Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) by Sadie Grubor

nerve he had to ask this of me, how right he was
about me needing the money and Celia being so blasé about the situation. It all
infuriated me even more. I decided to call Phoebe.
    "Hey doll, what’s up?"
    "Oh, just wait till you hear
this!" I groaned.
    "Ooohh…hold on…let me grab some
Twizzlers."
    There came a rustling of clothing and
drawers opening then closing.
    "Okay, Go." She said,
excitedly.
    "You remember Aidan, right?"
    "Mister marry me and have my babies?
Yeah." She started to get a familiar tone in her voice.
    "Oh, no, no, no, it’s not
that!" Before she got it in her head that we were hooking up.
    "Damn," she pouted.
    "What the hell, Phoebe?"
    "Well," she whined, "I
wanted to hear details about his man candy." She huffed. "Just from
sitting and looking him over, thoroughly , I can only imagine what
his—"
    "Stop!" I couldn’t take
anymore, not right now. I launched into the story of Aidan in my kitchen and
then him showing up at the club. Phoebe didn’t say anything for awhile and I
was starting to get angry. "Hello?"
    "I’m here," she said flatly.
    "I swear, if you agree with Celia I'm
going to lose my fucking mind." I threw myself down on my bed. The soft
light blue cotton blanket and pillows engulfed me.
    "Well, honestly, she has a point
about the benefits; however, before you go all bitch-face on me, I think it’s
shitty he would assume just because of your da…your situation that he could buy
you like that," she huffed. "Plus, who is he to make you his act of
desperation?"
    Finally! Someone understood!
    "Thank you!" I breathed out in
relief. "Then, to top it all off, Celia’s comments keep playing around in my
head and I can’t seem to get them—"
    "That’s because she’s right,"
Phoebe blurted.
    "What the—?"
    "Lilli, I said he was shitty for it,
yes, but that doesn’t make Celia wrong. It would be like the best thing to be
able to take care of everything for your dad and college without having to work
four million jobs and dropping out."
    "Who told you that I was
drop…Dixon," I growled.
    "Oh, hell, Lilli, do you think
Dixon doesn’t talk to me about everything? Please. We’ve been friends for
years. Don’t act like it’s a surprise." She said nonchalantly. "I am
surprised that he didn’t call me and tell me about this though, since you took
forever," she huffed.
    "Well I’m sorry I couldn’t
entertain you sooner, asshole."
    "Hmmm…I don’t know what you want me
to say Lilli. This is your decision but I think you should think about it all
before you make a choice. Don’t do anything you will hate yourself for later.
Make this decision about you and not about someone else because then you will
regret it and resent that person, even if you have good intentions when you do
it."
    I sighed, loudly. "I’m not for
sale, Phoebe."
    "Sounds like you know what you want
to do then," she laughed weakly. "Can we talk about man candy
now…cause Oscar—"
    "Phoebe! I have to see him here
with Dixon. I don’t want to hear about his man candy," I made fake
disgusted gagging noises.
    "Oh, if you were sucking on his man
candy you would be gagging for real," she blurted out quickly.
    "Good bye, Phoebe!" Hitting
the end call button before she could say anything, I dropped it to the bed.
    Why are all of my friends insane? Or is
it me?
    I headed out to the kitchen and pulled
out some Pillsbury already made chocolate chip cookie dough. I spooned the
dough onto the cookie tray—one for the tray, one for my mouth, one for the
tray, one for my mouth.
    Once they were in the oven, I plugged in
my IPod and decided that cleaning will help me work off some of the tension. Getting
out the cleaning supplies, I started with the counters then moved on to furniture.
The Swiffer became my microphone and dance partner. I spun around with the
Swiffer on the floor and sang out the words as Fergie sang them to me. " Shopping
for labels, shopping for love —" The oven beep interrupted my
performance.