Page 160 of Forever

It was the most beautiful necklace I’d ever seen. A huge teardrop blue sapphire was surrounded with diamonds. I don’t think I’d ever even held something so expensive before.

“Old. New. Borrowed. Blue.”

I looked up at him.

“The sapphire is new and blue,” Matt said. “The chain is my mom’s, so it’s borrowed. Although I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you kept it. And the diamonds were on a bracelet I found in one of your mom’s boxes. I had the jeweler be extra careful in case you want to put them back on the bracelet…”

“Matt,” my voice cracked. “This is perfect. It’s so beautiful.” I lifted the necklace out of the box. I’d wanted a piece of my mom with me today, and he’d made sure I had it. “Thank you.” God, he’d gotten me this perfect custom piece of jewelry and I’d gotten him…nothing.

“Let me.” He lifted it from my hands.

I pushed my hair out of the way and he clasped it behind my neck. It fell right between my clavicle bones. It was going to look perfect with my dress. And my head was completely scrambled as I tried to figure out what I could give him.

“Beautiful,” Matt whispered. But he wasn’t even looking at the necklace. He was just staring at me.

“Close your eyes,” I said.

“What?”

“Close your eyes,” I said again.

He smiled and closed his eyes.

God, why had I asked him to do that? Now he was expecting something amazing for sure. And my mind was coming up empty. I grabbed my cell phone and ran out of the room. I closed the bedroom door behind me to makesure Matt couldn’t hear me. And then I hit Tanner’s number. One of Matt’s best friends would surely have an idea.

“Hey,” Tanner said. “Is everything okay?”

“No.”

“What’s wrong?” He sounded very concerned.

“Sorry, yes. Everything is fine. But Matt just got me the sweetest wedding present. And I didn’t know wedding presents were a thing. And I…” my voice trailed off. “What should I do? I can’t think of anything as amazing as the necklace he got me. I can’t believe I didn’t know people exchanged presents the morning of their wedding.”

There was a long pause.

“Tanner? Are you still there?”

“I was just thinking,” he said. “But I got it.”

“Yeah?”

“Head.”

“What?”

“Give him head.”

I laughed. “Hilarious.”

“I’m serious. Just give him head.”

“You’re not helping.”

“That’s all any man really wants anyway.”

He was definitely not being helpful. But whatever. I had more people to ask. Maybe Rob was right and he really was still Matt’s best friend, not Tanner. “Thanks, Tanner. Gotta go, bye.” I hung up the phone and called Rob.

“Hey, Sanders. Get the rest of the chocolate pudding out of your hair?”

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