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“Charlie!” her friend hollered over the line. “What the hell is going on? You just left everyone hanging here and now I find you with mybrother?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t really explain everything over the phone. I-I just need some time.”
Alex huffed, “Yeah, okay. Sarah said you looked a little tense when she saw you. We didn’t think it was that bad. And?—”
Shuffling came through the line with muffled voices until she heard Sarah’s voice.
“Charlie! Are you okay? What happened?” Sarah asked in a worried tone. “This is crazy! You, pulling a Julia Roberts. I would have never guessed.”
“Oh, don’t get me started.” Charlie blew into the air.
“Tell me, what were you thinking? I never knew you were having a hard time. You seemed so relaxed.”
“It’s not just about the wedding. It’s everything. The relationship, the marriage. My mother. I needed to escape,” Charlie said.
Charlie imagined Sarah’s nodding. “Okay, okay. We’ll talk later. Come over? If you don’t want to go home.”
“You have a flight early in the morning. We’ll talk another time.”
“I can always move it. This is more important!”
“No,” Charlie said. “You’ve moved it once before. Just go, please. I would like to be alone, anyway.”
She heard Sarah pause. “Alone? You’re with Rick right now! What’s the deal with that?” Sarah gasped, “Oh,shoot. Don’t tell me you two…”
“No, no! It’s nothing like that, really!” It was very incriminating if Charlie were to look at it from an outsider’s perspective. Leaving her wedding and disappearing in a car with another man. This hadaffairandscandalwritten all over it.
She didn’t think this through at all, and now she had dragged Rick into deeper waters than she’d thought. “I just… left, and then Isaw Rick in his car by the entrance. I just got on, told him to drive. Rick had nothing to do with anything!”
“Okay, but are you sure you don’t want to come over? I won’t move our trip, but you can stay at our place for as long as you want while we’re gone,” Sarah offered.
“Thank you, but my mother knows where you live. She doesn’t even know Rick exists, let alone his place. I think I’ll stick it out here for a bit until I’m ready to face her again,” she mumbled, reaching with one free hand to scratch an area on her back.
“Speaking of your mother, you need to at least call her and tell her you’re alright. She went nuts, screaming at everyone when you went missing. If she doesn’t hear from you by tonight, she’s going to file a missing person report.”
Yes, great. That’s exactly what Grace Kim would do, blow everything out of proportion when things weren’t going the way she wanted. Sarah was right. Charlie wasn’t ready to see her mother, but she had to calm her down.
“I’ll call her. How is everyone else doing?”
“We’re all… a little shocked. And confused. Your dad and stepdad didn’t seem to care. The guests were surprised, but they left after they got food,” Sarah said. “And Matt…”
Charlie bit her lower lip, dread turning in. “How was Matt? Was he furious?”
“I couldn’t tell. He left pretty early on. His parents didn’t look too happy, though. I don’t know how you’re going to fix this, but you have a lot of work to do.” Charlie could count on Sarah to be straight to the point.
“I’ll deal with it. How about?—”
“Charlie,” Alex’s voice cut in, “is this some kind of quarter-life rebellion? Against your mom? Because she’s driving you crazy?”
“No!” Charlie waited. “Maybe. But that’s not the point. Just go pack and give me some space to think. You and Sarah are due for a honeymoon.”
“Let me talk to my brother,” he said.
“Sorry, I have to use this phone to call my mother. Rick will call you back. Bye!”
“Wait—”
Charlie hung up, stared at the dial screen, and hovered her finger over the numbers. Shehadto call her mother. Or the cops would be involved. The last thing she wanted was her name on the local news and a police report. She’d embarrassed herself enough.
