I Paid My Grumpy Neighbor to Be My Fake Boyfriend, and He Took the Job Way Too Seriously novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: The Toast
Eli didn't move.
The boathouse creaked around us.
Out on the lake, a motorboat went by and the water slapped against the posts.
"You gave it to her," he said.
"I was fifteen. I didn't know what had happened to you. I just knew she'd lost it and been awful to everyone." I pressed my hands to my face. "She grabbed it out of my hand. She said, don't tell Umma, it's embarrassing. And she put it on and walked away."
"She knew."
"She knew a week later."
"And she let it stand."
"Six years."
He looked down at the steering wheel.
It was the closest thing to a sound of pain I'd ever heard from him.
"Okay," he said.
"Okay?"
"Okay. Now I know."
He pushed off the kayaks.
"Rehearsal dinner's at seven," he said. "I have to put on a suit."
"Eli. You don't have to go. You can say you're sick. I'll drive you home right now."
"I said I'd give a toast."
"That was before."
"I took the money, Hana."
He opened the boathouse door.
The evening light came in gold and blinding.
"I don't walk off jobs," he said.
By seven the long tables were set out on the lawn under the tent, with white cloths and candles.
The lights he'd fixed were glowing over all of it.
There were sixty people.
The groom's whole family from Chicago.
Mina's bridesmaids. My aunts. Our pastor.
I sat at the end of the family table, by the guest book, in a blue dress.
Eli sat next to me in the navy suit.
He looked like someone else in it.
Taller. Older. Very calm.
He didn't eat anything.
Under the table, my knee was against his, and he didn't move it away.
Halfway through dinner my father tapped his glass and stood.
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