Page 57 of Five Years

Nobody had time to acknowledge the elephant in the room because Grace came bounding out with a party hat and a badge announcing the grand old age of thirty-five—the five crossed out and replaced with a six.

“Why didn’t you tell me Hannah was here?” Leah snarled.

“I did. Check your texts.”

Grace

Code RED.

We have a problem.

Leah?

Hannah is here!

She came to surprise Ariana.

I didn’t know anything about it.

I REPEAT, I didn’t know.

Neither does Ariana.

“Oh.”

“I tried to warn you,” Grace said through gritted teeth.

Hannah took a seat across from Leah, avoiding eye contact. Ariana stood by the kitchen island, laughing with two of her friends who had also ‘secretly’ made the trip from Michigan. She glanced over at Leah and smiled sympathetically.

As the night wore on, awkwardness reigned supreme. Leah found herself cornered by the cake stand, toying with the knife and debating how big to cut the slice. Was there etiquette? She settled for what she would call a happy medium.

“You can cut more than that,” Ariana laughed. “I’d say at least to the ‘r.’”

“That’s very kind of you,” Leah teased. The knife slid through the cake with ease; the moist chocolate sponge landed on her plate with a soft thud.

“Thank you for today.” Ariana reached out and squeezed Leah’s arm.

“I only distracted you. Grace did all the hard work,” Leah replied, trying to sound casual.

“I know. I mean, thank you for spending the day with me—regardless of the why. It was nice to connect with you again.” Ariana looked a little nervous, but her smile was warm.

“It was nice.”

“I didn’t know Hannah was coming,” Ariana blurted.

“I know—nobody did, apparently,” Leah smirked. “Did she know I was here?”

“Erm . . .”

“You didn’t tell her?”

“Well, the thing is, I was going to, and then she was really stressed with work and I didn’t want to worry her—”

“Why would she be worried?” Leah probed.

“Well, not worried, but you know what I mean. I didn’t want her to think anything sinister was going on because you’re here.”

“Sinister?” Leah teased.