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I owed Nick a phone call, but I didn’t want to do it with Mia and Erin around. I’d call him on my way home. Since I wasn’t preggo, we opened a bottle of wine and watched Mia pack her wedding suitcase, oohing and ahhing over her gown—so much simpler than the puffy confection she’d been planning to wear for her first wedding. She’d sold that one on ebay and managed to get enough for it to buy this one plus our beautiful lavender bridesmaids dresses and plane tickets to France, her gifts to us. Erin and I, her only two attendants, had gone in together on a pair of gorgeous strappy, sparkly Jimmy Choo heels for Mia, and we’d had I DO put on the bottom of one shoe in tiny blue rhinestones, and her wedding date on the other. We’d also done a little research and had arranged for a day at a spa for the three of us in Provence once Erin and I arrived.
Watching Mia dance around her room, happier than I’d ever seen her, I felt this lovely warm hum beneath my skin. She was going to spend the rest of her life with the man she adored, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
Suddenly I thought of the story from Nick’s family history, about the way his great-grandmother, the little one called Tiny with the red lips, had shown up at his great-grandfather’s house to announce she loved him in the middle of Sunday dinner because she couldn’t wait. I thought about the note we’d found with today’s date on it—really, what were the odds of that? Probably a million to one.
So what was I waiting for? If you loved someone, you should say it, right?
The hum began to build into something more expectant as I realized I no longer wanted to wait either. Even though I wasn’t pregnant, if Nick still wanted me, I wanted him too. I stood up, gripping my empty wine glass by the stem.
“Where are you going?” Erin asked.
“To see Nick,” I said breathlessly. “I have to give him another chance.”
Mia burst out laughing. “You decided that in the last twenty-five minutes? Now that’s the Coco I know.”
Grinning, I hugged her hard and then Erin too. “Thanks, girls. You’re the best. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Have fun!” Mia yelled as I rushed out of her bedroom.
“But be safe!” called Erin.
“I will!” I took the steps down two at a time and headed for the back door. “Hi, Lucas. Bye, Lucas.” I raced through the kitchen past Mia’s handsome fiancée, who’d come home while we were upstairs and was preparing dinner.
“Hi, Coco. Where’s the fire?”
“Grand Circus Park,” I yelled without stopping to look back. I jumped into my car and drove downtown, frowning only once when I realized I was in sweatpants and a Detroit City Distillery t-shirt. My face was sort of puffy and tear-stained too, and I had no makeup on. Oh, well. If he loves me, he loves me like this.
I pulled into the parking garage next to his building, took the first empty spot I could find, and rushed up to Nick’s apartment. By the time I got to his door, I was panting, elated at the way I was recreating a story from his family’s past. I took a second to compose myself before banging on the door.
Nothing.
I knocked again.
Nothing. My heart rate slowed, and my shoulders fell slightly. He wasn’t home? This wasn’t supposed to happen. The guy has to be home when the girl shows up. Had Nick mentioned he was going out? Maybe he was at the restaurant? I knew how anxious he was about the test, so it didn’t seem likely that he’d just take off somewhere without calling…wait, had I even checked my phone?
I dug in my bag and pulled it out. Sure enough I had two missed calls, a text, and a voicemail message from him. The text said Hey, please call when you can. The voicemail message was longer, and more disappointing.
“Coco, it’s me. Listen, I just got a call that my event schedule changed and my agent booked me on a flight to L.A. tonight. I’ll be back Wednesday, but I’ll call you as soon as I can. And listen, I can’t stop thinking about the other thing, so can you please let me know as soon as you can? See you soon.”
Turning around to slouch against the door, I hit delete with more force than necessary, trying not to be too angry over this. After all, Nick was a “celebrity” now and he’d have “events” to do and flights to catch and people in his life that had to come before me. But how annoying that this one had to happen just when I was coming over here to give him a second chance.
The date was today’s date, not Wednesday’s
I was so aggravated I almost didn’t listen to the voicemail from Angelina. But I figured nothing could put me in a worse mood than this, so I hit play and put the phone to my ear.
What she said had me sliding down the door until my butt hit the floor.
“Coco it’s Angelina. Listen, the party’s off. The whole fucking wedding is off. Lorenzo’s a big asshole.”
I listened to it three times, just to make sure I heard right. Then I called her. Maybe she was just being dramatic.
“Hello?”
“Angelina, it’s Coco.”
“Hi. The wedding’s still off.” She sounded stuffed up, like she’d been crying.
I bit my lip. “I heard your message. Are you OK?”
“No. I found out that he’s been cheating on me with my slut cousin Christa. For months he’s been fucking her!”
Damn you, Lorenzo. “So you broke up?”
“Hell yes, we did. And I’m not taking him back, neither. He can go fuck Christa if he wants to. Actually he can go fuck himself.”