He waved away her question with the dismissive gesture of the determinedly intoxicated. "Food is overrated. Especially on days when you're supposed to get married but don't." His forced smile faltered for a moment, genuine hurt flashing in his eyes. "I should check on Jess."
Sloane caught his wrist as he turned to go. "Maybe give her some space," she advised, her tone somewhat gentler than her usual cutting precision. "She's processing a lot right now."
He stared at the window seat where Jess sat with her back to the room, silhouetted against the deepening blue of the harbor view. "Aren't we all …” he murmured, pulling his wrist free and returning to the bar.
Graham took over food service, the barman moving between tables with a quiet respect that acknowledged the rather surreal nature of today’s gathering. The Dune Deck's regular daytime menu had even been supplemented with simple comfort foods - platters of fresh bread, local cheese, roasted vegetables and fried chicken.
Nadine picked at a piece of bread, tearing it into smaller and smaller fragments that she arranged in a neat line along the edge of her plate.
Scott's absence was conspicuous. He'd attended the funeral service, standing at a distance in the church, but after hadchosen to return to work at the medical practice since the wedding was off - a transparent excuse that his wife had accepted with the same tight smile she'd been wearing all week.
"Eat something real Nadine,” Lila instructed, sliding a plate of actual food in front of her. "Carbs and protein.Thisdoctor's orders."
Nadine's eyes flickered briefly with amusements at her choice of words. "Since when are you a doctor, Lila?”
"Since I've been tending bar for twenty years," the proprietor replied. "Makes me qualified to diagnose at least three conditions: broken hearts, wounded pride, and insufficient food-to-alcohol ratios."
At the bar, Julian had found a sympathetic audience in two of his beleaguered groomsmen, corporate lawyers from his firm who had flown in for the wedding and somehow found themselves at a wake instead. Their conversation grew louder as the whiskey level in their glasses quickly lowered, occasional bursts of laughter cutting through the otherwise subdued atmosphere.
Jess remained in her isolation, though Graham had brought her a glass of wine and some food that sat mostly untouched on the low windowsill beside her.
The gathering quickly developed the strained quality of an event extending beyond its natural conclusion. Conversations formed and dissolved. Plates were picked at rather than eaten. Glasses were refilled with increasing frequency. The groomsmen eventually made their excuses and departed, leaving Julian to wander between the remaining groups like a ghost at his own funeral, increasingly disheveled and disoriented.
"We should call him a taxi," Megan said, half-rising from her chair as Julian stumbled slightly.
Sloane placed a restraining hand on her arm. "Not your responsibility. Remember?"
Something in her tone made Megan sink back into her seat, a flush spreading up her neck. "It's just concern."
"Is it?" Sloane's gaze was penetrating. "Or the same instinct that made you make way for Jess three years ago?”
Megan blanched, her composure cracking, but their conversation was interrupted as Julian suddenly rapped a knife against his glass, the sharp sound cutting through the murmured chatter around them. He'd made his way to the center of the room, swaying slightly as he raised his glass higher.
"A toast," he announced, his words slurring just enough to betray that he'd had too much to drink. "To Ellen the dressmaker, god rest her soul.” An uncomfortable silence settled over the room and Jess turned from the window, her expression unreadable as she watched her fiancé struggle to maintain his dignity. "And to love …” he continued, lifting his glass higher, whiskey sloshing dangerously close to the rim, “which is statistically improbable to begin with, and apparently even more so for me." He attempted a laugh that emerged as something closer to a cough. "Clearly I'm just unlucky in love, eh Meg?"
Sloane's eyes fixed on Megan, cataloging every nuance of her reaction. Jess’s friend had gone completely still, her hands frozen around her water glass.
Julian drained his own glass and lowered it with the careful deliberation of the very drunk. "Anyway. Here's to … the future … whatever comes next - wedding or no wedding. To be or not to be.” He made an aborted gesture toward the gathering that nearly cost him his balance, then thought better of it and sank into the nearest empty chair.
Lila stepped into the breach. "Alright folks, let's get some coffee going." Her voice was deliberately bright, creating a space for conversation to resume.
But Sloane set her gin and tonic down with deliberate precision, the glass making a sharp sound against the woodentable. Her eyes, way too perceptive for comfort, swept across the gathering, taking in Julian's slumped shoulders, Nadine's rigid posture, Megan's frightened expression and most of all, Jess's distant gaze fixed on the darkening harbor.
Something in her expression shifted, the look of someone who had reached a decision.
"All right," Sloane announced her voice cutting through the strained quiet with the clean efficiency of a blade. “This is excruciating. And I can’t take it any more.”
42
Sensing danger,Nadine was already half-rising from her chair. “Perhaps we should all just call it a day …" she muttered. “I can arrange rides for everyone - "
"Sit down, Nadine," Sloane ordered, not unkindly but with unmistakable firmness. "This is exactly what I'm talking about."
The other woman froze, caught between standing and sitting. "I don't understand."
"Of course you do." Sloane gestured toward her impeccable clothing. "Stop wasting your life playing perfect housewife and social coordinator for people who don’t appreciate you when you have skills that would put most CEO’s to shame."
Nadine sank slowly back into her chair, her cheeks flushing. "I'm just trying to help."
