Page 72 of Heartless
“What happened to her?” She asked in her emotionless tone.
“She died.”
The silence stretched for a few long seconds before she spoke again.
“I'm so sorry,” she whispered quietly.
My eyes finally left the paused video and searched for hers. They were filled with sympathy and sadness.
“Thank you,” I said with a lump in my throat.
Madison rounded the couch and sat next to me. Grateful for the distance she left between our bodies, I finally looked at her. I couldn’t read her expression, but at least there wasn’t pity on it. I would hate for her to pity me.
“Do you watch it often?” She asked, pointing at the TV with her chin.
“I watch a particular part of it every day,” I confessed.
She nodded and seemed like she was deep in thought. Then she stood up abruptly and took a deep breath. “How about we make something to eat since we ditched the dinner at my mother’s and you play it for me from the beginning?”
“You want to watch my wedding video?” I asked, suspicious of her intentions.
“Of course I do. I’m a wedding planner. Weddings are my jam,” she said with a calm smile on her face. “Now, please tell me you have something edible in that fridge, because mine is empty.”
I lifted myself off the couch, walked over to the fridge and opened it wide. She burst out laughing. “I guess I’m not the only one that doesn’t cook.”
“You’re not the only one that doesn’t cook,” I confirmed with a smile. “Take your pick.”
She examined the containers with different dishes that room service regularly brought me and took one out.
“You grab the plates and utensils, and I’ll heat this up,” she said and moved towards the oven.
“Fettuccine Alfredo?” I asked in mock horror. “What happened to your hatred towards carbs?” She didn’t laugh, just shrugged and turned her back to me.
Once the pasta was heated and plated, we settled back on the couch and I played the video from the beginning. We watched in silence for what seemed like eternity, while it actually was about thirty minutes. Franny looked radiant in her white dress, her laughter echoing through the room. Seeing her so full of life brought a bittersweet ache to my chest. I paused the video again on that same moment I played over and over again every day: Franny laughing in my arms.
“She really was your end game, wasn’t she?” Madison asked all of a sudden. “I can tell by the way you’re looking at her.”
Instead of making me feel bad, her words actually gave me a sense of being understood. People usually focused on making me forget Franny. On making me think about the future. About other women I could have a good life with. No one ever talked about how good we were together. Like it didn’t matter at all once she was dead. But it mattered to me. It would always matter to me.
I set my bowl down and turned to look at her. “Franny was incredible. Beautiful, kind, full of life. She had this energy that just drew people in. Everyone loved her. There was just no other way with her.”
Madison’s attention was on the video as she said. “I get it now. Why you didn’t want to have weddings here. Why you didn’t want tochange the gardens. I can’t imagine how painful it must be to watch other people get married right where you married her.”
“It is. But it was Franny’s wish. Her father opened The Gem when she was little. She loved it so much, he told everyone that one day she would work at The Gem right along with him. He died her senior year in high school. Then Franny went to college, where we met. And a few years later, Jessica gave The Gem to us as a wedding gift.”
I didn’t have to explain the connection between Franny, Jessica, and Ryan, now that Madison had watched the video.
“Isn’t Ryan bitter about it? You’re running a hotel that his father built.”
“Ryan doesn’t care about the family business. But in case he ever changed his mind about running it, The Gem wasn’t their only location.”
“But he chose to stay here? With you?”
“I think he did it because of Franny, not me. She had big plans for this place. She wanted to focus more on weddings and less on vacationing celebrities. When she died, I concentrated on the business that was already working. I couldn’t handle the weddings. It was just too much.”
“You and Jessica seem close.”
It wasn’t a question but I felt the need to explain. “Ryan and Franny were close, but her death didn’t hit him the way it did Jessica.”
