“Maybe you’ll catch the bouquet,” Tish mused.
“Unlikely,” Orchid responded, with a tinge more acid than intended.Tonight is for goodbyes,she reminded herself.Goodbye, Phoenix.
The photographer, misinterpreting their exchange as an indication of friendship, gestured for Orchid and Phoenix to join the wedding couple for a photo.
Orchid caught a glimpse of emotion shadow Phoenix’s face. He deftly stepped around her and slipped his left arm behind her. Automatically, she mirrored his action and snaked her arm around his waist. Tish and Tom, conditioned from a nighttime of posing, tucked in close to her to face the camera.
As the flash captured the toothy foursome, her understanding clicked.
Phoenix didn’t want his loss to be visible in the picture. He’d positioned himself to hide his arm from the photo lens. Orchid suddenly remembered the way Tish and Phoenix were intertwined at Fashion Week. The way he’d draped his coat over his arm at the holiday party to camouflage his injury. A weight of sorrow threatened to pull her through the parquet floorboards.You don’t have to hide yourself.
She was still stunned by this insight when the newlyweds moved to the guests sitting on the other side of Caleb.
Phoenix pulled out Orchid’s chair for her. She looked up into his eyes.Are you okay?she wanted to ask. He studied her expression and his mouth compressed.I don’t want pity, he seemed to say. He sat.
“How long was your recovery?” Gail asked Phoenix, reaching for another roll.
Orchid slid into her seat, and shook her napkin on her lap. Phoenix looked cold, closed off. Orchid’s intuition elbowed her.Gail’s headed straight for a touchy subject.
He gulped the last of his wine. “Three and a half months, including outpatient rehab.” He put up a hand to flag a waiter.
“You are so amazing, to go through all that. I can’t even imagine. I would’ve just died.”
Orchid’s mouth gaped open. Gail made it sound as if his life situation was impossibly dire. Phoenix’s eyes narrowed.
A gentleman in a dark tux came over and refilled Phoenix’s glass.
“I guess some people are just stronger than others,” Orchid said to Gail, wine inspiring a tinge of haughtiness.
Phoenix raised his head. His expression cleared and he looped an arm around Orchid.
Gail looked stunned. “Uh-huh.” Then she turned back to Caleb.
Phoenix leaned to kiss her cheek, his lips brushing the tender side of her neck as he pulled back, leaving her more flushed than he’d likely intended. “Thank you,” he said.
“How come people make it sound like your accident is the end of the world?” Orchid blurted in a whispered hush.
“Happens all the time,” he said.
“Well, that doesn’t seem fair. You can do everything you want.”
He looked at her appreciatively. “Not quite everything,” he said, pointing towards his arm with his fork.
“Well, enough of everything that it’s far from the end of the world,” she whispered in his ear.
He put down his fork and pulled her closer. “Well, I kind of love you for seeing that.”
She leaned her shoulder against his. He smelled great. “You know me, I’m team Phoenix,” she said, trying to joke away the emotions gripping her.He means the innocuous kind of love, right? Like ‘love you like a sister, love your point of view, love your apple pie, can I have the recipe’ kind of love? Right?Thankfully, tonight was for goodbyes, because the muscle pumping oxygen through her body couldn’t survive just being friends with Phoenix.
His cheek pressed to her hair, he issued words above her head. “In a way, I don’t blame Gail for having those sentiments. There was a time when I thought this was the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
She swallowed. It was the first time he’d volunteered his point of view on the topic. “Past tense?” she asked, careful not to spook him.
“Now I’m focused on stuff I can still change.”
She released a breath and looked up at the face she loved. “Me, too. I’ve accepted the assignment. I’m moving to Beijing next month.”
“Next month?” He let go of her to watch as the DJ called the bride and groom to the dance floor, his expression unreadable.
