Chapter 9
A VERY SPENT THE NEXT month distracting herself from reaching out to Pete—and from the fact that he hadn’t exactly reached out to her either—by throwing herself into planning Morgan and Charlie’s engagement party at Sel Rrose.
She helped Morgan curate a guest list and menu, and arrived early to the restaurant on the day of the party to help set up the decorations and trays of Puerto Rican food that her mom and aunts made.
Now, dusty pink candles were scattered on all the tables along the walls, a gold “Charlie & Morgan” banner hung from the bar, and a white gift box was placed next to the front door.
This, Avery thought as she arranged a bouquet of white roses in a vase near the buffet, was where she needed to direct her attention.
On her best friend’s wedding. Not on a guy whose life would be better without her.
And luckily he’d become irrelevant before either of their feelings deepened or before she could even consider bringing him as a plus-one to Morgan and Charlie’s wedding.
Maybe Ryan wouldn’t come to the wedding either, so then it wouldn’t matter if Avery had a date anyway.
This was all working out perfectly. Good riddance, Pete.
Morgan flitted by in her white lace knee-length dress and nude heels, and Avery flashed her most genuine attempt at a smile.
Tonight was important. It was Morgan and Charlie’s first official wedding event with their most beloved friends and family, which included all the people from Woodford that Avery hadn’t seen or heard from since graduation.
Her plan was to keep a low profile and not be too visible, maybe give a brief hello but spend most of the night hanging out with Morgan’s family.
This plan would also, ideally, help her hide from Noah.
Who would be coming tonight as well.
“You look stunning,” Avery said to Morgan in her attempt to take her mind off him, though her body remained on edge.
The moment she arrived at Sel Rrose, she buzzed with fight-or-flight adrenaline, her heart jolting and throat tightening at the sight of any broad-shouldered blond man or whiff of cologne reminiscent of Noah’s.
She felt like an exposed nerve, sensitive to the tiniest of stimuli.
This engagement party felt like a test, one she should’ve studied for but didn’t, leaving her hovering panic-stricken over a blank sheet of paper.
It was one thing to be ambushed by Noah’s presence at that first dinner a few months ago—she could forgive herself for acting strange under that circumstance—but theoretically she’d had time to prepare for tonight.
From this point forward, it was crucial that she keep it together, despite having no idea how.
“Doesn’t she?” Charlie said, adjusting the sleeves of his white button-down shirt. He wrapped his arm around Morgan’s waist and kissed the side of her head. “She’s way out of my league.”
Morgan smacked Charlie playfully across the chest. “I am not!”
Avery touched her own hair. She’d tried to straighten it, but it frizzed up on the way over to the party and looked like shit now.
But she kept her mood light. “I don’t know, Morgan.
He might be right.” She swept her eyes over the room.
There was, thankfully, no sign of Noah yet.
“Look at your hair. It’s so shimmery. And Charlie, your hair is, well … ”
Charlie dangled a piece of sliced prosciutto into his mouth. “Covered in prosciutto grease.”
Avery laughed. “Precisely.”
“You’re both ridiculous,” Morgan said with an eye roll.
Morgan spotted her parents across the restaurant by the windows looking out at the street and waved them over to say hello.
Avery loved Joe and Gabriela Feeley. Morgan was an only child, so they often referred to Avery as their “other daughter” and invited her to spend the summer at their house in Rhode Island whenever she wanted.
Avery always had a great time with the Feeleys up in Westerly.
The house was Morgan’s dad’s childhood home near the beach and had been in the family for almost two centuries.
While there, Avery and Morgan would spend the whole day out by the ocean, and at night they’d stay up late talking on the wraparound porch, bundled up in gray sweatshirts while the salty breeze tickled their faces.
She hugged Morgan’s parents, grateful for the distraction from searching for Noah again.
Moments later, someone shrieked at the front door.
Avery recognized the screeching sound. It belonged to Emma Smith, a bridesmaid and one of Avery’s ex-best friends, who was now running toward Morgan in a fit of giggles and flinging her arms around Morgan’s neck.
The two of them jumped up and down in a tight hug, Emma’s California-boho jewelry clanking as it smacked against her body.
Avery headed to the buffet and shoved a croquette in her mouth, keeping her distance.
“Great setup, girl!” Blair called out to Avery, hovering next to the gift box.
Emma peeled herself off of Morgan, her eyes skimming past Avery’s without a word.
“Thanks,” Avery replied with her mouth full. More people crowded into the restaurant, joining other guests sitting at the small tables along the perimeter or congregating by the bar for a drink, which prompted Avery to crane her neck in search of Noah again.
“Did you get those ‘love’ balloons, by chance?” Blair asked.
Avery ignored her and continued scanning the crowd, only to see more of her ex-best friends arriving.
Viraj came through first and gave Charlie one of those dude-hugs with an aggressive slap on the back.
He was on the lacrosse team with Charlie and Ryan, and now he was a groomsman and wouldn’t even glance at Avery, considering what he thought he saw her doing in Ronald’s bedroom.
Behind Viraj was Parker Stein, Viraj’s bio lab partner from sophomore year.
Everyone had become close to Parker through Viraj, and now he, too, was a groomsman, exchanging more dude-hugs with Viraj and Charlie.
Emma and Morgan joined in the circle next, and soon it was a full-blown Woodford reunion, complete with shrieks and cries and oh my God s and it’s been so long s.
Avery snorted. Her friend group was always loud and commanding in college, bulldozing like a bunch of Kool-Aid men through parties and tailgates, but today they seemed more obnoxious than ever. Or maybe it was just that Avery was watching them from the outside, excluded.
Blair repeated her question, now tinged with impatience.
Avery heaved a frustrated sigh. “Yes, I got the balloons.”
“Where are they?” Blair asked.
Viraj’s eyes flicked to Avery as he made his way to the buffet. A lump formed in Avery’s throat.
“There were problems with the delivery.” Avery did her best to keep her voice even. “They’re coming.”
Blair frowned sympathetically, but her eyes were empty, like she didn’t mean it, because she didn’t. “Bummer! You should’ve said something. I would’ve picked them up on the way here.”
Avery’s nostrils flared. The balloons were such a fucking ordeal.
Avery had arrived at Sel Rrose as they were getting delivered, and it turned out some idiot at the balloon place brought “Happy Birthday!” balloons instead, so Avery had to send them back.
Not that Blair would care about this. She would only use it as proof of Avery’s incompetence.
“I’m sure we’ll survive without the balloons,” Avery said flatly.
Blair gave Avery a look like she was the stupidest person alive, like how could Avery possibly think Morgan could have a good engagement party without the balloons.
Sometimes Avery wasn’t sure how much of Blair’s attitude toward her was actually the result of Blair’s mom’s affair.
The fact that Mrs. Montgomery cheated on Mr. Montgomery with a twenty-five-year-old she met at work certainly did not help Blair’s feelings about Avery’s alleged infidelity.
“Fine,” Blair nearly spat.
Avery suddenly realized she had no drink in her hand and went to order a whiskey. Neat.
She leaned against the bar and sipped her drink, the smooth brown liquid warming up her insides.
She knew she needed to keep it together tonight, but after graduation she’d genuinely thought she would never see these people again.
But it was inevitable now with this wedding.
For any other normal friend group, this would be a happy occasion, a chance to laugh and reminisce about the fun times they had in college and make new memories as adults.
That wouldn’t happen here. Everything was tainted by Avery’s actions senior year, a dense awkwardness looming over everyone like haze.
But Avery would just have to deal with everyone’s version of events of that night.
It was the dominant narrative she had no interest in rectifying.
Let Blair be sickly sweet to Avery’s face but call her a ho behind her back, tell everyone that Avery was a horrible person who wasn’t to be trusted.
Let it all happen again and again, a million times over.
All of it was better than admitting what Noah did to her was real.
Morgan flitted by again, the loose waves in her hair perfectly intact, and stopped when she spotted Avery. Avery smoothed down her flyaways.
“You should go grab some pasteles before they’re all gone,” Morgan said. “Titi Julia sort of only made enough for family since it’s a big undertaking, but I told her you count.” Then she eyed Avery’s drink. “Since when do you like whiskey?”
“Since now.” Avery took another swig and winced. She hated whiskey.
Suddenly her pulse flared at the sight of Noah. There he was, tall and broad-shouldered with a head of blond hai—
Nope, that wasn’t him. That was Morgan’s cousin.
“Come with me.” Avery needed a distraction. “I wanna show you something.”