Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Audrey
My shoulders relaxed slightly as I began putting away my lesson plan for the next day. My phone buzzed with an incoming text from Carina.
Carina
Lunch at Millie’s! Wedding planning! Be there!!
I smiled and tucked my phone away, even as a pang of doubt lingered in the back of my mind. Lunch with Carina would mean hearing about her lavish new life. A new life that I couldn’t envision for myself. A life I’d wanted so desperately before, but it seemed completely out of the plan.
Maybe it was time to make a new plan.
About an hour later, I walked into Millie’s to find Carina surrounded by an explosion of bridal magazines. I expected to see her mom in the red vinyl booth beside her. She should be here to do wedding planning too, right?
“Where’s Mrs. Phipps?”
She sighed delicately as she tucked a black strand of hair behind her ear. “My mom isn’t exactly thrilled so I’ve been spending the last few days trying to ease her into it.”
A frown pulled at the corners of my lips. “What’s there not to be excited about?”
I mean, I would be merely over the moon by the size of the rock but that was just me. When you looked at Ace Cristof, you saw the full package. Straight white teeth, bright blue eyes— a bit darker than Carina’s—a body that spent many hours in the gym and made you wonder if he even sat behind a desk during the day, and perfectly coifed blond hair that never looked out of place. Their children would be stunners. That’s what everyone in this town whispered about them.
But Mrs. Phipps came from nothing. She still worked at the small diner down the road and her little shotgun house was falling apart. Not only had she come from nothing but her husband left her with all his gambling debts at the Den. She didn’t have faith in men, she only had faith in what she could provide for herself. She didn’t want Carina to become a broodmare to some rich bitch. I didn’t blame her and could appreciate how independent she wanted her daughter to be.
Carina worked at the only bank in our two-street town and she did well for herself. She got commission for loans and had decent hours. She was never overworked and underpaid. She liked what she did, even though that wasn’t what she’d gone to school for either. Somehow we’d both ended up back here after college. Somehow we’d both derailed from our teenage dreams, but at least Carina was more on track for hers than I was.
“She’s afraid he’s going to sweep me off of my feet and take me away from here. She said he’s had that look in his eye since he moved here six months ago.”
Uh oh.
“Is he?”
“Would that be so bad?” There was that faraway look in her eye that I had only seen a few times since we were little.
“You’d leave your mom?”
You’d leave me? The second question was all in my mind.
Of course, she would leave me. She didn’t want this bank job forever or this two-lane town. She wanted bright sparkly Christmases in Times Square and elaborate dinners in the Big Apple. I knew all of this because, at one point in time, I’d wanted all of it too. I got that faraway look on my face too.
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her loafered feet at the ankle. “I would bring her with me. The house is falling apart, she can get a better job, with better tips out there and she can live without worrying about payment. Ace has a massive penthouse there that has four floors. We would hardly see her. We would probably live farther apart there than we do here.”
“He didn’t sell his penthouse when he moved here?” I frowned. I’d never even heard he had a penthouse. This was all new. Who did Carina fall in love with? Certainly not a small-town lawyer.
She took another long pull on her beer. “No, why would he do that? He’s not hurting for money.”
That was obvious in the nice sports car he drove and the even nicer watch on his wrist, though I couldn’t tell you what either brand was. I imagined that was just how expensive they were.
“What does he do again?” There was more to Mrs. Phipps not liking Ace, I could feel it now that I realized he had a penthouse in New York still.
Her perfectly manicured brows pinched in the center of her forehead. “He works with Brian.” She wouldn’t look me in the eye so I leaned back in my chair to mimic her pose.
“Yeah, and I’m a stripper after hours.”
She grinned at me. “I would love it if you were.”
I shook my head. “So you’ve been with your mom the last few days trying to get her to approve of your hot, rich fiancé. What else do I need to know? Have you guys picked a date?”
“He doesn’t want to wait to get married.” Which explained the explosion of bridal magazines in front of me. I thumbed through the glossy pages of one of the ones in front of me. “I wanted like a year-long engagement or maybe two. Nothing crazy considering we haven’t moved in together and we haven’t been together for very long. But he doesn’t want to wait, he wants to tie the knot in six months.”
Planning a wedding in six months… Geez.
“I’m sure it’ll be beautiful. Is your mom afraid she’ll have to pay for this wedding?” I would imagine her mom was feeling all of the anxiety from that. An upstate New York wedding in six months. If I was Mrs. Phipps I would have started panicking too. I would have been questioning everything even more than I already was.
Carina rolled her eyes, leaning back with a dreamy smile. “Ace’s parents are handling everything. They wouldn’t even let us pay if we wanted to. In their world, asking to chip in would be an insult.”
My jaw nearly dropped. Heir to a fortune, a family that owned mansions… I tried to picture it, but it felt like stepping into a movie, one that didn’t fit with the life I knew—the safety I knew.
“Wow, Carina. This is… huge,” I managed, still processing. “This is really happening.”
She reached across the table, squeezing my hand. “And you’re going to be there, Audrey. We’re in this together, just like we always talked about.”
I smiled, but there was a hollowness to it. I wanted to be happy for her, and I was, truly—but her dreams were becoming real, while mine stayed locked away. And as much as I tried to ignore it, I could feel the ache of that distance growing between us.
I forced a smile as Carina dove back into another stack of magazines, her voice brimming with excitement. But a question lingered in the back of my mind, one I hadn’t let myself ask in years: if she could take this leap into something unknown, why couldn’t I?
I kicked the fridge door closed, balancing my phone between my shoulder and ear as the aroma of instant ramen filled the kitchen.
“You knew and didn’t tell me?” I asked, stirring the noodles. Brian, of course, knew that Ace had proposed to Carina—they worked together. But somehow, he’d kept it to himself.
On the other end, Brian’s voice sounded distracted, pinched. “Why would I? You can’t keep a secret.”
I rolled my eyes, taking a bite of ramen, even as irritation flared. I could keep a secret. His mother, the town’s unofficial gossip, was the one who couldn’t. Every “book club” meeting at the coffee shop was just an excuse to dish about everyone’s business. Brian must have been confusing us.
“Anyways, Carina asked me to be her Maid of Honor.” I slurped up another mouthful of noodles.
He hated ramen, especially the instant kind. Once again, it wasn’t ladylike. But I lived on a teacher’s salary and it was easy after the day I had. Between teaching, prepping for class tomorrow, going over all of the details for Carina’s wedding, and researching the hell out of Ace Cristof I hadn’t had the time nor the energy to make anything else. There wasn’t much on the internet about him but there was a whole lot on his parents. Their estate in New York was massive and I was right, old money. The home had been in their family for generations. In fact, it was probably always in their family and was built by them back, back, back in the day. The school year was almost over, thankfully, which meant I didn’t have to worry about teaching while being this distracted. There were only a few more weeks left and I would be free. But not exactly because I was going to be shackled to Carina’s side helping with all the wedding bliss.
I heard Brian clear his voice and say “hellloooo are you listening to me? What are you eating?”
I felt my irritation sharpen. “Ramen. Why?”
There was a pause, then that voice I dreaded. “If you’re trying to look good in all those wedding photos, maybe cut back on the carbs.
The noodles tasted like cardboard as I swallowed. I looked down at the cup in my hands, his words pressing on me. Sure, maybe I’d put on a little weight, but I still looked great. I shook off the sting, even though I tossed the noodles into the trash. My appetite was gone now.
“Good girl,” Brian chirped into the phone and my stomach further twisted into knots. I hated nothing more than those two little words.
I changed the subject instead as the TV droned on in the background and Brian’s keyboard clicked on the other end. I would be lucky if I got anything more out of him tonight. It was starting to get lonely. I chewed on my bottom lip. “School will be out in a few weeks, do you think we could go on a vacation?”
What I really wanted to say: We could go on an exotic vacation and you could make an honest woman out of me like your mother insists upon. We could have sex all day and night and explore places we’ve never been before all while eating incredible food.
It was far-fetched and that was why it stayed within my brain and not voiced out loud. Sexy time was few and far between these days. He didn’t seem to want it and by the end of the day—dealing with other people’s kids—I didn’t want to initiate it. Especially when he eyed whatever I was eating like a hawk on date night or he was too busy and had to hurry back to the office. Sex was quick, lackluster, and I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had an orgasm. I’d faked it so many times that I couldn’t remember a real one. How disappointing. But it would get better, that’s what everyone said. I wasn’t so sure how much I believed it though. Were we almost to that seven-year hump that everyone talked about? Why was it happening earlier?
“Vacation?” His voice had a faraway tilt to it and he sounded distracted again. This conversation would never go anywhere. “Why would we do that? We have everything we need here. It’s safe here.”
There was that word again. Safe. Everything revolved around being safe. I clenched my jaw.
“You’re right, I’m sorry I bothered you while you are so busy,” I closed my eyes. We could have talked about all of this over dinner. That’s what I wanted to do. I was dying to have a connection with him again but it seemed like all of my efforts were futile. What did I need to do? Show up at his work with a trench coat and lingerie?
That was honestly my best idea lately. I could wait for him at home but there were some nights when he slept at the office. He got so wrapped up in whatever he was working on that he fell asleep at his desk.
“It’s okay, babe. I’m just stressed out with work and I don’t know how I could possibly take off time for a vacation. Maybe if we found a safe spot, like another small town with a bed and breakfast it would be okay. I just don’t know how I can leave all of these cases.”
I rolled my eyes to myself. The town wasn’t that big. “You’re right, I’m sure I’ll be busy with all of the wedding planning anyway.”
“That should be fun for you!”
“Good practice, right?” I encouraged.
“For what?” He didn’t sound distracted again. He sounded confused and slightly annoyed. It wasn’t like I brought up the idea of getting engaged often. But geez, we’d been together for five years. When would the right time be? The same sentence played on repeat in my head— if he wanted to, he would.
Instead of letting it go, I dove right in. “For you to propose to me. For our future wedding.”
He cleared his throat on the other end. “Oh yeah. Look, I need to get home. I’m hungry and it’s been a long day.”
I closed my eyes. “Okay, love you, bye.”
“Uh-huh,” The line went dead and I felt something go quiet inside me, too.