8
Zoey tore into the master bathroom at the vacation home at four with her makeup bag and an outfit on a hanger.
“Good of you to show up. You look a mess,” Caroline said, as she aggressively blended some eyeshadow in her outer corner. “It says it might rain tomorrow, and I’m freaking out.”
“Good to see the old Caroline is back. I didn’t know what to make of the Zen version of you. It’s not the friend I fell in love with.”
“It would be great if I could stop fucking up my eyeshadow too,” Caroline said, not even looking at Zoey as she took a wet finger and fixed a smudge by her eye. Caroline’s hair was perfectly curled, and she was almost done with her makeup.
Zoey’s makeup job for lunch had rubbed off from speed-walking/running to get back to the house, and a thin layer of sweat coated her skin. She lifted her armpit to smell.
“Classy,” Caroline said. She watched as Zoey took some of her expensive face wash and lathered up her hands. “What happened with Jonathan?”
“Nothing,” Zoey said, covering her face. Maybe the suds could hide any smile that could burst out at any moment.
She had given her best friend no indication of anything, but the corners of Caroline’s mouth turned up in satisfaction.
“Do I need to plan another wedding?”
“No.” Zoey pointed her eyeliner at Caroline. “We are now friends.”
“Okay,” Caroline said, with that same smug smile. “I’ll make sure to aim the bouquet right at you.”
Zoey blushed. She didn’t say anything as she quickly slathered on tinted moisturizer, and some of Caroline’s bronzer, highlighter, and mascara. Caroline kept looking over at her before Zoey erupted. “What?”
“Nothing. Should I tell Dan to find another place to stay tomorrow night?”
“I am not going to have sex with Jonathan Turner.”
“Uh-huh.”
Zoey carefully filled in a bold pink lip with lipliner and covered her lip with a matching lipstick. The whole Zoey glow-up, from start to finish, took less than twelve minutes.
“How do you look better than me, and I’ve been at this for an hour and a half? Makenna is going to be there looking flawless, and you look like that, and I look like this,” Caroline said.
“You’re beautiful, Caroline. And you’re the bride.” Zoey linked her arms around Caroline’s waist as Caroline shook her head.
“I don’t feel it,” Caroline said, combing her curls through with her fingers. Zoey made a mental note to tell Brady to compliment her endlessly. Maybe recruit Dan as well.
Zoey threw on a linen jumpsuit the color of rain clouds and chunky summer wedges. She tamed her wild hair into a low bun and finished the look off with a pair of fake diamond studs. Caroline disappeared into her bedroom and reappeared in a tea-length white dress with romantic cap sleeves and a low neckline. Her red-gold hair now hung loosely in waves, and her lips matched her hair, the hue of burnt sienna.
“Now there’s the bride. Let’s get you to the rehearsal, lady,” Zoey said, smacking her on the butt.
“Someone is anxious to see Jonathan again,” Caroline said. Zoey stopped at the threshold of the house with those words.
“When I see him, I see him,” Zoey said, hoping it sounded casual. Still, the memory of his touch felt fresh on her skin. She was shocked at first when he tried to put his arm around her. They had barely reconnected, barely become friends again. Then it felt wrong not to be under his arm. She spent the entirety of the piggyback ride back to the car smelling him, feeling his hard muscle under her hands, her cheek pressed against his upper back, trying to hear his heart beat.
The guys had gone ahead, so Zoey and Caroline arrived together in an Uber, fashionably late to the ceremony site. Caroline’s wedding coordinator, Sophie, stood with a clipboard at the entrance to the ceremony space. Caroline cornered her to ask about rain and contingencies plans, and Sophie nodded along like a bobblehead.
The ceremony space was a spot off from a public beach with a paved area. There was an arch already standing there, bare and ready to be transformed. The lake looked especially blue that day and the clouds billowy white, sometimes covering the sun before they rolled on.
Sophie swept Caroline, Zoey, and Addison off to the side. Addison hugged Zoey when they saw each other and apologized for vomiting on her and promised to return her clothes the following day. Zoey had already said it was fine about seven times via text, but let Addison apologize again.
“What the actual fuck?” Caroline said when she saw Dan join the group.
Dan had shaved most of his beard, all but a healthy mustache left above his lip. He looked like the kidnapper in a true crime docuseries.
“You’re shaving that before tomorrow, Dan, or I will kill you,” Caroline said.
Dan high-fived Brady, who was laughing.
“You were in on this?” Caroline asked, getting close to Brady.
“It was worth it. Just to see the look on your face,” Dan said. “But yes, Caroline, I will shave it off before the ceremony.”
“I think the mustache is kind of hot,” Makenna said, touching Dan’s bicep slightly. She walked away, and Dan grabbed his chest and buckled to his knees on the sand.
Zoey saw Jonathan, who mouthed a quick hi. Zoey mouthed hi back with a playful wave. Caroline caught her exchanging long glances with Jonathan and bobbled her head with smugness. Zoey rolled her eyes.
“What’s going on?” Addison asked.
“Jonathan and Zoey are going to get it on,” Caroline said. Addison shook her fists in excitement while Zoey laid her head in her hands.
“Who’s getting it on?” Makenna asked, interjecting herself into the conversation.
“Jonathan and Zoey,” Caroline said.
“Nothing has happened,” Zoey insisted. “And I’m not sure it will.” She looked up again at Jonathan, his grin now full-out dorky-goofy. She saw a glimmer of the boy he was, how he practically bounced around her in high school.
“You only live once. I vote for hit it,” Makenna said. “Sex with an ex can be very cathartic. Think about the consequences later. I say go for it.”
“Me too,” Addison added. “I think he deserves a second chance.”
“Me three,” Caroline said, holding up her hand.
Zoey looked over again. Jonathan’s eyes had not left her. She smiled again, and his grin just grew wider. She knew she was forgetting everything that had gone down eleven years ago. Everything he had said and did. But they were grown up now, different.
He had moved to a new state, gone to college, gotten married, gotten divorced. Still, standing at the lake’s edge, watching it together, it felt like no time had passed between them. Everything was the same. But different.
You are okay. You will be okay, she told herself.
Sophie corralled all the parents together to practice the procession. Makenna, in a form-fitting navy dress and sky-high nude pumps, stood near her mother and held a folder that included the ceremony script. Caroline and Brady had tapped her as their officiant.
Sophie cued up the entrance music on her phone, an instrumental of a popular mid-aughts love ballad. The wind picked up slightly, just enough to flutter Caroline’s dress and her hair as she held onto her father’s arm. Tears pricked Zoey’s eyes as she looked back to see the gentle calm on her dear friend’s face. With the commotion of seeing Jonathan again and through her stress, Zoey’s mind quieted as she looked at Caroline as a bride. Even though Caroline was marrying Zoey’s ex-boyfriend, she couldn’t think of a better woman for him or a better man for her.