Page 28 of Travis

“You figured you got what you wanted.”

“Yeah. And likewise, for her. And now that I look back on it, I think that maybe I was worried that my performance wasn’t up to her standards, and I was too embarrassed. I just wouldn’t admit it back then.”

“Did you ever look her up? Even on social media or anything?”

“Well, no. I only knew her first name, and I figured, like I said, that maybe she didn’t enjoy herself as much as I did. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why she didn’t say anything today, either. Maybe she’s embarrassed.”

“I’ll talk to her. Clear the air.”

“I’m not sure, like I said.”

“I’ll tell you what, then.” I reason. “I’ll talk to her privately, and if she brings it up, then we’ll go from there. See what happens. Maybe she’ll hope that you’ve forgotten about her, and nobody ever brings it up.”

He hesitates, but after a beat, nods. “Okay.”

But something in the pit of my stomach starts to churn.

When I reach home, I sit down and think of one of the zillions of reasons why I'd be calling Hanna, but I have to figure out a way to ensure that Liam isn’t around, in order to accomplish the task at hand. Then I bite the bullet and just call her. Fortunately, Liam went out with friends when I do, so I have her all to myself. And I figure that the best way to gauge how she feels about Greg, is to ask her if she’s comfortable with him calling her for a few things.

I hear the hesitation in her voice. “If you’re not, that’s fine. I can just have him tell me when you need to be called.”

Then she back pedals. “No, it’s okay. It’s fine.” she overcompensates, raising a red flag.

“Is there something wrong?”

She sighs. “Can you meet me somewhere?”

“Sure.”

She names a coffee shop close to her house. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I wonder if I should give Greg a heads up, but I think better of it, after all, I don’t even know what she wants to tell me yet. When I arrive, she’s sitting at a table in the back, looking every bit as worried as I figured she would. “Hey.” I say as I sit adjacent to her. “What’s going on?”

Her face is forlorn. Her eyes fixed on her fingers. I almost feel bad for her. Being stuck in a sticky situation, with her wedding weeks away, and so much pressure she probably feels like she’s going to explode. “I don’t have anyone else to talk to about this.”

“Okay.” I say, hesitantly. This wouldn’t be a first time I switched from wedding planner to therapist. You’d be surprised how many brides are ready to break. I was lucky. Travis and I waited to get married. We saw the world first. Getting married wasn’t the challenge. Having babies was. “I’m all ears.”

“Oh, God.” she breathes. “I feel like such a selfish bitch for saying this.”

“Go ahead, Hanna. You’ll feel better to get it off your chest. Trust me.”

“And I can’t tell anyone. Literally. It’s a huge secret and I've been sworn not to tell anyone.”

I'm readying myself for the big letdown. She’s completely in love with Greg and wants him to father her children. She didn’t realize how much she was still in love with him until she saw him today. Mentally, I smack myself in the face, forcing myself out of the proverbial panic attack that I feel coming on. “Well, your secret is safe with me, I promise. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and believe me, there have been many marital secrets I've kept.”

Hanna seems to unfurl slightly, but before speaking, she looks over both shoulders. “I thought my sister was just putting on weight. We went to fittings, and I thought she was just eating a lot.”

I put two and two together. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. “She’s pregnant.”

She nods. “Yes. But that’s not the worst part.”

“Go on.”

“You don’t understand my sister. She’s about as narcissistic as you can get. If she’s sworn me to secrecy about her being pregnant, then that means that she’s going to wait until we’re all congregated together at my wedding, and that’s when she’s going to announce it.”

I keep thinking to myself that Hanna is forgetting a minor detail. That an ex-lover will be at her wedding, too, and helping to plan it, but I get myself to focus. “Okay.” I prompt.

“And she’s not married. And the guy she’s with is a total dirtbag. She left a decent guy that adored her, and was with her for years, and didn’t tell anybody about the dirtbag. Oh, and then she announced her new relationship, and the fact that she dumped the good guy, oh, guess what, at my birthday party.”

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