Page 1 of Adore Her
1CORA
“Are you sure about this, Jude?” I ask, looking over at my brother, who’s driving with one lazy hand on the steering wheel. He just picked me up from my apartment and I need to voice my concern again before we get too far into the drive. I still have strong hesitations about crashing his guys’ weekend. “I’m worried your friends are going to be really annoyed when they see me. I mean,Isure would be annoyed if I planned a girls’ weekend and one of my friends brought her little brother along.”
“Don’t worry about them,” says Jude, shrugging. “They’ll get over it. And you need this, Cor. You need itbad.”
He’s right about that last part. This week has officially been The Crappiest Week Ever. First, I found out that the clothing store I work at is permanently closing its doors. The next day, I received a notice from my landlord that my rent is going up by several hundred dollars in just a few weeks.
The cherry on top? My one and only dating profile was hacked, and when I opened up the app, my inbox was flooded with vulgar messages and unsolicited dick picks.
Yep. Every girl’s dream.
When I told my brother about all the lovely things that happened this week, I just needed to vent. I didn’t expect him to do anything. I definitely didn’t expect him to insist that I join him on his long weekend getaway. The weekend trip was planned for him and his three closest friends, after all. It was aguys’weekend. There was no postscript saying,and feel free to bring along your little sister!
But Jude convinced me to come. He argued that the worst thing I could do in my situation was sit at home and feel bad about what life had just chucked at me. He said what I needed was a change of scenery. Fresh air. Wide open spaces. Then he showed me photos of the rental cabin, which waswaynicer than I was picturing, and even had a private rocky beach that overlooked a big beautiful lake—and, well, I caved.
Now here I was, buckled into the passenger seat of his SUV, wondering if I’d made a big mistake. Fresh air and luxury cabin aside, did I really want to spend the next few days in the company of four men? I’d never met these friends of Jude’s, but if they were anything like him, they were self-proclaimed manly men who loved to show off how much money they had and make it known whenever they got laid.
I loved my brother dearly, but he could be kind of an asshole, too.
I flip down the sun visor above my head, swipe clean the mirror with the sleeve of my sweater, and frown at my cropped reflection. I’ve got dark circles under my eyes from the lack of sleep this week and my skin is pale and blotchy.
Okay. Fine. I really do need this weekend getaway. I’ll just do my own thing and not worry about the guys.
I lean forward to dig through my bag and pull out a small makeup pouch. As I’m dabbing on concealer, I hear my brother snort a laugh.
“You don’t need to get dolled up, Cor.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not. I’m just trying to look reasonably presentable.”
“Well, don’t do too much.”
“Why?” I smirk at him. “You afraid your friends will find me distracting?”
“Just a waste of makeup, that’s all.”
“Screw you, Jude. I’m going to put onmoremakeup now, just because you said that.” I grab a tube of lipstick and mascara out of my makeup pouch. “Good luck keeping me out of your friends’ fantasies tonight.”
“Jesus, Cor. Don’t say stuff like that.” Jude’s eyebrows furrow as he squints out at the road.
Ha.Thatsure pissed him off.
“Chill out,” I say. “I was just kidding.”
“It wasn’t funny.” He shoots an overprotective glance in my direction. “What the hell, Cor? You’re still putting that shit on your face?”
“It’s called lipstick,” I say, swiping it across my bottom lip. Damn. I forgot how much I like this shade of red. “And for your information, dear brother, I’m not putting it on for your man friends. I’m putting it on for myself. It’s fun, and it makes me feel good.”
Jude’s response is an unintelligible grumble of words. I’m sure he wishes he could shove a tissue into my hands and tell me to wipe my face clean, but he knows he doesn’t actually have that kind of authority over me. He might be ten years older than me, but I’m a grown-ass twenty-four-year-old woman. I’m going to do what I want, no matter what he or anyone else thinks.
I smile at myself in the mirror, already feeling so much better. It’s not just the makeup that has lifted my spirits. The verbal sparring I’ve just had with Jude has reminded me of how strong and stubborn I can be. My life might be falling apart right now, but I’m more than capable of getting through this. I have no doubt that I’ll be able to find a new job—no, screw that, I’ll find abetterjob—and a better apartment in no time. I’ll create a fresh new dating profile, too. And this time it’ll work. This time, I’ll finally meet the man of my dreams.
But first I’m going to unwind like nobody’s business. I’m going to breathe in that fresh lakeside air, luxuriate in the cabin’s amenities, and sleep in to my heart’s content. I can just picture it now: tomorrow morning, I’m going to wake up to the sun spilling into the cabin and the sweet twitter of birdsong outside the window.
This weekend is going to be a magnificent one.
2MADDOX
“What’s up, motherfuckers?” Kurt yells as he bursts into the rental cabin. Graham and I are in the kitchen on the opposite side of the cabin, drinking beers as we catch up, and our buddy’s obnoxious greeting cuts our current conversation short.