The angst! The waiting! There are 10 total chapters of this novel, so if you’ve hung in this far, know that the end is near, for better or worse.
Chapter 8
In the early morning light on Wednesday, Tabby quietly got up, showered and dressed in a poodle skirt and sweater. She tied a silk scarf around her neck, pulled on her signature combat boots, and slipped downstairs to Second Chance.
It was a quiet day in the shop, just a few people wandering in and out. A typical Wednesday. Despite the lack of people, the morning passed quickly, filled with tidying the store, cleaning windows and putting together a sales report from the past month for the owner.
At noon, the bell above the door tinkled merrily, a noise that as often as not annoyed her to the point of madness—like she couldn’t look up from the counter and see there was someone in the store?
To Tabby’s surprise, Seth was standing in the doorway, holding a bag from the deli down the street and two sodas.
“Lunch?” he asked, looking a little uncertain.
Tabby broke into a wide smile. “You read my mind.”
Seth relaxed and set down the food. He pulled a stool over to the counter and opened the deli bag. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a little bit of everything.”
He pulled out several small containers of side dishes and two sandwiches, both vegetarian.
“How did you know I would need lunch?” Tabby asked.
“Most people eat lunch. And usually around noon,” Seth teased.
“What if I had lunch plans?”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“I’m just magical is all,” he said, handing her a fork for the fruit salad. “And I might have called Claire for tips.”
They ate in silence for a few moments.
“So what are you up to today?” Tabby asked. “Don’t you have to work?”
“Not really. I just have one early morning class to teach on Wednesdays, and then a couple of office hours. I’m doing wedding stuff with Tony for the rest of the week, so I’m basically done for the day.”
“Have you talked to him?”
Seth shook his head. “Not since before… you know. I don’t really know what to say to him, you know? How’s Claire?”
“As good as can be expected. She’s plotting Tony’s miserable death and possible mutilation of his car.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
“I voted we drive it straight into the Potomac with a big sign that says, ‘Dipwad drives me,’ but she vetoed that.”
“Those pesky criminal charges might put a damper on things,” he reasoned.
“That’s what she said.”
They ate a bit more, and Seth asked about the shop. Tabby asked about his teaching.
By the time they had finished lunch and were throwing things in the trash, Tabby realized how comfortable she was around Seth. Sure, she wanted to jump him every time she laid eyes on him, but she also just enjoyed being around him.
With Kody, there had always been a cause. They couldn’t just have lunch; they had to protest the deli by sitting outside with signs because they served non-free-range chicken. Kody couldn’t just watch a movie; he had to rant about the political/social/racial incorrectness of the costumes or lighting or even (on a really focused day) the plot.
“Do you want to get together tonight?” Seth asked as he shrugged back into his jacket.
“I’m helping Claire put together rehearsal dinner favors tonight.”
“People do that?”
“They were supposed to be wedding favors, but she figured she would give them out at the rehearsal dinner so that she doesn’t have to try to return them.”
“So I shouldn’t go with Tony tomorrow to pick up the tuxes?”
“No, you should. As far as Tony’s concerned, the wedding is going on as planned.”
“I’m very confused.”
“Don’t worry; everything will make sense on Friday night.”
“If you say so,” but he shook his head and turned to leave.
“But I’ll be free after that,” Tabby said. He turned around and smiled at her. “My place around nine?” she asked.
He answered by leaning down and kissing her. She fell into the kiss, unable to resist leaning into his body and wrapping her arms around his neck.
After he had left, Tabby went back to work, distracted by Seth, distracted by thoughts of Claire, distracted by anything that moved. When Lucy arrived in the middle of the afternoon to take over for the evening, Tabby practically bolted toward the door.
###
“This sucks,” Claire said. “Why the hell did I think this would be a good idea?”
“Because when you were planning this, we both thought we would push it off on Brie,” Tabby reminded her. “You told me it would be the only thing she could possibly not fuck up.”
“Yeah, I just didn’t know who she would be fucking,” Claire muttered, tossing another miniature monogrammed box toward Tabby, who caught it, poured a handful of wrapped candies inside and closed the top. They had yet to tie the ribbon around the 100 boxes or they had assembled so far.
Dee walked into the room and smiled at Tabby and Claire. “Oh, these are so lovely,” she purred, picking one up.
“Can you tie some ribbon?” Claire asked hopefully.
“I would love to, dear, but I have to run to the salon. They stayed open late so I can get my hair touched up.”
She examined several of the boxes and watched them work for long enough that Claire was about to snap at her, but before she could say anything, Dee added, “Oh, honey, be careful with the boxes. Don’t toss them around like that—they might get dented.”
Tabby opened her mouth to say something undoubtedly scathing, but Claire cut her off, “Of course, Mom. You better go if you’re going to get your hair done.”
“Oh right. You girls have fun!” And she walked out of the room, her heels clicking gracefully on the hardwood floors.
“I don’t like my mother today,” Claire announced after Dee had left, and she chucked a box as hard as she could at the wall, which left a satisfying dent in the tiny box.
An hour later, they had filled all the boxes and had most of the ribbons done. As the evening wore on with bow after bow after painfully tedious bow, Claire’s mood decreased exponentially.
“Why are we even doing these?” she finally asked. “We’re only giving out about 20 of them at the rehearsal. The rest are going to end up stuffed into my face while I watch sappy movies and cry about my failed engagement.”
“First, I intend to ship all of these directly to Brie first thing on Monday,” Tabby replied, setting another finished box in a larger box for safe keeping. “Second, you will not be crying over sappy movies. I’m going to lend you every thrasher movie I own so you can imagine Tony in the place of every single person who gets a hand chopped off by the bad guy and then sucked into oblivion by aliens.”
“Violence as therapy? Two weeks ago I would have hated it. Now it sounds brilliant,” Claire said thoughtfully.
“Absolutely. Blood and gore is the only way to get over a relationship.”
“Maybe, but mailing all this wedding shit to Brie won’t hurt anything either.” In addition to the wedding favors, she had planned on assembling the table decorations for the rehearsal dinner, which included filling mason jars with beads and candles and tying a ribbon around each one’s neck.
“But it might be a little expensive. Let’s just fill her car on Friday night with everything you don’t want to keep. And then saran wrap her car. And key, ‘Fuck you’ into the hood.”
“Excellent.”
Greatly cheered up, Claire looked at the ribbons left and the boxes left and said, “Fuck it. We’re done. I just don’t care anymore.”
“What about the centerpieces?”
Claire looked at her watch. “I’ll do them—you go have your date with Seth.”
“Thank you, love,” Tabby said and started cleaning up the mess from their work.
After Tabby left, Claire started a new playlist on her iPod and pulled out the supplies for the centerpieces. Her crabby mood returned with a bang when she realized she had left the beads at Tony’s place.
She considered just not doing them—what did it really matter?—but she realized that she could pack up a few more of her clothes, making a little less work for the days following the non-wedding.
When she pulled into the driveway, the house was dark and deathly quiet. Of course he wasn’t there, Claire thought. Her crabby mood turned into full-fledged bitch mode when she walked into the bedroom and saw the bed unmade and a black, lacy bra on the floor. She froze.
“That whore.”
She stormed into her closet and pulled down her suitcase and grabbed her favorite items of clothing. They did it in my house, she fumed, slamming a drawer shut with more force than necessary. They did it in the bed I picked out, she realized. On the sheets I bought.
Somehow, that betrayal was worse than anything else she had found out. Cheating was unacceptable, but cheating in her home was above and beyond unacceptable. She didn’t even have a word for it, she realized as she stormed back through the house, grabbed the box of decorative glass beads on her way.
She paused in the living room. This had been her house. And suddenly, she felt like a stranger, an intruder. Claire looked at the bookshelves filled with her books, the paintings she had chosen on the wall. She and Tony had jointly bought the sofa set, but she had picked out the throw pillows, the vase on the end table. Her touch was everywhere, yet it was nowhere at the same time.
The anger that had been simmering all day boiled over. Claire wanted to destroy the house. She wondered if Tabby knew where to find some explosives, and then realized how silly that thought was—of course Tabby knew where to find explosives. She probably had an arms dealer on speed dial, just in case.
But that would probably involve going to jail, or at least getting sued by Tony’s parents.
Instead, she settled for the worst punishment she could think of at the moment.
She set down her things and knelt in front of the television stand and opened the glass doors that contained Tony’s extensive gaming system. It took a few minutes, but she packed everything into two cardboard boxes. She hauled the boxes out to the garbage can, but before she threw them inside, she got a better idea.
Twenty minutes and a few clicks later, she had sold the entire collection on eBay, the money headed straight to her PayPal account.
###
“How are you so awesome?” Seth brushed Tabby’s hair off her face and smiled. They were lying in bed, Tabby sprawled across him, her chin resting on her hands on his chest.
“Mmm.” She kept her eyes closed, enjoying the brush of his fingers against her cheek. “You know, I didn’t have you pegged for the type of guy to walk into my apartment and sweep me off my feet like that.”
As soon as she opened the door, he had stepped in, caught her around the waist and kissed her fiercely. It was the sexiest thing a man had done to her in a very long time, partly because she had imaged him doing just that while she had waited for him.
“Yeah, I’m usually not.”
“No?”
“My life is pretty vanilla usually.”
She tipped her head down and kissed his chest. He was surprisingly toned for a history professor.
“Vanilla, huh?” she asked. “Not even vanilla with sprinkles?”
“Nope,” he said. “But with you—you are my sprinkles.”
She smiled at him. “I like that.”
“No, really. My life, in general, is vanilla. Maybe vanilla bean, but still vanilla. And I like it that way.”
Tabby dropped her smile. “So you don’t like sprinkles?”
“I really like sprinkles. But who wants a bowl full of sprinkles? I still need the vanilla. But I need the sprinkles just as much.”
Tabby smiled again and shook her head, her hair falling across her face again. “That is maybe the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a long time.”
She scooted up his chest and pressed her lips to his, enjoying how his hands roamed up and down her back.
Somewhere on the floor, Tabby’s cell phone buzzed. Seth pulled back, but Tabby followed his mouth. “Ignore it,” she mumbled, but Seth grinned.
“What if it’s important?”
She sighed and leaned over the bed, her head almost to the floor, tossing around the discarded clothes until she found the offending noisemaker.
“Hello?” she answered without looking at who it was. Seth traced his finger in a circular pattern on the back of her shoulder, and Tabby shivered involuntarily.
“You have a tattoo,” Seth said quietly. He had discovered her small gazelle jumping out of a lotus flower.
“Tabby? How are you?” Kody asked.
“I’m just fine,” Tabby answered.
“Good. That’s good.”
“You know,” Seth said. “It’s kinda sexy.” He moved so that he could kiss the ink in her skin, making her shiver some more.
“What do you want?” Tabby asked Kody, suddenly anxious to get off the phone.
“I just wanted to talk to you, see how you are.”
“Well, I’m fine.”
“Good.”
Seth was now gently massaging her shoulders, following his hands with his lips. “Is there anything else, Kody? I’m sort of in the middle of something.”
“Yeah, I just,” he took a breath. “I just miss you, I guess.”
“Sorry about that, but that’s your problem.”
“Right, okay, yeah, sorry to have bothered you. Good night, Tabby,” he said sadly.
“Good bye, Kody.” She snapped shut the phone and turned to Seth.
“Who was that?” Seth asked.
“Just an old friend.”
“It didn’t sound like a friend,” he remarked, continuing to kiss along her shoulder. “Was that an ex?”
“Yeah,” Tabby rolled her eyes. “He’s an idiot.”
“He must be if he let you go.”
Tabby couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?”
“That’s such a cheesy line.”
“It’s true.”
“Oh, well, I can handle a little cheese, I guess.”
###
Claire stared at the long list of phone numbers in front of her. She didn’t want to do this. She really didn’t want to do this. But she also didn’t want a caterer, florist, hair dresser, makeup artist and two personal assistants her mother hired to show up at Apple Hill on Saturday.
She stood up and closed her office door, put her office phone to voice mail and dialed.
“Hi, Sandy, this is Claire Henderson… Yes, I’m fine, how are you?… Good. Well, I just need to cancel the flowers for Saturday… Yes, that’s right, cancel them. But not the ones for Friday night… Correct… There’s just been a change of plans is all… Nope, everything’s great… Yes, I know we’ll lose the deposit. That is filed under my fiancé’s credit card, correct? Excellent… Thank you so much.”
She hung up. That wasn’t so bad. She dialed the next number.
“Hi, Cynthia, this is Claire Henderson… I need to cancel the catering for Saturday at Apple Hill… Yes, that’s right, completely cancel everything… Yes, I know we’ll lose the deposit. That’s under Tony’s card, correct?… Great… To be honest, the guy’s sort of an ass. He’s screwing my cousin, so I decided it would be better to not marry the prick… Okay, thanks so much,” she ended brightly, not really waiting for Cynthia’s full reaction.
Claire was sick of lying.
Three very similar conversations later, Claire leaned back in her office chair and took a breath. Then she quickly gathered her things and slipped out of the office. She really hadn’t planned on going into the office at all, but when she realized how many people would show up at her parents’ house if she didn’t intervene, she decided she should ensure some privacy for the phone calls.
On her way back to Apple Hill, she stopped by the post office and mailed a soon-to-be-very-happy Ebay shopper two large boxes filled with a high-end gaming system as well as a dozen of the latest video games.
When she pulled into the driveway, her mood dropped significantly when she saw Tony’s car parked out front. She was tempted to key it as she walked by, but she resisted.
Inside, her mother was directing Tabby and Brie in the decoration of the second floor balcony that opened from the sitting room. It had been cleared for the occasion and lined with chairs for the ceremony.
Guests would traverse the wide grand staircase, which would be lined with white roses (or so everyone thought), and into the large sitting room. The big double doors to the balcony would be open, creating the illusion that everyone was outside. Claire and Tony would be married (or so he thought) on the balcony, overlooking the vast backyard and beautifully manicured grounds of Apple Hill. Off in the distance, Claire could see the Blue Ridge Mountains. It would be beautiful. If only it were actually going to happen.
When she walked into the room, Tabby was glaring at Brie so hard that Brie actually took a step back and raised her chin, which gave Claire a nice view of a fresh hickey on her throat. She shook her head. Lovely.
“Hey, babe,” Tony said from behind her. Claire took a deep breath and turned.
“Hey,” she said, allowing him to kiss her cheek. “Aren’t you picking up the tuxes today?”
“Yeah, but I’m waiting for Seth. He’s running late—said something about needing to go home and change.”
Tabby, who had been blatantly listening from across the room, quickly made herself look busy, but Claire saw a satisfied smirk. Go Seth and Tabby, she thought.
“Are you still going golfing this afternoon with your uncle and dad?”
“Yeah, and then we’re doing the bachelor party back in the D.C., so I really won’t see you from now until the rehearsal.”
“Okay, I’m going to be so busy around here,” she said, wanting to run away and kick him in the nuts at the same time. She was sure it was possible, but she wasn’t sure how to go about it.
Just then, Seth walked in looking tired, freshly showered and happy. He ignored them, walked immediately to Tabby, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her so deeply that Dee said, “Well!” pointedly. Tabby and Seth ignored her.
“That’s new,” Tony said to Claire.
“Yeah, I guess they hooked up.” Out of the corner of her eye, she caught site of Brie, who was glaring at her with barely disguised hate. It was going to be a long day.
###
Four hours, two hundred chair covers, one final dress fitting for three women, and five signs to direct parking later, Claire and Tabby were speeding toward town to get their nails done, leaving a sulking Brie and an overly bright Dee to tie some more bows on party favor boxes.
Once settled firmly into chairs with their feet and hands soaking, the conversation quickly turned to the bachelorette party that evening.
“How do you want me to handle it? I can lock Brie in a closet, or I can get her so drunk she’s miserable tomorrow. Your call,” Tabby said as the manicurist started massaging her feet.
“I say we get her wasted. Then she can’t go find Tony in the middle of the night. I’m sick of them doing it in my bed. It’s just gross.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t burn down the house.” Tabby shuddered in disgust.
“Speaking of beds,” Claire said suggestively, “I gather you got some bed time with Seth last night?”
Tabby smiled and sank farther into her chair. “It was fabulous. That man doesn’t just know his way around history books. Did you know he has a six pack? I never would have guessed under those sweaters he wears.”
“I can’t believe you’re hooking up with someone already after Kody,” Claire admitted.
“He called me last night.”
“To say what? ‘I’m an idiot in a tree?’ ”
“Something like that. I think he wants to get back together.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“Ugh.”
“Exactly. I think he got the hint that I was with someone else. He totally ruined my afterglow though.”
“Not to be a selfish bitch, but at least you have two guys, count them two, pining over you. Meanwhile, I’m over here with an overgrown 12-year-old boy with the libido and morals of…” Claire paused, trying to think of someone as vile as Tony. “There is no metaphor for him. I’m officially out of insults.”
“You know,” Tabby cast her a sidelong glance, “you can end this all now. You can call him, tell him he’s a cheating bastard, and walk away completely. You don’t have to do any of this.”
“I thought about it. I think about it a million times every minute,” Claire admitted. “But I don’t want him to win. I want him to feel all the pain I’ve felt this past week.”
After getting manicures, they drove to several apartments around town, looking for one for Claire to rent that would be even a quarter as nice as the house she had shared with Tony. After the third overpriced, under-updated monstrosity, they sat in the car drinking coffees and considering her options.
“I want something amazing,” she said. “I want something unique and fun and colorful. Somewhere that I can have a puppy.”
“You’re getting a puppy?”
“Yes. I’ve always wanted one, but Tony doesn’t like them, so I’m getting a dog next week.”
“Great.” She had the classified sections of three different local papers spread across her lap as well as local listings on the Internet of her phone. “So none of the apartment complexes around here.” She made several dramatic scribbles on the paper in front of her. “Maybe someone’s trying to rent out a guest house nearby.” She started scrolling through her phone.
“And it can’t be too expensive. I’m not sure how this wedding stuff is going to play out, but if I end up paying an arm and a leg for all the shit, I can’t pay for someplace too overpriced.”
Tabby kept scrolling, then stopped. “I got it.”
“What it is?”
“A little cottage… maybe a half mile outside of city limits. And definitely colorful.”
Ten minutes later they were parked in front of a small, adorable purple cottage with a porch running the entire length of the front of the house. The mailbox was in the shape of a blueberry, which both women took as a good omen.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s around,” Claire said, peering toward the house. “I’ll try the number again,” Tabby offered, and started dialing.
While she waited, Claire got out of the car and walked toward the house. It was a small property with stone walls running on either side of it. She guessed there were larger estates on both sides, and this small property just nestled in between. She walked around the side of the house and found a nice fenced yard leading down from the back patio. In her mind, she saw a little fuzzy puppy tearing around the yard, chasing a ball, rolling in the grass. Through large back windows, she could see a big open kitchen and living area toward the front of the building.
It was perfect.
Back at the car, Tabby was just hanging up the phone. “The landlady said she’ll be here in five minutes.”
True to her word, only a few minutes later a bright red Volkswagen Beetle came tearing down the drive, and a perky blonde popped out and waved at them. “Hey there!” Behind her, a small corgi followed, barely paying attention to anything. It was like he was attached by an invisible leash, albeit an absentminded leash.
“I’m Julie,” she introduced herself.
“I’m Claire, and this is my friend Tabby.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Let’s head inside.” Julie started chatting right away about the property, the utilities, the rent and the features. “I’ve been in a pickle getting the place rented. My husband and I live right next door, and when we bought the place a year ago, there was already a tenant here. Then she moved out, and we realized how many people don’t want to live in a purple house, but it’s just so lovely.”
And she was right. The corgi sighed and lay down in a patch of sunshine on the hardwood living room floor while they explored. The front door opened into a small entryway area, but a wide door opened to the living room and kitchen. There was one bedroom, spacious for such a small house, and a full bathroom with a large tub.
Everything was updated, beautiful and colorful. A red accent wall in the living room, a cool blue in the bedroom, a mint green bathroom and a dark, midnight blue entryway made the place feel polished with character. It was just what Claire was looking for.
“I’ll take it,” Claire announced.
“Great!” Julie said, obviously very pleased. “And all the utilities are included, just so you know. It just seems silly to split it from the main house. Oh, and your friend said you want to get a dog soon?”
“Is that okay?”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, of course! Do you have one picked out yet?”
“Still considering my options. But probably something pretty small.”
“Well, if you decide to go a bit bigger, we have two Saint Bernards that would love to have a playmate. But you should stop over anytime with the puppy—we can help socialize him with the cats and dogs.”
After Claire and Julie had gone over the paper work and signed the lease, Claire and Tabby got back in the car.
“How is it possible there are still people that nice in the world?” Tabby asked as she waved goodbye to Julie on the porch.
They drove back to Apple Hill and changed clothes for the bachelorette night out. The other participants—Brie, a few college friends and a few high school friends, trickled into the house for the cocktail hours with Dee, Ellen and a few aunts. Then Claire opened her presents, everyone oohed, aahed and laughed right on cue at all the racy gifts (which Claire carefully put back in their original bags and boxes with cards so that she could return them to the givers like a good little wedding canceller).
Then, the crowd of girls headed into town for dinner and then bar hopping. The whole night, Tabby was sickly sweet to Brie, making sure she was the first to take a shot and always had a drink in her hand.
“Oh, Brie, you’re going to love this one!” she said more times than she could count over the loud music of the clubs when handing Brie whatever specialty shot she could get her hands on. Finally, after one of the bartenders commented with a joke on Tabby trying to get Brie drunk, she leaned over the bar and whispered, “She’s sleeping with the groom. I want her to be hungover for the next week and a half.”
After getting over his initial shock, the bartender smiled mischievously and just said, “Leave it to me.”
Whatever she did worked miracles, because for the next hour, every guy in the bar seemed to want to buy Brie a drink. And Brie, being the ‘neaky whore she was, would never turn down a chance to flirt with a cute guy. Claire watched the entire thing with a mixture of amusement and depression, but she stayed steady through most of the evening. It wasn’t until well into the early morning hours that things started getting a little dicey.
The other party goers were dancing to the loud rock music, and Claire, now thoroughly sauced, was sitting on a bar stool with Tabby on one side and Brie on the other.
Brie was chatting it up with the latest of the drink buyers, although Claire noticed she was having a harder time getting the drink all the way to her mouth without spilling it. She wondered if she should cut off the poor girl. Because, let’s be honest, if Brie got alcohol poisoning, Claire could not guarantee she would take her to the emergency room to get her stomach pumped.
“Tabby,” Claire announced forcefully.
“Yes?”
“I want this to be over.”
“About 16 hours, and it will be.”
“No, now. I’m done,” she slurred, and Tabby signaled the bartender for a glass of water. Claire pulled out her phone and peered at it.
Tabby made a grab for it, but missed when Claire moved away, almost falling off her stool in the process.
“Claire, you don’t want to do this when you’re drunk.”
“No, I want to break it off now!” She stood up, and almost fell over, but Tabby caught her arm and guided her to sit back down.
“Oh god, Claire, you’re turning me into the voice of reason. I hate this, you know.” Tabby pulled Claire’s alcoholic drink away and offered her the water. “Okay, what exactly are you going to say to him?”
“Fucktard,” Claire announced. “I’m going to call him a fucktard.”
“That’s certainly accurate. Then what?”
“Then I’m going to tell him I sold his entire video game collection on Ebay.”
“Okay, also accurate. Anything else?”
“Yes, I’m going to tell him I want a divorce.”
“You’re not married. You can’t get a divorce.”
“Well then I want a fiancé-orce.”
“Okay,” Tabby conceded. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until you’re sober?”
Claire shook her head, but started giggling. “You know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“Words. Words are so funny!”
“Okay, it’s time to get you home.”
Tabby said a quick goodbye to the other girls, who were determined to close down the bar, and made sure they had the address for Uber to get them back to Apple Hill.
Outside on the street, Tabby pushed Claire into the ride share ahead of her.
As the cab made its way toward Claire’s parent’s house, Claire leaned her forehead against the window.
“How ya’ doing over there?” Tabby asked, rubbing Claire’s shoulder to get her attention.
“Oh, you know…”
Tabby drew her into a hug.
“Can we make a stop at The Ladybug?” Tabby asked the driver. He grunted in response and slowed to turn around.
Tabby led Claire into the diner and settled her into a booth. Then she got a cup of coffee to go and took it out to the driver.
“Here you go, one cream, no sugar,” Tabby said as she handed it to him with a pastry bag. “And a blueberry muffin in case you get hungry. We’ll just be a few minutes.”
Back inside, Tabby ordered dry toast, cold water and hot tea for Claire and French toast and hot chocolate for herself.
Claire stared blankly at the food, nibbling slowly at a crust of the bread.
“Okay, talk to me,” Tabby finally said after her friend had ingested a little bit of everything.
“Was this a huge mistake? Should I have just confronted him right away?” Claire asked. “People have flown into the city already. His family from California are staying in Georgetown already. My friends have all paid for hotel rooms. They could have cancelled. Was this just so selfish of me?”
“Probably.”
“What?”
“Probably, it was way selfish of you, but you can’t go back. You can’t undo the past week any less than Tony can go back and un-cheat on you.”
“So I shouldn’t call him and break it off?” She set a hand on the top of the table to steady herself while she tipped her head back to sip some tea.
“What’s done is done. You sure can call him right now, but he’s probably drunk, watching a stripper, so what’s the point? All you can do now is go forward.”
“Right, forward.”
megan unedited 