by Abbi Glines
In the light of day, I had seen my error. I had seen the devastation I caused. Some days I thought I had forgiven myself. Standing here now seeing Marty I knew I hadn’t. No man had loved me like Marty loved Fiona. She had something rare. Something I doubted most people found.
I loved her. She was the sister I never had. I wanted her to have that happiness again. The joy that had lit her face when she said his name. To see her make terrible cookies she thought he loved. To watch as his name brought a smile to her face that I hadn’t seen in years.
Marty lifted his head and turned, making eye contact with me. He stared at me a moment then sighed. His shoulders lifting and falling with the deep breath. Seeing me was always a reminder for him. We hadn’t spoken after that morning. Fiona’s tears, screams, and fleeing had left us both broken in a way we had not recovered from.
But it was time we talked now. Time to clear the air. I couldn’t make the night he had spent with Mary Grace go away. But he needed to know what had happened the night we had passed out in the living room of the apartment Fiona and I shared.
“If she eventually opens this door, you’re the last person I’d like her to find out here with me,” he said the words bluntly.
“Possibly. But I need to say something,” I said not letting his anger toward me intimidate me like I once had. “Explain something.” I added.
“If it’s about that night that ruined my fucking life, don’t,” he growled.
“I let your anger toward me send me running before. I was too upset, ashamed, and guilty to face either of you. When you both left town I thought time would heal you both. That you’d move on and what I’d done would be forgotten. Possibly for the best,” I paused as his eyes stared up at me with a mix of disgust and annoyance. I had to finish this. No matter how hard it was. “We didn’t sleep together that night. I didn’t pass out, you did. I hadn’t drunk nearly enough to be so drunk I forgot everything. I’d claimed to, but that was a lie. You had come to find Fiona and she was dating that school teacher. Something in me . . . something ugly took over. I wanted a man to love me the way you loved Fiona. I wanted a man who could love so deeply. I’d never seen a man love like you did. So, I offered you a drink. Then we ate, and you drank. Yes, we left for a few hours and went to a bar. We didn’t dance. You drank and talked about Fiona. About how much you loved her. How you couldn’t continue living like you’d moved on. I encouraged your drinking. I kept telling you how happy she was with the school teacher.” I felt terrible. Just saying it out loud. It had taken me a long time to forgive myself.
“When we got back to the apartment I suggested you come to our place so you could wait for Fiona. You stumbled up the stairs and walked into the living room, laid down, then passed out. You were snoring in minutes.” I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “I went to the bar and drank a shot of vodka. I took off both of our shirts and cuddled up against you. Wanting to pretend for just a few moments that you loved me. I didn’t mean to fall asleep like that.” I stopped and watched as the horror on Marty’s face mirrored what I had felt the next morning. Realizing what I had done had been horrible.
“She would have forgiven me,” he said slowly. “We had started talking through things. She was ready to listen to me about what had happened with Mary Grace. I never even got to tell her that Mary Grace passed away two months later. That when I’d gone to see her I had gotten drunk to face that she was dying. I was going to get to explain it all to Fiona. Get her to understand it. But . . . You. Ruined. That.” He stood up, his eyes flashing with pure hate. “Do you have any idea how much it hurts to lose the one person you love more than anyone else in the world? Any fucking clue? You want to be loved the way I love Fiona but you have no idea the depth of the pain that comes along with it. Your actions took everything from me. Even after she wouldn’t forgive me for going to see Mary Grace, I still saw Fiona every day. She was there near me. She wasn’t mine but she was close. I wasn’t completely empty as long as she was there. But when she left, it destroyed me. Living everyday not seeing her face,” he paused closing his eyes tightly. “Leave. Please leave.”
I didn’t try to apologize. I’m sorry wasn’t strong enough. It was weak. It was pointless.
Nothing I said now could fix what I had broken. I just hoped that now he knew the truth he could be free of any guilt. Because it had been two women that tore Fiona and him apart. Marty had never done anything. He’d told me about Mary Grace that night too. When he as drinking. He’d explained what had happened. And Marty had never been unfaithful to Fiona. He’d slept in a bed with a girl who he had loved once. He’d held her all night in her hospital bed. And he had kissed her cheek the next morning when he left knowing that he would never see her again.
It had been Fiona’s insecurities that forced her to believe the worst. Unable to accept that Marty would never hurt her. I looked at her closed door wishing she would listen. Wishing she would accept all the truth in front of her. Lies told by others and lies she told herself had always been Fiona’s worst enemy.
Fiona
REHEARSAL DAY WAS HERE. AND so was the wedding date Shay had arranged for me. I’d claimed I had a headache last night, and Frank had been nice enough to believe me or pretend he did. A nice hot shower and sleep had been calling to me.
But Frank was still here. And so was Marty.
Today I’d have to read his speech and give him mine to read. We’d have to walk down the aisle together and say things about our siblings at the dinner tonight. It was supposed to be funny moments. Memories of Shay and Mack over the years. The problem was Shay and Mack’s memories came after mine and Marty’s. Many of their memories were our memories.
I got up early in the morning to write the speech for tomorrow and tried to write down a few memories of Shay and Mack for tonight. Leaving out the way those moments connected with Marty and I. Pretending like there never was an us. Only them.
Three cups of coffee later, I felt like I’d completed the task. I got dressed and picked up the phone to call Shay. It rang once right before the banging on my door began. I kept the phone to my ear to go see who was now ringing the bell and banging on the door to see my sister in the peep hole. Even the tiny image of her she appeared hysterical. I ended the call and jerked the door open. Before I could say anything, she bolted into my room with a wail.
“He left! LEFT FIONA! OHMYGOD! I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” she gasped then another loud cry came from her chest.
“Shay, what are you talking about? Who left?” I couldn’t imagine this much drama was over Frank or even Marty leaving. Either of which might make this an easier wedding in my opinion.
“MACK!” she screamed and sobbed again covering her mouth. Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“Mack?” I asked. I couldn’t have heard her correctly. I didn’t like Mack. I thought marrying him was a terrible idea. But I didn’t think he’d leave her. Not now.
“YES! OH GOD! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?” she screamed. Then she sniffed and gulped. “We fought. It was one of the ugly ones,” she looked at me pleadingly. “But we have always fought. It doesn’t mean we are over. It is just who we are. We fight then we make up, you know,” she said needing some sort of reassurance I wasn’t sure I could give her.
“When did you fight? Just now? If he walked away he probably just needed to cool off. I doubt he’s left.”
She shook her head. “NO! He left! Gone!”
“You’ve got to calm down. Take a deep breath,” it sounded like an order. She did what I said and then again. “Okay, calmly tell me what happened. We can figure this out but you going crazy doesn’t help.”
She nodded and inhaled deeply again. She was trying to calm down but the fear on her face I understood. It’s the look you have when faced with losing the man you love and being hurt beyond belief by him. I’d been there. I knew.
“He got a call from Marty. We were still downstairs with the guests who hadn’t left yet. I don’t know what it was
about, but he walked away and was on the phone a while. When he came back he said he needed to check on Marty. I didn’t want him leaving with the guests still down there. I may have been a little demanding but the wedding stress is a lot you know. This wedding isn’t about Marty. It’s about Mack and me. So I said that and he said I needed to calm down. Chill out. Relax!” She threw her hands up. “I told him all the stress I was under and all the things that had to be done. How I needed his help and his being up Marty’s ass didn’t help me. I wasn’t marrying Marty. I was marrying him. He just walked off. Told me to drink a glass of wine and calm down. I yelled at him that I was competing with his brother. He laughed and shook his head.” She stopped. I waited for more.
“That’s it?”
She nodded. “Yes. And I know I sounded like a bitch. But that isn’t enough to send him running!”
“I don’t believe he ran,” I told her.
“Then where the hell is he?” she was raising her voice again. She only stopped to sob.
I left my room and walked across the hall to knock on Marty’s door. After no answer, I rang the bell. When I heard the lock click I sighed in relief. Marty would have the answers. But it wasn’t Marty. It was Rowan. Her hair was messy from sleep and she was wearing a pair of boxers that I hoped didn’t belong to Marty.
“Can I speak to Marty?” I asked her.
She rubbed both hands over her face and yawned then looked back into the room. “Uh, yeah, give me a minute.”
I should probably apologize for waking her up, but it was after ten in the morning. I glanced back at Shay. “Why did it take you so long to realize he was gone?” I asked her. The time that had elapsed just now dawning on me.
“I opened a bottle of wine when I got to the room and Mack wasn’t there. I thought I needed something to calm me down so I didn’t fight with him when he got back to the room. I drank too much—most of it while watching Pretty Woman on the Lifetime Channel—then passed out. When woke up at 9:30, I thought Mack must have gone to play golf with the others but that’s when I saw his duffel bag was gone.”
“He’s not here,” Rowan interrupted. “And I’m not sure he came back last night.”
“He took his brother! He’s gone! He is leaving me the day before our wedding!” Shay wailed loudly and I glanced down the hallway to see if anyone else could hear her.
“Shay, calm your ass down. We don’t know that,” I told her.
“Mack’s gone?” Rowan asked.
“We aren’t sure,” I told her.
“Yes, I am! He is gone!”
Rowan walked over and picked up a cell phone. I watched as she called someone. When she hung up she looked at us. “I think she’s right.”
“Oh God!” Shay cried again.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I said wanting to strangle Mack and Marty both. How could they do this? It was the day before the wedding. To just disappear. “I think there’s an explanation. I’m going to find him. You go about your plans for the day. Get the massage. Get pampered. Drink a mimosa. Relax. I will handle the rest.” I grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward the direction of the elevators.
She sniffled. “Do you think you can find him?”
“Yes. And I think this is a misunderstanding. You’re emotional and overthinking this. Go. Let me handle it. Calm down.”
She inhaled sharply and nodded. “Okay. Yes. He wouldn’t leave me. Would he?” she shook her head, answering her own question.
“No. He wouldn’t.” At least I didn’t think he would. The old Mack I knew would. But I had hoped he had changed. “Maybe Marty took him out on a night out or something like that. Marty wouldn’t just let him leave me. Not like this.” She needed all of that to be true and I hoped it was.
Shay took long purposeful strides toward the elevator only glancing at me once. I gave her a reassuring smile. When she finally disappeared through the doors I glanced back at Rowan who was still standing in her doorway watching.
“Give me five minutes. I’m going with you,” she said.
I started to argue and she held up her phone. “I know where they are. Marty forgot that he is sharing his location with me on the iPhone. I needed it to find a bar he was at last week. He never ended the sharing.”
“Wait. You can see their location?” I asked. I was scared to believe I’d heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “And I don’t know how much time we have. They’re at the airport.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly.”
Marty
MACK WAS PACING IN FRONT of the baggage claim. The flight had been delayed for over six hours now. But Mack had been watching the flight tracker since we arrived at six to find out that Shay’s mother’s plane hadn’t even left Atlanta yet due to weather. He had a breakfast planned that had already been missed where he would surprise Shay with her wedding present—her mother. He’d come to get me out of the hallway after I’d called him furious over the damage Chantel had caused.
We had spent the next few hours at a bar across the street from the hotel. I’d told him what Chantel had told me. He’d told me about his fight with Shay and that he knew her mother not being here was part of what was bothering her. Then he told me he had her flying in at six in the morning.
I’d gone with him because I didn’t trust myself not to start banging on Fiona’s door like a mad man. We’d had no sleep. We looked like it too. We also smelled like a bar. Mack was lucky Shay had been passed out after a bottle of wine when he went to get his keys and tell her the lie about golfing as his excuse for leaving.
Glancing at the time, I wondered if Shay was awake yet. His phone had been dead for hours. When he grabbed his duffle bag that held a change of clothes and tossed some toiletries in there so he could clean himself up while we waited on her mother, he forgot the phone charger.
I had a missed call from Rowan but that was it. I didn’t see the need to call and wake Shay up if he didn’t need to.
“The monitor says the plane has landed. How long does it take to get to the fucking luggage claim? Why did I quit smoking? God, I need a fucking cigarette,” Mack ranted. He was nervous. He wanted this to be perfect for Shay. I understood that. But if this took much longer he’d have a problem keeping the surprise a secret.
“Because you don’t want to die. Look, people are walking this way. Could be her flight,” I said nodding my head in their direction.
“God, I hope so,” he said scanning the crowd. “I’m ready to see Shay smile. This weekend is supposed to be perfect for her. Having her mother here is what she needs.”
“Why wasn’t she coming to begin with?” I asked realizing I’d never thought to ask earlier. The amount we’d drank and my list of problems had something to do with that.
“Shay said she didn’t want her father to come. If she invited her mother she was afraid her father would find out and show up. You know Fiona and their father don’t get along well. Shay said it would be awkward and tense if he showed up. So she explained to her mother her fears and her mother said she understood. But the closer it got to the wedding Shay would say things about her mother not being there and I’d see it was bothering her. She wanted her mom there. And that bastard father of theirs shouldn’t be the reason she didn’t have her mother. I decided to handle it. I contacted her mom and set this up. Her coming at the last minute and no social media alerts to show her mother being here would keep it from her father—if he even took the time to check. Hell, the man is so self-centered, I doubt he’d come anyway.”
As convoluted and dramatic as all that sounded, I understood it. Fiona had told me enough about her father for that to make sense. I hoped it all worked out the way Mack wanted it to.
“That’s her!” Mack said, waving toward the crowd.
I turned to see a woman who looked like an older version of Shay. She saw Mack, smiled and headed our way. It wasn’t until she was close enough to us that I saw the small things about Shay that were diffe
rent. She and Fiona had the same nose. I’d never realized it until now.
“Ada,” Mack said walking up to the woman and hugging her. “Glad you made it.” She hugged him back patting his shoulder.
“Me too. That was a crazy morning.”
“Ada, this is my brother Marty. Marty, this is Ada.”
She held out her hand. “And it appears that Shay was wrong. You two are very identical. She said that you didn’t look exactly alike. I am wondering if I need new glasses.” She was teasing I knew but being reminded that Shay could tell us apart made me think of Fiona.
“I don’t want to rush you but we need to get back to the hotel before Shay starts looking for me,” Mack said. “Do you have luggage?”
Ada nodded to the carry-on she was rolling beside her. “It’s all in here.”
“Then we’re ready to go,” Mack said. “Follow me.”
Fiona
THE DRIVE TO THE AIRPORT in Shay’s car was stressful. Rowan was watching Mack and Marty on her phone. They were staying in the same spot. Which could mean they were waiting at a gate already and could board at any minute. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact Mack could be running off and that Marty was going with him. It didn’t sound like either of them.
“They’re still there,” Rowan said glancing down at her phone. “How close are we?”
“Ten minutes with the traffic,” I said hoping I was right. Time was running out for me to kill both Mack and Marty. How could they do this to Shay? “Men are bastards. None of them can be trusted. I told Shay this already. But no she had to fall in love and want to get married.”
I didn’t like the words coming out of my mouth in front of Marty’s best friend. I didn’t want Marty to know any of my thoughts. Although once I had told him almost everything. Back when I trusted him like a fool. Just like Shay had trusted Mack.
“Not all men are bad. I may not want one myself but not because I think they’re bad. If met some terrible bitches. I think love and attraction can cause pain no matter who you are.”