Page 11 of Sugarlips
Tanja’s face twisted. “Who in their right mind would want to be friends with an Evans brother? The Evans boys are for fucking, not friending.”
I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes. “Liam is … really great. He’s thoughtful and sweet and funny.” I chuckled remembering his hatred of When Harry Met Sally. “And frankly… I’m a mess. If I dated him, I’d probably ruin him. Ruin us.”
“Ahh, yes,” Tanja said, blowing the steam from the top of her coffee. “Tasmanian Chloe strikes again. Too bad, though. Not only is he hot in that quiet, brooding way—but I bet if you two dated, Elaina and Neil would be forced to make up. They’d have to talk it out and would probably make up from whatever stupid fight they had.”
Hmmm.I narrowed my eyes, looking at my sister’s text again. She didn’t saywhythey broke up. But I just couldn’t imagine Neil pulling a stunt like Brad or Dan. If he did, then he certainly didn’t deserve a second chance. But if Tanja was right and it was a stupid misunderstanding… maybe she was onto something?
“If Liam and I were friends, they’d eventuallyhaveto see each other.”
“Exactly.” Tanja snapped, pointing at me. “Granted, it would be more fun to benakedfriends with Liam, but whatever. That’s your call.”
“Are you around tonight? Want to come over and…” And what? Watch more sappy romantic comedies? “Cook dinner or something?”
She took a final sip of coffee, depositing it in the sink. “Can’t. I’ve got a date.”
Right. Of course. Whendidn’tTanja have a date? The world didn’t stop because I got dumped.
“I can cancel if you don’t want to be alone, though?”
I shook my head. “No, that’s okay. Elaina will probably be here, and she might be worse off than I am for all I know.”
“I have to say, you’re actually handling this really well. The Liam kiss aside.” Tanja dropped her hands to my shoulders. Even though I was pretty tall at five-foot seven, Tanja was almost two inches taller than me.
I was sad. Of course I was. But more than anything, I was angry. And embarrassed. “Well, maybe that’s a testament to the fact that I didn’t love him as much as I thought.”
Tanja nodded and brushed her cheek to mine in a side kiss. “I have to run to an audition in Concord. Wish me broken legs!” she called over her shoulder with a little wave.
“Please.Please. You are my fourth vendor today to only give me half of my deposit back. The wedding is still four months away—and I know, trust me,I knowin wedding speak, four months is equivalent to, like, a week—”
“I’m sorry Ms. Dyker. A fifty percent refund is all I’m authorized to give if we are less than six months away from the date.”
Hot tears pricked my eyes and I dropped my forehead onto the cool marble with athunk.
“Ms. Dyker? Are you still there?”
“Uh-huh.” I inhaled deeply, shoving those tears aside. For now. “Is there really no clause for an ex-fiancé who was cheating on you the entire time you were engaged?”
There was a small gasp on the other end of the line. “I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she said. “Can I make a suggestion?”
I shrugged, and despite the fact that she couldn’t see me, she kept talking. “Instead of taking a fifty percent loss on our catering, you could cut your guest list by fifty percent which as stated in our contract, you don’t have to give us the final head count until six weeks before.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And… throw a catered party for my friends instead of a wedding?”
“Why not?” She offered. “You’re losing half of your money anyway… you might as well utilize that to throw a party ofsomesort.”
Huh. That was an interesting idea. “So, if I cut my guest list in half… that comes to—”
“It comes to fifty percent of the deposit you gave us. As stated in the contract, the deposit was an estimate of how many guests you expected. But you are allowed to adjust that estimate accordingly up to six weeks before the event.”
“I think I’ll do that. And maybe at this party, I’ll have a dartboard with Dan’s face on it.”
She chuckled. “There you go. You might as well have some fun with it, right?’
My call waiting beeped in and I saw my mother’s name lighting up the screen. “Thanks, Erin. I’ll be in touch with the new head count.”
I switched the call to my mom and answered as cheerily as I could, despite my sour mood. Granted, Erin helped lift my mood, even if it was just a little. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hey sweetie. How you feeling?”
