Page 105 of The Wedding Favor

“You know exactly who I’m talking about.” She nestled into her pillow and pulled her blanket up.

“He’s not my anything.”

She yawned. “He’s very handsome, isn’t he? I wasn’t sure about all those tattoos, but I like them. Gives him character. And his smile. My goodness. Imagine waking up to that smile every day. Don’t let him slip away.”

“I haven’t caught him. We’re just friends.”

“Please. I’m old, not dumb. Sometimes you need to take a chance. Life might surprise you. I never thought I’d fall in love after… well, I just never thought I’d get married. Then I met Thomas. He was twenty-two years older than me, you know.”

I did know. She’d told me the story of how they met often. I sat on the edge of her bed. Her voice took on a dreamy, soft tone as it always did when she talked about Thomas.

“When I met him, I was working as a waitress. He came in every morning and had the same thing—two eggs over easy, three pieces of bacon, and coffee. I worked the morning shift so I could have my days free to audition and whatnot.” She gave a wobbly smile. “Although at that point, I’d been in the city for fifteen years. I’d been a Rockette, even some bit parts in plays, but I was still waiting for my big break.”

“What did you think of him?”

Her eyes drifted to the wedding portrait of the two of them that hung front and center. I often caught her staring at it. She missed him, that was easy to see. “He was not our normal clientele. Very handsome, always in a tailored suit. A silver fox. He was quiet, took a bit to get him to talk to me about something other than eggs, but he had such kind eyes. He always made sure to sit in my section, and I always made his coffee just the way he liked it. One cream, no sugar.”

“I bet he was a great tipper.”

She grinned. “Oh, yes. This went on for two years. Then I got a job with better pay and put my notice in. I kept dropping hints, hoping… I don’t know what I was hoping. Finally on my last day, he came in as usual. I brought over his coffee and then I sat down across from him, looked him right in the eye and said, ‘Are you ever going to ask me out on a date?’”

“And that was that.”

“I had no idea he was rich as sin until our first date. We were married six months later. Thomas was a good man.” She patted my hand. “Deserved better than me, I’m certain. He saw my faults. I could be selfish and foolish, but he loved me.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I loved him very much. He wasn’t my first love, but he was my forever.”

“That’s beautiful,” I said.

She sniffled. “Can you get me that box of tissues?” I handed it to her, and she used one to pat at her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m feeling very sentimental today.”

“We could have canceled that pageant stuff if you weren’t feeling well.”

“You need all the help you can get.” She set the tissue box on the nightstand and placed her folded hands on her chest. “Alright, no more of this. I need my beauty sleep. Go away.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I pressed a kiss to her cheek.

I left her room, closing the door softly behind me. When I turned around, Bruce the Death Cat was sitting two feet away, His yellow-green eyes seemed to look directly into my soul.

I took a few steps down the hallway and peeked over my shoulder. Bruce sat statue still and stared at Gloria’s door for a long moment. Then with his tail high in the air, he turned my way and walked right past me.

FORTY-ONE

“I embraced my role as wife of a rich man.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

“I need help,” I said, pacing in Abe’s office at Al’s the next day. It was Monday, just under two weeks before the pageant, and I’d slipped out after the breakfast rush in a panic.

Abe looked up from his computer. “Alright.”

“Ali came in for breakfast today and she was talking non-stop about the pageant.”

He leaned back in his chair. “This was upsetting?”

“Yes! She was going on and on and then she said, ‘Less than two weeks now. Are you all ready?’”

He stared at me as though he expected me to keep talking. But that was it. That was the story. Didn’t he see the reason to panic?