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Do not let “The Notebook” romanticize it. Allie was still a cheater and her fiancé deserved better.
“I thought you might need a little liquid courage for this.” Chloe hands me the champagne flute full of bubbles and I resist the urge to down it all in one gulp knowing that if I’m drunk when I get to my parents’ house, it will make this situation worse. “Did you honestly think you were going to be able to avoid JP forever?”
“Jacob,” I respond without thinking. I was the only person that called him JP and I used to be very territorial about that nickname.Evidently, I still am.
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, I forgot that’s your special name but you know what I’m saying, Whit. You knew this was inevitable. You’re gettingmarriedand he’s your parent’s best friend.”
I shut my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “I know, and I did expect it. I guess I wasn’t expecting it this soon and while Parker was out of town.”
She cocks an eyebrow at me and gives me a wicked grin. “Are you worried something might… like happen between you two?”
My eyes widen. “No!” I shriek.
“Okay ow.” She winces. “And liar.” She blinks her eyes several times before sitting her drink down on my nightstand and hopping on my bed.
“He broke up with me.”
“Two years ago, and he hasn’t seen you since. Maybe he’s been having regrets this whole time and now he’s back to fix that mistake.” She smirks.
“What does that even mean, Chloe?” I ask her as I come out of the walk-in closet in the white lace backless jumpsuit that I’d bought among a million other white pieces of clothing when Parker and I got engaged. “Also, you’re not helping.”
“It means that maybe you’re so worried that with Parker not being here you run the risk of you and Daddy JP falling back into old patterns.” She refills her glass and tops mine off too. “That Jacob will take one look at you and rip that jumpsuit off of you before you even have a chance to blink. That he’ll drop to his knees and confess that these past three years have been miserable AF and he misses you and loves you and to hell with Aunt Michelle and Uncle Kev; he’ll be damned if you marry another man that isn’t him,” she says dramatically, placing a hand across her heart and then over her forehead.
My mouth drops open because if I was being honest with myself, that thoughthadcrossed my mind. I didn’t necessarily want him to but I did think there was a possibility. “You read too many romance novels,” I tell her before moving toward my dresser to grab the Cartier watch that Parker had gotten me for my birthday last year as well as my engagement ring.
“I sense deniiiiiial,” she sings.
I ignore her as I move into my bathroom to finish my hair. I stand in front of the mirror at my sink staring at myself in the mirror. The bathroom hashisandherssinks and it’s extremely obvious which is which. My curling iron, bobby pins, Q-Tips, makeup wipes and face wash line my sink as well as my Chanel perfume that I’ve been wearing for years. I plug in my blow dryer and flip my head over and begin diffusing my hair. “He wants you back.” I hear from the entrance to my bathroom and I immediately flip it over and stare at my cousin with wide eyes.
“No, he doesn’t. I mean… he does? Who said that? Did you talk to Trey? Who said he wants me back?” My heart begins pounding in my chest and adrenaline rushes through my veins at the thought.
Chloe leans against the doorjamb. “I said,what ifhe wants you back?” She blinks her eyes rapidly. “But I think I just got my answer.”
“I love you and I wish you were here,” I say into the phone as I stand in front of my parent’s house. Chloe and I had decided to take an Uber because I was already anticipating drinking too much, especially since I was already feeling a slight buzz from the champagne. Now I have a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I can’t decide if it’s nerves, anxiety, excitement or maybe a combination of the three. Regardless, the feeling is trying to convince me that another drink will calm whatever it is coursing through me. Chloe had already left to go inside when I decided to call Parker. I wanted to hear his voice. Wanted to hear him tell me that he missed me and wished he was here too. Instead, he’s given me a hard time ever since we’ve gotten on the phone.
“You know how you get when you and Chloe drink too much. I can already hear it in your voice,” he responded without even an acknowledgment to what I said. “And your parents wait until I leave town to throw you some sort of engagement party? Without your fiancé?”
“It’s not an engagement party, Parker. Our engagement party is next month. They are just having their friends over.”
He sighs. “I shouldn’t even be surprised; your parents hate me.” I brace myself for the conversation we’d had at least a dozen times before.
“They don’t hate you, Parker.” And they didn’t. Kevin and Michelle Monroe don’t hate anyone. My mother is practically a direct descendant of Mother Teresa and my father is like a giant teddy bear. They just don’t know Parker very well and struggle understanding him at times because Parker can come off… aloof. My parents are loud and exuberant and will ask you a million questions in an effort to get to know you and keep you involved in the conversation and that overwhelms and intimidates my introverted fiancé a bit. Therefore, he comes off standoffish which makes my parents try harder to get him to open up.
It’s a vicious cycle.
“Fine Whitney. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go out later.” I’d made the mistake of telling him Chloe and I took an Uber and now he thinks we planned to get hammered.Though after a night of being around JP, I just might.
“With Chloe and Mason? Come on Parker, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. Mason won’t look out for you once he sets his eyes on the first thing in a skirt and Chloe will do the same the second, she decides who she’s going home with.”
“Ouch, Parker, tell me how you really feel.”
“I believe I just did and you know it’s true.”
“Babe, I called you because I miss you and I wanted to talk to you. Not to get in a fight. Can’t you just tell me you love me and you miss me and can’t wait to see me?”
“You know I feel all of those things.”
