Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 04

Their Joke Ended With One Word: Ex Chapter 04

I thought he was going to ask me to stay, but this is what came out.

“You saw how it went tonight. I’ve been apologizing to a few of them ever since, and they finally let it go, but they said the wedding date lands on Chloe’s birthday. So either we push it back a week, or we hand the venue over to her for the party.”

He paused, like he was giving me time to absorb it.

“If we hold it Saturday anyway, none of them will come. Haven’t you been trying to fit into this circle?”

“You don’t want them all skipping the wedding, do you?”

I stood there with my back to him and didn’t move.

When I didn’t react, a note of put-upon complaint crept in.

“You’re the one who insisted on coming, and then you made a face and walked out on the table, so I had to clean it up. I already agreed to push it.”

He said it like he had every right to.

Like the sniping in that room had all been in my head.

Like it wasn’t true that he hadn’t taken a single drink for me tonight, while he openly kept Chloe from having one too many.

It made me wonder whether she’d really been drunk.

Whether he’d have let her drink that much.

Whether she was watching this play out completely sober.

“So,” I said quietly, “the wedding gets pushed a week because I made things hard for you?”

He stopped, thrown for half a second by the summary.

Then he rubbed his forehead. “That isn’t what I meant. But you have to admit you overreacted tonight.”

“Sure.” I nodded. “I overreacted.”

His face loosened a little when he heard me admit it.

He reached out to touch my arm. “All right, we’ve talked it through, so stop sulking and come inside.”

“It’s one week. It isn’t like we’re calling it off.”

I didn’t move out of the way, and I didn’t pull back.

I only looked down at the hand he was holding out.

It had stopped somewhere between me and the suitcase.

“Ian.” I looked up at him and smiled. “You’re right. I was the one who insisted on going. So today I’m going to make one right decision of my own.”

“The wedding doesn’t need to be pushed back. Cancel it.”

His face went dark.

He pulled his hand back.

“If you’re going to be this unreasonable, go stay at your parents’ place for the night.”

“I’ll come get you tomorrow. Chloe really can’t leave tonight and I’m not throwing her out.”

He wasn’t going to throw her out.

The person he wasn’t throwing out was Chloe.

And I was the one who could be sent away.

All at once, there was nothing left to say.