Chapter 6 - Dessert
Owen looked at me. "Do you want to go home?"
I looked across the restaurant. Our dinner had gone cold. My hair was uneven. My mascara had given up somewhere around the second confrontation of the evening. But our guests were still there. Our music was still playing softly. And the dessert Owen and I had argued over for three straight weeks was sitting untouched on our table.
"No," I said.
"No?"
"I haven't had dessert yet."
My dad laughed behind us, and that was enough to loosen the whole room back up. Chairs scraped. Conversation returned. Alicia waved the staff over and asked them to start the music again.
I sat down and took a bite of cheesecake. Owen watched me. "What?"
"I wasn't sure you'd stay," he admitted.
"Neither was I." I touched the rough ends at my neck. "I hate what she did."
"I know."
"But I'm not giving her the rest of tonight too."
Owen nodded. "Then what do you want?"
I looked around the room. "My wedding back."
So I took it. I finished dessert. I hugged Priscilla when she quietly apologized for never realizing how often Denise had used Sabrina's name as a weapon against me. I thanked Sabrina for coming. Then I walked back out onto the dance floor, and Owen followed.
We danced. Not because everything was suddenly fixed. Because I was done letting Denise decide what I was allowed to enjoy.
Later, when the room had nearly emptied, Owen sat beside me. "I should have stopped asking you to be patient with her a long time ago."
"You thought she'd stop on her own eventually."
"I thought keeping the peace meant nobody lost anything."
"You were losing," I said. "I was losing too."
His eyes came back to mine. "I know that now."
May you like
"Then don't ever ask me to make her comfortable at my own expense again."
"I won't."
