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‘I know,’ Kai says. ‘But how romantic was this? He wants you to experience what you should have long ago.’
I won’t lie; it is romantic in a very River way.
‘Plus, he brought you flowers! For no reason. The last time I got flowers from a guy was because he’d slept with my roommate.’ She rolls her eyes.
‘You two really know how to pick ’em, don’t you?’ Adam says with a pathetic laugh before clapping his hands. ‘Back to work, you lovesick hula girls. We’ve got five minutes to opening.’
‘Holy Moses!’ a woman exclaims as I deliver their drinks. She grabs my hand. ‘Somebody loves you, girl. This is beautiful! When’s the big day?’
These are my first customers of the night, and already someone is gushing over this ring.
‘Uh, we haven’t set a date yet, but we’re thinking destination wedding somewhere tropical.’ This is just like making up how you got your tan, Jade. Dream a little; there’s nothing wrong with that.
‘Oohhh, destination weddings are the best. My ex-husband proposed with a ring out of a vending machine, and we got hitched at the courthouse on a whim.’
‘Hence the ex part,’ her friend says with a laugh.
‘Yeah, River, he’s the perfect guy. He knows me well, I guess.’ After the words leave my lips, I realize I didn’t say Conner. I said River. I’m acting as if I’m engaged to River. Not Conner. And it feels… incredible? Anxiety fills my insides like a beehive when I think of marrying Conner. We’d probably have divorced within a year if it had happened at all.
Holy hell. This was the point of me wearing this thing. To prove who it is that has my heart, and somehow he knew it would be him.
‘Did someone say ring?’ another of their party asks as she walks from the bathroom. Her gaze follows her friends’ and she beams a smile. ‘Wowee! Have you gone dress shopping yet?’
I shake my head. ‘No.’
‘My advice is the perfect dress feels a little bit like the man who gave you this ring did. You’ll just know, and you won’t be able to imagine any other one being quite as perfect. Go with your gut, just like you did the man.’
I laugh nervously, realizing this feeling in my gut may be me ‘just knowing’.
‘She just got married,’ one of her friends updates me.
‘I did; if you need recommendations, I have loads. Hit me up,’ she says, handing me the business card she’s just pulled from her purse.
‘Thank you,’ I say, walking back to the bar, feeling like I’m floating on a cloud. I had no idea this was what this would feel like.
The rest of my night goes pretty much precisely like the way I bet River expected. Women ooh and aah over the ring and ask about the lucky guy who gave it to me. Men are buying me celebratory shots and asking if I have a sister. I handed out Laney’s number twice; I know she’ll approve of both. And Kai asks to see it whenever I’m back at the counter.
No one did this when I mentioned Conner and I were engaged. Everybody frowned like they didn’t have hope he’d pull through, and they were exactly right. He didn’t. He probably never would have, either.
‘Another congrats drink,’ Adam says, sitting a flaming shot before me.
‘I’m starting to slur my words,’ I say, unsure if another shot is a good idea. Yet I down it anyway, holding it up towards the guy who sent it while the table cheers after it’s gone.
Usually, when people would question me on a story I was making up on the fly, I’d give a different answer, whatever came to mind. This time, my story never changed, and I’ve now got a list of islands for a destination wedding, along with recommendations on where to stay, what to do, dress shops, and photographers. If it has to do with a wedding, I’ve heard all about it tonight. I could sit down and plan this fake wedding in an hour with all the information I have.
Yet, with Conner, I didn’t even know where to begin. I was afraid to even ask about wedding plans because he always shut me down with the stupid ‘long engagement’ thing. How is it so easy to make this big of a mistake with someone?
‘Well, I think you got your results,’ Kai says at the end of the night, referring to the science experiment remark. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘First, I’m going to need a ride home. Then tomorrow, I’m headed straight to my dad’s to hear his thoughts, and I think this time, I may even listen,’ I say with a giggle, my belly full of booze and my head full of wedding bells that don’t really exist. Follow my heart, he’d said. For the first time ever, I think I know what it’s telling me to do.
25
JADE
‘Dad?’ I call out as I open the door to my childhood home. A house we moved into when I was seven, so when I think of ‘home’, this is where my mind goes. Since Mom’s been gone, it feels different. Heavier, yet I feel her here the most. It’s not a huge house, just a three-bedroom, two-bath, ranch-style home in the burbs outside of Portland.
I follow the sounds of the TV, stopping at the top of the three steps leading into the sunken family room that was once our garage. After Laney and I became teenagers, Dad converted it into his ‘man cave’. There was a time when he jokingly hung a sign at the entrance that said ‘no girls allowed’. Too bad for him, we pretended it didn’t exist, and he always welcomed us.
