“If I had a hunch he was cheating on you, don’t you think I would’ve said something?” Michelle was in the bathroom washing her face while I was sitting on the extra bed in her hotel room. I’d been staying at the inn where she and the other girls were booked to spend the rest of the week, giving Bret enough time to pack up his things and get the hell out of our—my—apartment.
“I don’t mean that you knew I was being cheated on, per se,” I called back to her. “I just mean that you have a spidey sense for when shit is about to hit the fan. That’s what made you follow me. I think.”
“You’re crazy.” She came out of the bathroom with a fresh face.
“I’m just really glad you were there,” I said. “Can you imagine how embarrassing it would’ve been for some stranger to have been standing in the lobby when the elevator doors opened? I would’ve been mortified. Or—God, it could’ve been so much worse. Bret and his girlfriend could’ve called the elevator back up, and I don’t know if I would’ve been able to pull myself together to get out in time!” I put my head into my hands and let out a heavy sigh—my third or fourth one that day and it wasn’t even 9 am. “I’m unraveling just thinking about it.”
Michelle came to the bed and sat next to me. She reached out and took my hands away from my face and made me look her in the eye.
“Well thendon’tthink about that. Today we’re not going to think about Bret at all. Nope, instead, we are going to do something fun.”
“Like what?”
“Like anything! Tell me what you want to do, and we’ll do it, and the girls and I will be here the whole time making sure you never think about him.”
I smirked. “Yeah, well, that’ll be impossible because I have to start making calls and canceling everything.” I reached for my phone on the bedside table. “Oh! Which reminds me, I have to start by canceling the resort in Hawaii for our honeymoon. I doubt I’ll get a full refund, but maybe I can get a partial one if I call first thing today.”
“The honeymoon,” Michelle said, a wicked smile spreading across her face. “I forgot about the honeymoon.”
“I didn’t,” I said. “That was what I was looking forward to the most.”
Her eyes lit up with excitement, and she grabbed the landline. “What are you doing?” I asked, but she didn’t answer. She called the room that Gina was sharing with Steph, and told them to come over right then and to bring Rose. The girls arrived within a minute of Michelle hanging up the phone.
“I’ll get it.” Michelle walked over to the door after we heard a knock. She let the girls in but kept them in the entryway where all four of them talked in hushed tones.
“Uh, hey guys,” I said. “You know I hate being out of the loop! Come in here and talk.”
They went on whispering and ignoring me to the point where I was beginning to feel a little invisible, and just when I was about to stand up and see what was going on, they all entered the room and smiled at me. They were clearly up to something, but I had no idea what.
“Can someone please fill me in?”
Michelle grinned. “You’re not canceling Hawaii. Instead, we’re all going on that honeymoon.Together.”
“What—”
Gina interrupted me. “It’ll bejustwhat you need! A week spent with your best friends, relaxing on the beach, getting away from it all.”
“I can’t go on my honeymoon without my husband,” I said.
“Why not?” Rose said.
“Well, because—I don’t know. It just isn’t done. Besides, I have way too many things I have to do here in San Diego, like try to get some of my money back on all the wedding stuff, call all my friends and family, and tell them the wedding is off. That sorta thing. I can’t just leave all of that.”
“Yes,” Steph said. “You can because we are going to take care of it. But we’re going to do it from a lovely seaside suite at the resort in Hawaii.”
“You're on board with this?” I questioned Steph. “Really? You hate stuff like this! You and me, we’re planners, that’s what I’ve always loved most about you. We’re too practical to do things like this!” Steph laughed, but I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere with her. I turned to Rose. “And what about Jess?”
“What about her?” Rose said with a shrug. “I already planned to be gone this whole week for the wedding, what difference does it make if I’m here or in Hawaii?”
“But my reservations aren’t until next week.”
“We will call and get rooms starting this week,” said Gina. “The rest of us can stay through the weekend, and if you want, you can stay longer than that.”
“Hell,” Michelle added. “I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to move there.”
I took a moment to openly gawk at my friends, trying to come up with more reasons why this was a bad idea and why I couldn’t possibly get on a plane to Hawaii right now… But I was coming up short. I had already taken this week and next week off from work, I had a massive suite reserved for Bret and me in Hawaii—one that could easily fit me and my friends. The only thing that was holding me back was my general fear of spontaneity. I liked to have a plan for everything, I liked to do things ‘the right way’, and going on my honeymoon with my four best friends instead of my betrothed didn’t feel like the right way to do things at all… Then again, look where that way of life had gotten me.
What good was planning anything if your fiancé can just cheat on you in the end, blowing all your carefully laid plans to smithereens?