“Whoa.” Seth stood up on the couch cushion and hopped over the back in a fluid motion with his long legs. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Doc.”
“After your story, I’m not sure we see eye-to-eye on good ideas.”
He crossed his arms and gave me a disapproving look.
“What? You don’t think Annelies has the right to know before she gets married?” I walked into the bathroom and ran my toothbrush under a stream of cold water.
He followed me and braced the doorway with his arm. “Who’s to say she doesn’t already know what Eli does in his spare time? Maybe she’s fine with it.”
Just because you’re fine with it in your world, doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same way.
“Unreal.” I set the toothpaste down. “You’re defending him? He has a reputation around here, and the whole town knows it.”
“I’m not defending anyone. I’m just saying, if the town knows… maybe Annelies does, too. Storming in there won’t help.”
“If I don’t create the storm, Annelies won’t know if she wants to stand in the rain or take shelter.”
“Okay.” He sucked in a deep breath through his teeth. “But I hope you know what you’re getting into.”
I spit toothpaste in the sink and mumbled unclearly through a frothy mouth, “What’s that mean?”
“Those two. They’re nothing but lies. It’s spelled out in her name, and you can hear it in his. They’re made for each other.”
“I can’t have this conversation with a hangover.” I snatched a pair of yoga pants from the laundry basket on the dryer. Using excessive intensity, I forced my legs into them before taking off my robe and grabbing my things for the wedding. “Do me a favor and lock the door on your way out.”
“Whatever. Go enjoy Barry.” He waved me off.
Until then, I’d forgotten all about BUTT.
Less than an hour later, I arrived at the Windmill Chateau & Winery with knots tying in my stomach and alcohol aftermath hovering over my head. Both left me feeling like death. I should’ve been happy. One of few times lately, I’d succeeded in being early. A huge win. That meant the HBIC couldn’t chastise me. But knowing what I had to do couldn’t force a smile onto my face. Instead, I wanted to throw up again. Paige would have a whole new reason to ruin my life after she found out I put Annelies’s dream wedding on the line.
For a few minutes, I sat in the Jeep and hid behind my sunglasses while mulling over the conversation with Seth. My mind waffled more than a dozen times. Was he right? Was I wrong? Was I making a huge mistake?
“Storming in there won’t help.”
“Maybe she’s fine with it.”
“They’re nothing but lies. It’s spelled out in her name, and you can hear it in his.”
As hard as it would be to face her, I knew I couldn’t face myself if I didn’t tell Annelies the truth. Even if she didn’t believe me, I needed to speak up. Against every Eli, every Nate, and every Zack out there. Before I could change my mind again, I slammed the Jeep door and hurried toward the chapel entrance.
Halfway there, I froze. A few hundred chairs sat in perfect rows off to the left with a white runner separating them into two equal sections. Flowers decorated the archway at the end, long trails of ribbon dancing in the breeze. Reality strengthened. A lot of people were about to show up to the possibility of a non-wedding.
“Don’t back down,” I said out loud, ignoring my fear. Climbing each step felt like a new damaging blow to my broken soul. The minute details hurt. Warm piano music poured through the open doorway. It should’ve invited me. It didn’t. Both sides of the entryway were decorated with glittering bows of buttery cream and black beneath extravagant bouquets of lilies. They should’ve welcomed me. They didn’t. With white knuckles, I gripped the dress I might not need and felt more intimidated than ever.
To the left, I saw Paige barking orders at Lissy and Bianca. Nope. Not going that way.
To the right, I did a double-take when I saw Barry, who shouldn’t have shown up for a couple of hours. He appeared far too casual for a wedding and far less studious than normal while wearing jeans, a faded t-shirt, baseball cap, and black sneakers.
I aimed to make a U-turn back outside before anyone noticed, but carrying an oversized garment bag that crinkled with every movement didn’t scream discretion.
Barry immediately noticed my presence. “Hey, Jade! Can we talk for a minute? Alone?”
“S… sure.” Knowing a more urgent conversation pulled me in the opposite direction left my mind elsewhere.
“What’s that smell?” He sniffed, leading me to the corner of the room. “Have you been drinking?”
“N… no.” I casually took a step away from him and tried to focus. “I need to get ready, so I only have a minute. What’s up?”
“Oh. Right. Would you be mad if I didn’t stick around for the wedding? It just… doesn’t feel right.” He lowered his voice, “Outside of keeping their financial records straight so they stay out of jail, I’m not close with these people.”
Welcome to the club, buddy. We’re not tight, either.
Before I had a chance to answer, he kept talking, “Which leads me to another topic. I’ve been thinking. Dating is a bad idea,” he stammered and blundered. “Not… dating in general. Our dating. Each other. Together.”
I tried to reply again.
He interrupted by raising his right index finger in the air. “I run the possibility of this sounding cliché, but it’s not you. It’s me. At breakfast yesterday, it was clear we didn’t mesh. With the questions. Your lifestyle seems… a little lackluster compared to mine.” He thought hard. “That’s not a bad thing, but it just doesn’t—”
“Excuse me?” I coughed a ball of air into a laugh and realized what actually happened. The one and only Cannon Cove accountant… was dumping me before our date. “Let me get this straight. I, Jade, am too boring for you, Barry?”
For the love of…
“Boring’s a harsh word.” He nodded with sympathy, fumbling through a list of replacements while his lips puckered at the air in-between sympathetic smiles. I didn’t bother to register most of them, only fixating on “straitlaced” and “predictable.” By then, I’d stopped listening. No positive synonym would disguise the insult.
“I hope you understand. And this bears no impact on our working relationship. I wanted to let you down gently. You know, before you get too attached,” he gestured at himself, “to this.” He gave my shoulder a rub paired with a wistful smile. “Bye, Jade.”
I had no response to offer while I watched him walk through the open doorway.
That damaging blow to my broken soul shook me more than the one on the steps outside. It wasn’t because werewolf Barry thought I’d have a breakdown over our break-up. Far from it. It was because he confirmed I became someone I didn’t like, someone he didn’t even want to withstand.
“Uh-huh,” my reply delayed long after he’d exited the room.
Most of the décor was lost on me while I walked through the chapel in a daze. The winery grounds were the most expensive venue in town. I paid no attention to the scenic cliffside view overlooking the ocean out the open double doors. The gorgeous mosaic of stained glass surrounding the windows was lost on me, its brilliant splendor sending a shimmer of rainbow patches to the ground below. All of it went ignored.
Paige flitted around the room again. Her latest demands were aimed at a young flower girl, shipping her to immediate tears.
In a zombie state, I continued down the hall toward Annelies’s reserved room number listed on my itinerary. The universe told me to keep going. I didn’t listen. Halfway down the corridor, I noticed a door to a storage space had been left partially open. From within, I heard yelling. A man and a woman. The escalating voices echoed when I peeked throug
h the sliver of space.
“You are such a throbbing shit sack. I’m sorry we ever…” Sienna’s voice trailed off as she paced in front of Eli.
“You’re sorry we ever what? Fucked?” He leaned against a stack of folding tables and smirked. “Say it because it happened.”
She reached back to punch him.
I winced and held my breath.
Eli caught her hand before it struck his face and curled his fingers around her dainty fist. “Which time are you sorriest for?” He glanced down at her chest and then lower, letting his gaze linger. “The time on your car? The time at the park? The time I made you come so hard—”
“Don’t! I didn’t know you were attached.” She seethed. “Not just attached. Engaged, you suck bucket.”
“Single. Attached. Engaged. Married. None of it matters. They’re just words.” Eli shrugged.
I couldn’t look away. So many wires jumbled in my head. Sienna cheated on Seth with Eli. Yet, the jury was out on whether Sienna knew Seth had a straycation with Lucy. Or was it Lucy who didn’t know about Sienna and Seth stealing home base? Not to mention, adding Blondie from the pool and The Seaman into the mix complicated matters. So, why did Sienna throw a fit over Eli being engaged if she cheated herself? My head hurt over the screwed-up love square. Pentagon? Fucktangle? There were too many sides to count.
“And I thought you didn’t regret any of your experiences. Said it yourself at the bar. That tells me—”
“Much like you, I can lie with the best of them in a stupid game of Never Have I Ever.” She narrowed her eyes.
“We didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday.” Someone tapped my shoulder and pulled me back into reality, asking loudly, “You’re Jade, right? I’m Daisy.”
I spun around and yelped. The wedding coordinator stood far too close, thick glasses perched on her wrinkled face, and the smell of stale coffee potent on her breath. Her nearness made me take a step backward, bumping the doorknob.
I quickly glanced back into the room while both Eli and Sienna saw me in the doorway. I had zero excuses.
“Fuck!” Sienna gritted out.
“I… have to go,” I said quickly, continuing down the hall with my head down.
“Find Annelies and get this over with before anything else can go wrong,” I muttered to myself and quickened my pace. Seth’s voice sounded more loudly in my chest than ever.
“Who’s to say she doesn’t already know what Eli does in his spare time? Maybe she’s fine with it.”
Lost in my thoughts, I realized I’d reached the bridal suite, both terrified and unprepared. I needed notes. No, I needed a list. Don’t backslide there, Jade! No lists! How would I bring up the subject with tact? Lead with a relatable wedding story? I doubted that’d be possible. Rip off the bandage and say it? Better yet, I’d ease into the conversation by telling her I knew the truth about Cranston and Bianca. It’d provide foundation, a common ground for us, before I broke the news about Eli. I had a plan.
I knocked lightly. No answer. “Annelies?” I turned the knob and pushed a few inches. Still nothing. I gently opened the door, entered, and closed it behind me with a soft click.
Through the shadows, near the arched window in the corner of the room, I saw Anal Eyes’s dusky silhouette. She stared out the window, wearing a gown with a fitted corset in pristine white. Her full skirt puffed out with endless layers of crinoline. Sequins and elaborate beadwork covered her torso. Usually, I’d refer to her as the villain, but that day she reminded me of a princess from a children’s cartoon with her cinnamon hair swirled into an up-do. In the reflection from the window, I saw a simple gold necklace with a teardrop-shaped diamond resting below the hollow of her throat. With the matching tiara, all of it trumpeted royalty.
Annelies sniffed. No, that was a sniffle.
Great. No one else was around. Is she crying? With the door shut, I was committed and couldn’t go back. Did I announce my presence? Wait for her to notice me? Pour Holy water on her to see if she’d burst into flames? I felt outside my element, but as I studied her more closely through the faint image within the glass, I saw something unexpected— a vulnerable, subdued girl who echoed fear.
“Annelies?” I asked quietly.
She startled and spun around, tears glistening in her eyes.
“Are you okay?”
She looked down at her dress and blinked. “One of the sequins popped off. That’s all.”
From afar, I studied the hundreds, maybe thousands, of shimmering sparkles, unable to see any imperfections. “No one will notice.”
Her lower lip trembled. “See? That’s what I’m afraid of; I know someone has seen the flaw, but no one’s mentioned it. Does that make sense?”
“Not really.” I shook my head.
Her sniffling was reined in by a lengthier breath. “Never mind. I wouldn’t expect…”
“Do you still want to marry Eli?” I asked, knowing I’d stepped over the line.
“Of course,” she replied and looked down. “It’s just… the sequin.”
I nodded. “Sequin. Got it.”
“Why are you wearing sunglasses? If you have two black eyes on top of…” She motioned toward the injuries on my arm.
I took the eyewear off and squinted into the meager amount of light paining my eyes.
“Good.” She relaxed marginally. “You came here. Did you need something?”
“I wanted to talk to you.” The sensation of a lead weight splashed deep in my stomach and paired with coldness trickling down through my limbs. Clamminess pooled in my fingertips and toes. It had nowhere else to go. My heart pounded in my throat, each beat drowning me in what I needed to say while I gripped tight and yanked the pin from an invisible grenade with quaking hands. There’d be no turning back. “Annelies, I know.”
She walked across the room to grab a tissue from the vanity and dabbed at her eyes. “What do you know? And where is Lila to fix my makeup?” She whined. “I have to do everything myself.”
“About…” I watched as she stood in front of a full-length mirror, touching up her eyelashes with a tube of mascara and her mouth puckered into a perfect “O”. “About what happened.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“You know…”
“No, I don’t.”
“I think you do.”
She paused before placing the wand back into the silver tube while staring at me in the reflection. “No, I still don’t.”
“Come on.” I groaned in frustration and loosened most of the tension from my shoulders to let my arms sway back and forth slightly. “Do I really need to spell out the details? I’m sure you had the whole sex ed talk in school.”
She turned toward me, the look on her face confused as ever.
“Like that whole ‘when two people love each other’ thing?”
The tautness in her face slackened, and her airbrushed makeup didn’t conceal the color leaving her complexion. “Like, you know-know?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“He… he told you?” Her calm breaths turned to shallow gasps.
“I’m still in shock, but I thought we could… work through it. Together.”
“Work through it together?” She braced her hands on either side of the vanity. “Uhhh. That’s way awkward.”
“Annelies—”
“This isn’t happening. Not today.” She made a motion as if she strangled an invisible person. “I can’t believe that son of a bitch told you!”
“I get it with the name calling. I’ve said plenty worse to him.”
“Well, it’s warranted. You found out on my freaking wedding day.”
“He didn’t tell me today. Technically, he told me yesterday. At dinner. On accident. Not that it matters. What I don’t understan
d is why you didn’t tell me yourself.’
“Frankly, I didn’t think it was your business.”
“It kind of is,” I countered.
“How is Seth getting me pregnant your business?”
That third damaging blow to my broken soul was the fatal one, crushing me into a million pieces.
“He did what?” I asked. You’re pregnant? And you’ve been drinking?
Her uneven breaths rattled between the last few syllables. “That wasn’t… what you were talking about?”
I swallowed and braced a hand on the cold brass of the vanity chair, my knees wobbling. “I meant Cranston being our dad.” Although, your news is more unsettling.
“Your father. My soon-to-be step-father,” she said. “That’s what you meant, right?”
I stared at her without confirming or denying but instead wishing I could re-invent the entire conversation.
Annelies scrunched her eyes shut, making her lash extensions pull into the creases of her lids. “If you’re lying right now…”
I became acutely aware of my own breathing.
“He’s my… How?”
“I assumed you already knew,” I said quietly.
We both stared at one another with a mixture of disappointment and bewilderment in our eyes. I could see it in hers, and it served as a reflection in mine— even if she didn’t know she’d devastated me. As much as our worlds and the subject matter differed, I understood how she felt— because I felt deceived, too. We’d both unintentionally pulled the trigger on a series of words, damaging ones that’d wound each other and alter the paths of our futures.
The truth was that important.
I tried to say Seth’s name a handful of times to begin a sentence, but it was like screaming into a chasm from inside my head for no one to hear. Instead, I heard his voice.
“Don’t ask questions unless you’re prepared for the answer.”
A knock at the door lodged its way into our silence. Wedding coordinator, Daisy, popped her head through the doorway. “So, this is where you ran off to, Jade. I’ve been searching everywhere.” She stopped and glanced between us a few times. “Sorry. Am I interrupting?”
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