Free Scattered Ashes by Maria Rachel Hooley

intervention, remember?”
    Shaking her head, Nicole wondered exactly what Sarah was intervening her from that wouldn’t still be there when she returned.  If Sarah thought Jordan were going to go away like a flu bug or something, Nicole seriously doubted it--not that she knew why, exactly.  It was more of a hunch.
    “Umm, I’m sorry, Ms. Middleton, but we don’t show any record of your reservation.  Did you call or perhaps make the reservation online?”
    “Yes, I did it online,” Sarah snapped, and when she caught sight of Nicole’s huge grin, she smacked her best friend.  “This isn’t funny.”
    “Sure it is.  You couldn’t plan your way out of a wet paper bag, and you know it.”
    “Could you double-check that, please?” Sarah asked, beaming a huge smile.
    “Of course.”  Amy tapped a few more keys as the door opened and admitted a family of four, obviously on vacation by the dad’s loud Hawaiian shirt.  Amy scrolled through a couple of screens and shook her head again.  “No, I still don’t see any reservations.  I’m sorry.”
    Sarah tapped her credit card against the counter as she frowned in concentration, trying to come up with a contingency plan.  “Do you have any available rooms?”
    “No, I’m sorry.  There’s a Bon Jovi concert tonight, and we’re completely full.”
    “Just my luck,” Sarah muttered as they turned and headed out the door.
    “So now what do we do?”   Nicole sat in the passenger seat while Sarah slid behind the wheel. 
    “We troll for a hotel.  There’s got to be one here somewhere.”
    Of course, after driving around most of the metro area, they quickly realized that not only was there a massive rock concert in town but also that tourism was booming.  No rooms were available, and no amount of cursing on Sarah’s part was going to change that.
    Together, they sat in the convertible, mulling over their options.  “Maybe we should just drive home,” Nicole finally suggested, more than dreading another two hours in the car.  She could already feel her muscles stiffening.
    “No!” Sarah snapped.  “We both need a break, and we're not turning around and driving back so you can bury your nose in a textbook and I can go stir crazy in the apartment.  We came here to have fun, and by God, that's what we're going to do, no matter what it takes!”
      Sarah saw the Bricktown area just ahead and slid into a parking spot someone else had just eyed and would have pulled into had traffic not stopped him.  As they got out, they both heard the mad honking of a horn, and the driver, a teenage male, flipped them off.
    “I’d say he was just a little ticked,” Nicole muttered and looked at her best friend, who’s perkiness had slowly diminished, like a balloon with a slow leak.  “So what are we doing now?”
    “Going to walk around the canal.  It’s beautiful over there.”
    “That doesn’t solve the hotel issue,” Nicole said, shaking her head.  “We need to find a place to stay.”
    “And we will--right after we walk out some of the kinks in my butt.”  She grabbed Nicole’s arm and dragged her toward the canal.  Although she figured the walkways would be packed, there weren’t many people out; probably, most of them were getting ready for the Bon Jovi concert so it was kind of nice to stroll around without worrying about running into people. 
    It seemed that stretching Sarah’s legs had done wonders for her perkiness, because before, long she was chatting about everything under the sun, and Nicole did what she always did, pretended to listen but really focused on the world around her.  That was when she spotted him.
    He wore a forest green Henley and Bermuda shorts.  The sunlight toyed with his hair, casting a red glow on some of the strands as he headed toward a deli.  At first when Nicole saw him, her stomach knotted, and her feet stalled.  She felt like even breathing was tough.  Then, as she realized she was about to lose