Page 81 of I’d Be Honored

Hayley pushed her way through the darkness outside of the building, stumbling down the sidewalk until a taxi pulled up beside her.

The ride home was a blur of passing streetlights.

By the time she collapsed inside her apartment, a hollow ache tore through her chest as if her heart was suddenly no longer inside it.

TWENTY-TWO

MADDIE FLED THE WEDDING IN PIECES, feeling utterly humiliated. She had fallen for the wrong person. Again. Someone who had tried to warn her over and over that she had no interest in love.

Maddie felt used and abandoned, callously discarded the very second she was no longer convenient—and it was her own fault. Her heart recoiled as if it had been burned, unable to understand how the person she had trusted the most could hold another woman so easily.

She refused to ruin Caitlin’s night over something she had so stubbornly brought upon herself, so she rushed straight back to the house and locked herself in her room, hoping the newlyweds wouldn’t notice she was there.

With swollen, burning eyes, Maddie lay on her back and stared at the blank ceiling, barely able to see.

Her phone vibrated again. She snatched it from the nightstand and declined the call for the fifth time. Before she could stop herself, Maddie blocked Hayley’s number and threw her phone to the foot of her bed.

She tossed and turned for hours, but sleep wouldn’t come. Unable to bear lying in bed any longer, Maddie tiptoed to the door and quietly slipped into the kitchen, noticing the first hints of sunrise peeking through the windows.

Dragging herself to the counter, Maddie made a quad shot of espresso, desperate for any energy she could find. It was barely past seven, but she wanted to do something special for the newlyweds, her sweet friends who had hosted her all summer.

Thirty minutes later, Caitlin and Gemma shuffled out of their bedroom, clinging to each other like they had merged into one being.

“Good morning, Mrs. and Mrs. Stone!” Maddie forced a bright smile and as much enthusiasm as she could muster. The last thing she wanted was for her friends to notice she had been crying all night.

“Are you cooking?” Caitlin raised a brow, which was a fair reaction considering Maddie had rarely ever touched a stove when they’d lived together.

“Please follow me,” she replied, bowing with overstated formality.

Maddie led them into their own dining room, where she had set the table and placed a mimosa in front of two seats. “Sit. I’ll be right back.”

She hurried to the kitchen and returned with two cups of coffee, then made a second trip for dishes of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and toast.

“Now look.” Maddie set the plates down. “You know I’m no chef, so don’t expect anything fancy. But you two have been so good to me the last few months, I figured the least I could do before I leave is make you a mostly edible breakfast.”

“You totally didn’t have to, but that was sweet. Thanks, Mads.” Caitlin eyed the food skeptically. “I think,” she teased, adding a wink at Maddie.

“Aren’t you going to join us?” Gemma asked.

“Nah, you two should enjoy your first morning as wives together.” Maddie turned away, escaping into the kitchen.

“Mads? What’s going on?” Caitlin’s voice carried from the doorway, and Maddie realized she had followed her. Caitlin knit her brows together with concern as she watched Maddie take a seat at the kitchen island alone.

Maddie wasn’t sure how to explain something she hadn’t made sense of herself. Everything had flipped upside down so quickly that she could barely keep up.

“Can’t a girl just make breakfast for her best friend and her new wife?”

Caitlin crossed her arms, completely unconvinced.

“Okay, okay—I’ll come join you.” Maddie picked up her plate and coffee mug, trailing Caitlin back into the dining room.

Before Maddie could take a bite of the bacon she’d been waiting for since the moment it hit the griddle, Gemma spoke up, “Where’s Hayley? I figured you’d be together this morning.”

Maddie lowered her strip of bacon, setting it carefully back down onto her plate.

The night before replayed like a bad movie. One minute, Hayley had been slow dancing with her like it was the beginning of their own fairytale, and the next she had her hands wrapped around the waist of another woman. Maddie struggled to choke back the tears she had nearly drowned in the night before.

“We left separately,” Maddie managed, eyes fixed on her lap as her hands tightly clasped her napkin on the table. “Thank you both for everything. I’m going to miss you two a lot.”