“Yes, you did.”
“I didn’t want to ask.”
“Yes, you did.”
Chris clears his throat. “You want me to read what he said?”
I shrug. “Sure.”
“Sorry,” he says again, and he actually does sound sincere. “Someone sent it to me. You know how it is.”
I do. Everyone in the business is in a bitchy group chat, and there’s always some shit-stirrer starting messages with,Have you heard…
Dan from the ABC is having angry bangs with Maya from Channel 10?
Amanda from Channel 7 got her boobs done in Turkey?
Oliver the weather guy and Melanie fromMorning, Sunshine!split up?
I stare into the hole. “Go on.”
Chris stands solemn at my side. “ ‘After much thought and careful consideration,’ ” Chris reads, “ ‘Melanie and I have made the difficult decision to end our relationship. We go forward with love and friendship for each other as we venture toward new horizons…’ ”
New horizons!
I snort, plunging the shovel back into the soil. “That it?”
“Uh…no.” Chris hesitates. “He added a hashtag.”
“Go on, then,” I say, tipping my head back to the sky. “What does it say?”
Chris clears his throat. “ ‘Hashtag thesunkeepsrising.’ ” He clicks his phone off. “I take it you didn’t have a hand in writing that heartwarming statement?”
I give Chris an exasperated look. No, I didn’t write that shit. But Oliver definitely did. It reeks of him. I can imagine him, sitting up until late, thinking,How can I make this sound better? How can I still be the good guy here?
“Are you going to release a statement of your own?”
“No.”
From somewhere far away comes Chris’s voice. “Do you think you’ll get engaged again?”
“Right now, I’d rather die.”
“Why’d you say yes, then?” he prods.
God, my hands sting. My back, my neck. My heart feels like it’s rotting in my rib cage.
“Why would I tell you that? So you can get the scoop?” I loosen my sweaty grip on the shovel and face him. “So you can go back to theDailyand theMilland tell them all the shit I said about Oliver?”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“I think you would.”
I tilt my head all the way back to stretch my neck. For a long time, we stay that way.
Until he speaks. “Linda dumped me.”
Slowly, I lower my head and stare at him. I’ve met his girlfriend a handful of times. Schoolteacher. Blunt fringe, shockingly calm. Her iPhone wallpaper was a cartoon llama, pink bow in its springy hair.
