Done with the Hide and Seek

I threw the veil into Jeremy Dean's arms.

"Cancel the wedding. There'll be no wedding the day after tomorrow."

He froze, like he hadn't understood me.

Stacy Campbell laughed first. "Can't take a joke again?"

I ignored them both and turned to walk out. Jeremy took a couple of steps after me, but Stacy grabbed his arm.

"Connie's throwing a tantrum. You want to go up there and get yelled at? Come help me pick a manicure for the day after tomorrow instead!"

Jeremy actually stopped. He fell right into a conversation with her about nail designs.

I laughed at myself and kept walking.

On the way out, I read the message my manager had sent me.

[Connie, a three-year training placement abroad doesn't come along often. Are you sure you don't want to think it over again?]

Back when Jeremy first started his company, he had no money to hire anyone. I'd worked for his startup for free after my own shifts, pouring in nearly all my time and energy. Not long ago, when my manager first offered me this opportunity, I'd turned it down without a second thought.

Now I typed out a few words without hesitating.

[Yes. I'll go.]

At home, I canceled the wedding that was supposed to happen the day after tomorrow. I bought a plane ticket for the next night and started packing.

A necklace sat on the nightstand. Jeremy had bought it abroad as an apology after the two of them hid my flash drive and made me miss a promotion review. I'd never once worn it.

Stacy had worn it for a month, gotten bored of it, and given it back. I picked it up and threw it in the trash.

When Jeremy came home and saw the suitcase on the floor, his face changed. "Connie, what is this?"

I kept packing my documents. When I didn't answer, he grabbed my hand.

"All this over a game? You're turning a wedding into a joke. How old are you, three?"

His brow was furrowed, his eyes heavy with impatience. Exactly the same as always.

The first time we ever played the treasure hunt game, Stacy hid my backpack in the school's abandoned swimming pool. I searched the whole afternoon and only found it after dark, soaked, at the bottom of the pool.

I lifted it up, thrilled, and Stacy said, almost sorry, that I'd taken too long. Jeremy complained I was too slow.

I'd transferred schools and was too shy to make friends on my own, so no one wanted to play with me. Stacy was the first one to talk to me, and Jeremy was the first one to help me with a problem set. So I went along with it, gladly.

But the more they played, the more they got hooked, and the worse it got. I did push back, once. I said, carefully, that I wanted to be the one hiding things for a change.

Stacy pursed her lips and went quiet. Jeremy watched her pick at her dinner, his gaze turning cold, and he didn't speak to me for a full week.

In the end, I couldn't stand it. I caved first, made peace, took over cooking for the two of them for a week, said yes to everything they asked.

Ten minutes before study hall, Stacy said she wanted a milkshake from the stand that was popular by the school gate. I gritted my teeth and snuck out to get it, and got caught and chewed out by our teacher. Only then did Stacy smile and let me off the hook, and only then did Jeremy's eyes soften toward me again.

"Three?" I repeated the word, and almost laughed. "This time, I don't want to find it. The wedding's off. Let's break up."

He looked like he'd just heard a bad joke. "The wedding is the day after tomorrow. The invitations are already out, and you're telling me you want to break up?"

He started to say something else, but Stacy came bouncing in. The impatience in Jeremy's eyes vanished instantly, and he gently took the bag from her hands.

"You're a grown woman. Act like it."

Stacy's eyes curved into crescents, and she made a face. "Connie, is it really that big a deal?"

She waved the ring on her finger in front of me. "Look, I've got the ring right here. I was going to wait until you two were really worried and surprise you with it."

She tried to slide it off, but it was stuck. Jeremy couldn't watch anymore.

"Forget it, just keep the ring," he said, feigning annoyance. "I'll buy another one."

His mouth complained about what a hassle Stacy was, but his eyes were bright with an obvious smile.

I'd redesigned that ring more than a dozen times, and had it specially made abroad through a friend. The inside of the band was engraved with our initials, mine and Jeremy's. The wedding was in two days, and Jeremy was already handing it off to someone else like it was nothing.

I looked at the men's ring on his hand and thought, absurdly, that the two of them actually suited each other.

I lowered my head and said quietly, "Don't bother."