Page 10 of Without You

“And you’re happy. That’s what’s important. You and Cameron have the rest of your lives together. Plus, the honeymoon,” I remind her, grinning. The honeymoon is something she hasn’t been able to stop talking about so I’m certain that bringing it up will help brighten her mood and get her mind off of Brody. They’re going to a resort on an island in the Caribbean that sounds beautiful. I’ve never left the United States.

“You’re so right, Katie! Thank you. I needed that reminder. I am so excited for the honeymoon. And, everything up to the point that Brody and his band of hoodlums showed up was perfect. Focusing on anything but how amazing the day has been just ruins it,” she says with a definitive nod.

“Yes. I agree.”

“I’m so glad you could be here in the wedding. It’s like you lost your job for a reason, right? I mean, if you hadn’t, who knows if you would have been able to be my bridesmaid!” She rolls her eyes and huffs. “You lived so far away and you didn’t really keep in contact a whole lot.” She adds the last comment like I was the only one who moved away from Benton, Tennessee.

I raise my eyebrows. She can’t possibly be suggesting that it was a good thing that I lost my job in order for me to be here for the wedding. “I suppose that could be the silver lining in losing my job and having to move home with my parents.”

Hannah completely misses my sarcasm and smiles at me while she checks her appearance. “Exactly. See? You need to look at the bright side of things, Katie. You’re always so negative.”

I’m really, really not. But I’m not going to go there with her because if I’ve learned something in my thirty-two years, it’s when to pick my battles. This is not one of those times.

We make our way back to the reception and she moves around, her smile firmly in place as she talks to her guests and dances with her new husband.

I take a seat with a few friends I haven’t seen in a while and we chat and catch up. Nothing too personal because it’s obviously one of those ‘Hi, how are you,’ type of situations where you honestly don’t care but don’t want to look like a jerk by not asking about their lives. When I bluntly say, ‘I just lost my job and moved back in with my parents so my life is going pretty spectacularly at the moment’, the guests at the table laugh nervously and slowly disappear, leaving me alone at the table.

Seems about right.

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