Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ava
“ S o, I found another reason to feel weird about everything.”
I lowered my coffee cup and raised my eyebrows.
This had to be about last night. We hadn’t talked about that yet, and we hadn’t talked about much at all since then.
Not the wedding. Not dinner plans. Not even Tucker’s latest antics.
It was only a matter of time before we broke the silence, and the sooner the better, I supposed.
“Do I want to know?” I asked.
“Probably not, but…” Tori shrugged and barreled on. “My cousin texted me last night asking about our gift registry.”
I stiffened. That was not what I’d been expecting. “Oh. Yeah. That.” I grimaced, my stomach flipping over. Great. Now we had two uncomfortable things we needed to iron out. “Shit. That’s an… awkward topic.”
“Right? So…” Tori made a face and chafed her arms. “And like, is it just me, or does it feel really squicky to expect gifts for this wedding?”
“No, no, it’s not just you.” In fact, I’d been mentally avoiding the topic and procrastinating the hell out of even thinking about registries or answering my mom about a joint bridal shower.
Couldn’t avoid it forever, apparently. “Question is, how would we even tell people we don’t want gifts without tipping our hand? ”
Tori chewed her lip. “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be a big faux pas or anything.
” She blew out a breath as she reached into the cupboard where we kept the coffee cups.
“Every Reddit thread or internet post I’ve seen about gift etiquette violations is about people demanding too much.
Like that one bride who required everyone to send proof of purchase to one of her bridesmaids to confirm they spent enough?
” She wrinkled her nose. “I had the worst secondhand embarrassment reading that.”
I laughed, which loosened up some of this renewed tension. “Oh, I remember that one. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone get torched that hard in the comments.”
“I’ve always wondered if that post was fake.” Tori grinned. “Like the poster had a humiliation kink or something.”
Giggles tumbled out of me. “Right? Oh my God, that would be so… Do you think someone would do that?”
She shrugged. “It’s the only explanation I can think of for some of the things people post on there.”
“Hmm. Good point. Either that or they’re just going for clout and shock value.”
“I like the humiliation kink theory better.”
“Of course you do.” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “And that’s why you comment the way you do, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah.” She shrugged and met me with an innocent look that shouldn’t have been that cute. “I’m either putting them in their place for being a twatwaffle, or I’m giving them what they want. Either way…” Another shrug.
I giggled. “You’re such a dork.”
“Eh. I can’t argue with that.” She winked, which screwed with my balance. What was wrong with me?
I cleared my throat and tried to pull the conversation back on the rails. “So… what do we do about this whole gift thing?”
“Well…” Tori leaned against the counter, cradling her coffee between both hands.
“I mean, remember when Molly got married? She and her husband were pushing forty. They had everything they needed.” She shrugged.
“So they just said ‘no gifts’ and nobody batted an eye. With us? I don’t know.
But we could just do the same, couldn’t we?
We’re a lot younger, but we’re pretty well-situated, you know?
” She gestured around our rental house. “We might not have a bougie stand mixer or matching crystal wineglasses, but I can’t think of much we actually need. ”
“There is that.” I sipped my coffee. “We’re ordering invites this week, but I haven’t finalized the text yet. I can just add a line about no gifts.”
She nodded. “Easy enough, I guess?”
“Exactly. Then nobody gets upset if the truth comes out later.”
“And we don’t feel guilty about collecting gifts under false pretenses.” She made a face. “Because wow, I feel super weird about that.”
“Me too, honestly. I hadn’t really given it much thought, but I think I was avoiding it because it gave me the ick.
” I sighed and set my coffee cup on the counter behind me.
“If it ever comes out that we weren’t getting married for real, I don’t want people to think we were just trying to get gifts. ”
“Right?” Tori absently petted Tucker, who’d perched on the counter beside the stove. “Do you think your mom will be upset if we don’t have a bridal shower?”
My first instinct was to say no. Mom loved the idea of seeing me as a bride, but I didn’t think she was particularly attached to bridal showers. Except maybe she was? She’d been gently nudging me about it lately, including when we’d been out shopping the other day. I honestly couldn’t say.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll talk to her. I don’t think it’ll be an issue, though.”
“Why don’t we talk to her together?” Tori suggested. “So she knows this is something we’ve both thought through?”
“Good idea. I’ll text her and see if we can have dinner or something tomorrow.”
“Perfect.”
With that settled, we continued starting our days, but the elephant was still sitting patiently in the room. How much longer were we going to ignore it? Especially with our engagement photos tomorrow afternoon?
As she was getting situated on the couch to log in to work, I said, “Tori.”
She looked up at me, and from the way she chewed her lip, I had to wonder if she already knew what I was going to bring up.
I swallowed. “We should, um… The other night…”
She winced, cheeks coloring as she dropped her gaze. “Yeah. We should…” She gulped. “We should talk about that.”
I leaned my hip against the back of the couch. “It… It doesn’t have to change anything.” I searched her face. “Does it?”
She studied me, her eyes and lips giving away nothing. This was one of the few times in my life when I couldn’t read Tori’s expression, and I would’ve sold my soul to be able to read her mind.
After an uncomfortably long moment, she nodded.
“It doesn’t have to, no. We just need the camera and our guests to believe that we’re really doing this.
” Her smile wasn’t as convincing as she’d probably hoped, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what she was holding back.
Or what I wished she’d say versus what I was afraid she would.
I swallowed. “Right, we just need people to believe us.” I laughed uncomfortably. “I, uh… I think we can sell it.”
Tori’s laugh was about as genuine as mine, but like she had, I pretended not to notice. She absently ran a hand through her hair and shrugged. “At least now we won’t be caught off-guard when someone tells us to kiss on camera. Plenty of practice.”
“Yeah. Definitely, uh… Definitely plenty of practice.” Why was it so tempting to suggest that since practice makes perfect—I cleared my throat as some heat bloomed in my cheeks. “Anyway. I should get to work. I’ll, um… I’ll see you tonight.”
Her smile was full of relief. I wanted to believe it was because we’d put this to bed.
I had a feeling it was because I was leaving.
The morning’s awkwardness was determined to hold on, but we tempered it with some normal texting throughout the day.
That one squirrel is back. Tucker is furious.
LOL The big one that he hates?
Yep. It’s sitting right outside the window and staring at him. He’s growling. LOL
What a big scary boy LMAO
OMG why can’t they fire Gretchen?? (skull emoji)
Ugh what did she do this time?
just micromanaging things that don’t need to be micromanaged and ignoring things that are going to cause big problems.
Yikes
I think Molly’s trying to put a hex on her
Does she know how to do that?
Don’t know but at this point it’s worth a try
It felt normal. We felt like, well, us. Not like us who’d very nearly gotten carried away against the kitchen counter. Not like us who’d avoided eye contact for days before finally having a painfully awkward conversation this morning.
That gave me some hope that this would pass.
We’d both dwell on it and cringe over it for a few hours, and then we’d be back to normal tonight.
That was how things usually went with us.
I mean, not that we’d ever made out before, but any time we’d been out of sync or we’d had a silly argument, that was how we stumbled back into normal.
The bigger things—the rare fights we’d had over the years—took some more work to haul us back onto the rails, but this didn’t feel like that.
It felt monumental in some ways, but not like someone had said or done something to hurt the other.
By the time I pulled in our driveway after work, I was equal parts certain we’d iron this out and terrified it was going to get even worse. Why were emotions so damn complicated? They were stupid.
It was just as well Tori and I lived together. There was no avoiding each other forever when we were both in the same small house.
At the front door, I paused for a deep breath. Then I let myself in.
As she always was, Tori was on the couch with her lap desk and computer.
She put them on the coffee table while Tucker came up to greet me, and she watched me uneasily as I petted the fluffy boy.
The moment reminded me a little of when I’d come home after we’d had that fight over her suggesting the wedding.
There was no anger or hostility, but the worry came off her in waves.
It probably radiated off me, too, because it didn’t matter how many times we’d overcome things—I was always irrationally afraid this time would be the one we couldn’t fix.
Then she cleared her throat. “Hungry?”
My stomach was full of panicking butterflies, but… yeah, I was hungry. “A bit. Do we have anything left from the last meal kit?”
“There’s a pasta dish and some kind of sandwiches.” She pushed herself up. “You want me to make the pasta?”
“Sure. Should I make a salad?”