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“I introduced them,” I said, woodenly. “He was a friend of mine. My best friend from high school. She didn’t tell me the night she broke it off that it was because of him. She’d been sneaking around with him behind my back. Said they were madly in love and how sorry they were. Via text, I might add.”
“What? Oh for God’s sake. Does she know you live here?”
“I don’t know. I ceased all contact with her after she dumped me that night.”
“Wait, you don’t stalk her online?” Jamie asked, sounding incredulous.
“I don’t do any social media. Mostly because of my students. I don’t want them knowing anything about my personal life. That said, even before I took the teaching job, I deleted all her contact information from my email and phone. I didn’t want to get drunk one night and decide it was a good idea to text her at three in the morning.”
“I can’t believe this. I’m so sorry.” By this time, she’d taken her feet off the table and had tucked them under her legs. “I can call it off. Tell her it’s impossible to get done and that the contractor took a different job.”
I was tempted to take her up on her offer, but pride and my commitment to Jamie kept me from doing so. “You already told her we could do it. And I couldn’t do that to you.” I’d just have to suck it up and pretend I was fine. Maybe I wouldn’t run into her.
“But the money isn’t worth you feeling awful,” Jamie said softly. “We’re doing fine without it right now. We’ll be fine.”
I rounded my shoulders and rubbed my eyes. “Talk about coincidence.”
“No kidding,” Jamie said.
I set aside my wine and buried my face in both of my hands. An image of that night came to me. Arianna had shaken her head, as if she knew I was about to ask for the staff to bring out the dessert with the ring. Her eyes had been glassy as she looked across the table. “Darby, no,” she’d whispered. “It’s not right. It’s not even us.”
“What’s not us?” I’d asked, completely befuddled.
“It’s not supposed to be you and me.”
I was too stunned to think of anything to say and had watched helplessly as she picked up her bag and left the restaurant. I’d gotten the text the next afternoon, explaining that she’d fallen for Rob. “Rob Wright,” I muttered under my breath. His name sounded rich too, now that I thought about it. Maybe they did belong together? “Rob freaking Wright. The lying snake. We hadn’t spent that much time together since high school, but he came over one night for dinner. I should have known. The way she lit up around him. He’d just made a bunch of money at his start-up. Some high-tech software that I didn’t understand. According to him, he’d made his goal of becoming a millionaire before he turned thirty. She loved that kind of thing. I was really stupid.”
Jamie moved closer to me and rested her hand lightly on my thigh. “Darby, what can I do?”
I looked up at her. “Nothing. I’m fine. It’s somewhat humiliating. She told me that we were too different—came from different worlds. Meaning, she’s rich and I’m not. Her family had a ton of money. And now she’s marrying into even more.”
Disgust flashed in Jamie’s eyes. “You should see the size of the ring on her finger.”
“Yeah, that sounds like Rob. I’m the one who asked him to come over and meet her, hoping it would help her to make some connections. She was interested in this influencer nonsense, and he knows a lot of up-and-comers, so to speak. Which, in hindsight, might not have been the smartest move. They clicked right before my eyes. After she told me about them, I started thinking about things and putting it all together. He took her away from me, and I didn’t even notice he was doing it until it was too late.” The first dinner turned into another a few days later, with Rob picking up the tab for an expensive meal by the water. Over oysters on the half shell and a bottle of champagne that cost more than my weekly salary, they’d talked about business strategy and marketing. I’d glazed over, uninterested. I should have felt like a third wheel, but I was too dumb to see it. I explained all of this to Jamie, ending with the kicker of the night. “She picked a fight with me when we got home, saying I was too quiet and why hadn’t I participated in the discussion and that I’d embarrassed her.”
“What a witch,” Jamie said.
I smiled, grateful for her solidarity. “I guess she had a point. In hindsight, anyway. She said she had big plans for her life and that people like Rob could help get her there, but not if I behaved like a child. I didn’t know what I’d done to make her feel that way, but needless to say, I felt terrible about myself.”
“Whoa, wait a minute.” Jamie put her hand up like a traffic cop. “Big plans? What did she mean by that? Wasn’t she already rich?”
“She meant getting in with the right people. Her father has money but no connections to the world she wants to be part of. You know, TikTok Hollywood people.” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that means, but I know she did.”
“Jeez, Darby. I’m sorry.” She moved her hand from my thigh to brush her knuckles across my cheek. And just like that, we were in a bubble of intimacy. I could see her and she could see me. “Let’s just tell her no, all right? I don’t want to put you through this. No one should have to make a dream wedding for their ex-girlfriend.”
I sighed, touched by her offer but knowing we had to go through with it. “If I know her, she won’t take no for an answer—even if I thought that was the right thing to do—which I don’t. We already committed. Anyway, I don’t have to see her. She doesn’t even need to know the contractor’s me.”
“Darby, are you sure? Because I’ve never made any decisions in my life based on money. My need for it or otherwise.”
I had to laugh. Her pretty eyes were so sympathetic, moving me in a way I hadn’t thought was possible. I’d been soft and sentimental before Arianna dumped me, but since then I’d made a concerted effort to harden myself. However, Jamie was such a forthright woman, so fun to be around, I felt my curated barriers melting away. “It’s not the whole wedding, just the gazebo.”
“Yes, but I don’t know. It seems like a situation ripe for disaster.” She pinched her bottom lip with her thumb and finger, obviously thinking through what to do.
I ran a hand through my hair. “She’ll see me for what I am and know she made the right decision.”
“What are you?”
“A teacher who needs extra money to replace my run-down car and is forced to moonlight as a carpenter. Can you imagine what she’ll think? What I’ll seem like next to Rob?”
