Save the Date, page 9
Mel took a sip of her champagne and I watched the penny drop. She flicked her eyes back to me and they widened into huge, pale-green saucers before returning to Mrs. Bell. Fortunately, she turned her head before choking on her drink so I didn’t get sprayed with champagne.
“Wait!” It was indicative of how terrible the mother of the bride versus bride scene was that her shout didn’t garner us any attention. She continued in a low rumble, “You’re the reason everyone is mad at me for the toast?”
Okay, wasn’t expecting that.
“The toast?”
“You didn’t listen to my toast?” Mel’s voice carried a note of accusation.
“I was…” I swallowed hard and closed my eyes to block out the memory of that second, or was it third, escape attempt. “In the bathroom.”
She squinted at me like she knew it was the worst lie ever. “I made a joke. It didn’t go over well.”
“If your jokes are as good as your pickup lines, that doesn’t surprise me.”
She shrugged and rubbed the back of her neck again. I spotted the fine lines of a tattoo at her wrist and bit back the urge to reach out and touch it.
“I started my Maid of Honor speech by asking who in the crowd had slept with the bride.” My stomach dropped to my toes and I could tell Mel knew why. “I raised my own hand.”
My eyebrow shot up. I didn’t need the confirmation that she was queer—her suit and flirtation had done that. It did surprise me that she’d slept with Sophie. Mel wasn’t her usual type.
“Then I asked who’d slept with the groom.”
My stomach leaked out through the tops of my shoes. It was like watching a car accident in slow motion.
“I still got laughs at that one,” Mel continued. “Then I asked who had slept with both.”
I discovered that I had gripped the tabletop when I heard my nails scraping through the wood. Guess I was finding out why the angry looks had intensified when Mrs. Bell led me back from the bathroom.
“There was this loud gasp,” Mel continued torturously. She rubbed her chin and her eyebrows knitted again. “Sophie and Caleb looked at each other and I swear I could hear them screaming with their eyes.”
Suddenly I was very glad I hadn’t been in the tent when that happened. Mel’s eyes were still searching me. I explained, “When I left the bathroom, Mrs. Bell caught me for a chat. I guess I missed the toasts.”
“There was only one. The two of them dragged me off the stage and took turns ripping me apart for being an insensitive jerk. They wouldn’t let anyone else do a speech.”
“Sorry,” I groaned.
“Haven’t you noticed that everyone here is glaring at me?”
I risked a glance around the party and the same malevolent stares that had tracked me all night were trained on us. There may have been more of them than before, but it was hard to gauge the volume of angry stares.
“I think those are about me, not you,” I confessed.
“I’m pretty sure we’re sharing them. Wanna tell me why they’re mad? Sophie and Caleb weren’t in the mood for story time.”
I wasn’t exactly in the mood for story time either, but Mrs. Bell was still circling and I didn’t want Mel to leave yet. I took a gulp of my lukewarm water and a deep breath.
“I started dating Caleb in college. We were together for a couple years. He was nice enough I guess, but it was a rebound from my high school girlfriend. I just got comfortable being with him.”
“I’ve been there,” Mel said, rolling her eyes. “Not with a dude, but I know the feeling.”
If I tried really hard, I could conjure up the way he used to smile at me. We’d been so young.
“He asked me to move in with him, and I finally…I don’t know. Snapped out of it? I didn’t want to hurt him but staying would have been worse. He took it well. We stayed friends.”
The DJ’s voice boomed through the speakers, imploring the crowd to dance. It was the first time I’d heard him in ages. He sounded almost as desperate as I was.
“I met Sophie a few weeks later and we just…clicked.”
Mel laughed quietly and spun her champagne flute. She didn’t meet my eye and I had the strangest feeling she understood.
“I thought she was the one.”
I regretted the pain that flashed across Mel’s face. Her voice sounded wistful when she agreed. “Sophie has a way of making people feel that way. She promises you forever in the way she touches you.”
All I could do was stare at her and blink. I was quiet for long enough that she looked over at me, her eyes barely touching mine before they darted away again.
“What?” she asked, her eyes fixed on a nearby tent pole.
“Nothing. I’ve just never thought of it that way.”
There was a time when hearing a description like that, especially coming from someone who’d obviously been with Sophie, would have broken me. It would have sent me into a weeks-long tailspin that could only happen to someone who’d been knocked out of Sophie’s orbit.
Tonight it didn’t make me miss Sophie. It made me curious about Mel.
“I mean,” Mel stammered. “I’m over her. She’s my best friend. I just…know what you mean is all.”
“Same here.” The last thing I wanted was for Mel to think I was still hung up on Sophie. “I care about her, but actually being with her is…”
“Exhausting?”
There I was smiling again. “Yes. Exactly.”
“Did she ever let you pick the movie?”
“Not once.”
“And she’s always dragging you to these concerts that are…”
“Bizarre,” I agreed. “What even is synth folk?”
“I have no idea.” Mel took another step toward me and I couldn’t help notice how warm it was this close to her. “But I don’t think the bands did either.”
“And she always wants to talk about feelings. After a fight, or a good day, or a bad day, or any day. After…”
My voice trailed off as I noticed the sparkle in Mel’s eyes. I was in dangerous waters and I didn’t want to talk about those particular conversations with her when she smelled this good and stood this close.
She knew exactly what I was referring to, though. Mel winked and drawled, “Especially…after.”
I had a vivid and distinctly pleasant image of Mel naked and sweating in rumpled sheets while Sophie dissected the encounter, blow by tantalizing blow. I shuddered.
“Cold?” Before I could deny it, Mel had her jacket off and around my shoulders. “Better?”
Better? I couldn’t decide which part was better. The warm, musky scent that clung to the fabric draped over my shoulders or the sight of her in a crisp white shirt, the royal blue vest hugging her in all the right places. I nodded and pulled the lapels tighter around me, afraid she might take it back.
“You were saying?” Mel asked.
I was too busy swimming in her eyes and her scent to figure out her words. “I was?”
Her smile lit up our corner of the tent. “About you and Sophie.”
“Oh. Right.” I bent my head on the pretext of collecting my thoughts, but really I was gobbling up the scent of her on the fabric. It wasn’t perfume, but more of a rich, earthy scent. Something like leather and rosemary mixed with freshly starched cotton. “We broke up before graduation. She was heading to London for her internship and I was off to grad school. It would never have worked. Neither of us had our hearts in it anymore.”
“So you stayed friends with her.” Mel rolled her eyes as she spoke. “How very stereotypical.”
“You’re friends with her, too. Don’t you fit the stereotype?”
“Sophie and I never really dated.”
Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.
“We hooked up in high school.”
Of course she said it. Of course a woman like Mel didn’t do commitment.
“She never wanted as much from me as I wanted from her.”
That wasn’t what I expected.
She continued with a wistful lilt to her voice. “So we figured out our attractions with each other as friends. No broken hearts.”
“No broken hearts,” I repeated, rolling the words around on my tongue. That’s what I’d always aimed for in ending relationships and I thought I’d achieved it but clearly I was wrong.
“Didn’t Sophie and Caleb meet at a party right before she left for London?” Mel asked.
“Yep.”
Mel’s jaw dropped open and she pointed at me. “You introduced them, didn’t you?”
“Sort of. We’d planned the graduation party before we broke up. I’d invited Caleb. It never occurred to me that my exes would like each other, but I guess maybe it should have?”
What a strange night that had been. I’d watched their first meeting from across the room and saw the sparks fly. Images of their wedding had flashed through my mind when I walked in on their first kiss. It hadn’t looked like this. It had been a happy affair with all of us great friends.
“I don’t get it,” Mel said after draining her glass. “Shouldn’t they love you for bringing them together?”
“They do.”
“Umm.” Mel hooked her chin toward the dais where Caleb and Sophie were trying to eviscerate me with their eyes. “Sure about that?”
“It’s all Mrs. Bell’s fault. She…likes me.”
“Oh god, please don’t tell me you slept with the mother of the bride, too?”
Her laughter was low and rumbling and it made my stomach squirm pleasantly when I said, “You’re laughing, so I won’t slap you, but it’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
I rolled my eyes but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. How had I never met this ridiculously charming woman?
“No, I didn’t sleep with her. She just likes me a lot. We bonded over Golden Girls when I was dating Sophie and we’ve been close ever since.”
“Even after the breakup?”
I nodded, though my naivete made me want to crawl under the table. “We have lunch every week. She’s been hinting since the engagement that I should try to get Sophie back. I’ve told her a million times that I don’t want her back and that Caleb is a great guy and they’re in love, but she won’t listen.”
“She’s always been like that,” Mel grumbled, making me curious about her history with Mrs. Bell.
I lowered my voice. “A few weeks ago she invited me over for dinner. Turns out she’d also invited Sophie.”
“Wait.” Mel’s eyes went wide and she looked at me with something like awe. “That was you?”
“You know about the dinner?” I practically screamed the words, aware that every eye was on us now. But if Mel knew, how many other people here knew about that horrible night?
Mel must’ve read my mind, or perhaps my shriek was enough to clue her in. She reached out, laying her long, slim hand over mine and giving it a little squeeze.
“Sophie came to my place the next day sobbing.” My stomach lurched, but Mel’s voice was soft, a comforting tone that, mixed with the weight of her hand on mine, actually helped rein in my guilt. She continued, “I’m sure she didn’t tell anyone else. We’ve been BFFs since middle school gym class.”
It was far too much to hope that she was right, especially since the angry glares from every corner of the tent belied her reassurance.
“What did she tell you?” I asked. I didn’t want to have to say it myself.
“That her mom invited over one of her exes in the hope that she’d stop the wedding. Pull one of those movie moments by sweeping the bride off her feet at the last moment.”
“I told her no!” I was so close to sobbing that my intended scream came out more like a whimper. “I defended Caleb and their relationship.”
“Really? ’Cause I don’t think Sophie got the memo.”
“I know that now. I thought I’d get a chance to explain myself to Sophie today, but…”
“But it’s her wedding day and she’s got it planned down to the last second.”
I nodded and mumbled to the table, “I should’ve thought of that.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but why did you accept the invitation after that night?”
That was the exact question I’d been asking myself all day long.
“Mrs. Bell said she’d smoothed things over. She said they still wanted me here.” I should’ve known better. Of course they didn’t want a reminder of that night on their wedding day. I buried my face in my hands, an action I immediately regretted because it took away the buzz of Mel’s touch. “I’m an idiot.”
“No, you’re not.”
“She expected me to object during the ceremony,” I groaned.
It was quiet so long I chanced a peek through my fingers. Mel’s jaw was literally hanging open. When she saw me looking she snapped her teeth together with an audible click.
“Okay yeah, you definitely should’ve declined this invitation.”
My forehead hit the tabletop with a clunk. It hurt. A lot. But then Mel’s hand settled on my shoulder, heating my skin far more effectively than the flimsy shawl.
“I know,” I groaned into the table and then pushed myself up. It was time to put on my big girl panties and do the right thing. Mel met my determined stare like a woozy boxer. “I need to get out of here but I can’t get past Mrs. Bell. Can you help me sneak out?”
Mel was watching my lips move and nodding. Then she seemed to snap out of it. “No way! You’re staying.”
“I can’t.” As much as I wanted Mel to be into me, now was not the time. “I’ve already ruined their wedding day.”
“You haven’t ruined anything. Mrs. Bell did that. She used you. It’s not your fault.”
She had stiffened her spine and her eyes blazed. It was actually really hot, but I didn’t have time for hot tonight. “You’re sweet, but I think it’s best if I leave.”
I turned to go, making it three steps before remembering I still wore Mel’s jacket. That was fine. I’d hang it from a tree on the way out. All I had to do was ignore Mrs. Bell and keep walking. Hopefully she wouldn’t force me to run over her in the parking lot.
Mel whipped around in front of me, her smile full of the same mischief she’d approached me with. “I have a better idea. Tell me something about yourself that would make all these people like you.”
A burst of laughter escaped my lips before I could stop it. Damn, did she have to be so charming?
“What?”
“Tell me something great about you. Here, I’ll go first. I can’t watch The Little Mermaid without singing along to every song.”
Her smile washed over me like a warm wave. “That is kinda cute.”
This time I was sure she was blushing and I was even surer because I sorta called her cute.
“I watch it like three times a year. I can’t get enough.”
I could picture her, curled up on a soft couch with a mug of hot chocolate, singing those classic Disney tracks without a hint of self-consciousness. I wanted nothing more than to snuggle up into that couch with her.
“I’m a really bad singer, though.” Mel’s blush had deepened with my silence and she was rubbing her neck again. “I was kicked out of chorus in middle school ’cause I ruined every concert.”
“That makes me want to hear you sing Little Mermaid even more.”
“We can arrange that,” Mel said, her cocky half smile back in place. “Your turn. Let’s hear it.”
“No.”
I took a step back to emphasize my point, but the crowd was closer than I thought so I couldn’t actually run away.
“Come on. It can’t be as embarrassing as mine.”
“Yes, it can.” I sighed and mumbled, “I knit with my granny.”
“What was that?”
“I knit with my granny every Saturday. She taught me when I was little and she gets lonely at the assisted living place, so I go knit with her and her roommate. I’m twenty-eight and I spend half my weekend knitting hideous sweaters with old ladies.”
“Awwwww!” She drew the sound out in this long, adoring way, not condescending like my last boyfriend when I told him, but like she genuinely thought it was cute. I tried to remember the last time someone reacted like that if I even trusted them enough to admit it in the first place.
There was also the fact that she was grinning like a human embodiment of the heart eyes emoji. I laughed and this time it was the full, honest, unabashed laugh that sounded like me. It felt really, really good to laugh like that.
Mel shifted back to her serious look and said in a low voice I could barely hear, “You have a great laugh. I’m glad I got to hear it.”
“I’m glad you got to hear it, too. It’s been…like maybe the worst night of my life.”
“I’m sorry to hear that ’cause it’s been a pretty great night for me.”
“Even with the disastrous speech and your best friend mad at you?”
She reached down and took my hand, entwining our fingers. “Even with all that.”
I could feel my body leaning toward hers. My mind screamed for me to stop. This wasn’t the place and it would only make everything worse. But I didn’t want to stop leaning in. I wanted to keep leaning in all night and let Mel catch me before I fell.
Her eyes flicked away from mine and a crease formed between her eyebrows. It looked like a well-worn path and I wondered what a woman so young and confident could have to worry over so often. As I told myself over and over not to reach out and smooth the crease away, Mel’s lips curved into a slow smile.
Her eyes flicked back to mine and she whispered, “Bet I can make your night better, too.”
“Your pickup lines are getting worse and worse.”
She chuckled low in her throat and my heart skipped several beats. “Not what I meant. Follow me.”
Mel didn’t leave me much choice. She pulled me by our joined fingers and I followed without hesitation. A pair of long strides took us out of the tent and into the dark garden. A weak splash of moonlight provided just enough light to prevent me from tripping, but I was glad I’d decided against heels.
