Chapter 6
Cassie entered the large ballroom and scanned the people, all focused on different tasks and moving at a frenzied pace.
A cloud of stress hung in the air. Cassie knew how important this event was to Molly.
In the week since Molly had moved in, she’d been up late every night stressing over seating charts, table arrangements, and budgets.
And as the days went by, Cassie’s hope that Molly and Eva’s breakup would come to a happy resolution began to dwindle.
She walked up to a woman in her early twenties. “Hi, is Molly here?”
The woman glanced quickly around the room. “Oh, she went to the bathroom, but that was a little while ago.” Her brow furrowed with the realization.
“OK, thanks.” Cassie headed out to the main hallway and found the women’s bathroom. When she opened the door, she glanced at the four stall doors inside. The door closest to the far wall was closed.
She looked to the floor and saw Molly’s black high heels as she registered a small sniffle from inside.
“Molly?” she asked gently as she walked across to the sinks.
“Cassie?” Molly’s voice was weak. There was a pause as the toilet paper roll turned and Molly blew her nose. The toilet flushed, and Molly opened the door.
When Cassie saw Molly’s red eyes, she felt like she had been punched in the gut. “Mol, what’s going on?” She tried to infuse as much kindness into her voice as possible. She had never seen Molly like this and didn’t quite know how to handle it.
Molly let out a long sigh. “I don’t know if I can do this, Cas.”
Cassie stared at her for a moment. “What do you mean?”
Molly opened her mouth to speak just as the bathroom door swung open. The woman who had told Cassie to check the bathroom stood there. She glanced at Cassie, then at Molly, as a look of understanding crossed her features.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Excuse me,” she uttered before rushing out of the bathroom.
Molly walked over to the sink and stared at her reflection. “God, I look horrible.”
Cassie turned toward her sister, taking in her puffy eyes and red nose. She wet a paper towel and handed it to her to wipe away the mascara starting to run.
“What can’t you do, Mol?”
Molly met Cassie’s eyes through the reflection in the mirror. She stopped wiping her mascara and lifted her palms in the air. “This. All of this. Planning a wedding for a couple when I can barely breathe.” Her voice cracked and she closed her eyes for a moment, gathering herself.
Cassie placed her hand on Molly’s shoulder, hoping it would help her feel somewhat supported.
When Molly opened her eyes, Cassie saw the tears ready to fall. “I want to tell them to go. Run. While they still can, before it’s too late.” Molly shook her head. “How am I supposed to celebrate something I don’t believe in anymore?”
Cassie’s heart sank in her chest. She had no answer for this.
Molly had always been the anchor in times of crisis.
She always had words of wisdom. Now she was faltering and Cassie had no idea how to be the one to right the ship.
She suddenly felt guilty for all the years Molly must have felt overwhelmed, stressed, and lost, and yet only showed strength and resilience to her.
Molly bore that weight when she had just lost everything too.
Anger boiled up in Cassie, at her own ignorance for not realizing how much Molly had shielded her from over the years.
Now Molly needed her. She could be the strong one for her. She would be.
Cassie wrapped her arms around Molly and hugged her tight. Molly hesitated for a moment, then sank into the hug and sobbed. After a few long moments when Molly’s sobs quieted, Cassie whispered, “I’ve got this. Tell me what you need and I’ll take care of the wedding.”
Molly pulled away from the hug, a look of concern in her eyes. “Cassie, I can’t ask you to do that.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“You didn’t ask. I offered.”
Molly bit her lip, mulling it over.
“Mol, you have always been there for me. Please, let me be here for you.”
Molly’s lip quivered as tears filled her eyes once more. She exhaled and her shoulders slumped as if an enormous weight had finally been lifted. “Cassie.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “Thank you.”
“What are you going to make?” Drea asked, pointing the carving tool at Jake.
“Goose!” Jake giggled. Ash’s brown terrier mix, Goose, ran into the kitchen at the sound of his name, sniffing Jake’s leg and sitting at his feet in case something tasty might fall off the kitchen table.
Sam finished scraping the insides of Jake’s pumpkin with a metal spoon. “Okay, pull all the guts out, bud.”
Jake’s eyes grew wide as he plunged his hands up to his elbows into his pumpkin. He oohed and aahed as he pulled slimy strings of pumpkin innards and seeds out, fanning his fingers like a spooky ghost at Drea before pieces fell onto the newspaper-covered table.
Drea pulled some out of her own pumpkin, draping it from her ears and across her upper lip like a mustache before feigning a British accent. “I do say, you’re rather spooky.”
“That’s a choice,” Sam said as she sipped her Malbec.
Jake put some up his nose and pretended to sneeze so it shot out onto the table, which sent him and Drea into a fit of laughter.
Drea caught Sam rolling her eyes, but she couldn’t hide her grin.
They set to carving, Sam helping Jake with his design, cutting where he told her, as Drea worked on her own.
“What are you making, Aunt D?” Jake asked.
“It’s a surprise,” Drea said with a flourish of her hand.
Jake giggled and grabbed some candy corn from the bowl on the table.
“Hit me,” Drea said and opened her mouth as Jake lobbed one in the air. She missed the first one, much to Goose’s delight, who inhaled it as soon as it hit the floor, but she caught the second one with finesse.
“Drea, can you help with the ears?” Sam’s brow furrowed as she gestured at Jake’s pumpkin. Drea hopped up and carved a couple of realistic dog ears to make the homage to Goose come alive.
She sat back down and figured now was as good a time as any to share the news she had been sitting on.
“Hey, there is something I wanted to tell you both.” Sam and Jake both stopped what they were doing and looked at Drea.
The expectant looks on their faces made her news even harder to share.
“For some reason, my parents moved up their annual gala by a week, so it’s on Halloween this year. ”
“Oh no,” Sam said.
“What?” Jake asked.
“Drea has to go to her parents’ gala, so she won’t be able to go trick-or-treating with us.” Sam softened her voice when she spoke to Jake, but it didn’t make the news any easier to take.
“No,” Jake said in the saddest voice Drea had ever heard. “You always go with us. You can’t miss it.”
Drea got up and knelt next to Jake, meeting his eyes.
“I’m sorry, bud. I would rather be with you one million times more than going to the gala, but I have to go.
” The frown on Jake’s face was hard to take, but the sadness in his eyes made Drea want to cry.
Jake and Sam were more family to her than she had ever known, but her parents expected her to be there.
And as much as she wanted to say no, they were still technically her family, by name if not much else.
She wished she didn’t care what they thought, that she could just bail and take their disappointment and anger.
“Listen, I will still come by Halloween night and help get you ready in your incredible costume. You’re going to look amazing, okay? ”
Jake nodded.
“Come here. Give me a hug.” Drea hugged him and wished that things didn’t always have to change so fast. She tousled his hair, trying to lighten the mood before sitting down.
She looked to Sam, who mouthed It’s okay. Drea knew Sam understood how touchy the relationship was with her parents.
Drea added some finishing touches to her pumpkin, then said, “Ready to see the surprise?”
Jake perked up a little, unable to hide his never-ending curiosity.
“Here it is!” Drea turned the pumpkin so Sam and Jake could see it.
It took a moment as they both stared; then Jake said, “It’s Pickles!”
“And . . .” Drea said.
“A cowboy?” Jake said.
“Howdy Doody?” Sam guessed.
“Who’s Howie Doody?” Jake asked.
Drea felt insulted. “No. It’s Jake . . . as a jack-o’-lantern face with a cowboy hat.”
“Oh,” Jake and Sam said in unison, still tilting their heads trying to see it.
“Anyway,” Drea dragged out the word and grabbed some candy.
“Well, Pickles looks good.” Sam smiled.
Drea threw a piece of candy corn at her, making Jake laugh.
“Hey y’all,” Ash said as she entered the kitchen. “How’s the carving going?”
“Hey babe.” Sam got up to greet Ash.
“Not bad, though some people have no imagination,” Drea said and nodded toward Sam. Drea pointed to her pumpkin. “Who do you see?”
“Um, Pickles? And . . .” Ash grimaced and turned to Sam for a hint, but Sam just shook her head to give up.
Drea placed her closed fist over her heart. “Ouch, y’all. Just ouch.”
Jake handed Drea some candy corn to heal her pain.
“Thanks, bud.”
Jake bowed his head in solidarity.
“All right, bud, time for your bath,” Sam said.
Ash rubbed Sam’s shoulder. “I got it.”
Jake flashed Drea a mischievous grin as he snuck a few pieces of candy corn before following Ash to the bathroom. Drea returned a conspiratorial wink. She’d never rat him out and he knew it.
“I’m worried about Cassie. She hasn’t been herself lately,” Sam said as she folded up the newspaper containing all of the pumpkin guts.
Drea’s heart skipped a beat at the mention of Cassie, and all her worries came flooding back. She nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed that. I think the whole office has.”
“I don’t want to pry. I want to be professional, but I also want her to know she’s supported, whatever it is, you know?”
Drea sipped her wine, not knowing what to say. She had been grappling with the same questions since Cassie had shifted so dramatically over a week ago.
“She hasn’t said anything to you, has she?”
Drea met Sam’s eyes. “To me?”