Chapter 3
Chapter Three
DREW
Mallory runs down the stairs outside of her apartment and climbs into the front seat of Caleb’s Tesla. I’m squished into the back between Jonas and Krystal. I didn’t know Krystal was coming with us until she opened my door and practically sat on my lap in an effort to get me to scoot over.
I wish I’d driven over in my truck. I didn’t because Caleb thinks my work truck is embarrassing. He’s not the one with the seatbelt latch digging into his butt.
Maybe I can catch a ride with Stella. I’m about to say so, when Caleb pulls out of the parking spot. There’s no sign of her coming down the stairs, and the apartment lights are still on.
“Isn’t Stella coming?” I ask.
“She doesn’t drink,” Krystal says in a mocking tone.
I have no idea why that matters, but okay.
“Be nice,” Mallory admonishes, as if she’s said the same thing multiple times before. “Alcoholism runs in her family. She’s cautious.”
“In other words, boring,” Krystal says in a sing-song voice.
She looks at me as if she expects me to agree.
I don’t. I’m fascinated by Stella. I regret not getting her number before we left.
I thought she was coming with us tonight so I could continue our conversation.
When I knew her before, I was half in love with her, or at least what I understood to be love as a ten-year-old kid.
Now, we’re both adults, on an even footing. I’m excited to be her friend.
“Mallory, can I get her number from you?” I ask.
“Um, I guess so. I’ll ask if that’s okay with her first.”
“Sure.”
“Why do you want her number?” Krystal asks. “She’s in her thirties, you know.”
“Hey!” Mallory sticks her head between the front seats and mock glares at her friend. “Stella and I are the same age.”
“Sorry. I forget you’re older than I am. You’re fun. Stella’s like a grandma.”
“You say that as if getting older is a bad thing,” I say. “The alternative is death, which I don’t recommend.”
Krystal giggles. Oh man. She is not my type. Not that it matters. I’m not interested in dating anyone. I'm self-aware enough to know I have baggage to work through before trying another relationship.
I lean forward and say to Mallory, “Can you ask Stella about her number now?”
“Sure.” Mallory unlocks her phone, and I lean back in the seat. “But why?”
“They were talking outside for a long time,” Jonah shares.
Caleb catches my eye in the rearview mirror, his eyebrows raised. “Why?”
“I knew her when I was a kid,” I explain. “She lived down the street from my grandma. I convinced her to visit Blissful next month, and I don’t want to miss her when she does.”
Krystal scrunches up her nose. “What’s Blissful? A restaurant? You might want to know that Stella’s a vegetarian.”
Jonas leans forward to look across me to Krystal. “Why don’t you like her?”
I’m wondering the same thing.
She huffs and looks out the window, petulant. “I like her fine, I just don’t want to hang out with her. She’s a health nut and that sucks all the fun out of the party.”
“She was plenty of fun tonight,” Jonas says. “Those were the best nachos I’ve ever had.”
“Yeah, so cool it, Krystal,” Mallory says. “You’re both in my wedding party, so you need to be nice.”
“I’ll be nice,” Krystal says. “Just as long as she doesn’t help plan the bachelorette party. She’ll want us to give each other pedicures and put on face masks as we listen to classical music. Not my style.”
“She’s my maid of honor!” Mallory says. “Of course she’s planning it. She’s fun in her own way. But just to be sure it’s your kind of fun, you can help her with the plans.”
“She’s your maid of honor?” Krystal crosses her arms and sits in silence for a few seconds. “I’m surprised that Caleb’s okay with that.”
“I’m fine with it.” Caleb says. “Why wouldn’t I be? She’s a friend and the one who introduced us.” He lifts Mallory’s hand and kisses the back of it.
“What are you implying, Krystal?” Mallory glances back at her again, just as confused as Caleb.
“Because she’s in love with your fiancé?” Krystal whispers loudly.
Stella loves Caleb? A boulder sits in my gut. I like my cousin, but he’s a player. Or at least he was until he met Mallory. I thought Stella had higher standards.
Mallory’s brows furrow as she frowns. “Krystal, why would you say that?”
“It’s not true, is it?” Caleb asks, glancing over at her.
“No!” Mallory says. “She had a little crush on you. It’s nothing. Not a big deal.”
Krystal can’t keep her mouth shut. “Did you see Stella’s face when you proposed? Jealousy was written all over it. She is going to try to break you two up. Just watch.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Mallory says, then faces forward. “Stella isn’t the kind of person to hurt anyone, least of all me. Caleb and I are getting married. Even if she was in love with him, which she is not, she would respect that.”
When I walked into the apartment and first saw Stella, I thought I might be hallucinating.
After the shock of seeing her wore off, I watched her for most of the night.
Probably creepy, but she didn’t notice. She was busy with the nachos and kept looking at Caleb and Mallory, as if confused to see them together.
Outside, when she asked about them, it was like she knew nothing of their history. When Caleb proposed, it wasn’t an expression of jealousy on her face. It was shock.
“Stella wasn’t jealous earlier,” I say. “She was surprised. Did you not tell her you were dating?”
Krystal outright laughs.
Mallory says, in a firm tone, “Shut up, Krystal. We’re done talking about this.”
Krystal snorts, but doesn’t say anything more. Silence fills the car for a few blocks.
“Babe,” Caleb says slowly. “I like Stella. She’s a little intense sometimes, but funny.
I didn’t expect being friendly with her would mean she’d fall in love with me.
She’s so reserved, most of the time I thought she found me annoying.
I’m not comfortable about her being your maid of honor if she’s in love with me.
That’s awkward, isn’t it? Not just for me, but for her, too? ”
“She isn’t in love with you.” Mallory glares back at Krystal. “I promise it’s nothing.”
“Then why did we wait to tell her about how serious we are?” Caleb insists.
“You asked me not to bring up our relationship when I talked to her. No kissing or holding hands at karaoke. You never once invited her to hang out with us. I had to beg you to explain everything to her by tonight, and she was still upset seeing us together. If she isn’t in love with me, then why downplay what we have?
I mean, how good of a friend can she be when you didn’t mention to her we’ve been talking about marriage? ”
Mallory speaks quietly. “I told you why we were a secret. I didn’t want to make Stella feel bad. The two of us have always stuck together, and I knew it would be hard for her if I was with you and she was single. I was waiting for one of those guys she met on the dating apps to stick.”
That’s a really stupid reason not to tell her friend and roommate about her relationship. The silence her explanation is met with shows everyone knows it. Does that mean what Krystal said is true? Stella loves Caleb?
Krystal leans into me so she can stick her head between the seats. “Mal, how did Stella take it when you told her you were moving in with me at the end of the month?”
Caleb glances over at Mallory. “I didn’t think you’d decided.”
“I haven’t, not really,” Mallory says. “I don’t want to leave her, but signing a year-long lease when we’re engaged isn’t great.”
“True,” Caleb says. “But we can wait until next fall for the wedding. Then you won’t have to duck out of the lease early.”
“Or,” Krystal butts in, even though this conversation has nothing to do with her. “Mallory can keep her promise to me, move into my condo, and you can marry in the spring, which is Mallory’s favorite time of year.”
“I didn’t know that,” Caleb says.
Mallory nods. “I’ve always wanted to get married in May. Maybe that’s too short of an engagement?”
“I’d marry you next month if I could.” At a stop light, Caleb leans over and kisses her on the lips. It’s not a quick peck.
I don’t doubt that Caleb would marry her tomorrow if possible, but he has a house he’s in the middle of flipping before he transitions from residential real estate to commercial real estate, like his dad.
He told me he wants to be more settled before he gets married.
Right now he’s living in that house, and it isn’t where he wants to bring a wife.
Jonas groans. “Come on, guys. Not when we’re stuck in the car with you.”
They separate with a loud smack.
“May it is,” Caleb says.
“Can we drop the subject of Stella now?” Mallory asks. “We’re engaged! We’re getting married in nine months! Let’s celebrate, okay?”
“Finally,” Jonas says.
“I’m up for celebrating,” Caleb agrees.
I like Mallory and how she makes Caleb happy, but what I’ve learned tonight tarnishes my opinion of her. She has been a terrible friend to Stella by not telling her about Caleb and her plans to move out. Who does that?
We pull into the parking lot of a dance club.
“What is this?” I ask. “I thought we were going to a diner for pancakes.”
Everyone laughs and that is when I see the name of the place. Break Fast Club.
I hate the city. If I’d known where we were headed, I would have made Caleb drop me off at his house on the way.
“I’m staying in the car,” I say. “I’ll be the designated driver.”
“Sweet!” Caleb takes the key card out of his wallet and tosses it back.
Krystal tugs on my arm, her nails digging into my skin. “Come inside! It’ll be fun. I want to dance with you.”
I’ve spent enough time with her this weekend to know that she’s poison.
“This isn’t the type of dancing I like,” I explain. “It’s not my kind of music either.”
Jonas leans over me. “Krystal, I want to dance with you.”
She rolls her eyes, but gets out of the car when Caleb opens her door.
I watch them walk to the club, then get out and grab Caleb’s new guitar from the trunk.
“Hey cowboy,” a woman says from a few feet away. “You coming in?”
She wears a hungry gaze that’s frightening. The woman next to her giggles.
“Nope, I’m staying right here,” I say.
“Want company?”
“I’m sick.” I cough a few times, though they’re weak and don’t bolster my story. “Don’t want you to catch it.”
“It might be worth it.”
I hold my stomach. “It most definitely is not.”
She pouts as she walks away. I escape into the backseat before anyone else can proposition me. With my foot kicked up on the console between the two front seats, I tune and then strum the same song Caleb sang to Mallory earlier.
I’m happy for my cousin, but also a little envious.
I’m not where I thought I would be four years ago when I proposed to my now ex-wife.
After a year of marriage, Quinn left me and moved back to California.
It’s been two years since the divorce, and I’m still stuck.
Unable to let go of the promised future I tried to build with her.
Unable to move forward with someone else.
Which is why talking to Stella tonight surprised me. I felt like my old self, pre-Quinn. The happy, entertaining guy who made an effort to make others laugh. I’ve missed being him.
When Mallory mentioned her roommate Stella, I didn’t think she was talking about my Stella. My fingers pick out the chords of Stella by Starlight. I learned the song years ago because it had her name.
She hasn’t changed at all from my memories of her. Except she’s prettier. The kind of beauty that comes with age. When I first saw her tonight, I was that ten-year-old kid again, in absolute awe.
I close my eyes and replay in my mind the image of her standing in her kitchen, barefoot with pink painted toe nails, wearing a blue and white sundress and that apron begging for kisses.
Her long braid hung over one shoulder. There was a sadness about her, a weight on her shoulders, that I recognized though I didn’t understand why at the time.
Now I know it’s because she’s in love with a man that doesn’t love her back.
I carry a similar burden. I don’t love Quinn anymore, but I do miss her.
I miss the life we planned to share together.
Maybe I can help Stella through the heartbreak, like she helped me so long ago in a different sort of struggle. At Grandma’s funeral, she said, “You are a good person, Andy. Helen knew it, and I know it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” Then she kissed me on the cheek.
It was exactly what I needed to hear. I went back to Blissful, changed the name I went by so I didn’t think of my dad every time someone said Andy, and worked to be the kind of man someone like Stella could respect.
I need to get Stella’s number from Mallory and make sure she comes to Apple Jamboree. I’ll help her get over her broken heart. I’ve been where she is and what we both need is a friend who understands.