My Boyfriend Traveled with My Bestie novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Brunch with Daphne

Susanna records brunch while Daphne lies about spending the Fourth at her mother's in Dayton; Daphne's phone shows a beach photo with Colson's watch and a lock-screen countdown: Hawaii, 4 days.

Daphne was already at our usual table when I got to the cafe, waving with both hands.

She had saved me the seat by the window and ordered my pancakes.

She had even remembered I wanted the berries on the side.

"There she is!" she said, and stood up to give me a long hug.

She smelled like the same vanilla lotion she'd worn since college.

I hugged her back and let my phone slide into the pocket of my cardigan.

The voice recorder was already running.

"You look tired," Daphne said, pushing my coffee toward me. "Is Colson working you to death?"

"Colson is working himself to death," I said. "He has a trip over the Fourth."

"Ugh. That's the worst."

She stirred her latte and looked at me with her big, sorry eyes.

"What about you? Any plans? You can't just sit home alone."

"I might catch up on sleep," I said.

"Oh, babe."

She reached across the table and squeezed my wrist.

"I'd invite you to my mom's, but it's going to be so boring. Her church has a potluck and my cousins are doing a whole talent show."

I nodded.

"Where does your mom live again?" I asked. "Ohio?"

"Dayton," Daphne said, without blinking. "I'm flying out Thursday morning."

Thursday morning was the third.

That was the same morning Colson's work trip began.

I took a bite of pancake and chewed slowly.

"Dayton in July," I said. "Sounds hot."

"Sooo hot. I'm going to melt."

She laughed, and the laugh was the one I'd known for nine years.

She had held my hair back at my first college party.

She had slept on my floor for three weeks when her mother lost her job.

She had cried harder than I did at my grandmother's funeral.

I wanted to ask her how a person does that.

I asked about her hat instead.

"Do you still have that straw hat?" I said. "The wide one?"

"Yeah, why?"

"My sunburn from last summer is back. I thought maybe I'd borrow it."

Her smile froze for half a second, and then she covered it with her coffee cup.

"Oh no, babe, I'm so sorry. I have to bring it to Dayton. My mom wants to wear it to the talent show."

"Your mom wants your hat."

"She loves it. It's a whole thing."

I looked at her face.

Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were wide and honest.

If I hadn't read the chat, I'd have bought every word.

"Okay," I said. "No problem."

She relaxed so fast I almost laughed.

The waitress brought the check.

Daphne grabbed it before I could and slid her card into the folder. "My treat. You always pay."

That was true.

I had paid for nearly every brunch since the day she moved to Seattle.

I let her have this one.

While she signed the receipt, her phone lit up on the table between us.

She'd left it face up, because Daphne never thought about who might be looking.

It was a photo of a beach at sunset.

A man's hand rested on the sand in the corner of the picture.

His wrist wore a silver watch with a green face.

I had bought that watch at an outlet in Tacoma for his twenty-fifth birthday.

He wore it every day, and he had been wearing it that morning at breakfast.

Daphne turned the phone over fast and smiled at me. "Sorry. Spam."

"It's fine," I said. "You get so much spam."

We hugged again on the sidewalk.

She held on a little too long, and she whispered in my ear, "You're the best person I know, Sue."

"You too," I said.

My own phone buzzed in my cardigan.

It was an email from Han Dojin, the team lead in Seoul.

"We were hoping you'd say yes. Your desk is by the window. Send me your arrival time and I'll meet you."

I put the phone away without answering yet.

Her phone buzzed in her bag as she walked away.

I watched her pull it out and glance at the screen.

The lock screen had changed to a new picture, a palm tree and a bright blue sky.

Over the top of it, in a bubbly white font, was a counter.

"Hawaii: 4 days."

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