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They had all three ordered chicken and mushroom crepes with a green salad. Cate thought it was a good sign that she was starving. She cleared her plate down to the last crumb.
No one tried to initiate a serious conversation while they were eating. But finally, Gabby looked at her watch. “I have twenty more minutes. Tell us what you want to say, Cate. Obviously, it was a terrible day.”
Something seemedoffwith Gabby, but maybe Cate was imagining things. “Well,” she said. “I don’t know how much you could hear...”
“Not enough,” Leah said, aggrieved. “We’ve been in the dark all week. No one can reach Jason.”
“That’s because he’s in Peru.” Cate took a deep breath. “Jason said he loves me, but he’s notin lovewith me. That’s it. End of story.” Inwardly, she felt enormous relief. This time she managed the explanation without falling apart. Surely that was progress.
Leah’s face always reflected every emotion. At the moment, she appeared torn between indignation and sorrow. “Is there another woman?”
Cate counted to ten. That question was really starting to annoy her. “No,” she said flatly. “Jason and I made a mistake, that’s all.”
Gabby pushed her plate aside and crossed her arms over her chest. “Or maybe another man for you?”
Leah glanced at Gabby. “Oh, surely not.”
“Thank you, Leah,” Cate said wryly. “And no. Not another guy.”
“But you’ve known each other since you were practically babies,” Leah said. “How could this happen?”
Cate took the question seriously, even though it might have been rhetorical. “I think maybe that was the problem. We were too comfortable with each other, and we let the wedding plans turn into an out-of-control snowball. Or Indiana Jones’s boulder. Jason must have had doubts for weeks or months but couldn’t bring himself to break things off.”
Gabby glared. “Well, he picked a hell of a time to grow some balls.”
“Gabby!” Leah was shocked. Her cheeks reddened. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“To be fair,” Cate pointed out, “he didn’t want to hurt me. Or disappoint our friends and family. I think he probably agonized over it for a very long time.” Chagrin overwhelmed her as she realized that she, too, was defending Jason. Partly because she now saw that she was at least partly to blame for what happened. She hadn’t been paying enough attention to the man she thought she wanted to marry. Not enough to see that he had doubts.
What a mess.
Gabby looked at her watch and stood abruptly. “I’m sorry I can’t stay longer. But I have to get back to work.” She tossed a twenty on the table. “Call me, Cate, and we’ll talk again soon.”
And then she was gone...
Cate stared at her tall, beautiful friend walking away. There was impatience in every step. “Is it just me, or is something weird going on with her?”
Leah shrugged. “I don’t know. I think she has a lot of stress at work.”
“Maybe.” Cate wasn’t convinced. She’d gotten a definite antagonistic vibe from Gabby. It was hard to see how Gabby could be angry with Cate, but what other explanation was there? Except that maybe she resented shelling out money for a bridesmaid dress at a doomed wedding. Gabby had grown up with nothing. She didn’t believe in waste.
This time, it was Leah who stood. “I’m so sorry, Cate,” she said, “but I have a dentist appointment in twenty minutes. I’ve postponed it twice, so I really need to show up this time. But come over to my place for a girls’ night soon. Promise?”
“Of course,” Cate said. “I would love that. You go on. I’m getting the check. Thanks so much for meeting me on short notice.” She stood and hugged her friend, and then suddenly, she was alone again.
Somehow, even though her life had ground to a halt last Saturday, the rest of the world kept on turning.
She didn’t want to go back to Harry’s apartment and spend hours doing nothing. She needed a plan, a purpose. But it wouldn’t jell.
As she realized she was near one of her favorite parks, she went there and found a bench in the shade. When she called her mother, Gillian answered, out of breath.
“Hey, Cate. Everything okay?”
The question struck Cate as odd. Did everyone think she was going to suddenly be back to normal? Maybe she was supposed to. Maybe getting left at the altar was a blip on the radar. Though to be scrupulously accurate, she had left Jason standing there and not the other way around.
But what choice did she have? When he said he didn’t want to get married, she had panicked. What would she have done if Harry hadn’t been there?
“I’m fine, Mama,” she said. “I was just wondering if you’d talked to Grammy.”
