Chapter 4 #4
“I’m going to a viewing at three and wanted to ask if you needed anything while I’m out.” Lara glanced at the computer screen and immediately looked away. “Also, peace offering brownie.”
Ella smiled because she was trying, because Lara was trying, because everyone was trying so hard the air felt thin.
“Thanks.”
Lara set the plate on the edge of the desk. Her eyes flicked to the sticky note on Ella’s laptop.
Dress fitting 11.
“Wednesday, right?” Lara asked.
“Yes.”
“Exciting.”
Ella waited, but Lara said nothing else. Just interest.
“Very,” Ella said.
Lara gave her a small smile and left, closing the door behind her.
Ella looked at the brownie. Then at the calendar. Then at the closed door.
She picked up her phone and sent the screenshot to Carolina before she could talk herself out of it.
Ella: This is nothing, probably. But I’m sending it so I don’t keep thinking about it. Fitting is 11. Calendar said 10 again. I may have messed it up myself.
Carolina replied almost immediately.
Carolina: Good. Send me things. Not because you’re crazy. Because records are important.
Ella stared at the word important.
Then, for the first time all day, she breathed normally.
At four thirty, Lara texted the group chat she had created for apartment updates, which included Ella and Noah.
Lara: Viewing was good. Application submitted. Everyone please sacrifice a scented candle to the housing gods.
Noah: We have many now.
Ella looked toward the mantel, where the vanilla candle sat unlit.
Ella: Fingers crossed.
When Lara came home, she brought milk, apples, and a small bouquet of white tulips.
“For the kitchen,” she said, setting them in the sink. Then she looked at Ella. “Unless tulips are weird now.”
Ella laughed. “Tulips are not weird.”
“Good. I like them. They look optimistic but not smug.”
“That is exactly their energy.”
They arranged them together in a vase. Ella trimmed the stems. Lara filled the water. The simple cooperation soothed something, as if the day’s earlier unease had been a thread Ella could tug loose and discard.
Noah came home in a good mood, with Thai food and a bottle of wine. They ate at the dining table. Lara told them about the apartment viewing, which did sound promising. Noah opened the wine. Ella relaxed.
After dinner, Lara went upstairs to call a friend.
Noah cleared the plates. Ella watched him from the table, feeling affection gather in her chest. He had been attentive all evening. Hand on her back when he passed behind her. Eyes checking hers before Lara joined a topic. A gentle, deliberate turning toward her..
When he came back from the kitchen, she caught his hand and pulled him down beside her.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For doing dishes incorrectly?”
“For paying attention.”
His face softened. “I love you.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
He kissed her, and for a second the dining room, the tulips, the vanilla candle, the wedding binder on the sideboard all blurred into background.
Then his phone rang. Noah glanced at it and winced. “It’s my mom.”
“Answer.”
“I can call her tomorrow.”
“It might be wedding stuff.”
He hesitated, then answered. “Hi, Mom.”
Ella rested her chin on her hand and listened lazily, smiling at the way Noah’s expression moved through love, resignation, and despair in the first fifteen seconds.
“Yes, we saw the email. No, we are not doing a champagne tower. Because Ella said no, and I agree with Ella. No, I am not being held hostage.”
Ella laughed silently.
Noah’s eyes warmed.
Then his smile faded slightly. “Wait, what?” he said. “No. Who told you that?”
Ella straightened.
Noah looked toward the stairs, then at Ella.
“No, Mom,” he said carefully. “The fitting is at eleven. Not ten.”
Ella’s skin prickled.
“I don’t know. Maybe Lara misread it.” A pause. “No, it’s fine. Just don’t tell Aunt Judith ten. Ella has it handled.”
Ella stood slowly.
Noah listened another minute, then ended the call.
“What was that?” Ella asked.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Mom thought your dress fitting was at ten. She said Lara mentioned it when they talked about the venue timeline.”
“When did they talk?”
“I don’t know. Today maybe. Mom probably called her.”
“I thought you told your mother to call us.”
“I did.”
Ella looked toward the stairs again.
Noah followed her gaze. “It’s probably just a mistake. The time has been confusing all week.”
“Yes,” Ella said.
It had.
That was the problem.
Noah stepped closer. “Hey. I’ll talk to Mom again.”
“Okay.”
“And Lara.”
“No.” The word came too quickly.
His brows drew together.
Ella forced her voice calmer. “Not yet. I don’t want to make another thing.”
“It’s not another thing if it’s bothering you.”
“I don’t know if it’s bothering me.”
Noah studied her with gentle concern.
That concern should have felt like safety.
Instead, for reasons she could not explain even to herself, it made her feel as if she needed to sound reasonable.
“It’s probably just a mistake,” she said, echoing him.
He nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Upstairs, a floorboard creaked.
Ella looked at the tulips in the kitchen, white and open and not smug at all.
She had liked them an hour ago.
Now they looked fake.