Page 38 of Fool Me

Peals of laughter burst from Sadie’s phone, but her friends’ descriptions still weren’t adding up. Sadie had no memories of him paying extra attention to her. He’d treated her like everyone else. She pressed them further, looking for the magic words that would crack their fairy tale. “But, Trish, you had so much trouble studying after you broke up. You worried you’d lose your scholarship and get kicked out of your program.”

“Eh, I was nineteen. Looking back, he let me down as nicely as he could. And it didn’t affect my scholarship or my grades. Look at me now – in grad school on a free ride.”

“Smarty pants,” Ginny said.

“Abby,” Sadie spluttered, desperation beginning to show in her voice, “you made us watchBridget’s Diaryover and over again while you emptied box after box of tissue paper!”

“And the local liquor store of Moscato,” Carly said.

“Ha! I still watch that movie all the time. Acting like I was all broken up about Grant was just an excuse to get you all to watch it with me.”

“Oh, aren’t you sneaky!” Carly said. “I should have used my broken heart to get attention too.”

“But…but…you needed therapy, Carly,” Sadie said. “You didn’t think you could ever trust men anymore after Grant broke up with you.”

Carly’s voice climbed an octave of embarrassment. “Did I say that? I guess I did milk it some then.” She sighed. “Yeah, I needed therapy, but that wasn’t from Grant. I’d been hurt by a lot of men in my life, starting with my dad. But I’m married now to the most wonderful human being in the world, and soon we’ll have a little snuggle baby. Come to think of it, I should thank Grant for being the thing that finally got me to get the help I needed for so long.”

Sadie rubbed dents into her cheeks. Her friends weren’t budging from their story. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“Tell you? Oh my,” Abby said. “Your head revolved three-sixty if we even mentioned his name!”

“Honestly,” Trish said, “the three of us didn’t even talk about it amongst ourselves till graduation, and it didn’t matter anymore at that point. We all thought he’d get over you.”

“Boy, were we wrong!” Carly said, laughing.

An unraveling sweater enjoyed more stability than Sadie. The more she pulled at a thought, the more the foundation of her entire past—and her present—wobbled. “So…so none of you are upset with him at all? Not even about dating you just to be near me, assuming that’s what he did?”

“We were college kids,” Abby said, her very tone sounding like a shrug, “and he was so smitten.”

Trish let out the next sigh. “If only someone would be that in love with me.”

“No hard feelings here, either,” Carly said. “You have our full blessing. But it was nice of you to check in with us and make sure.”

Sadie slapped her hand against her thigh so hard her palm stung. “Blessing? That’s not why I’m?—”

Ginny spoke up. “Hey, we gotta run, but great catching up with you guys. Hope we can get together in person soon.”

“Seems like we will!” Abby said before humming the “dum dum dee dum” intro to The Wedding March.

The discussion devolved into an argument over who’d be Sadie’s maid of honor, but Sadie wasn’t listening. In slapping her thigh, she’d felt something in her bathrobe pocket. In her anxiety over her sisters showing up, she’d completely forgotten Grant handing her a small package as he’d left. She reached in and pulled out a white paper bag no bigger than a credit card. Unfolding it, she tipped its contents out onto her hand. Nestled in her palm were the perfect little earrings he’d found for her at the Indian festival. The ghost of an inhale passed her lips.

The sun, finally finding a route through those low clouds, threw a bright beam of light through her apartment window and across her palm, setting the bejeweled earrings alight. Sadie’s face crinkled like an apple doll’s with the pain of it. Every glint an accusation, every sparkle a guilty verdict. The most generous, thoughtful, patient, kind, and fun-loving person she’d ever met had loved her. Her.

What had she done?

Ginny ended the call. “So,” she said to Sadie, “no lies detected in terms of your ex-roommates.” She spotted the earrings in Sadie’s hand. “Hey, aren’t those the ones you were trying on in that picture?”

Sadie answered while gulping back a series of sobs. “I’d decided I couldn’t afford them. He must have snuck back and bought them for me while my henna dried.”

A waterfall erupted from Sadie’s eyes and, instantly, Ginny leapt beside her on the sofa. She wrapped one arm around Sadie’s shoulders and stroked Sadie’s hair with her other hand. “There, there. It’s all gonna be okay.”

“He loved me all this time, Ginny. Why didn’t I see it? Why did I make things up that didn’t even happen?” Shuddering sobs interrupted her words. “I convinced myself my friends were so hurt, and it wasn’t even true. It wasn't true.Why did I do that?”

“I think I might—” Ginny started to say, but Sadie cut her off.

“I can’t even blame it on our spinster pact, because we didn’t have it then.”

“Well, no, but?—”

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