Page 126 of Meant to Be

CHAPTER 29

Joe

It was our first big fight. Really ouronlyfight since we’d been together. Yet the whole world, including my friends and family and my entire campaign team, saw a close-up video of it.

I did my best to downplay it to everyone, laughing it off as another example of the media blowing things way out of proportion. Yes, we’d had a spat, I told them, but we’d quickly made up. Everything would be fine.

Berry was the only one who got the full truth, and I leaned on her just like old times. We analyzed the fight, along with everything that had happened since Cate and I got engaged, searching for clues. We were both baffled, but Berry concluded that I’d done nothing wrong, and that it had to be something internal with Cate. I just needed to be patient, she said, and give her a little time and space.

I did my best to follow Berry’s advice, showing as much restraint as I could—which didn’t amount to much. I left multiple messages on Cate’s machine, and called her friends, too. I just wanted to remind her how much I loved her and that I missed her.

But four torturous days passed, and the phone never rang. By Sunday morning, I was in a state of utter despair. It didn’t helpthat it was raining, and I loved rainy days with Cate. All I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket with the woman I loved. I tried to be productive and distract myself, pretending that it was already Monday. I called my staff, went into the office to work on donor lists, then hit the gym for a harder than usual workout. Nothing made me feel better, so I called Berry and convinced her to come day-drink with me.

Within thirty minutes, she was on my doorstep with a bottle of wine, a pizza, and an old photo album she’d recently unearthed from her aunt’s apartment.

“It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?” she said.

“Hell, yeah, it is,” I said, grinning at her. “Come on in.”

For the next few hours, Berry and I pored through old photos, some of them dating back to junior high, and listened to CDs from that nostalgic era, a soundtrack of our friendship. Meanwhile, the wine flowed. Berry wasn’t a big drinker, but she kept pretty good pace with me that afternoon, probably sensing that that’s what I needed. A dear old drinking buddy.

I did my best not to talk about Cate, because by that point there was nothing new to say. But eventually Berry brought herup.

“If she doesn’t contact you before Peter’s wedding this weekend, it’s over,” she declared. “Even if she comes back to you, it’s over. You can’t take her back.”

I nodded, listening, craving clarity, even if it meant Berry’s rules and deadlines.

“By the wedding, do you mean the actual ceremony on Saturday—or Thursday, when we’re flying down?”

“Thursday,” she said, so definite. “She knows when your flights are.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. That gave Cate four more days. Surely she wouldn’t blow me off for that long. “And tell me why this is the cutoff?” I asked.

“Because it’s one thing to do this when only you and I know what’s going on; it’s another thing to let you go to that wedding by yourself.”

I nodded. “Go on.”

“You’re the best man, Joe. She knows what Peter’s wedding means to you and your family…and if she lets you go into that weekend solo, where you’re going to have to field questions from a few hundred people, she’s a heartless bitch.”

“Whoa,” I said. “That’s a little over the top.”

“Is it?”

“What happened to ‘she might be going through something’?”

“I’m quite sure sheisgoing through something,” Berry said. “But that doesn’t give her carte blanche to do whatever the hell she wants to you.”

I nodded as Berry kept going.

“You’ve given her everything. This girl—without even a high-school degree—”

“Berry—don’t go there—”

“Well, it’s true!”

“That has nothing to do withanything.”

“The hell it doesn’t,” Berry said. “Look, Joe. Like it or not, you’re a pretty big fucking prize—and she’s an unemployed high-school dropout.”

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