Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Imake it into the elevator before my knees give out.
An elderly couple finds me sitting on the carpet between my suitcase and the mirrored wall. The woman asks whether I need a doctor. I tell her I am afraid of elevators.
It is a stupid lie, but she holds my hand until the doors open in the lobby.
Outside, Maui is offensively beautiful. Palm trees bend over the road. The sky is a blue so pure it looks artificial. A family crosses the drive wearing matching sun hats while a hotel employee loads my suitcase into a cab.
"Airport?" the driver asks.
"Yes."
"Which airline?"
I have no idea.
I sit in the back seat and call Ivy.
She answers before the first ring finishes. "Where are you?"
"A cab."
"Is he with you?"
"No."
"Good. Stay away from him until I get there."
"You're in Connecticut."
"Then stay away from him until you get here."
My breath catches. Ivy hears it and immediately softens.
"Oh, Dally."
Nobody except my sister calls me that. The name breaks something open.
"He saw her," I say. "The blindfold came off, and he saw her."
"I know."
"He kept kissing her."
"I know."
"Everybody knows."
The driver glances at me in the mirror. I turn toward the window and press my forehead against the glass.
"Jeremy put it in the wedding group at six this morning," Ivy says. "He called it a joke. Someone reposted it before he deleted it. I have been trying to reach you ever since."
"Why would Jeremy do that?"
"Because Jeremy is a festering boil with a beard."
Normally, I would laugh. Today the sound that comes out of me is closer to choking.
My phone begins ringing. Caleb's wedding photograph fills the screen.
I decline it.
He calls again.
And again.
Then the messages begin.
Where are you?
Dahlia, answer me.
I found your ring. Please tell me where you are.
That video was edited.
Please don't leave the island.
The final message arrives as the cab pulls beneath the airport awning.
I swear to God, it did not happen the way Jeremy made it look.
I call him.
He answers on a broken breath. "Dahlia."
"Did you know it was Sable?"
"Not at first. Jeremy told me it was you. He said you came to surprise me."
"Did you know it was Sable after they pulled off the blindfold?"
"Yes, but there is more after the part you saw. I pushed her off me. I went fucking insane on Jeremy. He cut all of that out."
"Did you kiss her after you saw her?"
He breathes into the phone.
"Caleb."
"For a second. I was drunk and confused."
"It was longer than a second."
"Dahlia, please. Come back to the hotel. Let me show you."
"Why did you keep kissing her?"
"I didn't understand what was happening."
"But you understood enough to get angry afterward."
"I need five minutes with you. Not on the phone. Not with that fucking video between us."
I stare at the newlywed luggage tag tied around my suitcase. MR. AND MRS. ASHBY. The woman at the wedding shop wrote the names in gold calligraphy while I watched.
"You had days to tell me about it, three days in fact,” I say. "What did you do with them?"
He begins crying.
I have heard Caleb furious, laughing, exhausted, sick, half asleep, and once so happy he shouted from the roof of our house. I have never heard him cry.
"Please don't get on a plane."
"I'm already at the airport."
"Then tell me what flight. I'll come there."
"No."
"Dahlia, I love you."
"You loved kissing her too. And who knows what else?”
I hang up.
Inside the terminal, I buy the first ticket to New York that will get me home today. It costs more than our original round-trip flights combined. I use the credit card Caleb and I opened for household emergencies.
This feels like one.
The agent behind the counter looks from my suitcase to the white brIDE tote over my shoulder.
"Changing the honeymoon plans?"
"Something like that."
"Your husband coming on a later flight?"
I grip the edge of the counter. "No."
Her expression changes. She stops making conversation and quietly moves me to an aisle seat near the front without charging the upgrade fee.
At security, I have to remove the pearl-studded sandals Ivy gave me for the wedding. The woman behind me is also a newlywed. Her veil is attached to a baseball cap, and her husband keeps kissing her shoulder while they wait. She catches me looking and grins.
"We got married yesterday."
"Congratulations."
"You too?"
I look down at the pale indentation where my ring sat this morning.
"Three days ago."
Her husband raises his fist toward me. "Newlywed club."
I pretend not to see.
In the restroom, I lock myself inside a stall and finally open the wedding group. Jeremy has written that everyone needs to calm down. It was only a prank. Caleb did nothing wrong. Sable was hired entertainment, and the kiss happened because Caleb thought she was me.
Owen asks why the video continues after the blindfold comes off.
Jeremy responds with a laughing emoji.
Marguerite writes, Please remove this immediately. Dahlia must not see it out of context.
She does not ask whether I have already seen it. She does not call me.
Caleb posts once.
Where is my wife?
I close the group.
While I wait at the gate, messages pour in from people who attended our wedding. Some are outraged on my behalf. Some want details. Two women tell me men do stupid things at bachelor parties and urge me not to overreact.
Then Sable's name appears. I didn’t even know she had my number.
You deserve to know it wasn't only the kiss.
I turn off my phone.
When boarding begins, I look once toward the terminal entrance. Some wild, humiliated piece of me expects Caleb to come running through the crowd and fight his way onto the plane.
He does not.
I board alone.