Page 87 of Take Me to the Wedding

“Ha. Tell me about it.”

“I’m glad you didn’t appease Ani—you know, tell her everything was going to be all right. Because I’m not sure it is.”

I turned to my friend, full of different torments of my own. “Could we have prevented this?”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Mia looked off into the shadowed gardens. “I don’t know for sure. I think I passed off a lot of sketchy behavior by rationalizing.Oh well, Ani loves him. That was probably a mistake.”

“We’ll help her through this.”

Mia hiked a thumb over her shoulder. “Ani’s with her mom now. I’m afraid her mom’s going to talk her into going through with it.”

“We’ll see her in the morning and do our best to be there for her.”

We fell into silence. Ani and Tyler. Lilly. Caleb. My mind flitted from one disaster to the next. And to other things. “I’ve been a terrible best friend. I don’t share things with you.”

Mia gave a soft chuckle. “You share everything with me.” She counted off on her fingers. “Your lunch, your car—when you had one that worked, that is, and your favorite lipstick when I forgot mine. Most importantly, you share your time. You not only listen to me when things are going well but especially when they’re not.” She took a glance over at me, clearly trying to figure out what was going on. I didn’t even know where to begin.

I felt a deep-seated need to—change. To be more honest. More open. Because this staunch independent thing I had going on wasn’t working all that well for me. “I’m a bad friend because I don’t open myself up to you in the same way you do to me. Even though I know you wouldn’t judge me if I told you more.”

“You can change that at any time, you know.” She paused. “Did Caleb do something dumb?”

“I slept with your brother,” I blurted.

“Oh, okay,” she said with a wry smile. “You bothdid something dumb.”

I knew that she was trying to get me to laugh, but it didn’t work.

“Ididdo something dumb. Like, really dumb.”

“Well,” she said, shrugging, “now’s your chance to spill.”

I turned to my dearest friend. I felt gutted like I’d never been gutted before. And for the first time in my life, I was desperate to tell her everything. “Lilly told me that she’s in love with Caleb. Ironically, right before he asked me if it was okay to go public with our relationship.”

“Wait,” Mia said, trying to absorb it all. “You two got together, right? Caleb doesn’t care about Lilly.”

“No, you don’t understand. Yes, we got together, and yes, it was amazing, but then I ruined it all by saying nothing when he wanted to tell everyone and then letting Lilly tell him everything he’s been wanting to hear for four years.”

Mia rubbed her forehead. “Are you saying that you let Lilly make a play for him? Why did you do that!”

“I told him I had to think about things because I—” I got choked up. I started to cry, and my nose began running, and I had to wipe it on my arm. I felt certain my makeup was running too. “Because I thought he needed to have a choice. I didn’t want him to look back and think that after all those years wanting her, he could’ve had a chance to get her back.” And I’d basically effed myself in the process.

“Oh, Sam,” Mia said, which made me cry more.

I tried to wipe my eyes, but the tears kept coming. “But the truth is, I don’t have to think about anything. I love him. But it got in my head that he’s loved Lilly forever and he should have a choice. I couldn’t tell him, ‘Guess what, surprise! Lilly loves you! And so do I. Now pick!’”

“Wow.” Mia was stunned into silence. “So what happened?”

“I don’t know.” I gave a sad shrug. “He walked out of the dinner with Lilly. And that’s where we are.”

Mia patted my shoulder. “I understand why you did what you did. But you can’t just let Lilly do what she wants. You’ve got to tell him how you feel.”

Suddenly, someone called my name in the semi-darkness. A figure stepped into the light. “There you two are.” Wynn was busy looking around at the lighted gardens, the pretty winding paths. “This is a cool place.”

“Wynn!” I exclaimed, shocked to see her. I knew that she would be coming with the D’Angelos, but I didn’t expect her until tomorrow.

I turned my head and tried to wipe the watery streaks of makeup around my eyes, but it was no use. She would see me as I was, a complete and total mess. “What are you doing here?” I asked as I kept furiously swiping. “I thought you had the farmers’ market tomorrow morning?”

She was still checking out the scenery and hadn’t really focused on me yet. “The D’Angelos gave all the vegetables and stuff to their neighbors to sell for them. They thought it would be fun to stay over tonight and not have to rush to get to the wedding. I’m staying on the pullout bed in their suite.”

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