Falling Away (34 page)

             
“Let me get this out straight off. If even one of you
fucks
with my wedding, I will kill you.” She turned towards me and Evan, “Evan, we haven’t had a chance to spend too much time together. I like you, but I will shred you to pieces with my fingernails.”

             
“You,” she added with a little disgust towards Anne. “I won’t even wait for you to screw up this evening. I didn’t like you even
before
Jenna and Robert started dated, and I’ll kill you if I even
see
you after this little
pow
-wow.”

             
Is it wrong my heart gave a triumphant cheer when Anne hid herself behind Robert a little more after that?

             
“And you two!” My eyes widened as she kept pointing back and forth between me and Robert. “You were doing so well this weekend. Then your dates get here and it all goes to shit! You are here with him, and you are here with her. Stop baiting each other on. If you can’t play nice, don’t even look at one another the rest of the night. And you two especially,” –she pointed to Robert and Evan– “if I see even one more glare between you I will claw your
freakin
’ eyes out. Got it?”

             
We all nodded silently. All except Anne I guess, whose face Sophie caught as she shuffled her way through our circle to exit. Anne redacted it the second she was caught. “And what the hell are you smiling about? Your date, your
boyfriend
, is so obsessed with what another woman is doing to even notice you’re here. Wake up!” she shouted in tune with slapping her hands together loudly.

             
Laughter in my head. Unavoidable.

             
Wait.
Boyfriend?
My jaw completely unhinged. What the
fuck
was he thinking?
Even if he truly hated me, why the hell would he do that to himself? I didn’t care how much he pretended, there was no way he suddenly liked her.
I turned to gage
his
reaction but he was avoiding my bewildered gaze at the moment.

             
Sophie traipsed on, and
Jhett
took a few extended steps to catch up, carefully taking her hand to soothe her as they reentered the reception with smiles. He didn’t seem as upset as Sophie, but I’m sure there was some resentment in there somewhere for our behavior. Robert pulled out of the circle too, mumbling something to the effect of, “Fuck my life,” as he disappeared into the men’s restroom, leaving Anne to fend for herself. Of course she didn’t stay, but she didn’t leave without throwing me a contemptuous look first either, looking me up and down with disgust. It must’ve pissed her off to have Sophie tell the entire group he’d been ogling me all night. No wonder she’d spent the night looking like she wanted to shank me. I was so focused on her I didn’t even notice what Robert was doing.

             
Now alone in the hall, my focus finally turned to Evan, who eyed me very carefully. “What?” I asked fearfully.

             
“We need to talk.” Four words you never
wanna
hear from your boyfriend.

             
Fuck-fuck-fuck. “Evan, now? Really?”

             
“Oh, yeah. Want to go to our room?”

             
“I’m the maid of honor. I can’t just disappear.”

             
He shook his head in reluctant agreement. “Alright. But you know we’re going to have this talk the moment you come up later, right?”

             
“Yeah.”
Soooo
looking forward to it,
I whined internally.

             
Hands buried in the pockets of his pants, he turned and disappeared around the fork in the hall, towards the lobby and main elevators. I groaned to myself and rubbed the ache that was forming in the back of my neck, forcing a smile as I reentered the reception.

Surprise, surprise, I wasn’t feeling too jolly. But I put a smile on for Sophie and
Jhett
and happily conversed with their guests. And when Sophie pointed at me with that bouquet of flowers before turning backwards to toss it at the eligible women, I sidestepped several times to avoid getting stuck with that awful omen. Robert seemed to have the same thought when it came to
Jhett
flicking the garter. After that they cut into their cakes. With our duties finally on hold for awhile, I made my way to the bar, flirted with the bartender a bit, then convinced him to give the best man and maid of honor a much needed free beer.

             
He eyed me suspiciously as I made my way across the floor, clearly making a
beeline for our table. When I offered him the second beer, he hesitated at first.
“Do they have anything stronger?”

             
“
Wine
.”

             
“Beer me then.” He accepted the iced bottle and I sat down beside him, immediately noticing we’d drawn the attention of our friends dancing on the wood checkerboard floor. They eyed us carefully, waiting for the tiniest misstep. “Happy twenty-first, by the way. Sorry I missed it.” He tipped his beer my way before taking a long swig. I wasn’t a huge beer fan, but tonight I was willing to drink anything.

             
Guess Sophie was right. We did seem to do better when our dates weren’t around.

             
I began pulling the label off the dark brown glass, getting a glimpse of the amber liquid sloshing around within. “So how long have you been with Anne?” I asked. He puffed a breath of air past his lips, debating what to say. “I’m just curious, is all.”

             
My eyes met his when they finally turned my way. “Are we really going to have this conversation?”

             
I shrugged. “Might as well. Not having it hasn’t done us any favors.”

             
He downed the rest of his beer in several gulps and slammed it down on the white linen tablecloth. “I’m going to need something stiffer then. Let’s head to a real bar.”

             
“We’re a little overdressed.”

             
“I was referring to the one in the hotel. No one’s going to pay us any attention.”

             
“What about Sophie and
Jhett
? We still have to do their toasts, and she’ll go ballistic if we’re late.”

             
“We’ve got half an hour before that.” He rose and I followed, and I caught Sophie’s eyes widen when we headed toward the main doors together. Robert tapped his forearm (which didn’t even have a watch) and
Jhett
nodded, seeming to understand we’d be back in time. We walked silently to the bar, which was dim due to the late hour, but there were plenty of bodies throughout, mostly in pairs.

             
There was an open round table for two available up front and I slid onto one of the barstools as Robert got himself a drink at the bar. I still had the majority of my beer, which I knew I’d probably never finish, so I passed when he offered to get me something. My hands were folded out in front of me as he sat, just inches from where he grasped onto his glass for dear life, both of us leaning slightly forward. He sipped at the drink and we stared, neither of us sure where to start.

             
Okay, diving in head first. “So how’s school going for you?”

             
Guess my predictable topic amused him, ‘cause he couldn’t resist a mild chuckle or two. “Same. You?”

             
“Didn’t go last semester.”

             
“Why not?”

             
“Trying to save money and find a way to afford Rutgers.”

             
He took a long sip. “So you got in then?”

             
I knew better. That hesitation was ‘cause he always wanted me to stay and go to Yale. But it surprised me that he still seemed against it, in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He got rid of me, so he shouldn’t really care anymore.

             
Then it again, I shouldn’t care that he’s dating Anne. But for some reason, it still bugged me a little.
Damn little green monster on my shoulder.

             
I nodded my answer, and stared silently again, occasionally distracted by the way his finger popped the tiny beads of water trickling down the side of his rock glass, making them seemingly disappear before my eyes. “Still getting up for those damn five A.M. practices?”

             
His head tilted and looked to me with the first natural grin I’d seen from him this weekend. It was irresistible, and I felt obliged to match it. “You always did hate those.”

             
“What I hated was waking up cold and alone every morning.” Another long stare. His chocolate eyes were so dark in this room. “Why Anne?” I asked seriously.

             
“So we’re back on this again?”

             
“Seems so.”

             
“Then why Evan?” he countered.

             
“Because he wants me,” I blabbered before my brain could run its check-and-balance system for stopping that kind of remark.

             
At first his face soured, but then it changed in a manner that read a long, drawn out
okay
…. “Well, I guess I could say the same thing about Anne.”

             
He lifted his glass but I was quick to throw my hand on top of it. “Don’t. Stop,” I almost begged. “Is it just this weekend, or do you always drink this much?”

             
“I drink more than I should, but this weekend has definitely called for more.”

             
I’d agree to that. It had been a horrible roller coaster of emotions I
wanna
bury six feet under. “Why the sudden change? You were never like this before.”

             
“I wasn’t legal before,” he deadpanned.

             
“Bull shit. You had a fake ID and could’ve brought it home. The only time you ever drank was around your mom.”

             
With a hint of bitterness, he said, “Well, my life isn’t as easy as it once was. The
buzz
helps.”

             
I had forgotten my hand was still on his glass. I wrapped a more secure hold on it, overlapping my fingers with his. “Don’t drink anymore tonight. We may not be a couple anymore, and I probably don’t have the right to ask you, but I don’t like seeing you this way.”

             
His bloodshot eyes deceived him, and I caught a brief flash of pain when I said those words. He released the glass a moment later and I pulled it away, handing it to the bus boy as he passed. We sat in silence for several minutes following that, our hands still stretched across the table, our fingertips on the verge of embracing much like the manner our eyes had already done.

             
“I’m sorry I invited Anne,” he mumbled. I shrugged it off, taking a few swigs of beer, not wanting to drag out the stupid drama anymore. “I only did it because I knew you were dating Evan, and I figured he’d be here too.”

             
“
Jhett
?” I assumed. It was the only thing that made sense since Sophie promised not to tell him. I had hopes she’d keep
Jhett
in line, but Robert was his best friend. I knew he’d tell him eventually.

             
“No,” he answered, swaying his head sideways. He leaned back and crossed his arms across his chest
.
“I came to see you a few months back, and I saw the two of you together.”

             
My eyes averted to the table and my right hand moved to massage the tension in my neck.
I was not gonna feel bad about this.
“Robert, I’m not gonna apologize for moving on. I gave you enough time to come around. And when you gave me every
freakin
’ thing that could possibly remind you of me, I gave up.”