Chapter 6: Receipts

I reached down and took the ring out of the box.

Ryan smiled, because he thought I was putting it on.

The room started to clap.

I closed my hand around it instead.

"Where did you get this?"

The clapping stumbled and died.

Ryan's smile stayed where it was, but his eyes moved to Kendall.

"It's a family ring," he said. "It's special. Just put it on, babe."

"It's my grandmother's ring. It was in a cookie tin on my dresser. You took it when you used my bathroom on Sunday."

"I borrowed it. For this. It was going to be yours anyway."

"It was already mine."

I slid it onto my right hand, onto my middle finger, where it fit.

"No," I said. "The answer's no."

Somebody near the cake laughed, one short, shocked sound.

Ryan stayed on one knee.

He looked around at all the phones.

"She's not okay," he said, to the room. "You guys see this, right? I'm on my knees here."

"Get up, Ryan."

"Not until you talk to me."

The speaker was still playing our song.

The DJ's microphone sat on the table next to it, the one Kendall had rented for the speeches.

I walked over and picked it up.

The music cut out.

I turned the mic on and it squealed, and sixty people flinched.

"Hi," I said. "Thanks for coming. I have a speech too."

Kendall lowered her phone.

"Linds," she said. "Don't."

I opened Venmo on my phone.

My hands were steady.

I'd practiced this in the car, in the parking lot, for twenty minutes.

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