Chapter 1: Chapter 1

“I would say I’m shocked, but I’m actually not surprised at all,” my best friend, Winnie, tells me, her eyes narrowed on me from across the small café table.

My nose scrunches as I try to decide if I’m offended by her comment. “Listen. I know I don’t have the best history with jobs, but that one was even more terrible than most. My boss was pushing sixty and kept asking me to do private work at his house.” I take a long drink of my iced coffee, remembering the creepy looks he was always giving me. “Private work at his house can’t be good, Winnie.”

She shrugs, nodding as she realizes I have a point. “I could always see if we could get you a job at Bishop-Moore.” Her voice is sweet, and I know she’s just trying to be nice by offering a job at the hotel dynasty she runs with her husband, Archer Moore, but working another job that I don’t have a passion for is the last thing I want to do.

With a groan, I sit back in the padded chair of the fancy restaurant she’d invited me to. “That’s nice of you, Win, but I think I need to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life instead of just jumping from one job to the next.” I sigh, wishing that all of my friends didn’t feel the need to offer me jobs.

“Maybe you just need to take a break for a moment. You could take a step back and decide what you want to do—think of it like a gap year. Yours would just be a little later than most.”

I shake my head. I know she means well because there isn’t a mean bone in Winnie’s body. She’s probably the sweetest person I’ve ever met, but her words sting a little because I’m tired of being the only one in my friend group who has no idea what they’re doing with their life. Winnie married Archer, and the two of them have created an empire together. Margo married Beckham Sinclair, the two of them becoming a power couple themselves with him running a cybersecurity empire and her becoming one of the most sought-after artists. And then there’s Camden, who is like a brother to me, but even he keeps offering me jobs at his art galleries when I should never be trusted with expensive art. Even Camden’s girlfriend, Pippa, who has become one of my best friends, has tried to convince me to move to Colorado and work at her bakery with her.

“I feel like my entire life after college has been a gap year. I followed you and Margo to California. I followed you both back to New York. All I do is follow.” I try not to let the sadness seep through the tone of my voice, but I’m twenty-five and lost. I don’t want to feel like I’m pitiful, but it’s hard not to when everyone has their lives completely figured out. I meet her eyes as I try to appear more confident than I feel. “I have no idea what to do with my life now that following you isn’t an option.”

Winnie thinks over my words for a minute, just staring at me with a look that I’m all too familiar with. She’s probably the only person in the world whom I can sit in comfortable silence with. I know when she’s ready to talk, she will; it might just take a moment.

Finally, she clears her throat as she neatly runs her hand over the white tablecloth of the table. “Why don’t you get away? Travel somewhere? You’ve always loved posting about our girls’ trips. You could make a blog about finding yourself.”

I scoff, my eyes wide as I look at her. “One, blogs don’t exist anymore, and two, I’m not starting a blog founded on me having no idea what to do with my life. That seems pathetic.”

She waves her hand in the air, completely undeterred by me shutting her idea down completely. “Then forget about blogging and get away for a little bit. Find yourself…and maybe in doing that, you’ll find what you want to do. I know it’s cheesy, but life can be a little cheesy sometimes, Emma. If you want, you can stay at our Hamptons house. It’s already been two months since we closed, but a lot of the things I ordered were on backorder and are only now arriving. You could do me a favor and stay there and sign for the deliveries.”

“Winnie, you can hire anyone to do that. You don’t have to offer it to me because you feel bad for me.”

She shakes her head. “I’m not hiring you to do anything. It isn’t a job. It’s a free place to stay while you figure out your next steps.”

I stare at my best friend, wondering if I should take her up on her offer or not. Now that I’ve quit another job, I don’t have any obligations in New York right now. I could go wherever I wanted. The Hamptons doesn’t sound so bad. We’ve been a few times as a friend group, and it was a blast. I’m sure going during summer is even more fun because it’s the busy season.

“I can tell you want to say yes,” Winnie adds, a smile forming on her lips because she knows she’s right.

I roll my eyes, leaning forward and putting my elbows on the table. “It seems irresponsible of me to say yes. Shouldn’t I be interviewing for a new job or something? Isn’t that what adults do?”

It’s Winnie’s turn to roll her eyes—something I don’t see her do often. “Screw being an adult, Em. It’s one summer and a chance to figure yourself out. Prioritizing yourself might be one of the most adult things you’ve ever done.”

I laugh, raising an eyebrow at her. “Did getting married make you a poet? Damn, Winnie, that was deep.”

She throws a linen napkin at me, her cheeks getting red with embarrassment. “I’m just trying to make a point. You’re still young—and seriously hot—you have so much time to discover what you want to do with your life. Maybe a summer in the Hamptons will change your life in ways you aren’t expecting.”

I’m quiet for a moment, really thinking her words through. I hope she’s right. I’ve always been the fun, single friend who lived life day to day. But I’m ready to start making plans—I want to settle down and find what I want to do with the rest of my life.

The idea of forever has always been scary for me, but now as everyone around me has found their own version of it, I realize I might want that too. Maybe a couple of months in the Hamptons will be exactly what I need.