is, this is a mistake.”
His face is the kind of red it gets only when he’s drinking. His voice is tight. “You walking out of this door is a mistake, Lia. Don’t do that to me.”
I shake my head, pull off the ring, and place it in his palm. “I’m sorry. Take the trip to Hawaii. You can probably bring one of your brothers.”
I gather up my skirts and make a mad dash for the door.
When I get out to the front of the lodge, I’m crying so hard I can’t see straight. I run straight into someone who’s smoking at the entrance, and before I can move away, he grabs my hands. I look up.
“Oh! West!” I bury my face in his chest.
He tosses his cigarette on the ground and stubs it out as he wraps his arms around me. “Whoa. Dahl. What’s going on? I’m not too late for the wedding, am I? I had to take a call and—”
He stops as I sob into his clean white shirt and striped tie.
“I just ran out. I can’t marry him.”
He smooths my hair. “Well, it’s about fucking time you realized that, Peanut.”
I pull away. “What?”
He smirks. “I’ve tried to get along with him, Dahl. But he’s a fuckhead. You can do so much better.”
He wipes the tears out from under my eyes as I let out a groan. “If you thought that, you could’ve told me sooner.”
“Like you ever listen to me. Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.” He wraps an arm around me and starts to walk toward the lodge, but I hold firm.
“I can’t go back in there.”
“Yeah? Where do you want to go?”
“Home.”
“All right,” he says, reaching behind me to lift my skirts. “Then let’s go.”
He loads me and my massive dress into his big pickup, and as I sit there in a pile of organza up to my boobs, he massages my bare shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Peanut. I promise. You’re a tough nut to crack.”
I look over at him through a haze of tears. I feel anything but tough. I feel like I just let so many people down.
As he pulls away, I watch the Midnight Lodge fade into the distance, as well as all those fairytale wedding dreams. They don’t seem to matter to me anymore.
June 30th
I step in front of the giant metal handle and take a deep breath. It’s nine in the morning, my not-so-favorite time of day.
Time to open the book drop.
This branch of the Boulder Public Library, I’ve discovered, is a favorite among the homeless. And they’re always huddling outside the front door and giving us little “gifts.”
There’s a reason book drop duty is reserved for the newest librarians. I can’t complain, because I have a job, a real, honest-to-goodness paying job using my degree, one that I had lined up for me even before I graduated with my M.S. And I love the work, the people, the fact that I get to work with books every day, everything.
I just wish we had the budget for an intern who I could pass this particular job to.
I cringe, thinking about the human poop I received two days ago, and wondering just what wonders are in store for me today.
The door creaks as I pull it open. There, I notice books, as usual, and…great. A nondescript paper bag. Can’t wait to see what’s in there.
I pull it out and unravel the top, wincing, to find an empty bottle of Jack. Thank goodness it’s nothing super-lethal. My friend Liz, who started working here six months before me, says that she once found a bunch of used condoms stuck to the pages of a copy of the Kama Sutra. Once she found a pile of books infested with cockroaches. And people use the drop so often as a garbage can, it’s not unusual to get fast food bags and dirty diapers.
So, yeah. Proceed with caution.
“Anything good?” Liz calls over her shoulder, popping out her earbuds as she’s cataloguing the new releases. She told me once she found twenty bucks that someone was using as a bookmark, so it’s not all bad.
“Nothing so far.”
It’s been over half a year since D-Day.
I’m still single. Remarkably.
What happened after that fateful day? Well, the party went on, though without a bride and groom. My parents had sunk so much money into it that they insisted everyone have a good time. Supposedly, Aaron got shitfaced and fucked one of the waitresses behind the gazebo. Good times.
My parents