A/N: Not much to say other than Zoe and Wade are super important always.
In an episode of Pretty Little Liars that Zoe had watched completely by accident, one of the characters said that hope breeds eternal misery. At the time Zoe had rolled her eyes. What did that high school girl know about anything? But after a week in New York, she felt a sort of kinship with the character. Hope did breed misery. Getting your hopes up for anything was pointless.
For all the planning she and her friends had done on Facebook, Zoe had spent Monday through Thursday almost completely on her own. All of her friends in New York had to work during the week, though she did manage to meet up with Gigi once on her lunch break. Zoe had spent the extra time doing everything in her power to secure an internship at the hospital. The first thing she did Monday was go down to the hospital to talk to anyone who would listen to her, which didn't go well. Apparently even though her father had worked there they didn't accept last-minute interns. Their intern program was completely full and had been for months.
So things hadn't gotten off to a good start. Zoe spent most of the week watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix (it was surprisingly enticing). She was also completely glued to her cell phone, waiting for the moments when Wade would text her. The texts were always friendly, but Zoe couldn't tell if they were on the flirty side of friendly or not. Normally she would ask Gigi for her opinion, but it seemed like every time she tried to text Gigi she was in a meeting or headed to a meeting. It reminded Zoe of the summers in elementary school when all her friends went off to different camps and she stayed at home. She had hated the feeling of waiting for her friends to come home then and the feeling wasn't much better now.
Luckily, Zoe had plans on Friday night. She and Gigi were going to their friend's engagement party. Christina had lived on their dorm floor freshman year and they had all remained friends, although Gigi was a lot closer with her than Zoe was. Zoe had never met Christina's fiancé, but from what she could glean from Facebook he was an investment banker and had been in a fraternity in college. When he wasn't wearing a suit he was wearing khakis, at least in the pictures Zoe had seen. He was attractive in the way that tall men with dark hair were usually attractive. Zoe thought he seemed kind of boring, but Christina was happy.
"Christina is so lucky," Gigi said in the cab on the way to the party. She was using the camera on her phone to touch up her lipstick, which was a vampy shade of red. Zoe thought it seemed out of place for summer, but she probably wasn't as up on the fashion trends as she should have been. "Do you know how hard it is to find a guy like Eric? They're all so afraid of commitment.."
"What about the last guy you dated?" Zoe asked. "I thought you said he was crazy about you." It seemed slightly absurd for Gigi to complain about having trouble finding a guy because she hadn't been single for more than a month since college.
Gigi waved her away, like thinking about her ex was simply exhausting. "He ended up just being crazy," she said. "Just like every other guy in the city."
"You'll find someone," Zoe assured her. Tall, beautiful blondes never had trouble finding guys.
Gigi patted Zoe's shoulder. "And so will you," she said sympathetically.
"Thanks," Zoe said, deciding it was easier to just accept her friend's misplaced sympathy than explain that she was already interested in someone. Gigi had always been the type of person to project her feelings on other people. It used to drive Zoe crazy, but she had gotten used to it. She knew Gigi was just trying to be a good friend.
Gigi had a lot of good friends besides Zoe, though. When they got to Christina's party Gigi immediately jumped into the fray, talking with everybody. Zoe recognized some people, but she and Christina didn't have a lot of friends in common. Even the people she did recognize seemed different. Seeing everyone dressed up and holding champagne flutes made her feel like a little kid that tagged along with her parents. Zoe knew that going to medical school wasn't the same as slogging through undergrad, but she still felt like an out of place college kid in her mom's cocktail dress.
Zoe was relieved when they finally caught up with Christina. She had been keeping herself occupied by accepting glasses of champagne from the waiters walking around and she was starting to feel tipsy. "Congratulations!" Zoe said, hugging Christina. She took an appropriate amount of time to fawn of Christina's engagement ring and ask the appropriate questions, even though as far as Zoe could tell the ring was a fairly standard Tiffany diamond. "It's really beautiful," she said, because that's what people are required to say about engagement rings. "Eric has great taste."
"Eric has the ability to pick up on very heavy-handed hints," Christina corrected her with a laugh. "I only left a picture of it around the apartment for two months before he actually proposed."
"She literally had it taped to the fridge door for a while," Gigi added. Zoe gave a small laugh and quickly took a sip of champagne before she could make a face. She had always like Christina, but that seemed so over the top and just not at all romantic.
"Well, he was taking too long!" Christina said. She twisted the ring around her finger, looking at Zoe's bare hand while she did. Zoe pretended not to notice, but Christina carried on. "So, anyone on the horizon for you, Zoe? You hardly update your Facebook anymore; I never know what you're up to these days."
"School's been keeping me busy," Zoe said easily, wishing she hadn't finished her champagne. "I just had finals a couple of weeks ago, so I've mostly just been studying."
Christina's smile flickered slightly. Zoe wasn't sure exactly what she had expected. She knew Zoe was in the middle of medical school, which didn't leave a lot of room for a thriving social life. Gigi had her back, though. Or at least she thought she did. "Since when are you so demure?" she asked Zoe, giving her a little wink. "Zoe has totally been slumming it with a bartender for like a month."
Zoe's hand tightened around her empty glass. Did Gigi not realize that she was being incredibly insulting? She didn't even know Wade. "He owns a bar," Zoe corrected her, trying to keep her tone even. "And we're just friends."
"Oh, of course," Gigi said, but she gave Zoe a conspiratorial look as if Zoe was lying. "Come on, Zoe. You can admit it. We all make dating mistakes. Remember when I dated that guy who had a Chihuahua that he called his baby?"
"He is not a dating mistake, because I'm not dating him," Zoe said. Even so, she was upset. Gigi didn't even know Wade. How could she call him a mistake? Zoe and Gigi had initially bonded because they were so similar, but now Zoe felt like she didn't even know Gigi at all. Zoe hoped she hadn't acted like that before she moved to New York. It struck her as incredibly judgmental and shallow. "And even if I was, you don't even know him to judge him like that."
Gigi handed Zoe a fresh glass of champagne. "Calm down, Zo. I heard you when you said you aren't dating him. I was just kidding. I know you'd never seriously date a guy like that."
Zoe ignored her offer. "A guy like what?" she asked.
Gigi gave Christina a slightly exasperated look, like Zoe was completely out of line. "Someone so blue collar," she said as if it was obvious. "Come on, Zoe. In another year you're going to be back up here being a big shot surgeon. Why lower your standards when you're not even going to be in Alabama that much longer?"
Zoe counted to ten in her head, trying to calm down before she formulated a response. In the end, she couldn't come up with anything that sounded polite enough. "Congratulations again, Christina," Zoe said, giving her a quick hug. To Gigi, she said nothing. She just turned and headed toward the exit. As she walked away, she could hear Gigi whispering something to Christina. Zoe had a feeling it wasn't about how bad she felt about insulting Zoe's friend.
She hadn't planned on it, but Zoe called Wade in the cab on the way home. She had never called Wade before, but she wanted to hear a friendly voice. Her mom was out with friends, so Zoe would be getting back to an empty apartment. She hadn't actually expected Wade to answer, but he did. "Doc?"
"You sound confused," Zoe said, wondering if she shouldn't have called. Maybe Wade was one of those people who didn't like talking on the phone.
"I just thought maybe you butt dialed me or something," Wade said. "I figured you'd be out with your friends or something."
Zoe sighed. "I was," she said. "My friend and I went to another friend's engagement party but my friend ended up being kind of…"
"Drunk?" Wade suggested.
"A bitch." She hoped Wade wouldn't ask her to elaborate, and he didn't. After a few seconds of silence, Zoe asked him something. "When you moved back to BlueBell did things feel different?"
"Not really," Wade said. "But BlueBell doesn't do a lot of changing. The entire town is built on traditions that are a million years old. Is New York different?"
Zoe looked out the window, studying the New York street. They were coming up to her mom's apartment, passing the same buildings she had seen for years. Everything looked just as it always had. "No," Zoe said, feeling a wave of sadness wash over her. "But I think I am."
