“Which vase looks better? There’s going to be peonies in them.”
My eyes bounce between the white vase and the blush pink one. “What color are the peonies?” I ask.
“Whitish pink I think.”
“I like both. Switch them up, every other table. And put the pinker flowers in the white vases.”
“See! This is why I need my big sister. Where would I be without you?” Kate plops down on the bed with me.
Suddenly, I burst into tears.
“I know, I know. You’ve been kind of a lousy sister. But it’s okay, I forgive you, as usual,” Kate pets my hair back from my face.
“No, it’s not that!” I blubber. “And excuse you, by the way. I have a life you know.”
“A life where you forget about your sister. I’m aware.”
I shove up from the bed and set my coffee down, spilling even more of it on my poor book.
“I’ve been lying to you!”
Kate blinks. “And that is supposed to make things better how?”
I know I sound like a crazy person but after everything I have been through, the dam is breaking, and the flood is unstoppable.
“The reason that Callum and I stayed in touch and started ‘dating’,” I put the word in air quotes. “Isn’t just because I happened to bid on him at the auction in Vegas and he happened to be my boss. We also got married.”
“Wait, what?” Kate also stands up, her mouth on the floor. “When?”
“In Vegas.”
“Where?”
“Some little pop-up chapel.”
“And it’s real?”
I nod. “We have the papers to prove it. We didn’t think it was. It wasn’t Elvis.”
Kate covers her face with her hands. “So, you’re married. To your boss who you met in Vegas during MY bachelorette party.”
I nod again and somehow, I feel infinitely better. Enough though that I smile. “My God, Kate. You have no idea how good it feels to tell you that. And now we can talk about it, finally. About how I married him for real on accident and we haven’t broken it off because he has a twin brother and his dad is onlyhanding the company down to one son not both and he wants that son to be married and–”
“How dare you?” Kate cuts me off and I turn to her. Her words are deep and accusatory, and her eyes are on fire.
“How dare I what?” I ask.
“How dare you be so selfish?!”
I stop, wiping the snot from my nose that’s making its way down to my upper lip. “Selfish? What are you talking about?”
With that, Kate throws her hands up incredulously. “Everything is about you! I pay for a trip to Vegas and all you want to do is hang out by the pool. So, what do I, your loving baby sister do? I make the night about you. I dress you up, I get you drunk, I take you out. I even get you a date with a very hot man. But no. That’s not enough. You have to go and marry him. I’m supposed to be the one getting married. ME!”
“Are you completely batshit crazy?” I ask and it’s an honest question.
“You know, this is so like you,” Kate says with a bitter laugh.
“How’s that?”
