His "Childhood Friend" Planned My Wedding? Cool, I Planned My Exit! novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Another Time

At a friends' dinner Lindy says she feels like she knew Casey's father, and Dexter forgets the anniversary of his death and says there will be another time.

On Friday night Dexter's friends picked a grill across town, and he stood at the door jingling his keys.

"Come on, Case. They'll think something's wrong if you skip."

Something was wrong, but I put on a different shirt anyway.

Lindy was already at the long table when we walked in.

She wore a sky-blue dress with thin straps, and the new pearl clip caught the light every time she turned her head.

"Dexter!" she called. "I saved you a seat!"

He crossed the room and sat down next to her without looking at the other chairs.

I stood there with my jacket over my arm.

Then I took the seat on his other side.

A man at the end of the table lifted his beer.

"There's the bride! Two weeks and you're done, huh, Dexter?"

"Fourteen days," I said.

"Fourteen days," Dexter agreed, already reading the menu.

Lindy rested her chin on her hand and smiled at me.

"Weddings can still fall apart right up to the last minute, you know. Happy ones too. I just like to say it out loud so nobody's scared."

Nobody at the table laughed.

The man with the beer coughed.

"Lindy says things," he said. "Ignore her."

I wasn't angry. I was watching the clip.

A woman across from us leaned forward.

"Lindy, that clip is beautiful. Where did you get it?"

Lindy looked at Dexter.

"Somebody who's known me forever."

Dexter didn't even lift his eyes from the menu.

"I picked it up for her. She looks good in pearls."

The woman turned to me.

"And what did he bring you?"

Dexter flicked his hand.

"Casey doesn't like fancy things."

I smiled at him.

"When did I say that?"

He blinked.

Lindy touched my wrist with cold fingers.

"Casey, don't take it hard. Dexter's hopeless at gifts. I'm sure it was something useful."

"It was a three-dollar magnet with a broken wing."

Somebody's fork scraped a plate.

Dexter's jaw tightened.

"You're doing this here?"

"You just told your friends I don't like nice things."

"It's a dinner, Casey. Let it go."

I took my napkin and excused myself to the restroom.

Lindy followed a minute later.

She stood at the mirror uncapping a lipstick, and her voice was gentle.

"I know you think I'm in the way," she said. "I'm not. Dexter and I grew up two doors apart. I understand him."

"Okay."

"He told me the wedding is getting to be too much. He said he can't breathe." She touched the clip. "Be gentle with him."

My hands stopped under the water.

"He said that to you?"

"We tell each other everything."

I looked at her in the mirror.

She had auburn hair and a heart-shaped face, and for a second I thought she was about to cry.

"Your dad would have loved seeing you in white," she said softly.

I turned off the tap.

"You never met my dad."

Her smile stayed in place.

"Dexter talks about him so much, I feel like I did."

She capped her lipstick and left me alone with the dripping sink.

When I came out, Dexter was leaning against the hallway wall with his phone.

"What did she say to you?" he asked.

His eyes went to the restroom door before they went to me.

"What are you afraid she said?"

He shoved the phone in his pocket.

"You've been weird all night."

When the bill came, Lindy announced she'd had two glasses of wine and shouldn't drive.

Dexter had the keys in his hand before she finished.

"I'll take you home."

I stopped walking.

"She lives north. We live east."

"It's late. She shouldn't go alone."

"What about me?"

"You're coming too, Casey."

Lindy slid into the front seat. I got into the back.

She plugged her phone into the car speakers without asking, and a slow song about the ocean started to play.

"Remember this one?" she said. "They played it at that taco stand."

Dexter laughed. Really laughed.

"You sang every word wrong."

For forty minutes they traded beaches and tacos and a sunrise on a pier.

In the back seat I sat with my hands in my lap and counted the streetlights.

When we reached her building, Lindy turned and looked at me through the gap between the seats.

"See you at the wedding," she said.

Then, to Dexter: "Don't forget my shoot on Saturday."

"I won't."

She shut the door.

The engine hummed in the quiet.

I leaned forward.

"Dexter. Do you know what Saturday is?"

He took too long.

"It's Saturday."

"It's the anniversary of my dad's death."

His hands tightened on the wheel.

"I can come in the afternoon," he said finally.

"What about the morning?"

"Lindy already booked the photographer. I can't cancel on her this late."

I looked out at the empty street.

"Before he died my dad asked me when you'd come over for dinner," I said. "You never did."

He didn't answer.

A car passed us going the other way.

"There'll be another time," Dexter said.

I laughed, and it came out hard and flat.

My father was dead.

There was no other time.

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