“Where are you?” Georgie whispered through the phone a few minutes later. I sat at a tucked away table, eyeing Serena as she waited at the bar for our drinks.
“You don’t have to whisper,” I replied, “It’s a phone call.”
I could practically hear her roll her eyes.
“Can you bring her to the diner in ten minutes?”
“Ten minutes?” I echoed. “Pulling together an event in a handful of hours might be a record for you.”
“No, you can’t put that there—” Georgie’s voice went muffled as she directed someone about balloons. “I’m back. Is ten minutes okay?”
Serena smiled as she began walking toward me with two coffee mugs. “Yep,” I said, ending the call and shoving my phone back into my purse. Not exactly the most subtle I’d ever been, but, desperate times.
She set them down and draped one leg over the other as she sank into the chair across from me. “Who was that?” Her eyes twinkled.
“Georgie,” I replied, resenting the way Serena’s smile fell. “Asking about the rehearsal dinner.”
The next ten minutes moved like molasses. Every time the bell on the door chimed, my gaze flitted across the cafe, pulse spiking as it did. All I wanted was to find a corner of the party, a glass of wine, and do my best impression of a chameleon. Preferably without going into cardiac arrest beforehand.
“I’m in the mood for a burger,” I said the moment my mental timer was up.
Her eyebrows rose. “Already? I thought you were sick from all the sampling.”
“What can I say?” I replied, standing abruptly with a scrape of my chair against the floor. “I have the appetite of a bear. Or is it a horse? I don’t know.” My heart sank to my stomach when my eyes caught on a passerby outside thatalmostlooked like Teddy.
We left our half-drunk coffees at the table, Serena graciously following me out the door without further protest. Even as my knees wobbled, I distracted her while we moseyed down Main Street, pointing to my father’s obnoxious balloon bobbing over the rooftops, and Georgie’s Pottery Shop across the road. She hummed and nodded in response, probably thinking I’d caught some sort of mind-controlling parasite from the final lobster tail.
Serena was decently preoccupied when I pushed open the door to Captain’s. A hand-written note—one of Georgie’s creations—hung on the glass, scrawled in colorful letters:Closed for a Private Event.
My best friend must’ve been a secret magician. Inside, I could hardly tell it was Captain’s Table anymore, aside from the telltale blue seats and pink, checkerboard floor. Every other inch sparkled in white and gold—balloons covered the ceiling,metallic tassels draped down every window, streamers hung above the bar and wrapped the legs of stools in stripes. The juke box hummed with a Shania Twain song. A veritable mountain of presents glistened on a nearby booth’s table.
When the door swung shut behind us, a crowd jumped up from behind the bar, cheering and blowing plastic horns. Serena gasped, hand flying to her mouth, taking it all in with glassy eyes.
“Happy bachelorette!” Georgie shouted, running around to us and enveloping her in a giant hug.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,” she whispered, glancing between us like we’d just gifted her a mansion on Bluebell Lane. “This is really too much.”
“Thiswas all Georgie,” I replied.
She waved a hand at me. “Margot’s being modest. It washeridea.”
Against my will, Serena pulled me into a hug and sniffled in my ear. I frowned. Of course it was nice, but I didn’t think it wascry-worthy. She fanned her red, tear-streaked face when she released me. Georgie and I shared a concerned look.
A group of women soon consumed Serena. No one would’ve been able to tell they hadn’t seen or spoken to her in years—they squeezed her hands and crooned a series of genuine congratulations, just like they would treat anyone in town. My stomach knotted.
“Something’s wrong,” Georgie murmured from the side of her mouth as we looked on.
“I know,” I said. “My money’s on herfiancé.”
She sighed. “Still don’t want to do anything about it?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, a headache beginning to swell. Georgie had been right all along. I was just too busy worrying about things that didn’t even matter.
Now, on top of everything else, I had to stop my friend’s wedding. How inconvenient.
???
“Whoareyou?” I asked my mother. “Shutting the diner down early in peak tourist season? I don’t think that’s ever been done.”
