“No problem,” I said, “I have the laminated checklist and I’m halfway through checking every guest’s dessert preference.”
“Good to hear.” She scratched her head. “Was that Tyler I just saw leaving? He looked disheveled as hell.”
“I have the final mockups for the seating arrangement.” I immediately changed the subject. “The artist plans to start the calligraphy on the mirrors tomorrow.”
“Harlow, was that Tyler?”
“She’s really excited to do the large-scale mirror.” I tried to keep our train of conversation on my track. “She says it’s the biggest one she’s ever done.”
She looked at the door, then back at me.
“Since it takes her a while to do these, she asked the chapel if she could work on it there for the next few weeks.”
“Tyler told me he was working in another state today, and Chad told me that he saw a couple that looked like you two last week, but…” She stepped back, crossing her arms. “Is Tyler is the ‘mystery guy from the resort’ that you’ve been sleeping with?”
“I think this artist is going to blow us all away.”
“Stop trying to distract me, Harlow.” She raised her voice. “Have you been sleeping with my brother?”
I didn’t say anything, and I knew the answer was etched all over my face.
“That’s why you’ve been late to everything and utterly unreachable?” Her voice cracked. “Because fucking Tyler is more important than your best friend’s wedding?”
“It’s not like that.”
“But you are fucking him, right?”
I said nothing.
“Oh. My. God! I tell you everything, Harlow.” She hissed. “Everything.”
“We were planning to tell you after the wedding.”
“We?” She looked as if her head was about to explode. “I just don’t understand how you could do this.” She glared at me. “It’s bad enough that he’s my brother, but you lied to me about it. You’ve been lying to my face every day!”
My heart sank. “I didn’t think it was the right time.”
“You didn’t think at all.” She talked over me. “My brother can’t commit to shit for longer than a few weeks at a time, and I know you’re dying to bounce back from Dave with any guy, but Tyler should’ve never been an option. He hasn’t even finished college!”
I bit my tongue. Now wasn’t the time to reveal what he’d been doing with his life.
“You’re like a fucking sister to me, Harlow.” Tears fell down her face. “This is pretty much incest.”
“Chelsea …”
“No.” Her face reddened. “Fuck no. Don’t you dare say anything right now except, ‘I’m sorry.’”
I shook my head. “I’m not sorry.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry for hiding it from you,” I said. “But I do like Tyler. A lot.”
“Tyler is just your rebound guy, Harlow. Just the first guy you screwed after Dave, a guy you’ll forget once you meet the next one.”
“If you would let me explain, I promise you it’s a lot more than that.” I didn’t think revealing the dorm room kiss was appropriate at the moment, but if it would help her see things my way, I was willing to do so. “I know it’s fast, but I think I’m really falling for him, Chelsea. It’s easy and simple, and—”
“Oh, God.” She let out an angry laugh, wiping tears from her eyes. “So, is dating my brother and potentially hurting him—because you will hurt him when this doesn’t work out and you know it—worth losing our friendship over?”
“What? What are you saying?”
“You’ve always been the smartest person I know,” she said. “You know exactly what I’m saying.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “Chelsea, hear me out.”
“For my bachelorette party, I need you to leave ten seconds after you show your face.” She ignored my request. “I want to enjoy the weekend with the people in my life who don’t blatantly lie to me, and I don’t need people sensing how much I hate you right now.”
“Chelsea, please.”
“Please, what? If I was dating someone in your family—Oh, wait. I would never do that, even if I had the opportunity, because it crosses a line.”
I walked toward her, attempting to hug her and get her to calm down, but she opened the door.
“Don’t call or text me.” She slammed it so hard my windows shook.
Before I could slump down onto my sofa, Chelsea knocked on the door again.
I hesitated before opening it. “Yes?”
“Quick question,” she said, her voice cracking. “The night when you stepped outside my place for car sex, the same day that you waxed poetic about the nice guy at the resort who gave you that massage…It was all a lie, wasn’t it?”
I stared at the tears streaming down her face, unable to say a word.
“Answer me.”
“Yes. It was all a lie.”
“So much for always telling me everything, right?” She shook her head and stormed down the steps.
It All Ends
Harlow
The doorman at Tyler’s condo handed me a handkerchief the moment I stepped out of the cab. He didn’t speak or ask why I wasn’t entering via the other entrance. Didn’t even utter a random movie quote and wait for me to guess the answer.