Page 51 of Why Not Both?

I nod, a twinge of pain stealing over me, a feeling that reminded me I don’t have what they have. My sister and Sophie are so cute together. Sophie always does little things for Daze like making sure she has coffee ready when Daze gets up and drawing her a bath when she’s had a long day. They make their bed together every morning.

“So I take the day off and she wakes me up at way-too-early-o’clock, and we drive out to Queen Elizabeth Park—”

“Where we had our first date,” Sophie interjects, looking at Spencer.

“—And there’s so few people around—because it was so early—and Sophie got down on one knee.”

They share a look of pure love and happiness and that stab of envy flares again. I hate the feeling. I should only be excited right now. But I also want what they have. I want it so much and it’s never happened for me. Even the relationships I’ve been in, I’ve never felt that overwhelming sense of rightness.

The feeling I had in those few hours with Spencer.

I have such a mix of emotions inside me and I’m not entirely sure what I mean when I shift my water glass toward Spencer. I’m not even sure he’ll understand the gesture since it was a few nights ago and I don’t exactly want to change the subject. I just want to move on from this moment so I can feel excited, and only excited.

“So how did you two meet?” he asks.

And the moment is broken. The pain in my chest eases because I know this story. It’s one I’ve heard a dozen or more times. I lived part of it. It’s cute and funny and I help tell it. How they’d met at a small Christmas party five years ago through a mutual friend, but both had been seeing someone at the time. They became friends and both broke up with their girlfriends sometime between Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

“Yet neither of them realized they’d done it because they wanted to be with the other,” I say, dryly.

Our food arrives as Sophie continues. “Finally, Daze asked me out and we went on our first date. We went to Queen Elizabeth Park with the intention of going for a walk before getting some dinner. Of course, it started to rain, so we went into the Bloedel Conservatory to stay dry. Have you ever been?”

“A really long time ago,” Spencer says. “I went with school when we had a unit on birds.”

“So you know it’s a pretty short walk around the path. But we probably went around that place ten times, just talking. A year later, on our first anniversary, we got these.” She rolls up her sleeve to show off the silhouette tattoo on her left wrist of two birds on a branch looking at each other. Daze pushes up her sleeve to show off her matching one, placed right below the daisy and amaryllis tattoo that matches mine. “Since Daze asked me out first, I decided a while back I wanted to be the one to propose. I’m glad I got to do it and make it a surprise.”

They smile at each other again.

“So wait. You guys were engaged at sunrise?” I ask. “Before I even left for work this morning?”

“Yes,” Daze says. “Then we went for breakfast and walked around the park for a while. Then went to Bloedel since it opens at a reasonable hour.” She casts a sidelong look at Sophie who shrugs.

“I wanted to do it at sunrise. A lot of people choose sunset. But it’s the beginning of our life together, not the end of it.”

Daze and I both clap our hands to our hearts from the sheer sweetness of that statement. And the envy is back.

“Okay, guys,” Spencer says. “You’re giving me a toothache from all the sweetness.”

The joke is so well-timed that I find my way back to only being excited.

“You’ve been engaged all day,” I say. “Who have you told so far?”

Daze gives me a secret smile. One we’ve shared since we were kids when we were the only two people in the world who knew everything about each other.

“So far, we’ve told you and Spencer.”

“I’m the first to know?”

“Of course you are. You think I’d tell anyone else before you?”

Tears spring to my eyes and I hate myself for all the jealousy I’ve been feeling.

“And I’m going to ask this, to make it official, even though it should go without saying,” she says, reaching across the table for my hand. “Will you be my maid of honour?”

I take her hand and roll my eyes. “That’s a stupid question. If you tried to choose anyone else, I’d have to have a duel. Pistols at dawn.”

“I have to warn you,” Sophie says, “dawn is pretty early these days.”

Chapter 20

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