The Selling Point Read online

  Darby frowned as she considered Jennifer’s statement. “I know. I didn’t consider that I was pouring gasoline on smoldering embers. I really didn’t.”

  “Okay,” Jennifer said after a few moments. “So what are you going to do about it?”

  Though she was full from her lunch, Darby needed a distraction. She reached into the chips, looking for one big enough to scoop the chunky salsa onto as she considered what to say. “Sue says if I was really sorry, I’d close my store. I’ve been considering that.”

  “That’s one way to prove you’re repentant,” Jennifer said. “I saw you posted an apology and took the stories down. That’s another way. But clearly you’re still struggling with the guilt. Otherwise you wouldn’t look like someone pissed all over your breakfast.”

  Darby scowled at her. “Hey, I’m not here to be judged by you. I made mistakes, but so did you.” She scoffed. “You know damn well what you did in that video you posted.”

  Jennifer sat back and glanced around the dining room before nodding. “Yeah, I did. I pulled your comments together and made you look like a bigger ass than you already were.”

  “Why?”

  Meeting Darby’s gaze, Jennifer blinked unrepentantly. “Sue’s my cousin. Did you know that?”

  Darby jolted. “Wait. What?”

  Jennifer shrugged and went back to digging in the chip bowl. “She heard you on The Noah Joplin Show and called me, crying. She was horrified and couldn’t believe you’d betrayed her like that. She didn’t know what to do.”

  “And you decided to trash me by splicing an interview together?”

  When the waitress set Jennifer’s drink down, Jennifer immediately took a sip from the straw and then used it to slowly stir the drink as she thoughtfully stared at the ice cubes. “We watched the interview a few times. At first I was trying to tell her it was no big deal. Like what you said, you didn’t tell anyone her name. But then her social media blew up with people asking if that was her. The knife kept twisting, and every time, she started crying again.”

  Darby had to blink away her shame as she processed how much that must have hurt. “I didn’t think something like that would happen.”

  “Nobody does, do they?” Jennifer asked softly. “Nobody thinks about how the ripple effects could turn into giant waves. They just throw the rock. Anyway, seeing my cousin hurt like that, I knew I had to step in and do something. So…”

  “What?” Darby demanded as she widened her eyes. “You decided to lie about my intentions?”

  At that, Jennifer scoffed. “So I called you and set up that interview, and then I went right to Sue’s house and showed her the footage. She was furious. She thought you didn’t care how much you were hurting her.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have tried to make this better without you making this so much uglier than it already was.”

  “Because I was angry. And because I agreed with Sue. You didn’t seem too concerned about hurting anyone. You seemed pretty content to rake in the money coming in from their broken lives.” Jennifer shrugged. “Karma finds you every time, you know. And that was what I chalked it up to. You hurt my cousin on a podcast. I had the means to use my podcast to hurt you back.”

  Darby pushed her empty water glass aside and tapped her nails on the table. “So how did you find my ex-boyfriends?”

  Jennifer laughed lightly. “Like everybody else finds stuff out. I went through your old social media content. How else would I find them?”

  “And you just happened to pick the two that had the worst things to say about me?”

  After taking another drink from her glass, Jennifer looked away as if she was struggling to answer. “I just happened to use the footage of the two who had the worst things to say about you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Jennifer dug back into the chips as she cast a glance toward Darby. “Not everyone had such bad things to say. Actually, most of them said you were very sweet, that things simply didn’t work out.”

  Darby narrowed her eyes at Jennifer. “You manipulated that footage as well.”

  “Maybe. But does it matter?”

  “Of course it matters. You made me look terrible.”

  “Oh, man,” Jennifer chuckled. “I’m going to remind you, one more time, you used my cousin’s broken engagement and cancelled wedding to earn a few bucks. You’re not some innocent in this, Darby. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to retaliate for nothing.”

  After a moment, Darby nodded. “Okay. So we both did things that hurt other people. I think you can step down off that high horse you’ve been riding and acknowledge that what you did wasn’t any better.”

  Jennifer pressed her lips together and looked away instead of agreeing.

  “So now what?” Darby pressed. “I’ve apologized. I’ve changed my site. What are you going to do about your mistake?”

  Rolling her eyes, Jennifer faced her again. “Now I guess you finish what you started. You’ve apologized to Sue and you took down the descriptions. But she’s told you what you need to do to make it up to her. Now you decide. Are you sorry that you hurt her because it’s caused you pain? Or do you finally understand what you did was wrong and want to make the necessary changes to fix it? Because there’s a difference, Darby.”

  “Un-Do is my income. It’s my business. So the only way to prove I’m really sorry is to lose my income? That’s what you’re saying?”

  Jennifer shrugged. “Sue is the one who was hurt.”

  “Okay, well, I was hurt by your video, so you need to stop doing your podcast.”

  Rather than agree or disagree, Jennifer stared like she didn’t understand the words that had come from Darby’s mouth.

  “By your logic,” Darby pressed, “if I made a mistake and hurt someone, I should have to shut down my business. I’m telling you, right here to your face, that you manipulated that video, and that hurt me. So shut down your podcast.”

  Scoffing, Jennifer looked away but her smile faded. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…”

  “That’s how you make a living,” Darby finished.

  Jennifer shifted in her seat and chewed on the nail of her pointer finger for a moment. “The circumstances are completely different.”

  “Yeah,” Darby said, “I didn’t realize I was hurting someone. You did it on purpose. To retaliate. Rather than just telling me, you threw me under a big ol’ bus to get even. That doesn’t make you better than me.”

  “I never said I was,” Jennifer said softly. Leaning forward, she clutched her hands together on the table and stared at them for a few seconds. “For the first day or so, it was funny to see what people were saying to you—about you. But then it started feeling like…”

  “Like you were the bully instead of the geek?”

  “Yeah,” she said on a breath. She glanced at Darby with what appeared to be shame in her eyes. “I didn’t like that feeling. I didn’t want to be that person. I remember being on the receiving end of comments like that, and I didn’t want to be the reason someone was going through that—even you.”

  Darby nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about high school a lot. How mean the kids could be. How funny they thought it was to pick on the defenseless.”

  “You’re right, we were both wrong to do what we did.”

  “Yeah. So…what do we do about it?”

  When their waitress returned, Jennifer sighed. “Have a drink?”

  Darby nodded and then ordered another margarita, and since she’d already eaten lunch, she asked for sopapillas—her favorite dessert.

  Twelve

  Though their friendiversary dinner didn’t end up being the big fancy event Darby had hoped it would be, she wouldn’t change a single minute of it. She, Jade, and Taylor had crowded into Darby’s cabin and stumbled around one another as they prepared dinner with Johnny Cash singing quietly from the record player.

  As always, Taylor manned the grill
, Jade tossed together some sides, and Darby mixed drinks and set the table. They sat and ate, as they would any other night. Darby’s heart was much lighter as they laughed and shared stories. The cloud that had been hovering over her for weeks was fading. This night, however, when the meal ended, Darby made them sit and wait while she presented them with their surprises.

  First, she pulled from the freezer an ice cream cake that she’d brought from Harper’s earlier in the day. Across the layers of various flavored ice cream, written in fancy font with red icing, were the words “Happy Friendiversary, Jadartay!”

  “What the hell does that say?” Taylor asked as Jade creased her brow.

  “Jadartay,” Darby said with a laugh. “Come on. That’s our names meshed together like they do for Hollywood couples. Please don’t tell me you’ve never heard of people doing that, Taylor. I couldn’t live with you if you’d never heard of couple nicknames.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard of it. For movie stars.” Taylor laughed.

  Jade shrugged. “It’s kinda cute. That was clever, Darby.”

  “Thank you,” she said and grabbed a knife. However, when she tried to cut the cake, it was too hard. They laughed at the way Darby struggled.

  Taylor shooed her away, insisting she could cut through the frozen layers. Her efforts were as futile as Darby’s had been.

  “Okay,” Taylor said, “this beast has to thaw for a few minutes before we dig in.”

  “That’s okay,” Darby sang out, “because…”

  “Uh-oh,” Jade muttered, causing Taylor to giggle.

  “Do not be rude, ladies.” Darby pulled out three small gift bags from a cabinet and dangled them as she walked back to the table. “I got us pressies!”

  “No,” Taylor groaned. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You bought the steaks,” Jade reminded her. “I’m the one who didn’t do anything.”

  “You made a salad, sweetie,” Darby said and laughed when Jade rolled her eyes. “Okay, I got these because you two have been my anchors the last couple of weeks. My life was falling apart, and you could have walked away and let me face it alone, but you didn’t.”

  “Because we love you,” Jade said.

  Darby put a bag in front of each of her friends and then sat with one in front of her. “On the count of three, okay? One…”

  “Three,” Taylor and Jade said at the same time, just like they did when they raced across the lake.

  This was a race Darby could actually take part in, though. She giggled as they all tore into their bags and pulled out the little boxes. Jade was the first to lift the top off, but Taylor was right behind. Darby had stopped digging because she knew what was inside. She was more interested in seeing their reactions to make sure they loved her gifts. She was pretty sure Jade would, but Taylor was iffy.

  Jade gasped and put her hand to her chest as she looked at Darby. “Oh, honey, this is adorable.”

  “This is cool, Darbs. Thanks.” Though she lacked the enthusiasm Jade shared, Darby saw how touched she was. She was quiet and thoughtful, and her comment was soft rather than sarcastic. Darby couldn’t have asked for a better reaction.

  Jade lifted the necklace from the box in her hand and let it hang so she could admire the three entwined hearts. They were small because Darby knew Taylor would never wear something flashy, but they said so much about how she felt about her two best friends. They were tied together, forever, in a way she’d never been tied to anyone before, and she hoped they felt the bond as strongly as she did. She was certain they did, but voicing it made her feel insecure.

  “It might be a little overly sentimental,” Darby said softly, “but when I saw these, I thought of us. Three hearts, locked together.”

  “I love it,” Jade stated and went to work on putting the necklace on.

  Darby glanced at Taylor to gauge her response.

  Taylor smiled. “I love it too,” she said. “Thank you.” She smiled and then put hers on as well. She ran her fingers over the silver chain and small trio of hearts. “I haven’t worn a necklace since I was like…twelve.”

  “Well,” Darby stated, opening her box, “you’re never allowed to take this one off. It’s a forever necklace for forever friendship.”

  Taylor touched the hearts and then stood up. “Okay, this is getting too heavy. I’m taking a chainsaw to this damn cake.”

  While Taylor attacked the cake, alternating between cursing and muttering to herself, Jade and Darby cleaned up dinner. As they did, Darby couldn’t help but chuckle as she recalled the first time she had met Jade. Darby had owned the cabin next door and used it as a rental. Jade had booked the place for a week. However, as Darby had been walking over to greet her, she’d watched the porch banister give way and Jade flew through the air, landing face-first in the patchy grass. Luckily, Jade hadn’t been seriously hurt.

  “I can’t believe it’s been one year since I almost killed you, Jade,” Darby said.

  “Good thing I’m resilient,” Jade told her with a smile.

  “I’ll have to try harder next time,” Darby teased with a wink before blowing her friend a kiss.

  Laughter filled the cabin again, and Darby had never been so happy to hear a sound. At one point, when everything felt like it was falling apart and the old feeling of not belonging threatened to consume her, she thought she might lose this. She had actually thought that they wouldn’t want to be her friends any longer and would find a way to remove her from their group.

  What a foolish thing. They were family in all the ways that really mattered. They couldn’t walk away from one another, and they had proven time and time again that they wouldn’t turn their backs on one another. Her fears had been insecurities pulling at her, but her friends had helped her overcome them.

  These women had become part of Darby’s heart and soul. Their friendship was the gravity that kept her grounded…as grounded as she could be. She could finally put her fears to rest—this was the one place in the world where she didn’t have to question if she belonged.

  Jade’s smile faltered as she looked at Darby. “Hey,” she said with concern in her voice, “what’s wrong?”

  Darby blinked and then forced her emotions back as she grinned. “Nothing.”

  “Darby?” Taylor pressed.

  “I’m really glad I have you guys. I mean it when I say you got me through this stuff with Un-Do and having to step back and reassess my actions. I wouldn’t have made it through without you. I want you to know, I have learned some things in the last two weeks. The biggest one being that…” She swallowed before saying, “I think I should see a doctor about my depression. I always find ways to avoid dealing with it, but I hit some pretty scary lows over the last couple of weeks. I don’t want to feel like that. I have to learn how to cope better with the things life throws at me. Avoidance isn’t healthy, but that’s always been my go-to. I have to find better ways to get through tough times.”

  “No,” Jade said tenderly, “it isn’t. I’m glad you see that and are willing to take the steps to get help. We’re here if you need anything.”

  Taylor nodded her agreement. Once again, the topic was probably getting into territory that was a bit too icky for her to take part in, but Darby appreciated her keeping that to herself. Admitting she needed help was challenging enough. Getting teased, even good-naturedly, would have stung.

  “Good for you,” Taylor said.

  Darby inhaled deeply. She hadn’t realized she was concerned about how they would respond until the wave of relief washed over her. She didn’t know why she’d been so worried. If anyone would support her struggles with mental health, it would be her best friends. Even so, the fear she’d felt was as real as any other sensation that had overcome in her the last couple of weeks.

  Shaking her head to free her brain from any negativity that was trying to take hold, she announced it was time to make margaritas and get some of that cake she’d bought, effectively ending any further discussion of the things that had
been a constant point of conversation lately.

  Darby smiled as she swayed her hips to the old tune coming from her speakers. She cut limes and squeezed them for freshly made margaritas while Jade made herself cranberry juice, straight with ice. While the blender was going, Taylor finally managed to cut three slices of cake from the block of ice cream on the counter.

  “I’m not sure how margaritas are going to go with that cake,” Jade muttered.

  “Margaritas go with everything,” Darby justified.

  “Probably not chocolate ice cream,” Taylor countered. She served them up on plates and then turned toward the living room, carefully balancing all three plates and spoons.

  They hadn’t had movie night in a few weeks, and Darby was so excited to get back to the tradition. Sitting on the couch, overeating, and having random conversations was the best.

  She’d picked a cheesy B movie with a nerd turned superhero. Though Darby thought the plot was somewhat fitting considering she’d been such a weakling and finally managed to stand on her own, Taylor was going to hate every minute of the bad movie. That, however, was part of the fun for Darby when she picked movies. The more dramatic the reaction she could get from Taylor, the better. Their good-hearted tormenting of one another was one of the best parts of their friendship. They were like sisters who could pick at one another but never doubt their bond, even though they hadn’t grown up together.

  Taylor always got her revenge, though. As much as Taylor hated bad movies, Darby hated slasher films, and Taylor always chose one of those when it was her turn to pick. If Darby never had to see another witless camper get decapitated with a machete ever again, it would still be too soon.

  However, she welcomed horror movies with open arms over the brainiac biopics and mushy romantic comedies that Jade liked. Though they never could agree on which genre of film to watch, movie night was the perfect way to wrap up their friendiversary celebration, so whatever was flashing across the screen didn’t matter, not in the long run.