"I admire a guy who sees opportunities to enjoy a slice of pie in the most unlikely of moments," Jamie said. "It takes maturity to put your interests first."
"Then we"—I flapped a hand quite pointlessly—"and that's what happened."
"Against the barn? As in outside?" Ruth asked. "During cocktail hour? When people were wandering around the grounds?"
I nodded as I refilled my mimosa. My cheeks burned like a fever.
"It's always the quiet ones who turn out to be truly devious," Jamie said, wagging a finger at me. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
"Yeah, well, he left right after that," I said.
"Talk about dine and dash," Jamie muttered.
"That's lewd," Ruth said. "I love it."
"But why did he leave?" Jamie asked. "We're missing something here."
"I went back inside and he took a call, and I couldn't find him after that." The words felt like rust in my mouth. "He sent me a text saying something urgent came up and…he left. I haven't heard from him since."
Ruth and Jamie exchanged deep frowns and furrowed brows.
"That's…odd," Ruth said.
"Very odd," Jamie said. "I'm guessing you've tried to contact him since last weekend?"
"Yep," I said, polishing off another mimosa. "I've called a couple of times. No answer, no call back. I've sent messages. No response. It's not even showing that he's read the last few messages." I set the glass down instead of refilling it. "I don't know if I should keep calling or just…stop trying altogether."
"A week is a long time to go silent. Right?" Ruth asked, glancing between us. "Even if he's in the middle of a shitstorm, it's not that hard to send a text sayingI'm all right and I'll get back to you in a bit."
"Unless he's secretly Superman, he has time to text you back," Jamie said. "Since you'd probably know about his superhero identity, let's assume it's something else. He does have a kid with special needs and a mom who just got through breast cancer. And he flew in on a red-eye flight to be your date to this wedding, and the minute he could get you alone, he served it up hot and fresh. I'm trying to add those things up but my calculator keeps turning into a Magic 8 Ball and telling me to ask again later. I don't know what to say, baby girl."
"Neither do I." Rubbing my temples, I asked, "What if he's ghosting me? Maybe this is his passive-aggressive way of saying he's done." That it was my turn to be the one left wondering what'd happened.
Ruth and Jamie shared another loaded glance. Jamie motioned to her, asking, "Would you care to tackle this one?"
"I'll give it a shot." Ruth laced her fingers together and stretched out her arms. Cleared her throat, sipped her iced coffee. Then, "Did you miss the part where we talked about him hauling his ass across the country to see you? And then immediately shoving his head under your dress because he was so thirsty?"
"I hear what you're saying," I said, "but also?—"
"But you're not playing at that level," Ruth cut in. "If I hooked up with someone last weekend and he wasn't replying to my texts, I'd assume he was done because that's the fieldwe'replaying on. Hypothetically speaking. I didn't hook up with anyone.Youdid and you're nowhere near that level."
They just didn't understand. They didn't know the ins and outs of my history with Jude, everything we'd been through and the long, complicated mess of it all. They just saw a sweet guy who made time to see me and the rest was a case of bizarre but harmless hiccups.
I knew better. I knew what was really going on here.
"She's right," Jamie said. "She's also lying and I don't mean that hypothetically because she definitely hooked up with someone."
"What?" I whirled on Ruth. "Who?"
"This is all news to me," Ruth said.
"The secret benefit of being on heavy-duty antibiotics during the whole wedding weekend was that I was sober enough to keep noticing when y'all disappeared and who else was missing at the same time." Jamie's feline grin was a little scary. "And I know that you, Miss Ruthie Ralston, were absent from the cocktail hourandthe bouquet toss, and only appeared for the last twenty minutes of the newlywed brunch the next day."
Ruth straightened her silverware. After a beat, she said, "The line for the bathroom was outrageous."
"Must've been a nightmare," Jamie drawled. "Be a lamb and remind me who else was missing from those same events, please."
"I wouldn't know," Ruth said, her gaze still fixed on the tabletop. "I had to take a few work calls during the reception. I missed a lot of things that night."
