“I’m Aaron, and this is my wife Trixie.” He gestures to the woman next to him. “Are you heading out for a drink?”
“We are,” Nate says.
“Can we join you? This is all a bit new to us and I’d love to have a smaller group at first.”
Nate glances at me, silently asking if I’m okay with this. I’m tempted to say no, but with how things are feeling between us, talking to others isn’t a bad idea.
“Sounds fun,” Nate says. “Wanna go to the one on Deck Five? That one looked pretty cool.”
Aaron nods excitedly, and suddenly, we have plans.
I try to be excited about it too.
“And then,he gets down on one knee and proposes.” Trixie’s jaw drops even as she retells her own engagement story. “It wassosweet.”
I take a long sip from the drink in my hand. I must be in my own personal hell because there’s no way Trixie sat and immediately started talking about her engagement just after mine fell apart. I know deep down it’s not her fault. She has no idea who Iam or anything about me.
This is just terrible luck.
If Nate were sitting next to me, he would aim to change the topic instantly. But somehow, he’s sitting with Aaron way too far from me, lost in his own conversation. I’m not sure how we got separated, but I’m miserable.
“That sounds amazing,” I say, and I do mean it. Trixie’s engagement sounded romantic. I bet it was better than my own.
“Then we had the wedding, and here we are.” She says it like a wedding is something simple to plan. Like it doesn’t take over a woman’s life and completely derail everything.
Or maybe it’s not supposed to and I just got the short end of the stick. “Congratulations. It sounds like it’s gonna be an amazing honeymoon.”
“I’m gonnamakeit amazing, if you know what I mean.” She laughs and I force myself to join her. “Now tell me about you. I know your name is Maisie, but you’ve not talked about yourself once.”
“Me?” I have to take another sip. “There isn’t much to talk about. I’m just here ... enjoying the views.”
“I’m sure you are.” She winks, her eyes moving toward Nate.
I frown, fighting the urge to tell her to keep her eyes to herself. But I’m not sure why. She’s obviously married and I know people look at Nate with interest all the time.
How could they not?
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I check it quickly during the lull in conversation. My eyes bug out when I see the last person I expect.
Rob
Are you home? I think we need to talk.
Rob hasn’t reached out to me since I called off the engagement. I did wind up mailing that engagement ring back to him. They better not have lost it in the mail.
Maisie
What can we possibly have to talk about?
Rob
I miss you.
Those words should make me feel something, but all that comes is bitterness. Sure, he misses me now. But that doesn’t undo what he let his friends call me. That doesn’t undo how he talks about me behind my back.
That doesn’t undo him wanting me away from Nate.
“Oh, who’s that? Is there some drama in paradise?”
