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“I never would have guessed.”
“Wait—” She chews at her bottom lip. “Are you being serious?”
She crosses the room. “What a cutie! I mean… He sort of has the dad bod thing going, but I don’t know… He’s okay. Like… he’s perfect for you.” She nods to show that she’s satisfied with herself for expressing her thoughts in such an eloquent way. “Yeah, that’s it. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
“Ryan is married. So, no, he is not perfect for me.”
“All things can be undone.”
“From your mouth to God’s ear,” I say. She misses the point entirely.
“And anyway,” she tells me, scrunching up her perfectly upturned nose. “He didn’t even seem happy.”
“His feelings are not my concern.”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Well, it’s just… If you saw him, then you’d know. You’d know how he feels about you.”
“It doesn’t matter how he feels about me.”
“Yeah, well—your body language and your brother tell me differently.” She laughs like she’s joking, but also like the joke is on me. “What I’m trying to say, Ruth—” She pauses and walks over to the sofa.
She sits next to me and places her hand on my knee. It feels like we’re either on daytime television or she’s about to deliver some really important news. Finally, through bated breath she says, “What I’m saying is you could have him if you wanted him.”
“But I don’t.”
“Come on, Ruth. This is me you’re talking to. We’re practically sisters. There’s no reason to lie. Not to me.”
After removing her hand from my knee, I scoot off the sofa. I walk over to the large window and stand in front of it, looking out. I’m just about to tell her what I know, to demand that she tell me the truth, when she says, “I could help you, you know.”
“Help me how?”
“I know a thing or two about men.”
“I have no intention of breaking up a family.”
“They’re hardly a family.” Her tone grows both desperate and excited, maybe a little frantic. “If you’d been there—if you’d seen what I’d seen, then you’d know. Look at you! You’re sitting around here miserable for nothing when what you want is right there for the taking. All you have to do is reach out and grab it.”
“I think you’re mistaken.”
“I’m not. That’s what she did, isn’t it? She wanted your boyfriend, and she took him. Didn’t she?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“You see, Ruth, that’s the thing. There’s no statute of limitations on revenge.”
I watch out the window as the little girl next door plays in the yard. A man I assume is her father looks from the porch intermittently. Most of the time he stares at his phone.
“Don’t worry, though,” Ashley quips. “You’ll see. Because surprise! I invited them here.”
My head snaps in her direction. “Why would you do that?”
“What? It’s my engagement party. I can invite who I want.”
“Not them.”
