Aelanna lifted her Manhattan. “I don’t want to erase anything.”
Kora raised an eyebrow. “Not even him?”
Aelanna sucked the cherry off the stick thoughtfully.“Maybe him.”
“Good,” Kora said. “Healthy.”
“So... ” Nayli said, leaning in after sipping hers and smacking her lips, “Tell us everything. Slowly. With dramatic pauses.”
Aelanna sighed. “He didn’t show up.”
Kora slammed her hand on the table. “I knew it. Iknewthat man had the backbone of a wet paper bag.”
Nayli gasped. “He didn’t even text?”
“No.”
“Call?”
“No.”
“Send a smoke signal? A carrier pigeon? A sad little emoji?”
Aelanna shook her head. “His best man showed up and told me Brad wasn’t coming. I don’t think Brad knew about it.”
Kora’s outrage showed on her face. “He just ghosted you?” She tutted. “I’m gonna find him and staple a calendar to his forehead.”
Nayli nodded sympathetically. “With the date circled.”
Aelanna laughed weakly. “Guys…”
“No, no,” Nayli said, patting her hand. “You deserve better. You deserve someone who shows up. Preferably on time. Preferably wearing something ironed.”
Kora added, “Preferably with a pulse and a functioning brain.”
Silence followed while they sipped their drinks deep in thought. Aelanna toed her heels off with a grateful sigh. One scuffed out from under the table. Kora frowned at it and thenthrew a quizzical look at Aelanna.
“You walked home?” Kora asked. “In those shoes?”
Aelanna nodded.
Nayli studied it and looked horrified. “From Kew Gardens? In heels? In the rain? Darling, that’s not heartbreak, that’s self-harm.”
Kora leaned back. “Honestly, I respect it. That’s heroine backbone.”
“It’s soggy heroine backbone,” Nayli corrected.
Aelanna rubbed her frizzy hair off her forehead. “I didn’t want to get back on the subway.”
“Fair,” Kora said. “The E train is where hope goes to die.”
Nayli slid her manicured hands across the table and squeezed Aelanna’s in hers. “Listen to me. You are beautiful, you are kind, and you are far too good for a man who can’t even be bothered to show up to his own wedding.”
Kora nodded decisively.
“And,” Nayli continued, “you deserve someone who will meet you at the altar —”
“— or the bureaucratic equivalent,” Kora added.
