Michelle turned on her phone but instead of replying to the email, she grabbed Gabe’s cell phone number from the signature and sent him a text.
Michelle: I’ll do it.
Chapter 3
Michelle: I’ll do it.
Gabe: Mich?
Michelle: Who else?
Gabe: Right.
Gabe: Um, hi.
Michelle: Don’t “hi” me. If I help you with this, you have to meet my demands.
Gabe: Okay. Hit me with them.
Michelle: 1) I want a lifetime membership.
Gabe: To the gym?
Michelle: Yeah, to the gym. You know what gym memberships cost these days?
Gabe: . . . yeah. I do. I own a gym.
Michelle: 2) You pay my full rate. No friend discounts.
Gabe: You got it.
Michelle: 3) You stay with me while you’re in New York.
Gabe: What? Why?
Michelle: It’s one of my conditions. If you want my help, you have to agree to it.
Gabe: I have to come out there soon to look at locations. But I’m staying at a hotel.
Michelle: No. You have to stay with me.
Gabe: Why can’t we just meet up somewhere?
Michelle: Gabe. I haven’t seen you in 13 years. You were my best friend, and you disappeared on me. You want my help? This is the least you can do while I work on your campaign.
Gabe: Where do you live?
Michelle: Hell’s Kitchen.
Michelle: That’s on the west side, in case you forgot.
Gabe: I know where it is.
Gabe: Fine. I’ll stay with you.
Sixteen years ago
Windows Messenger Chat Transcript
Celestial Destiny: Initial Planning Session
Michelle:
OMG
Gabe:
WTF
Michelle:
Pure basura. We finally get Latinos in space . . .
Gabe:
And they canceled it! On a cliffhanger!
Michelle:
I can’t accept this. We have to know what happened to Zack and Riva in season 2.
Gabe:
What can we do? Beyond the Stars has been canceled already. This one season is all we get.
Michelle:
Wait a second.
Gabe:
What?
Michelle:
I’m a genius.
Gabe:
What??
Michelle:
WHAT IF WE WRITE IT???
Gabe:
. . . I don’t understand. You mean write for the show?
Michelle:
Fanfiction, Gabe! We’ll write our own Beyond the Stars fanfic!
Gabe:
Right. With all the free time we have.
Michelle:
It won’t take that long. We’ll work on it together!
Gabe:
Between baseball and working at my dad’s store, I’m already drowning in homework.
Michelle:
Come on, Gabe, it’ll be fun! Like when we used to pretend we were Luke and Leia fighting Stormtroopers on the swing set.
Gabe:
I miss that swing set.
Michelle:
Me too. This can be our new swing set.
Gabe:
Okay.
Chapter 4
Picking someone up at the airport in New York City was the biggest of favors, and Michelle hoped the big jerk appreciated it. But not even the nighttime traffic leading into LaGuardia Airport or BTS blasting positive-energy K-pop from her car’s speakers could distract from her jitters about seeing Gabe again.
What would he be like? Would it be weird to be around him again, or just like old times? She wasn’t sure which she preferred. It might hurt more if they slipped right back into their old dynamic, but she also harbored the hope that they could pick up where they’d left off. Although, the last time she’d seen him, they’d had their tongues in each other’s mouth. Were they going to pretend that hadn’t happened? What was the etiquette for reuniting with a former best friend you’d almost banged?
The music was interrupted as her Fiat’s Bluetooth called out, “Call from Ava.”
Gripping the wheel tight, Michelle debated whether or not to answer. Her stomach was a bundle of twisted-up knots, her teeth clenched tight. Ava would know something was going on, and Michelle didn’t want to explain what she was doing, especially since she wasn’t totally sure herself.
She declined the call and BTS resumed.
“Get your shit together,” Michelle told herself. “We’re thirty-one, not eighteen. We can be adults about this.”
Right. They were adults now, which meant Gabe was absolutely not going to freak out when he found out the plan had changed, and that instead of staying in Michelle’s apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, they’d be staying at her parents’ house in the Bronx.
Damn, who was she kidding? He was totally going to freak out.
If she told him, he’d refuse to get in her car. He might even turn right around and hop on a plane back to Los Angeles. Her whole plan hinged on keeping him close, so that’s what she’d do.
And hope he didn’t notice where she was driving.
It was wrong to trick him, but what else could she do? Despite repeated claims that her bathroom renovation would definitely be completed by now, her apartment still had no toilet.
As the line of cars and taxis pulled to a standstill, Michelle flipped her mirror down and looked herself right in the eye. “Do not let him see you sweat. He doesn’t deserve it.”
Better to make him sweat. Michelle unclipped her hair from its messy bun and let it tumble down over her shoulders and back. Then she grabbed a tube of lipstick out of her purse and freshened up her lips. The deep red was striking against her summer tan, and with her signature dramatic eye makeup, it created what Ava called her “witch look.”
By the time Michelle had finger-combed her dark locks and pouted at her reflection a few times, traffic had started moving again and she was feeling a little more confident.
Sure, she was an emotional mess inside, but at least she felt pretty.
The music stopped again.
“Text from Gabe,” her car said, and Michelle tensed as his words were repeated in a robotic voice. “Almost there.”
“This doesn’t have to be a big deal,” she told herself, speaking out loud as she navigated her way around a stopped rideshare SUV. “He’s here to work. It doesn’t have to be weird.”
She tapped on the wheel along with the music, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her gut.
If only she could talk to Ava and Jasmine about it instead of giving herself a pep talk alone in her car. Her best cousins, her Primas of Power, were her biggest support system. But for some reason, when it came to sex and relationships, Michelle just couldn’t open up to them.
It wasn’t fair. She gave them shit about not telling her when they were having romantic troubles. Yet, when it came to herself, she clammed up.
She could guess how they’d react, though. They’d tell her to stay away from him. She’d been a fucking wreck after he’d left for California. Her primas had stuck to her side the whole summer before college—the summer she’d planned to spend with Gabe.
The summer that might have gone differently after they’d kissed.
Not this time. She wouldn’t let him affect her like he had. This was for closure, and to assuage her curiosity. That was it. She’d pick him up, drive them home, and tomorrow they’d work on his project. She’d stay cool and she’d get the answers she deserved.