Page 127 of Mark my Words

“He’s not exactly my boyfriend,” I sighed.

“But that’s what you want, right? Because if it isn’t, you need to leave him the fuck alone.”

I knew I had one chance to get her to help me. I paused to gather my thoughts and then simply declared, “I love him.”

“Love doesn’t magically fix everything.”

“According to your sister-in-law, it does,” I laughed.

“Well, she also thinks orgasms make the world go-’round, and she’s sleeping with my dorky brother, so let’s not use her as a credible source of realistic information.” Part of me was jealous that Sam was closer to her now. Not because I thought they’d get together but because when we’d met, Kelly had been easy to talk to; I could see her being a valuable friend. But I had to fix things with Sam first.

“Chase said you talked to him after everything went down in Minneapolis. Do you think he’d forgive me?”

“I think that guy would walk through fire for you. But you can’t play with him anymore. He doesn’t deserve the way you treated him, and I don’t know if I can help you unless I know you’re serious about things this time. What’s your plan?”

“I’m trying to figure that out,” I confessed. Having spent the last hour on the phone with Claire and her older sister Becca figuring out travel arrangements.

“He’s not in town this weekend. You can stay with me if you fly in, but he’s got something going on. And I won’t be around much because I got a project dumped on me, and I need to be in the office all weekend.”

“I don’t need to stay with you. I talked to his sisters, and Chase gave me a ticket to Michigan.”

“You’re going to the wedding?”

“Is that a stupid idea? How pissed would he be if I just showed up there? Claire and Becca thought it’d be fine, but now I’m wondering...”

“My God, you’re as much of a drama queen as he is,” Kelly laughed, cutting me off. “As long as you don’t plan on making a scene, I think the wedding is a great idea. Actually... Give me a second.”

My phone chimed, and I pulled it away from my ear. A text message with Kelly’s confirmation number and hotel address had arrived.

“What’s this?”

“My help. This was my room for the wedding when I was supposed to go as his replacement date. It’s yours now. I’ll call and get it transferred to your name. Just don’t watch pay-per-view hotel porn while you’re there since it’s my credit card on file.”

“Well, now that you’ve planted the seed...” I laughed, and she growled in my ear.

“I know where to find you.”

Putting my phone on speaker, I pulled up the hotel information and saved it.

“Thank you, Kelly. I mean it.”

“Well, don’t think you’re off the hook with me. You need to prove you’re serious about him. But now you owe me a favor.”

“Is this The Godfather?“ I chuckled.

“‘One day I may call on you to do me a service...’“ she mimicked in a deep voice.

“Yeah, okay, what do you want from me?”

“Not sure yet, but I’ll let you know.”

I glanced at the time, knowing that I needed to get home so I could get things packed. The next 24 hours were going to be tight.

My pulse was erratic as I glanced at my watch for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes. We were still sitting on the tarmac, the darkened skies of Chicago obscured by the rain streaking down the small oval window to my right. This plane was supposed to take off four hours ago, but an unexpected thunderstorm had kept the flight before mine from landing, delaying my connection to Michigan. With each minute that passed, I began to feel like my chance was slipping away, that maybe I’d waited too long, and this was the universe’s way of telling me I was too late.

Kelly: Have you boarded yet?

Glancing up toward the front of the plane, I watched the flight attendant talking on the handset next to her jump seat, and a frown pulled across her lips. She sighed loudly and briefly reached up to put the handset back into its cradle before pressing a button next to it and pulling it back to her mouth.

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