“What was that?” He leaned in.
“Nothing at all.” I smiled at him, knowing he didn’t buy my sweet charade for a minute. But the funny thing was, even if my smile toward him was fake at the moment, Iwantedto be nice to Harrison. All he would have to do was give me the faintest hint of a smile, or ask me how I liked the weather, and I’d have jumped at any chance of civility. If there was one thing I despised more than anything, it was being disliked. Especially by someone with whom I came into such frequent contact.
The sound of a knife tapping against a glass alerted us all to Nathan trying to get our attention. He looked a lot more comfortable in this setting than any other. His chin wasn’t tipped down, and his eyes weren’t brooding. He even had a soft smile on his lips as he glanced down at Charlie.
“I’m not one for toasts. But I just wanted to thank you all for coming. As you know, we didn’t want any extravagant wedding festivities where we’d have to make small talk with people we barely know and haven’t seen in years. We just wanted to celebrate with our closest friends.”
“I, for one, am thrilled to be here,” Oliver said, raising his glass. “I never in a million years thought I would be celebrating my brother’s engagement.”
“Me either. It’s a miracle, honestly,” Harrison added.
Nathan scowled at the two of them.
Ben chuckled and said, “I’ve known this guy since college, and I thought he was celibate for the longest time, until I walked in on him and his lab partner one night.”
“Do we really have to bring up the past?” Nathan asked.
“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when someone decides to get married? Break out all their old stories to embarrass them?” Ben pointed out.
“If you do it in front of Charlie, I’ll kill you,” Nathan deadpanned.
Charlie laughed and nudged Nathan’s shoulder. He immediately softened.
“Anyway,” Charlie continued. “Since we have you all here, we wanted to make a little announcement.” She looked at me excitedly and I tilted my head in curiosity.
Nathan watched Charlie like she was the only person here; like she was the only person who mattered. Seeing them so happy together simultaneously brought a huge smile to my face and made my heart do a little anxious skitter.
Would that type of love ever find me? The number of dates I had been on in the past year alone could fill a Starbucks. That might not sound like a lot, but it certainly felt like too many when I could remember sitting down with every single one of them and exchanging awkward pleasantries. Sometimesit even took three dates before they ghosted me, or I realized we had nothing in common despite trying desperately to convince myself that we did.
The truth was, I wasn’t good at being single. I didn’t know how to date. I had wasted years on my high school sweetheart. Did I still have to use that term now that he’d turned out to be a raging asshole? I had wanted that relationship to work out so badly that I’d ignored the gigantic tote bag of red flags he carried around. Even when he would occasionally drop one, and someone like a friend or my parents would pick it up and wave it in my face, I’d still pretend they didn’t exist.
And then, once I finally got out, I’d had no interest in dating. I’d longed to be by myself, with no one tracking my movements or trying to bring me down.
Which all meant that when I’d dived headfirst into the dating world a couple of years ago, expecting to meet my perfect match after kissing a few frogs, I hadn’t been prepared for just how hard it would be.
“—and we’re taking you all on a trip!”
Skylar gasped and clasped her hands excitedly while Oliver gave a whoop at the other end of the table. I realized I had been zoning out and tried to catch up on whatever announcement Charlie had made that I missed.
“Neither of us wanted a bachelor or a bachelorette party, so we figured a little trip with our favorite people was exactly how we wanted to celebrate.”
“Where are we going?” Ben asked.
“That’s a surprise.” Charlie looked at us all mischievously. “You’ll find out the day we leave. Of course, I’ll provide a packing list and all the information you’ll need.”
“This is on you, right, bro?” Oliver clapped once and pointed a finger at Nathan, who rolled his eyes.
“Of course.”
“Yes, don’t worry about any of that. We’re inviting you, so of course it’s our treat.” Charlie waved her hands. “But this is why I asked you all what weekends you had free.”
“That’s going to be so much fun!” I exclaimed once I had put it all together.
Harrison groaned softly next to me, and I shot him a dirty look. He had the audacity to raise an eyebrow and mouth, “What?” before I turned away to resume ignoring him.
“A trip sounds amazing,” I continued, letting the excitement build in my chest. I never got to go away; sometimes it felt like work was my only meaningful personality trait.
A vacation was exactly what I needed.
