all sounds.”

“Well, we were kids.”

“Yeah, but I’ve let it go on. I’m really sorry, Rona. I haven’t been very nice to you the past few years.”

“I don’t think it’s that we haven’t been very nice,” Rona said. “I think it’s that we haven’t been very honest.”

Rona was right. Now, how many of you over the course of this story thought that you would ever hear me say something like that?

“Yeah,” I said, responding to Rona. Then I continued, “So maybe it’s time to, I mean, maybe we could . . .”

“Start over.” Rona and I said the words simultaneously.

“Okay,” I committed.

“Okay,” Rona echoed.

We both took sips of our smoothies, and smiled at each other. There was no hug. No plans to go shopping together were made. But the tension was gone. And I realized at that moment how much it had eaten at me all those years.

After a few quiet moments of smoothie-sipping, Rona got a very serious look on her face. “I just realized how things may look to you, but I want you to know that I don’t have any interest in Isaac. That’s the honest truth.”

Could I really believe that? I mean, maybe my bad feelings toward Rona had tainted my ability to see things clearly, but some things were just not mistakable. “Oh, I never thought you’d go for Isaac,” I said.

Liar,
my brain scolded.

“You didn’t?” Rona asked.

“No,” I replied.

Liar, liar, liar,
my brain chastised.

“Okay, maybe for a second,” I admitted. “You do always . . . well, Rona . . . you’re always flirting with him,” I blurted.

Rona turned her head downward and played with the straw in her smoothie. “There’s something you should know,” she said seriously.

“Okay,” I replied, not sure I wanted to hear what she was going to tell me.

“I wanted Isaac to like me.”

“But not for the reason you think. I did it because I . . . well ... I like Ethan.”

“Who’s Ethan?” I asked stupidly.

“Isaac’s brother.”

“What? You like Ethan?” I stared at Rona, completely flabbergasted—I don’t usually use that word because I think it sounds ridiculous, but it’s honestly the only way to describe how I felt at that moment.

Rona nodded and grinned.

“Since when?” I asked, completely shocked, and, I have to admit, relieved. It was nice to know that I wouldn’t have to see Rona and Isaac sitting together holding hands in the singles ward any time soon.

“Since a while,” Rona replied. “It’s a pretty crazy story.”

“I’m all for a crazy story,” I said.
Especially since it’s about you liking someone other than Isaac.

“Well, my friend Lupe is in the Spanish ward, and sometimes I go to church with her. I minored in Spanish in college, so I really enjoy attending Spanish services. I got to know Ethan in that ward, and I really liked him, but we were just friends since I was engaged.

“Then Tristan broke off our engagement. After I cried for way too long, Lupe intervened and told me she was taking me to her favorite Portuguese restaurant. She forced me to shower and put on makeup and took me to the place, which was called Vaz Plaza.

“After we ate, we were about to leave the restaurant when Lupe told me she saw Ethan’s brother, Isaac, who she said was a photographer. So I started scheming. I wanted to get to know Ethan better, since I was free of that idiot Tristan. And seeing as I really needed a new property photographer, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get to know Ethan through his brother.

“So I came over to the table where Isaac was sitting with you and gave him my card. The next day, I invited Isaac and Ethan to my house for lunch, and things just happened from there.”

I remembered that day. I had assumed Rona was inviting Isaac to lunch and that it would be just the two of them all comfy and cozy. Could it really be that there was a different explanation for that lunch and maybe even for everything else that had happened?

“So it wasn’t Isaac—it was Ethan,” I muttered to myself.

“Yeah, it was Ethan,” Rona said, responding to the words I hadn’t quite meant to say out loud. “But it’s not like you had anything to worry about anyway. Isaac’s obviously crazy about you.”