Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Mia
Archer Owns had gotten us a party bus. Not just any party bus, but one of the nice kinds. It had lights, a sound system, a stripper pole, an entire bathroom in the back, and air-conditioning to offset the sticky late-June humidity.
I just want you to have a good time, he’d said before he’d kissed me goodbye, pushing back the jet-black hair he kept long on the top of his head.
Archer was staying behind with his buddies for his bachelor party weekend.
We’d all waved goodbye as the bus had pulled away.
His large stature got smaller the farther we got, his driveway that led to his four-car garage and five-bedroom house also shrinking.
It was the house that I’d move into after we were married at the end of the summer.
He could afford it. That was what he always said when I commented on his lifestyle.
He had enough money for everything, it seemed, and I wasn’t used to that.
Our family had taken a single summer vacation each year when my parents had time off because they were teachers.
I’d grown up in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house that had a toilet whose handle needed jiggling and a roof that needed replacing.
After a year of dating him, I still wasn’t used to it—the money and the frivolous spending.
“This is so nice!” Mindi, one of Archer’s friend’s wives, crooned from the seat next to me. “I was so happy when Jake told me Archer was getting the bus for us. Four hours in the back seat of Laura’s BMW? No, thank you.”
Ruby rolled her eyes next to me. She mouthed BMW before sticking out her tongue. I tried to hide my smile, but Laura wasn’t exactly wrong—squished together in a back seat during Friday-night cabin traffic would’ve been a nightmare.
“Oh my god, it would have been so uncomfortable. Ruby, you and me crammed in the back seat?” Rachel said.
“Mia would’ve had the front seat,” said Laura.
“Of course she would’ve,” they all agreed, mimicking each other like parrots.
All three of the girls on the trip besides Ruby were my friends.
Well, they were our friends—mine and Archer’s.
They were the wives of his best friends and, therefore, my friends.
Ruby didn’t approve. All three of the girls looked the same—blonde (although Mindi had some help in that department), tall, and lean.
For some reason, she didn’t point out that I looked the same.
Except that Mindi, Laura, and Rachel were thin from counting calories and their daily Pilates classes and I was lean from being so busy with my first-grade class that I forgot to eat.
Ruby called them the Towhead Triplets. I’d had to look up the word towhead when she’d first said it.
I often had to do that when I was around her now that she was an adjunct English professor.
If we were name calling, I supposed I was a towhead too. My hair was blonde—much blonder than when I’d been a kid. Archer insisted on setting up hair appointments for me every six weeks to help me feel my best. It was his way of suggesting I go blonder and wear my hair down more often.
He’d assumed at first it was because I hadn’t liked the color or cut.
But that, of course, wasn’t it. Going blonder was fine, but I preferred to wear my hair back, away from my face.
Those flyaways still irritated me. When I’d tried to explain that to him after my first hair appointment, he’d brushed it off, blaming my inability to speak critically of the stylist—as if I simply hadn’t liked the haircut—and found me a new stylist, insisting that this one was better. Once again, that wasn’t the problem.
Archer had recently given up on me wearing my hair down. He’d instead bought me a pair of diamond stud earrings that shone from my earlobes, even with my hair pulled back.
“Can we see the ring again?” Rachel reached out her hand, flashing her manicured nails.
“Sure.” I slid the ring easily off my finger, since it was still two sizes too big. We hadn’t gotten it sized yet.
He’d only proposed a month ago after a year of dating.
Everything was being fast-tracked—we were getting married in two months, right before school started up.
I was so busy during the school year and didn’t get much PTO, so because Archer didn’t want to wait until next summer, his checkbook was helping expedite everything.
They passed the ring around, each trying it on, admiring the weight of the giant diamond Archer Owns had given me.
“I’m going to make Jake propose to me again, just so he’ll buy me a bigger ring,” Mindi said. The Towhead Triplets all laughed.
Ruby held the ring in her palm for a moment before passing it back to me without trying it on. As far as I knew, my sister didn’t have a boyfriend. She kept her personal life private. I slid the ring back onto my finger. My hand felt a lot heavier with it on.
My parents were thrilled. When I’d introduced them to Archer Owns, they’d positively lost their minds, bending over backward to welcome him into the family.
Although they never let him stay past ten o’clock on school nights, as humiliating as that was.
They claimed it was because we all had school in the morning—my parents and me.
I taught first grade now at a STEM school, a job which my parents had helped me get after I’d graduated from college.
I’d moved back in with them right after I’d graduated to help save money.
I had four years of student loans to pay off.
I’d met Archer shortly after starting my job. He’d been touring the school since he was a donor, being the owner of a tech start-up that had made it big. Archer had been looking to give back, fund some STEM programs for kids who hoped to follow in his footsteps.
When he’d stuck his head into my classroom mid-song, I’d been at the board teaching a science lesson, my students reciting ROYGBIV in a cute song perfect for first graders.
He’d flashed his thousand-watt smile at me, and I’d dropped the dry erase marker I’d been holding.
I’d made a fool of myself stumbling around the front of my classroom trying to pick it up.
At the end of the school day, he’d been waiting in the parking lot for me, leaned up against his Maserati.
I’d looked at my twenty-year-old sedan, one of the bumpers being held on by duct tape, and thought that this guy must’ve had his life together, must’ve been comfortable and secure—just what my parents had been wanting for me my entire life.
It was what I wanted too, I reminded myself, downing my second glass of champagne.
“Where’s this place you’re taking us again?” Laura asked.
I had planned the trip. Archer had insisted on me having a bachelorette party, and I didn’t want to end up in a spa or Las Vegas. I wanted to be somewhere I had the best memories growing up, somewhere that felt familiar and warm.
“It was my favorite place to go as a kid,” I explained. “We went every summer—it’s magical.”
“We each have our own rooms, right?” Mindi asked.
“Of course.” I nodded.
The girls all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“I reserved a five-bedroom cabin for the weekend.”
“Mom and Dad are going to flip when they hear we went up to Agate Harbors without them,” Ruby said.
Against everything she’d said at eighteen, now at twenty-seven, Ruby still went up north each year for our summer weeklong family vacation.
It was what our parents called an “important tradition,” and at twenty-five, I still hadn’t broken it.
I purposefully hadn’t told my parents where I was having my bachelorette weekend.
It was important that I kept the plans vague around them.
I’d even reserved the cabin using the address to the school I worked at.
That way no flyers or mailings came to my parents’ house.
They’d been a little too excited about my relationship with Archer.
I wouldn’t have put it past them to show up to “support” me.
Agate Harbors was their favorite place too.
Luckily, we’d all be together again in two weeks, for our family vacation to celebrate the Fourth of July.
“Are you sure this is where you wanted to go for your bachelorette party?” Ruby asked. “Archer would’ve flown us all to the Bahamas if you asked.”
I laughed; he totally would have. “Yeah, I’m sure. My best memories are of Agate Harbors. Might as well add to them.” I helped myself to a third glass of champagne. The cheap stuff the party bus had provided was finally starting to taste good.
“We had some good times, didn’t we?” my sister asked. She sat back in her seat, smiling. Ruby and I had gotten a lot closer as we’d gotten older, our mutual wariness of our parents fueling our relationship. Mom hadn’t gotten any less critical, and Dad still hadn’t found his ability to cross her.
My ring cast a reflection of light onto the roof of the bus. I wiggled my fingers, watching the orb bounce around. This was my bachelorette weekend—I was on my way to celebrate my upcoming marriage at my favorite place. I was the happiest I’d ever been.
I blinked at my reflection in the window. My bleached blonde hair made my brown eyes pop, but the window didn’t reflect the twinkle that’d been there when I’d been younger.
I should be the happiest I’d ever been.
Turning away from the window, I settled in my seat to watch the scenery change from strip malls and chain restaurants to towering pines and shimmering lakes.
Funny how every time I drove up here, I thought of him.
It was hard not to. So many of my summer memories had him in them.
I shook my head.
It was time to make new summer memories. Good ones that didn’t end with me broken-hearted.