Page 5 of One-Star Romance

“Well, I haven’t read your writing. So I can’t tell you that they’d be the idiots for not accepting you.”

Natalie waited a beat. “That’s it? There’s not a more encouraging end to the sentence?”

“Er, no.”

She couldn’t help herself. A laugh bubbled out.

“But—” He scratched at his temple. “Why do you want to write?”

She thought a moment, because the answer to that seemed too big to distill. A swirling tornado of reason upon reason, sweeping up everything in its path. “I think it has to do with recognition,” she finally said.

“Prizes and such?” He looked a little disappointed.

“No, not that,” she said quickly, though of course she wanted prizes and such. “I mean…there have been moments when I’ve read something in a book that feels like it was written just for me. Like the author reached inside my brain, took all the thoughts I didn’t know how to express, and put them into a perfect paragraph. And in those moments, I’ve felt so utterly connected to a person I didn’t know that it made me think, ‘Yes, the world can be hard, and people can be awful to each other. But there is also such beauty in the fact that we can recognize each other like that.’ ” She fiddled with her straw. “I want to be able to give that feeling to other people.”

“Well then,” he said. “Screw any MFA program that wouldn’t want to give you the chance.”

In the dim lighting of the bar, she thought she could see a flush on his cheeks. So many people, when she told them she was a writer, fell into one of two categories. They talked down to her—You? Little girl, you think you have things to say?—or they blew smoke up her ass, telling her they were sure she was incredible without having read a lick of her work. Rob, though…He might have looked like a snob, but he took her as she was.

Rob opened his mouth to go on, and her heart began to thump, like she was nervous to hear what he was going to say, though that was ridiculous. She barely knew him. He wasn’t an expert in her field. Still, her heartbeat grew louder in her ears.

But suddenly Angus was pushing through the center of the crowd, a drink in his hand, banging a knife against the glass. “Attention! Attention, all!” The ding of cutlery on glass turned to a shattering sound, Angus accidentally cleaving the top of the cup off onto the ground, where the glass splintered. “Oops, would somebody mind—?” A waiter bustled forward and began cleaning as Angus took a step to the side. Typical Angus, a privileged bull in a china shop. “Would Gabby come on up here?” Gabby waved at everyone from the sidelines. “No, no, come up!”

Gabby raised an eyebrow but acquiesced. “Hey, everyone, thanks for coming out tonight,” she said as Angus gazed at her with a slightly dazed expression, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. She leaned into him with a nervous smile. “I’m not supposed to give a speech, am I?”

“No, don’t worry. But I want to say a few words to the crowd.” Angus cleared his throat. “For those who don’t know, I met Gabby a year ago, when I convinced my dad to take a meeting at the ad agency where she works. Not that our commercials weren’t already great—” Nat had seen a few of them. They starred Angus’s father, speaking to the camera from the furniture floor while Angus’s mother “relaxed” on a futon in a leopard-print dress. Angus’s parents were not exactly thespians.

“But now that I’m an NYU business school man, I thought it was time to shake things up,” Angus went on. “Gabby’s junior at her agency, but they gave her a piece of the pitch anyway. And as soon as she delivered it, it was obvious why. She was so prepared, a go-getter who made everyone around her better.” Angus turned to Gabby. “I don’t know if you know this, but that night, I told my parents I’d met the woman of my dreams.”

“You did not,” Gabby said, putting her hand over her heart.

Meanwhile, Gabby had told Natalie that she’d “give him a chance” even though he was “a bit of an odd duck.” Gabby had always liked odd ducks, though, and ugly dogs and mean old cats. When they went hiking once, she’d become fascinated by a bulbous toad in their path and spent a full five minutes trying to coax it onto her hand. Nat had once joked that Gabby would probably try to befriend a subway rat someday, and Gabby had shaken her head. “That’s a bridge too far even for me.” Then she had paused. “Then again, Ratatouille.”

Now, Angus wiped his forehead and turned back to the crowd.

“We’re here to celebrate your birthday tonight, Gabby, and I’m sorry to hog the spotlight. But there was just one thing I wanted to do.”

The a capella performance. Natalie looked around for Angus’s fellow business bros, bursting through the crowd to start step-touching while a white man beatboxed, as threatened in Angus’s email invite.

But instead, Angus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, and Gabby’s mouth dropped right along with Nat’s stomach.

3

Natalie watched in disbelief as Angus sank down to one knee. “Gabriella Alvarez,” he said, “I love you more than anyone in the world. No offense, Mom and Dad!” Nat glanced around and saw Angus’s parents, the Futon King and Queen themselves, emerging from a corner of the crowd, right next to Gabby’s parents, all with anticipatory looks on their faces. Angus opened the box to reveal a ring, and Gabby wobbled in her heels with shock. “From the moment I met you, I knew you’d be my future wife. Well, if you want to be! Do you want to be?”

Gabby’s hands flew up to her mouth. Natalie’s cheeks burned in secondhand embarrassment for her friend. Oh God. She must be feeling mortified. She was a planner—when she and Nat went on vacation together, Gabby always drew up an itinerary and spent hours researching. A surprise proposal was probably one of her greatest fears (along with heights). She would’ve wanted to pick out the ring. She would definitely think that the pinkish diamond in Angus’s hand was ugly as fuck. Also, they’d only been dating for a year! They didn’t even live together. What the hell was Angus thinking?

“Yes,” Gabby blurted, and people erupted in cheers.

Natalie could barely hear for the ringing in her ears. Amid her disbelief, a theory presented itself. Despite being strong-willed, Gabby had a people-pleasing streak, never wanting to create fuss or drama. Angus had to know that just as well as Natalie did. So he’d ambushed her in front of all her nearest and dearest. Natalie worried that Gabby didn’t want to let anyone down. And in trying not to make a scene, she was making a Jupiter-sized mistake.

If Gabby truly wanted to marry Angus, Natalie would support her. Of course she would. But she knew what Gabby looked like when she was besotted. She’d seen it with Gabby’s college boyfriend, Tony. Anytime someone said the name “Tony,” Gabby would burst out into an idiotic grin, which was a bit problematic during the weeks that their English class read Beloved. She’d developed a severe case of mentionitis. (Oh, you were just on the phone with your mom? Tony called his mom the other day!) She’d let out great, heaving sobs when he’d broken her heart. Gabby had displayed none of these signs about Angus.

Natalie turned to Rob, who looked surprised, though not stunned. “Did you know? That he was going to do this?”

“No.” He pursed his lips. “Well, he has been referring to her as his ‘future wife’ for a while now. And he’s mentioned proposing, though never with a specific timeline. And he was strangely insistent on me coming tonight. But I assumed he just wanted me to finally meet her.”

So, Natalie was the only one to be truly blindsided. Not that she expected Angus to have asked for her blessing. Still, it was normal to give someone’s best friend in the whole world a little heads-up, consult them about ring styles or proposal preferences, wasn’t it?

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