Mrs. Snood is practically hyperventilating with excitement, and she bobs her head up and down.
“Of course Preston. Go right ahead. Let us know how it turns out.”
With that, I excuse myself and stride across the ballroom, determined to find the pretty girl in order to rescue her from her lout of a date.
3
Carolyn
OMG, I can’t believe this is happening! Did my boyfriend just throw a tantrum like a child at my friend’s wedding? Who does that? I’m utterly embarrassed, and humiliation heats my cheeks.
I rush after Corey, my hands so tightly balled into fists that my freshly-manicured nails make half-moons in the flesh. I feel hot and almost nauseated with shame and anger as my head spins.
“Corey!” I scream once I get into the lobby. My shout echoes, and he whips around from halfway down the hall.
“What?” he snarls.
This time, I don’t resist the urge to roll my eyes. It’s better than crying, which unfortunately, seems to be just on the horizon. “What the hell was that all about? How could you ruin my friend’s wedding?”
Corey matches me with his own eye-roll.
“Who the fuck cares about this wedding? Who the fuck cares about your friend?”
I gape at him. How can he be so callous? Clearly, logic is not going to make a dent in his thinking, so I change tactics. “Well, where do you think you’re going? I have the car keys!”
He snarls at me.
“I was going to get a cab. I’m going back to my apartment.”
I bite my lip. “Okay fine. But I want you to know that we’re going to have words when I get back, Corey. Your behavior has been atrocious! I mean, what the hell? Today’s about Zora and Tim and you just ruined their dinner!”
He rolls his eyes again.
“Whatever. Clearly, you’re overestimating your importance to Zora because she sat us at the worst table! Only losers sit there and I’ll have you know that Corey Miller is not a loser! I don’t get caught in situations like that.”
Not this again. I sigh. “Everyone has to sit somewhere, and you know her husband Tim’s family is huge. His mom has, like, eight siblings and probably fifty nieces and nephews. Friends don’t sit as close as family does, so it doesn’t matter.”
But still, my boyfriend’s being petulant.
“And at the ceremony?”
I stare at him. “What about the ceremony?”
“We were behind a huge pillar. I couldn’t see anything because of that huge concrete thing and I don’t fucking care if it was covered in flowers! The flowers were only getting in the way.”
Clearly, this argument isn’t going anywhere. I don’t know what to do or say to end the tirade, and my patience is fast coming to an end. Once again, I feel my cheeks heat up with blood, this time from rage and frustration rather than girlish embarrassment.
“Listen, go home then,” I manage in a stilted voice. “We’ll talk when I get back. Right now, I’m going to apologize to Zora for the scene you just made.”
My boyfriend spits. He literally hocks a loogie and spits onto the carpeted hotel floor. “She’s the one who should be apologizing for this shitty wedding. Seriously, some people have no idea how to throw a party.”
This has gone way too far—the spitting, the denigration of the bride, and the bad attitude are too much.
“We’ll talk later,” I state again through gritted teeth. But instead, Corey turns his back and begins striding away.
“Don’t bother, Carolyn. We’re done.”
I stand there as his figure grows smaller.
“What?”
He merely shrugs, not even turning around.
“You heard me. I haven’t been enjoying this relationship for the last few months, and you’ve put on a ton of weight too, Carolyn. You’re not the girl I used to know, so consider this a sayonara. I’m done with this and done with you. There isn’t going to be an ‘after.’ I’ll mail you anything you’ve left at my apartment via USPS. I’m out.”
With that, he turns a corner and disappears from the long corridor. Meanwhile, I’m left alone in the empty hallway, feeling stunned and confused. The silence is so loud that it rings in my ears. What the fuck just happened? It’s not like I hadn’t thought about breaking up with Corey, but it still feels awful and it was so sudden too. Was I really such a terrible girlfriend that he was this miserable?
No, I think, there’s no way this is my fault. We’d been happy when we first started dating, but something’s gone off the rails since then. It’s like Corey’s changed for some reason, and it’s a bad change. It’s almost as if he’s regressed back to childhood ever since a few months ago, and acting like a spoiled child. He throws ridiculous fits when I don’t want to go out at night, and makes nasty comments about my weight, hinting that if I don’t get a hold of it, I’m going to blow up like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.