Page 102 of The Wedding Favor

“Ladies, let’s quiet down so we can get started,” said a slim woman with dark hair and unnaturally large lips. She could have been nineteen or fifty-two. She introduced herself as Casey Myers, the director of our program. “I have a PowerPoint presentation for us to get through. It would be a good idea to take notes.”

Everyone else pulled out notebooks and pens; a couple had laptops they quickly opened. Another announcement I missed? Was there a group chat I was not a part of? From my back pocket, I pulled out my phone and opened the notes app.

Casey was not what I would call riveting. Neither was any of the information she was talking about. I tried taking notes but it was just so boring. Surely she’d send us all an email with this information. To make matters worse, there was a blonde woman in the front who kept interrupting to ask questions. The desire to throw a paper airplane at her head was strong. If only I had brought a notebook…

With nothing else to keep me occupied, I checked my email and found one from Aidan. It was short, a quick hello. Attached was a photo of Missy and him on a beach somewhere in Costa Rica. Both wore beaming smiles and a sort of glow. I guess that happened when you found your person. The twinge of jealousy surprised me. Not because I wanted Aidan. No, I wanted that glow.

With a sigh, I opened my photos and went to the new private folder I’d created. The first picture was from the night of the Shady Cove dance. Abe, Hallie, and I were all together and smiling. Sometimes I imagined we were a happy little family in that photo. I knew that was a dangerous thing to do but I was helpless to stop.

The second photo Mom must have taken without us realizing. Hallie’s hair bow had been falling out so I was fixing it. Someone must have said something funny, because I was wearing a huge grin. But the part that got me every single time was Abe. He’d been standing behind us and to the side so that the camera snapped a photo of his face. His crooked smile, hands tucked in his pockets. But his eyes… they were focused on me, soft and full of something else, a longing.

Even though I’d seen that photo no less than seven hundred times, it never failed to make my heart race with anticipation. I wanted to know exactly what he was thinking at that moment.

Teenager Me would have written so much tragic emo poetry about this.

Somewhere around PowerPoint slide number forty, the door at the front of the room creaked open and a short, round woman slid into the room. Her head down, she crept along the edge of the classroom, obviously trying to make as little noise as she could. Unfortunately, she didn’t see the bag someone had set on the floor. She tripped, yelped, and fell onto the counter that ran along that wall. In doing so, she shoved a large glass jar. It teetered on the edge of the counter. She grabbed it the second before it would have fallen.

Stools scraped as everyone turned to see the fuss. The room lights flipped on.

“Oh, my gosh. I’m so sorry.” The woman straightened from the counter, clutching the huge jar. It reminded me of my jar of pickles. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Thank you for joining us. Please remember to be on time.” With a sniff, Casey glared at the poor woman as she scrambled to find a seat. The room went dark again, and the presentation picked up where it left off. Unfortunately.

“Is this…?” She nodded toward the seat next to me.

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.” She heaved an oversized purse on the table and set the jar she was still carrying next to it. It took her a couple of tries to get up on the stool since she was all of five feet tall. “Did I miss anything?”

“I wasn’t really paying attention. So, no?”

She giggled. Someone in front of us turned and hissed. “Sorry.” She leaned closer and whispered, “I’m Yessica.”

“Iris.”

Yessica rummaged through her bag, muttering to herself, and pulled out a notebook, as well as a pen with a giant green feather duct taped to the top of it. She made enough noise that the woman in front of us turned around again to shush her.

Yessica rolled her eyes and dumped her bag at her feet in a move so delightfully passive-aggressive, I had to fake a cough to cover up my laugh.

The woman turned around and glared at Yessica.

“So sorry,” Yessica whisper-yelled, smiling sweetly. After the woman turned back, Yessica leaned toward me and lowered her voice. “Bet she’s fun at parties.”

After shoving the jar to the middle of the table, she began scribbling in her notebook. It was then I noticed what was in the jar.

“Are those dead frogs?”

FORTY

“My Thomas was quiet and serious and deeply devoted. He loved the me I didn’t let others see.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

“Put your shoulders back,” Gloria said. Or rather yelled from across the room. the community room at Shady Cove. Since it was the largest room in the place, it also meant we had an audience. “Your posture is atrocious.”

“I have to agree with Gloria.” Mary frowned from the sidelines.