Alice spotted Rose and Ethan coming out of the house. She had to admit they were a beautiful couple. After everything that had happened with Jack and Peter in the past year, Ethan was ancient history. But still, seeing your ex and his new perfect girlfriend so in love wasn’t exactly ideal.
They seemed to be walking in her direction, so Alice turned her back to them and grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing waiter. Surely they would try to avoid her just as much as she was trying to avoid them. The last thing Alice expected when she turned back was to find them standing right behind her as if they wanted to speak to her. She almost choked on her drink and recovered just in time to avoid making a complete fool of herself.
“Hi, Alice,” Ethan said. Rose smiled apologetically.
“Hi,” Alice replied warily.
“Madison wasn’t feeling well,” Ethan said. “She had to go home and asked me to tell you.”
Alice had seen Madison drink more than one glass of wine. Should she even be driving? “Is she sick?” Alice asked, the embarrassment of facing her ex replaced by worry for her friend. “What did she have?”
“Nothing serious. She was just a bit lightheaded.”
Ethan’s jaw kept twitching as he spoke. That added to the way Rose was shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other, and Alice was positive they weren’t telling her the whole story.
Alice dropped her glass on a nearby table and reached into her clutch for her phone. She had one new text from Madison.
Not feeling well, heading home
Alice scrolled through the chat, but there were no other messages. Things didn’t add up. She lifted her head and asked, “Is Madison gone already?”
“Should be.” Ethan shrugged.
His hostile attitude was pushing Alice’s buttons. Was he mad at Madison? Because she wasn’t feeling well? “So you let her drive home alone when she was feeling lightheaded?” Alice pressed him. That didn’t sound much like Ethan; it didn’t sound like any of the Smithson clan.
“It wasn’t that serious.”
“But serious enough she had to go home.”
Alice wasn’t sure why she was trying to pick a fight, especially with her ex. But she wanted to find out what it was that they weren’t telling her.
“Anyway, Madison should have texted you to tell you,” Ethan said, ignoring her question point blank. “Since she was your ride, we can give you a lift home.”
A lift home with her ex and the girl he’d dumped her for? Hell no!
“Err.” Alice put the phone back in her purse to gain a couple of seconds. She had to wiggle her way out of this situation. “Yeah, she did text me. Don’t you worry, guys. I can call an Uber to get home.”
“I live just off campus,” Rose said. “It’s not a problem for us to drop you off. It’d cost you a fortune to get a car to come all the way here and back to Cambridge.”
Ethan’s girlfriend was being so genuinely kind and warm, it was impossible to say no. And Alice wasn’t good at thinking on her feet. Madison had better be seriously ill.
“Okay, then,” Alice sighed. “When do you guys want to go?”
“After they cut the cake?” Ethan looked at Rose who nodded.
“All right, that’s settled,” Alice said. “I’ll see you later, guys.” She walked away as quickly as she could without appearing to be running.
Not long afterward, the band stopped playing and the wedding planner took the stage to ask all the guests to group on the lawn for the cutting of the cake. They formed a big semicircle around a small round table covered with a white cloth. On top of it stood the wedding cake—a five-layer tower decorated with a waterfall of pale pink-and-white sugar flowers.
Alice waited to see where Ethan and Rose would go, and positioned herself on the opposite side, at the back of the crowd. When all the guests were settled, soft music started in the background and Georgiana and Tyler made their appearance from inside the house. The bride and groom crossed the garden holding hands, Georgiana looking positively radiant in her amazing high-low hem gown and Tyler appearing too pale for his own good. He was smiling, but something was off. His smile looked forced. Was he nervous?
As the bride and groom took their place behind the small table, Georgiana’s older sister discretely emerged from the house. Victoria scanned the crowd, then joined Ethan and Rose. They all started whispering furiously to one another, heads bent in a close circle. The argument seemed to become heated, so much so that Vicky made a “be quiet” gesture, peering over her shoulder. Alice’s suspicions flared up again. It looked like the three of them were discussing some big secret the guests shouldn’t overhear.
Ethan went quiet and fixed his gaze ahead. Rose was studying his face apprehensively. Why? Alice followed Ethan’s stare: he was glaring at the groom with murder written all over his features. Alice had never seen him so livid. Vicky’s mouth, too, was set in a thin line, and she sported a deep frown. Georgiana appeared to be the only unabashedly happy Smithson sibling. What was all the drama about?
A cheer erupted from the crowd as Georgiana and Tyler joined hands and sunk a knife into the cake’s top layer. Alice drained her glass and walked back to her table to wait for a slice of the wedding cake as did most of the guests. She wasn’t hungry; she’d had enough of the wedding banquet, and her stomach was knotting tighter and tighter at the prospect of her awkward ride home. But, apparently, it was bad luck to leave a wedding without having a bite of the cake. And she could use some good fortune.
The cake was too sweet, so after the first perfunctory bite, Alice left the rest. She was about to go search for Ethan and Rose when Georgiana appeared by her side.
“I’m throwing the bouquet,” the bride announced, taking Alice’s hand. “You have to come.”
Alice followed her and joined the crowd of eager-looking—to say the least, belligerent to be more accurate—single girls ready to catch the prize. Around her, crazed women started pushing and shoving, so Alice decided to move to the edge of the swaying crowd.
“All right, ladies,” Georgiana yelled, and winked at Alice. “Here it goes. One… two… three…”
The bouquet soared high in the air and almost hit Alice in the face before she caught it. A disappointed groan resounded around her. The bouquet felt heavier than she’d imagined. Fat chance I’m getting married within the year, she thought.
Georgiana barreled into her, yelling, “I knew you’d catch it!” The bride pulled her into a hug, the beading on her dress scraping Alice’s skin at multiple points. “Thanks so much for coming. I’m sorry we didn’t get to talk much today, but everyone wanted a piece of me.”
“Of course.” Alice smiled. “You’re the most beautiful bride in the world.”
“I have to go now.” Georgiana was more hyper than a hamster on a wheel. “Tyler and I have to say our goodbyes before going.”
“Are you leaving for the honeymoon tonight?” Alice asked.
“Yeah.” Georgiana nodded. “We’d better hurry. I’ll call you when I get back, all right?”
“Sure, have a great time.”
They hugged again, and Georgiana waltzed away in a whirl of white organza. With no excuses left to delay the inevitable, Alice sighed and started searching for Ethan and Rose. It was Rose who found her instead.
“Alice, here,” she called, pushing her way through the crowd to reach her. “We’re ready to go if you are.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather I took a cab?”
“This far out of the city? It’d be expensive,” Rose said. “Listen, I understand this might be awkward for you…”
“Well, a bit,” Alice admitted. “Isn’t it for you, too?”
“Honestly, I’m cool if you’re cool. Ethan, too.” Rose smiled. “But if you don’t want to go with us, I understand; that’s why I came looking for you alone. I thought maybe you didn’t want to say anything in front of him.”
The more Rose talked, the harder it was not to like her. Plus, Ethan’s annoyingly kind girlfriend was right: paying for a cab would be a pain. And Alice wasn’t exactly swimming in money at the moment. As for Uber, one tiny, money-forgetting-ATM-detouring incident last year had made her passenger score drop and now drivers ducked her requests.
Alice made up her mind. “I’m cool.”
Ethan was waiting for them at the front of the house, now transformed into an unofficial parking lot. Luckily, they’d come in the pickup, so Alice wouldn’t have to squeeze in the back of his sports car.
“You’re still at the Botanic Gardens?” Ethan asked, catching her eye in the rearview mirror.
Alice blushed, thinking she’d had sex with him there, in her room. “Yeah, still there.”
The awkward trio spent the ride in silence; each of them busy with their own thoughts. Alice didn’t pay attention to the road, so when Ethan pulled up in front of her building, she was startled they’d already arrived. She was about to get out of the car when she froze, her hand on the door handle, her pulse out of control.
Jack was sitting on the steps of her building.