Page 74 of I Heart Mason Cartwright
“Can I speak to you, please?” Mason stands and pulls AshLynn’s chair out for her. “Excuse us a moment.” He grabs her upper arm and leads her toward the nearest exit door.
“Ruh roh,” Zach whispers.
“Well, that reaction does not seem very grateful of him.” Cassandra’s lips are pinched into her judgey face. She takes a sip of her wine. White. Probably Pinot Grigio or something equally boring and pretentious.
“You just sprung this on him, catching him totally off guard. How do you expect him to react?”
“Nonsense,” Cassandra says. “He and AshLynn have discussed it. He knew this was happening.”
“Um,” I say. “I’m pretty sure he didn’t.”
“You’ve been talking to him about his relationship with AshLynn?” Cassandra asks. “Why would you do that?”
“Not just Willow,” Zach interjects.
Thank you, Zach!
“It came up in conversation, very casually,” Zach continues. “We were both there, Willow and I. It was over lunch. He mentioned wanting a long engagement.”
“He told you that?” my dad asks.
“Not in those exact words,” I add. “But yes, basically.”
Zach and I are both lying, of course. No such conversation happened. We are both just hoping to redeem him in Cassandra’s eyes. I hope they are able to work this out. For everyone’s sake.
And I’m hardly even lying when I think it.
Hardly.
