Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Before I could turn around, the dressing room door opened through the mirror, and Wesley appeared.
“Wesley! What are you doing? You can’t be in here!” I shouted as I darted behind the couch in the dressing room. “It’s bad luck to see the bride on the wedding day!”
“It’s fine,” he said, clasping his hands together. “You know superstitions are ridiculous. The probability of—”
“Don’t come talking about scientific probabilities when it comes to seeing the bride in her dress on the wedding day,” I ordered. “Let me be superstitious about this one thing. Leave.”
“Avery,” he said. The seriousness of his somber tone shot a wave of panic through my chest.
I rose and tilted my head toward him. “What’s going on?”
He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck before sliding his hands into his pockets. “I, um, I just found out some pretty big news.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just…Drew just called me with some big news. I got the job.”
I narrowed my eyes. “The job?”
He brushed his hand over the back of his neck. “I didn’t want to mention it until I knew for sure. Honestly, I didn’t think I had a real shot at it. This is all surreal, but well, I wanted to tell you now before we…continued.”
“Tell me what? What’s the job?”
“I got accepted to a new program that will train me to go to outer space.”
“Oh my goodness!” I gasped, my hands falling to my chest. “Okay. Well. That’s a lot.”
“It’s based in Asia.”
My eyes widened. “Asia? For how long?”
“For four years, that’s before the space part, which would be three more years.”
“Four years? In Asia? We’d have to move?” I questioned, my mind spiraling. Was I imagining this all? Was this some kind of fever dream?
“Well, you see, it would just be me going.” The words leaving his mouth didn’t seem to land correctly. What did he mean, it would just be him? “Which is why I think we should put a hold on this.”
My stomach.
It dropped.
“A hold?” I breathed out. “A hold on what?”
“On this. On us. You know. Until I get my footing. Until we can see what this all becomes.”
Oh my goodness.
He was leaving me ten minutes before we said “I do.”
This dress.
It’s too tight.
I hate this fucking dress.
I stumbled backward, hitting the edge of the couch as reality settled in.
“You’re leaving me for a job?” I asked, getting flashbacks I thought I’d buried so many years ago.
“You’re leaving me for your career?” I asked Nathan, tears streaming down my face. “But…we…I…I love you. Please don’t, Nathan. Please don’t go,” I begged, rushing over to him and tugging on his T-shirt.
Just like that, I was eighteen years old again, having a man choose his career over me. Having him walk away, leaving me alone. I would’ve felt better if he’d left me for Drew. But for a job? Without warning?
I wanted to fall apart, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t go back to that feeling from all those years before. I couldn’t be weak. I couldn’t feel.
Shut off the emotions, Avery. Stand strong.
“Okay,” I muttered, shaking my head, still in disbelief. “Then go.”
My shell hardened, but my heart?
My heart was in dismay. I wouldn’t show him that fact, though. Instead, I’d be tough. Hard exterior yet fragile inside.
“Then go?” he echoed, looking at me as if I were insensitive. “Avery, you can’t mean that.”
“I do mean that.”
He shook his head in disbelief, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I came here hoping you’d fight for us.”
“Yes, well, I’m not feeling up to the challenge,” I replied, crossing my arms.
He slipped his hands into the pockets of his expensive suit. “This is what I thought would happen. You’d be cold and dismissive.”
“What do you want me to do, Wesley? You want me to fall to your feet and beg for you to stay? You want me to plead my case for why you should marry me five minutes before ‘I do’? Because that will never happen.”
“I know,” he agreed. “Which is why I know I’m making the right choice.”
“You could’ve chosen earlier, you know. Before I put on this stupid fucking dress,” I hissed. “Your timing blows.”
“Yeah, well, this all just unfolded. Drew just told me the news.”
“Of course she did,” I breathed out. “I’m sure that wasn’t calculated at all. For a rocket scientist, you sure are naive.”
“This whole jealousy thing is wild, Avery. Drew has been a great friend to me. She knew how much I’d dreamed of this opportunity.”
“Why would she know and I not?”
“Because we don’t talk about things like this. We don’t talk about stuff the way me and Drew do. You don’t get me on that level.”
“Then why the hell would you ask me to marry you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t mean it like—”
“No,” I cut in. “Keep that energy. I don’t get you like she does. I’m not all sweet and bubbly and charming like little Miss Drew. I don’t like rocky road. I actually know how to play charades. And I don’t make inappropriate advances on another person’s partner.”