Page 158 of Love Unavoidable
Epilogue
Sadie - One Year Later
I knew before I even had my first drink I would marry Ethan today. But I waited until drink two before I admitted to Tenley that I knew what she and Ethan had planned. They can’t keep a secret from me. Especially not a secret wedding. They were good though, it took a while before I had a clue. I didn’t realize when I told Ethan—exactly one year ago today—to wait a year to talk about marriage, that he would take it so seriously.
Because this morning he woke me up with a kiss and a cup of coffee. When I opened my eyes enough to be coherent, he took the engagement ring he and Tenley had picked out and slid it on my finger. Then he kissed me again, a better kiss this time, with tongue, that left me reeling, then said, “Now we’re engaged. Tenley is going to take you on a spa day to celebrate. She’ll be here in half an hour to pick you up. I’ll be taking you to dinner at five o’clock. Be ready.” He was up and out the door before my head stopped spinning.
I looked at the door, then at the ring, then back at the door, and back at the ring. It was perfect. It was exactly the ring I would pick for myself. A simple square cut solitaire in a platinum band with a smaller diamond on either side.
“Okay, thank you,” I called after him to an empty room.
* * *
Tenley and I having a spa day wasn’t anything new. She finally moved here about six months ago. Not because of Spence, they crashed and burned early on. But because she missed me, and she likes the weather. She bought a big, old house on the beach, not too far from where Brad and Kat live, that she plans to fix up. That and a bunch of hanging out and trying to find herself.
Tenley has a trust fund. A huge one. She never has to work if she doesn’t want to. Neither will her kids. So, she has plenty of time to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
My first clue that something was off, was when Tenley let it almost slip the first time when I said I wanted to try a new treatment on my face. Actually, that’s not true, my first clue was when Ethan left after putting the ring on my finger and not making love to me. So, Tenley’s reaction was really my second clue something was up. I should have caught on then.
“No!” she said. “No experimental treatments today.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because, what if your face has a reaction?”
“Then it has a reaction.”
“Right but, pictures!”
“Pictures? For what?”
“Uh, well, you got engaged today, right? Aren’t you going to want to take pictures later? Plus, you’re going to dinner and you don’t want a red face for that.”
“We aren’t engaged,” I said. “He didn’t ask me to marry him. He just put a ring on my finger and said ‘okay, now we’re engaged’all gruff like. Then demanded I be ready for dinner at five.”
“I think it’s romantic,” Tenley said.
“Okay,” I said, skeptical even though it wouldn’t be until later that I remembered how upset she got when Spence said the same thing to her a year ago.
By the time we finished with our facials, massages, waxes, and mani-pedi’s, it was two o’clock in the afternoon.
“Time for hair and makeup,” Tenley sang.
“For a date? Isn’t that a little much?”
“It’s never a little much,” Tenley said. “Plus, it’s an engagement date. Don’t argue.”
So, I went along with it. After which put us at three thirty. We left the salon, and Tenleyspotteda little boutique across the street.
“Let’s go,” Tenley said as she grabbed my hand and dragged me across the street. “You can get a new dress.” Where she steered me away from every dark-colored dress I saw. Pushing me towards white and ivory.
I really should have figured it out then, but I can be dense sometimes.
“Ten, you know I can’t wear white, I’ll spill something on it.”
“No, you won’t, I promise. Just try this one on and if we don’t love it, I won’t bother you again.”
I look at the dress she’s handed me, it’s simple and elegant. White silky material, drawstring neckline that ties behind the neck, open back, gathered waist, and a slit up the side. With my hair up, and the smoky eye makeup I’d had done, I look like a Grecian goddess.
