Love in his Lie

Advice

"So a gopher did you in?"

"Or a rabbit... Or a really large earth worm..."

Mindy placed a new ice pack on my ankle before handing over another one of her chocolate chip cookies. It seemed she was making those pretty often now.

"Well, it sounds like you had fun until then."

She took a seat in our threadbare arm chair before taking a sip of her tea.

"I did, but I'm not so sure about Wes."

I nibbled the edge of my cookie, taking small thoughtful bites as I reflected on his parting words.

"He did seem to be in a rush to leave once I hauled you out of the car."

"You didn't haul me..."

"You were like a sack of potatoes. Anyway, despite his chivalrous offer to get you out himself, he seemed more interested in the flow of traffic than explaining what had happened to you. I guess he just didn't want to be burdened with taking care of his future sister-in-law, right?"

I didn't bother looking at Mindy to read her expression. There was enough bounce in her words to know she had already read what I was incapable of accepting. I took another bite of my cookie and then washed it down with a sip of milk since I no longer found wine as appealing as I used to.

"Come on," she said, leaning in and resting her elbows on her knees. "What happened?"

I told her everything that transpired afterward, from Wes's cold rejection of his family at the sunroom door to his curt and unhelpful recommendation for my attendance at the airport. I went into extravagant detail about Wes's very specific issues with his family while glazing over the way he carried me and how much my skin yearned to feel his arms wrapped around me again.

"Oh my," said Mindy with a raise of her brow and a knowing tilt to her head. "There's definitely some baggage here, Dani. I'm sorry to say this, but I think it all comes in the form of another woman."

"There can't be another woman when I'm with Justin, remember?"

"Well, who knows, maybe he has another woman too," said Mindy with a wave of her hand. "Who cares? You don't, do you?"

Her question stabbed me, her eyes piercing my skin so that I cowered into the soft comfort of the sofa cushions.

"I..."

"I'm not their mother. I don't care which boy you want." Then, after a sip of her tea, she added, "although considering she has no married children at the moment, I'm sure she isn't too particular either. A grandchild is a grandchild..."

"Can we not, right now?"

"Admit you like him and I'll stop speculating what color bows little Alice Joyce-Sanders enjoys wearing in her curly black hair..."

"Yes, okay." I sighed as my exasperation flared my nostrils. "Stop planning my future. Also, I wouldn't name my daughter Alice. We both know you reserved that name long ago."

"What can I say? I'm not good at improv," replied Mindy with a shrug. "So, what are you going to do?"

"Regarding what?" A slight whimper tugged at my voice as I threw my hands down into my lap. "Regarding to Wes? To Justin? To whether or not I'm even going to the airport?"

"All of it," answered Mindy like that was no big deal.

"I... I don't know. Supposedly, I'm engaged to Justin and I do technically remember agreeing to that."

"But you were drunk," she replied with a roll of her eyes, "and verbal agreements don't constitute contracts, anyway. You aren't obliged to marry a man that you agreed to marry under dubious circumstances, nor are you forced to marry a man in which you wholeheartedly agreed to wed. There's no reason you can't back out."

"But what about those family members Wes was talking about? The vindictive ones that did those horrible things to..."

The words were sitting on top of my tongue, ready to spring out into the world, but it hurt too much to give them voice. So Mindy finished for me.

"To Wes's fiancee?" she offered before sipping down the last bit of her tea.

"We don't know..."

"Come on Dani," she groaned, throwing her empty mug down onto the coffee table with a thud that made me jump. "Denial doesn't look good on you."

"Anyway," I said, turning back to the point at hand, "what am I supposed to do about his family retaliating if I say this was all a big mistake?"

"Live your life," said Mindy with a wave of her hands. "I doubt they're going to hunt you down and harass you here at the store about it."

"I guess, it's just..."

Again, I couldn't allow the words to escape my lips and again Mindy saw right through me. She sighed and shook her head. She massaged her face, rubbing her fingers into her temples, then down her cheeks, before looking up to the ceiling as if someone from above could help her with this pathetic case before her.

"Fine, I'll say it," she said with a crooked smile as she looked back at me. "You're worried what might happen if you ditch Justin and then come back for Wes, right?" She leaned into her chair, knitting her fingers together on top of her lap. "Quite a dilemma."

"You think?" I groaned, turning to my cookie for comfort.

"It's not the end of the world, though. I think there's one clear next step for you. I hesitate to say a solution, but either way, I think we both know what you need to do now."

"Talk to Justin..." I answered with a sigh.

"Talk to Justin," she reiterated. "The other question is, are you going to do it with or without his parents standing next to you? Not to mention Wes..."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to have a heart to heart right there in baggage claim," I said with an ill-humored laugh. "But yeah, I don't know if I'll be there to catch him when he gets off the plane. If I'm going, I'm going to meet him with his parents, which sucks, but if I don't go, I just don't know how I'll get a hold of him otherwise."

I turned and pressed my face into the pillow as a deep groan rolled through me.

"Do you want my advice?"

"Not particularly, but I'll hear it, anyway."

"My advice is to take Wes's advice."

"Pardon?" I asked, pulling my head from the pillow to face her.

"Go to Vegas," she said, rising up and grabbing the ice pack from my ankle. "Except go alone and wait for this whole thing to blow over. Also, win a jackpot and just move out of town."

"You forget one needs money to both fly to Vegas and to put the initial bet down to win the jackpot."

"Well, I guess you're just screwed, then."

I turned my head back to the cushion, shoving my face in deep to stifle my scream.