On the Rocks Read Online Free PDF Page B

something. Maybe looking for assassins wasn’t as crazy as it seemed: maybe this was like the mob, and the people who came to kill you were pretending to be your friends. I stared at her, trying to read her mind before she said anything. Grace had no poker face whatsoever.
    “What?” I asked as soon as I hugged her hello. “What are you going to do to me?”
    “Why do you think I’m going to do something to you? I’m not the enemy, Abby, remember? I want to help you.”
    “I don’t need help,” I lied.
    “I can count on one hand the number of times you’ve left your house in the last six months for anything other than work, and you just entered Ben and Jerry’s ‘Name a New Ice Cream’ contest with a flavor called Flabby Abby. You definitely need help,” she said as she smoothed her long auburn hair behind her ears.
    “I thought it would be cool to name the new ice cream! I know I’ve been in a bit of a funk, but you’ll be happy to know that I went for a mini-run this morning. I’m trying to get back into an exercise routine. And for the record, I tried the frozen yogurt, but it doesn’t taste the same. People tell you it does, but it doesn’t.”
    “This has nothing to do with your weight. You’d look great at any size.”
    “Thanks. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Why am I here, Grace? Seriously. I thought we were going shopping.” I didn’t mean to sound impatient, but I felt like I was being trapped in some kind of half-assed therapy session.
    “I’ve decided you need an intervention. I’m afraid I’m going to come over one day and find you hanging by a bridal veil from your shower rod. I’m not letting you wallow anymore. It’s not healthy.”
    “Neither is housing a pint of ice cream every day, but I’m still doing that.”
    “Exactly. I want the old Abby back. I don’t like this new antisocial, depressed version. If you keep this up, you won’t need clothespins to hold up that Vera Wang sample size,” she joked, the way only a best friend can.
    “In case you forgot, I’m no longer in need of Vera. We had a falling-out. I don’t plan on talking to her or her giant dresses ever again.”
    “I haven’t forgotten, but it’s time you get over it. You’re not the first person on earth to have her engagement broken off.”
    I stared at the sidewalk and let my shoulders slump forward. “I don’t know how,” I whispered. “I don’t know how to pull myself out of this.”
    It’s funny: you don’t realize that you’re losing yourself until the day you wake up and look in the mirror and don’t recognize the person staring back at you. If you didn’t even realize it was happening, how can you possibly know how to stop it?
    She removed her hands from her pockets and firmly grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face her. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it’s time you at least tried. You can’t beat yourself up like this anymore. I love you too much to let you do this to yourself.”
    “And how do you propose I do that? Are you going to try to put me in an ice cream eaters anonymous meeting? I already looked online. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find one in the greater Boston area.” I was getting really tired of people just telling me to pull it together, to move on, to get over it. What the hell did they know? Last time I checked, these people weren’t attacked by social media in a bridal salon. I was pretty sure if I asked people on the streets of Boston for a show of hands for who had been through a similar experience, I’d be the only one with my hand up. It was fitting, really. I was living one of the nursery rhymes I sang to the kids in my class every year.
    The cheese stands alone.
    “Funny you should ask. I have a proposition for you,” Grace said.
    “I’m listening,” I said. And I was. I was planning to listen to whatever she had to say, politely say no, and go home to my Pretty in Pink DVD and a canister of Pringles.
    “Hear me out before you