Total pages in book: 15
Estimated words: 14086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 47(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 70(@200wpm)___ 56(@250wpm)___ 47(@300wpm)
“Yup. You were making out with some big dude. The two of you pushed your way into my stall and knocked my phone into the toilet.”
He looked mortified. “I’m so sorry! I’ll buy you a new phone. It’ll take me a while, but—”
“It’s okay. I stuck it in rice when I got home, and it dried out and started working again.”
Ryan slumped against the back of the couch and muttered, “What a relief. It would have taken me forever to pay that off.” After a moment, he glanced at me and said, “You must have been so disappointed when you discovered I was your blind date.”
“No, not at all.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“I really wasn’t disappointed, and I didn’t go into this with any expectations,” I told him. “All I was hoping for was a fun evening out, nothing more. I’m not looking for a relationship, or anything else.”
“Same here.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
“But then, why were you at a singles mixer?”
“Saying my last relationship ended badly doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I admitted. “It was the emotional equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of my life. But it’s been two years, and my friends think I should start dating again, so they bought me a ticket to that charity event. I agreed to go so they’d think I was okay, and I didn’t expect to win any of those prizes, but here I am.”
“I see.”
“What about you? Did you just go to that event because you had a free ticket?”
He broke my gaze and nodded. After a pause, he asked gently, “Did your boyfriend die? Is that what happened?”
“No. He’s alive and well, and madly in love with some new guy, from what I hear.”
“Then what—”
“Let’s not talk about this, Ryan. It was horrible, and humiliating, and the worst day of my life, and that’s all I want to say about it.”
“Oh no. He stood you up at the altar, didn’t he?”
I stared at him in disbelief. “How could you possibly have guessed that?”
“It was the worst thing I could think of, apart from the death of a loved one. I’m sorry, Rick. I can tell by your expression that I really should have kept my mouth shut.”
“I can’t believe you figured it out.”
“I’m good at filling in blanks. It’s the trivia player in me. Did he…no, sorry. I almost asked another question, but that’s awful of me. It doesn’t matter if I’m curious, since you just said you don’t want to talk about this.”
I got up and stepped around the coffee table, and for a long minute, I studied the knickknacks lining the fireplace mantel. Once I had my emotions under control, I said, “Did he break up with me before the actual wedding? If that’s what you were going to ask, the answer is no. Chad waited until we were dressed in our tuxedos and standing in front of everyone we knew, under a ridiculous arch covered in two thousand dollars’ worth of fucking out-of-season freesias, which we had to have because they were his favorite flower. He waited until the part where the wedding officiant asked if anyone had any objections, and then the man I loved said, ‘Actually, I think I do.’ He then proceeded to tell me he’d really tried, but he just couldn’t go through with it. He said the more he thought about it, the more he realized he was making a huge mistake by marrying me.”
“Holy shit.”
I turned to Ryan and asked, “You want to hear the funny part? My mom and her entire family had all flown in from South Korea for the ceremony. This was a huge deal. Chad and I had traveled to Busan ahead of time to meet with my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They had to be convinced about the whole gay marriage thing, which wasn’t legal in their country. It meant everything to me when they gave us their blessing and showed up for the ceremony.
“But most of them spoke limited English, so as Chad was telling me he didn’t want me, my grandmother was yelling, ‘What did he say?’ My mom started loudly translating for her, so I got to hear my world get torn apart twice, once in English, then again in Korean. It was surreal, and I probably would have found it hilarious under any other circumstances. But not that day.”
Ryan whispered, “Oh god, Rick.”
“It’s been two years, so apparently I’m supposed to be ready to move on now, according to everyone I know. But how can I—or anyone, really—come back from something like that? How can I ever trust another person enough to let them get close to me, after that kind of betrayal and humiliation? Chad could have broken up with me in private. He could have stopped the ceremony and pulled me aside. He even could have had our marriage annulled immediately afterwards. But instead, he chose to eviscerate me in front of a hundred and fifty of our nearest and dearest.”