“I’m fine.” Erika flashes a stop sign with her palms and offers a shaky smile. “I’m okay, I promise.” She finally reaches the bottom step and embraces her mom. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t do it. I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. I want to give all the gifts back and send an apology letter to everyone.”
Judy tuts. “Let’s not talk about that now. All I care about is how you are.” Her mom pulls out of their hug and holds her shoulders at arm’s length. “You’re a grown woman, Erika, and whatever decisions you make, I stand by them with you,” she says in a soft and gentle voice. “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah, I promise, Mom. I think I should talk to Huck and give him an explanation.”
“Leon said you didn’t feel right about him. What didn’t feel right, Erika?” Judy asks.
Erika volleys her eyes between all of us before she finally reveals the truth. “He’s not supportive of my job and doesn’t understand why I do what I do. He hates the long hours I work, and honestly, I couldn’t see a future with him. I think he wasusing me, or at least planning to, and he was hoping you three,” she motions with her head to me, Ash, and Lily, “would connect him with people in the music industry because of the celebrities you might know.” She drops her focus to the floor. “I made it clear to him that he wasn’t allowed to ask any of you for anyone’s contact details.”
“That didn’t stop him,” Lily jumps in. “He asked me. Several times.” Lily shakes her head. “But I would never break my client confidentiality.”
Erika sneers in disgust. “I’m so sorry, Lily.”
I jump in next. “He asked me if I knew any record producers.” I do, but they don’t work with unknown bands. They want musicians who write their own songs and have the initiative to build a large online presence with an established fan base.
“That’s so embarrassing.” Erika keeps her head down as if she’s responsible for his actions.
I’m quick to reply. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
Erika takes a while to look up. “I’m not sure I would have ever fully trusted Huck. What if he signs a record deal? Then what? Will he just head off into the sunset and leave me behind? And what if he goes on tour and then runs off with a groupie? Because he told me he once dated three other girls at the same time before he met me.” Nervously, she nibbles her bottom lip. “And six months ago, I caught him cheating on me. Well, texting another woman, several, actually. He maintains he never physically met with any of them.”
She’s never shared this with us before, and hearing it makes my blood boil. I’d love to chop Huck into tiny pieces and feed him to a lake of piranhas. While he’s never directly harmed me, I’ve always disliked him, especially when he mocks Erika for caring too much about her patients.
“I will kill him,” Ash states, sounding deadly serious at Erika’s confession.
“I’ll help.” I offer up my services.
This new information only adds to the hatred I feel for him.
“You won’t kill him because none of that matters now,” Erika snaps with a sharp glare between Ash and me. “He’s not in my life anymore, and today I just couldn’t stand at that altar and make vows I didn’t believe in. Our lifestyles are very different, and my job doesn’t fit his. I come in from the day shift, and he goes out at night, so we never see each other. I don’t know why I ever thought we would work. He doesn’t make me happy. And when I was standing there in the side room in my dress today, I got this gut-deep certainty that something wasn’t right. I know it sounds crazy, but it was like I couldhearDad in my head, telling me to run. Not in words exactly, more like a push from somewhere unfathomable, as if his voice had somehow lived on in me.”
Running her hands through her wet hair, Erika’s frustration flickers across her brow. “God, that probably doesn’t make sense to anyone.” She exhales slowly. “But if itwasDad, then he was right. Huck doesn’t pay foranything.I can’t keep pretending that doesn’t matter. I’d rather be alone than be stuck with someone who can’t even do his own laundry. He’s a manchild.”
He’s a useless piece of shit is what he is. I put my house on it that he wasn’t just sexting girls, I guarantee he’s physically met up with a few, and on more than one occasion.
I’m so proud that Erika finally woke up, or she would have been stuck with that soul-sucking leech of a man for the rest of her life.
Erika’s determination to make things right is unwavering when she tells her mom, “I’ll repay every cent you contributed toward the wedding.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Judy counters firmly. She hooks her arm into Erika’s as she guides her daughter down the last step. “You were adamant that you would pay for most of it yourself. Now stop talking nonsense, and I think we could all use a cup of coffee.” She turns to me, pointing in the direction of the kitchen, as if asking me to turn on the kettle.
“On it.” I walk toward my kitchen. “Make yourselves comfortable in the living room.”
“I’ll help you.” Lily follows me.
When I look back over my shoulder, I see Ash being pulled along by Lily, who’s scowling at him, nudging his ribs, and then pointing at me.
“Everything okay?” I ask, confused that they wouldn’t want some private time with Erika to learn more about how she’s handling today’s fallout.
“Everything’s fine.” Lily flashes a bright smile, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
I narrow my focus. “I know that smile. You’re up to something.” Lily and Ash have been married for over twenty years, and I’ve spent enough time around Lily to tell when she’s lying.
“We’re good. Everything’s fine. Great, actually. Perfect.” She sounds breezy, but her words are tight as she enters my kitchen and toes off her high heels before pulling five mugs out of the cabinet.
Lily helped me reorganize my kitchen after the last cookout I hosted. When she told me that all my cupboards were filled in the wrong order and nothingflowed well, she offered to rearrange it, and now she knows her way around my home better than I do.
“So.” Ash pulls out one of my barstools and sits on it.
