Chapter Twenty-Eight Marigold
Well, this is a fine kettle of fish, Marigold thought—a phrase she’d learned from Jonathan—as she ran down the stairs, out the side door of the inn, and into a small, scraggly “garden” that was mostly used to store empty flowerpots and bags of soil.
She was desperate to get as far away from Jonathan and Natalie as possible.
But the lobby was full of wedding guests who’d certainly notice a distressed-looking bride running out the front door, especially one who wasn’t dressed for a wedding that was meant to start in forty-five minutes, so this semisecluded garden would have to do for now.
Marigold leaned back against a tall pine tree, relishing the feeling of the bark against her skin.
A reminder that the world was still standing.
Because nothing else made any sense. How could Natalie, her best friend, her maid of honor, do this to her?
Had Natalie been lusting after Jonathan this whole time and Marigold had just been too dense to notice?
Or had they just gotten caught up in the heat of a stressful moment during the strangest wedding weekend of all time?
But then again, hadn’t Marigold just stood in an airport, half willing her ex-husband to ask her to stay? How had everything unraveled so quickly?
She needed time to collect her thoughts, but said thoughts had scattered like dandelion seeds in a strong breeze. She had no idea what she felt, what she wanted. And that was a problem, given that her wedding ceremony was due to start in less than an hour.
“Marigold!” The door swung open, and Natalie raced down the wooden steps, her hair disheveled and her face flushed. “Please, you have to let me explain.”
“Explain?” Marigold laughed despite herself. “What could you possibly explain?”
“I’m sorry,” Natalie said, wiping away her tears. “It didn’t mean anything. Not to him, I promise.”
“But to you?”
“I… I don’t know.” Natalie leaned back against the railing. “I’ve tried so, so hard to deny my feelings. I knew I didn’t have a chance with Jonathan, and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.”
“Oh my god,” Marigold muttered to herself as she began to pace. It just kept getting worse and worse. Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to see a text from Olivia.
Are you on the island yet? We’re heading to yacht club. Do you need me to stall?
No, Marigold thought. I need you to find me a time machine. But what would that even fix? Had this wedding been doomed from the start?
“Hey, Natalie?” a male voice called. Marigold gasped and ducked behind a wheelbarrow, then peered out just enough to see her friend Dylan standing in the doorway. “The bridal party is leaving now, right?”
“In a minute!” Natalie called, her voice oddly high. “Tell them I’ll be right there!”
“Is there room in the golf cart? Can I come with you guys?”
“The rest of the guests don’t need to leave for another half hour. Go relax! Have a drink at the honor bar! Did you know you can sign for it using any name you want? No one cares!”
“No, I mean, I wanted a few minutes with Richie. I really think we’d vibe.”
“Based on what, exactly?” Natalie asked skeptically. It sounded like she’d been shocked back into her senses.
“I just think we’d have a connection.”
“She’s a movie star. She gets paid millions of dollars to make people feel a connection with her. Now please go tell the bridesmaids I’ll be there in a second.”
“Come on, don’t be such a—”
“DO IT NOW, DYLAN!”
He spun around, shutting the door behind him, and Marigold stood up, wincing.
For a moment, she and Natalie just stared at each other. “So what do we do now?” Natalie asked finally.
“I have no idea.” Marigold shook her head, trying to figure out which revelation hurt the most. Like testing one limb at a time after a bad fall.
“I can’t believe you kissed my fiancé. I thought you were in my corner.
” Saying the words, she realized it was true: Natalie’s actions stung worse than Jonathan’s.
Maybe it was sexist and unfair, but it was true.
“I am in your corner! I’m always in your corner. How many times have I dropped whatever I’m doing to help you out of some mess—when you’re locked out of your apartment, or at the airport without your passport, or being questioned by the police for trespassing?”
“Wow, okay. I’m sorry I was a burden to you!”
“You weren’t a burden. You’re a thoughtful, caring, amazing friend.
But yeah, sometimes it felt like I was on the support staff for the Marigold show.
Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to watch you and Jonathan fall in love?
How it felt to help you pick the perfect birthday present and ghostwrite all those cards? ”
“You’re acting like I forced you to do all that!” Marigold heard her voice growing shrill but didn’t care. “You loved being super-helpful Natalie. It was, like, your whole personality.”
“The guilt and regret were eating me alive. I had to support your relationship.”
“And that’s why you kissed Jonathan? Because it’s what you deserved in exchange for all your support?”
“Jonathan kissed me. He found out you were married, and was hurt and angry, and I just happened to be there.”
Marigold stared at Natalie as her heart slid toward her stomach. “He knows?”
“Yeah.”
“How’d he find out?”
“He called your lawyer.”
“Is that really what happened?”
Something inside Natalie seemed to harden. She lifted her chin to look Marigold in the eye. “What are you implying? Do you really think I’d tell him?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore…” Marigold thought about all the ways Natalie had encouraged her relationship with Jonathan. “You basically set us up. Why would you do that if you wanted him for yourself?”
“I… I panicked.” Natalie closed her eyes and winced at the memory.
“I did something really, really stupid, and I was terrified he’d find out.
So to cover my tracks, I told him there was someone I wanted him to meet.
” She opened her eyes and let her gaze fall to the ground.
“To be honest, I never thought it’d go so far.
You’d never dated anyone for more than a few weeks.
I figured you’d lose interest at some point, and I’d get my chance later on, once he’d forgotten about… certain details.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I moved to New York for him,” Natalie said, so quietly Marigold could barely make out the words.
“Instead of going to grad school in Scotland, I moved to New York because I thought I might have a tiny shot. I lied about having this great job, and when it seemed like he was close to figuring out the truth, I freaked out. I didn’t want to seem like some unhinged stalker, so I told him I had someone in mind for him. To throw him off the scent.”
Marigold fell silent as she took all this in.
Natalie’s feelings for Jonathan had been so strong that she’d given up her dream of living in the UK—something she’d always fantasized about—to follow him to New York.
Marigold couldn’t think of a time she’d wanted anyone or anything that badly.
“I don’t get it. So what if you moved to New York for him? Wouldn’t he have been flattered?”
Natalie let out a short, dry laugh. “No, you don’t get it. Not all of us can get away with stuff like that. If you did it, it’d be romantic. But I’d just look crazy.”
“But why? What’s the difference?”
Natalie shot her a look. “Are you serious?”
“Um, yes.”
“Because you’re beautiful and charming, and everyone falls in love with you on sight. But that’s not what life is like for the rest of us.”
“Bullshit.” Marigold felt her cheeks growing hot.
“That’s a myth you’ve told yourself. You divide the world into the lucky and the unlucky, which allows you to give up on things before you’ve even started.
You did it with Jonathan, you did it with your book—you let your fear of failure convince you that you’re not good enough for anything, so there’s no point in trying. ”
Natalie’s eyes widened. They’d never spoken to each other like this, but now that Marigold had started, she found that she couldn’t stop. “I’m not any more special or deserving than you are. I’m just not a coward.”
“What on earth is going on out here?” Olivia asked as she burst through the door of the inn. She looked at Natalie, then did a double take when she saw Marigold. “Holy shit, you actually made it.”