Page 34 of It Started in the Chatroom

Despite my feelings about the proposal, I perked up at the thought of getting to hang out with Mack again. She and I had really hit it off at her party, and I was excited to be her sister-in-law. If she wanted to plan the whole wedding from start to finish, I was okay with that.

“That’s fine,” I said. “Can’t wait.”

“Great! Well, I’ll let you get back to it, then.” He looked around me at the kitten in the cage. “Adorable.”

I blushed.If only he was talking about me.

I gave a little wave. “Talk to you later,” I said lamely.

“Bye, Cinderelly.”

With that, he turned and walked away the way he’d come.

The rest of the day passed without any fanfare. The other volunteers thanked me for doing the dirty work, and I left feeling somewhat rejuvenated.

When I got home, I realized I had received a text from an unknown number. After some reading, I realized it was Mack and smiled.

Mack:Hey, it’s Mack. Got your number from Nathan. Hope that was okay.

Mack:Are you free tomorrow to plan your party? Nathan is hopeless at this kinda stuff, and I’m sure you could use some help (especially wrangling my brothers ??)

Ilaughed. From the brief amount of time I’d spent with her and her siblings, I could see how it would be tough to, as she said, wrangle them. Especially John.

Ciara: Hey, Mack. Thanks for reaching out; I’d love some help planning things, if you’re okay with it. I’m currently unemployed, so I have some time on my hands. When did you want to meet?

Itapped my finger against my lips, worried that I had said too much. Would she think less of me because I was unemployed? I wasn’t sure.

Mack:Yes! I’d love to help with the wedding planning. Let’s meet at Town Hall at 2 pm. I have some ideas I wanna run by you.

Mack:Eeee, this is so exciting!! I can’t wait to start planning this thing. See you tomorrow ??

Ciara: See you then!

As I was exiting the text app, I sighed, remembering something crucial: I hadn’t yet told Brooklyn about my engagement to Nathan.

I didn’t know how I was going to keep it secret that we were only getting married to save Nathan’s estate and pay for my degree. Brooklyn and I had been friends for fifteen years, and she knew me better than even my father did. I could barely omit details from a benign story without her knowing; I didn’t know how I was going to fabricate a whole lie about why I was getting married.

Still, I had to tell her. If she didn’t hear it from me, there would be hell to pay.

I braced myself as I scrolled to her number in my phone and called. It rang twice before she picked up. “Hello?”

“Hey, Brooklyn.” I cleared my throat. “How’s it going?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately.

“Why do you think something’s wrong?”

“Well, for one, you rarely call me Brooklyn. But also”—her voice turned wry—“you’re a horrible liar.”

“I am not!”

“You are so. Everyone knows this,” she said smugly. “So, talk. What’s going on?”

I sighed. “You’re gonna need to sit for this.”

“Got it. Sitting.”

“Okay, well,” I stalled. “I may have found someone on the HEA app.”

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