Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [52]
“Probably. So whadya say? You want to brave the mountain? I promise not to rock the ski lift,” he said, holding up his right hand.
Isabella was tired and cold and she didn’t really feel like skiing and was still terrified of the actual ride on the ski lift, but it seemed ridiculous to sit here and wait and do nothing while Harrison got the car. How bad could it be?
“Are you up for it?” he asked. He looked hopeful.
“Yeah,” she said. “Okay, let’s do it.”
Bridget Carlson was the kind of friend you couldn’t get rid of. You could try—you could ignore her e-mails, let her phone calls go to voice mail, move to a different city, let her birthday pass unnoticed, take her number out of your cell phone—but she would find you. She was persistent, if nothing else. She tracked down new addresses, new phone numbers, new e-mails, and she would claw her way back into contact with you, until you had no choice but to acknowledge her.
This was how Cate found herself, against all better judgment, agreeing to have lunch with her. For weeks, Bridget had been leaving messages on her voice mail. “Caitlin, it’s me,” the messages said. “I’m coming to New York and we are meeting up if it’s the last thing we do. It’s been too long.” The messages almost sounded like threats. They could, at the very least, be perceived as mild harassment. Cate’s cell phone had a message almost every day, and then somehow Bridget found Cate’s work number and started calling her there too.
“Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Isabella asked her. Cate was peering at the caller ID, letting it ring and ring.
“It’s this girl from college,” Cate said. “She won’t leave me alone.”
“Is she a friend?” Isabella asked.
“Not really,” Cate said. “Sort of, I guess. But no, not really. I just need to wait until her trip is over and then I’ll call her back.”
And then one day, the caller ID said “Unavailable” and Cate picked up. “Gotcha,” Bridget said on the other end. “Caitlin Johnson, you are one hard person to get a hold of. You have got to meet me for lunch!” Cate was so surprised that she just said, “Okay.”
“I have to meet someone for lunch,” Cate told Isabella.
“Snowy is going to kill you,” Isabella said.
Cate considered this. Snowy had spent the better part of the morning screaming at Cate. “Three years!” she had yelled. “Three years you’ve worked here and you don’t know how to do anything!” Yes, Snowy would probably kill her.
“I have to,” Cate said. “I already promised.”
“Is this the stalker?” Isabella asked. She squinted as if trying to understand.
“Yeah, but I just need to get it over with.”
“It’s your funeral,” Isabella said. “We have a meeting at three, don’t forget.”
“I won’t,” Cate said. She grabbed her bag and headed toward the door. “I’ll be back in an hour,” she called over her shoulder.
Cate met Bridget the first day of college, when Bridget knocked on her door during orientation. “Hello,” she called. “Caitlin or Maya, are you in there?” Cate was alone in her room, unpacking underwear into her dresser. Before she could answer the door, the knob turned and Bridget walked right in. “Hi,” she said. “I’m just going up and down the hall introducing myself to people. All the names are on the doors, so it’s totally easy. Are you Caitlin or Maya?”
“Caitlin,” she said. “But everyone calls me Cate.”
Bridget jumped on Cate’s bed and sprawled out, leaning against her pillows and putting her arms above her head. “I love the name Caitlin,” she said. “I’m totally going to call you Caitlin.”
Bridget was short, with a big chest and a raspy voice that made it sound like she’d been at a great party the night before. She was bossy and happy. From the start, she was kind of annoying, but Cate was so lonely those first few days that she would have sold her soul for someone to walk to the dining hall with. They were inseparable for the first week of college, but as the year went on, they both met other friends, and their paths slowly went separate ways. Bridget was always there, of course. They’d get together every once in a