June, Reimagined (71)

“Yeah, David,” Angus said.

“That’s right, Uncle Angus,” David said simultaneously.

“Wheesht,” Amelia said. “What I have to say is important.” At Amelia’s serious tone, the table grew oddly silent. June sat up straighter. Amelia actually looked nervous. No one moved. “We’re selling the inn.”

A heaviness settled on the group.

“Plot twist,” Eva said, but there was no enthusiasm in her voice.

“I’ve wanted to sell for ages,” Amelia explained. “I’m no innkeeper, you lads know that.”

“What changed?” June asked.

“Lennox, actually. It was his decision.” Amelia wouldn’t meet June’s eye, as if she were hiding something.

But June knew Lennox’s secret. Anything between them was officially over. As if June needed a more definitive ending, her lease was literally up.

“What made him change his mind?” David asked.

Amelia swirled her beer around in its pint glass. “The inn was my parents’ dream, not ours. We’re both ready to let it go and move on.”

“What will you do?” Eva asked.

Amelia’s face brightened. “I’m going to Thailand. Lennox bought me the ticket.”

“Well, I’m coming with you,” Angus announced. He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his chest. “Where you go, I go, Amie.”

Amelia yanked her hand away. “Like hell you are.”

Eva perked up, eyes alight. “Why don’t we all go?” Everyone looked as if Eva had just spoken in tongues. “Come on, lads. We’re all about to be homeless anyway. Why not? This is exactly what we need.”

“Plot twist,” David said and took a swig of his beer.

“It’ll be brilliant,” Eva said. “The beaches, the temples—”

“The ping-pong shows,” Angus added.

“I hear the prisons are quite lovely in Thailand,” David said, patting Angus’s back. “Do write us when you get there.”

“What do you say?” Eva asked, raising her beer.

“I’m in.” Angus lifted his drink. “You jump, I jump, Amie. Remember?”

Amelia feigned disgust. “Don’t use Titanic on me.” She slowly raised her glass and shrugged. “But why not? I’ve put up with you lot this long.”

David was next. “‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.’ It’s not like I’m performing bloody Shakespeare at the museum. I doubt they’ll miss me.”

Eva looked at June. “That leaves you, Yank.”

The faces of her enthusiastic friends weighed on June. Their raised glasses. How could she tell them that she had already reserved a ticket home?

“How ’bout another round?” June stood quickly and made her way to the bar. She tried not to cry. As if the news about the inn wasn’t hard enough, knowing that Lennox was selling it to continue his life with Isobel was gutting. And while Thailand sounded incredible, it was out of the question. June was days away from losing her scholarship, her place at Stratford, her life in the States.

She ordered beers and was waiting for them when Amelia approached the bar. “Please, no more plot twists,” she said to Amelia. “I can’t take another one tonight.”

Amelia raised her hands in surrender. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Amelia nervously fidgeted with her hair. “That things didn’t work out . . . in Scotland.”

The undertone of the apology was obvious. June didn’t want to talk about it. Amelia tucked her hair behind her ear, and a familiar sight caught June’s eye.

“Your earrings.” She pointed at the hummingbirds.

Amelia lovingly touched her earlobes. “They were my mum’s favorite. I thought they were lost, but Lennox found them, miraculously.”

No wonder Lennox had been so protective, months ago, when June had found the earring caught in the blanket. And she had been such a petulant child that day.

“He’s changed, you know,” Amelia said. “Doing things I never thought he’d do. I thought maybe . . .” She grabbed the tray of beers. “I guess we’re all moving on, right?”

Amelia made her way back to the table. June lingered at the bar, unsure how she could go back and let her friends down. But she didn’t have a choice.

Eva and David approached June.

“We know what you’re thinking,” Eva professed.

“Not this again,” June sighed.

“You’ve hit the end of your story,” David said. “The bad guys are closing in and you’re done for.”

“But David and I have been discussing this,” Eva said before June could explain, “and we think you’re wrong. We think this is the inciting incident.”

“What does that even mean?” June asked.

“It’s a life-changing moment that every character has at the beginning of a story,” David said. “Frodo learns he has the One Ring. Luke discovers Princess Leia’s message to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Hamlet learns his father was killed by Claudius.”

“Romeo meets Juliet,” Eva offered.

“The character has to choose,” David continued. “Do I return to the status quo, or do I venture on a new path? ‘To be or not to be—that is the question.’”