Chapter 12: The Letter

"I'd like to say something before anyone else does," Henrik said.

He stood at the head of the long table with his hands flat on the cloth.

Eighty faces turned up to him in the candlelight.

I stood too, and moved to his shoulder, and my knees nearly gave out.

"Most of you think I came to this wedding with my girlfriend," he said.

"I didn't."

A ripple went down the table.

"On Sunday night I had no one to bring, and I said Astrid's name because she's the person I'd have wanted."

"She stood up and saved me from standing there like a fool."

"It was a lie, and I'm sorry for it."

"I'm sorry to Elsa, and Kaspar, and Mrs. Frost, who didn't deserve to be fooled in her own dining room."

Mrs. Frost's face was unreadable.

Rolf had his eyes shut.

"But I want you to know the lie stopped being one sometime on Monday," Henrik said.

"I love her."

"I never stopped."

"And that's the only true thing I came here with."

The silence went on forever.

My eyes stung.

He had said it into eighty faces, and he hadn't looked at me once.

Then Mrs. Frost put her napkin on the table.

"Thank you for your honesty, Henrik," she said, in a voice like cold glass.

"I think that's enough for tonight."

"Oh, no," said Calla.

She rose slowly from her chair, with the shoebox in both hands.

"Since we're all being so honest."

"Calla," said Kaspar.

"Sit down."

"I'll be quick," she said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Offside in the Friend Zone from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.