“A great time,” I assure her, as she disappears around the corner.
Marlowe rolls her eyes. “I wasn’t trying to upset her.”
“I know.”
She puts the tiniest piece of icing on her fingertip and tastes it. “How many times did she have to talk you into doing this?”
“Is it that obvious I don’t want to be here?”
“Maybe just to me. And who could blame you? Fresh off a breakup, about to head out of town. I’m sure there are a dozen things you’d rather be doing than walking around with a fake bird on your shoulder.” She laughs, then looks at me sincerely. “How are you holding up?”
I lean against the counter and cross my arms. “Honestly? I’ve been better.”
“When’s the last time you talked to Oliver?”
My skin prickles when I think about the birthday card in my pocket.
“A couple weeks.”
“I know everyone says this after a breakup, but it’s his loss. Truly. I’m happy you’re taking off. A change of scenery is exactly what you need,” she says. “I wish I could have done that after Michael and I split.”
Shortly after their two-year anniversary, Marlowe and Michael announced they were getting a divorce. It was as unpredictable as a tsunami crashing a bright summer holiday.
Marlowe and Michael started dating back in college. He was the closest thing I had to a brother until Preston came along. The first few times our group reconvened after the divorce, it felt like our collective was missing a limb. Michael had always been right there, a working part of our dynamic, and then he was gone. Did it make me a bad friend to Marlowe to admit that I missed him sometimes?
I can’t stop myself from asking, “Why did you and Michael decide to end things?”
“I wish I had a better answer for people,” she says. “It’s not like anything dramatic happened between us. No betrayal, no drama. I mean, he’s still one of my closest friends. We were texting earlier tonight. He wants me to wish you a happy birthday.”
“That’s nice.”
“We were so young when we fell in love. We’re different now. I didn’t want to be one of those couples that sticks it out just because we’re too afraid to call it quits.”
“It’s strange how one day you want the same things out of life, and the next day everything changes.”
Oliver fell into my life so seamlessly, I never imagined we’d drift apart. We enjoyed the same movies, had similar tastes in music. Petty arguments I’d had with other boyfriends, about where to eat or how to spend the holidays, were decided with ease. Everything with Oliver was simple, until it wasn’t.
That familiar soreness in my chest returns. A longing.
Marlowe looks in the direction of the dining room, contemplating everything that’s been said. “If either of you were having doubts, it’sgood you called things off. Life is too short to end up like Preston and Ava.”
“It was one disagreement,” I say, feeling unusually defensive. “They’re not headed for divorce.”
“Their relationship has been spiraling for years, ever since Preston stopped working,” she says. “I’m surprised she still puts up with it.”
Has Ava and Preston’s relationship gotten that bad? Was I too interested in Oliver to notice, distracted first by the heady rush of our early romance, and then by the devastating way it ended? Marlowe and Ava have been picking at each other throughout the night. What other details of my friends’ lives have slipped through the cracks of my own negligence?
“This tension between you and Ava,” I say to Marlowe, “I hope it’s not about whatever happened at the dress fitting.”
“I’m not getting into that,” she says, pushing herself off the counter. “I don’t want to spoil your party.”
“Whatever it is, you need to work it out. I mean, we’ve been friends for almost two decades.”
“Don’t you think that’s a tired excuse for maintaining any relationship? We’ve been friends for seventeen years. Next year will be eighteen. Then nineteen. Am I just supposed to overlook everything because I’ve known a person so long?” She shakes her head. “That’s the exact reason I called things off with Michael. Life’s too short.”
“Friends go through spells,” I say.
“And sometimes it’s better to move on. I mean, why should I keep someone in my life if they’re not serving me anymore?”
