Fiona
REHEARSAL DAY WAS HERE. AND so was the wedding date Shay had arranged for me. I’d claimed I had a headache last night, and Frank had been nice enough to believe me or pretend he did. A nice hot shower and sleep had been calling to me.
But Frank was still here. And so was Marty.
Today I’d have to read his speech and give him mine to read. We’d have to walk down the aisle together and say things about our siblings at the dinner tonight. It was supposed to be funny moments. Memories of Shay and Mack over the years. The problem was Shay and Mack’s memories came after mine and Marty’s. Many of their memories were our memories.
I got up early in the morning to write the speech for tomorrow and tried to write down a few memories of Shay and Mack for tonight. Leaving out the way those moments connected with Marty and I. Pretending like there never was an us. Only them.
Three cups of coffee later, I felt like I’d completed the task. I got dressed and picked up the phone to call Shay. It rang once right before the banging on my door began. I kept the phone to my ear to go see who was now ringing the bell and banging on the door to see my sister in the peep hole. Even the tiny image of her she appeared hysterical. I ended the call and jerked the door open. Before I could say anything, she bolted into my room with a wail.
“He left! LEFT FIONA! OHMYGOD! I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,” she gasped then another loud cry came from her chest.
“Shay, what are you talking about? Who left?” I couldn’t imagine this much drama was over Frank or even Marty leaving. Either of which might make this an easier wedding in my opinion.
“MACK!” she screamed and sobbed again covering her mouth. Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“Mack?” I asked. I couldn’t have heard her correctly. I didn’t like Mack. I thought marrying him was a terrible idea. But I didn’t think he’d leave her. Not now.
“YES! OH GOD! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?” she screamed. Then she sniffed and gulped. “We fought. It was one of the ugly ones,” she looked at me pleadingly. “But we have always fought. It doesn’t mean we are over. It is just who we are. We fight then we make up, you know,” she said needing some sort of reassurance I wasn’t sure I could give her.
“When did you fight? Just now? If he walked away he probably just needed to cool off. I doubt he’s left.”
She shook her head. “NO! He left! Gone!”
“You’ve got to calm down. Take a deep breath,” it sounded like an order. She did what I said and then again. “Okay, calmly tell me what happened. We can figure this out but you going crazy doesn’t help.”
She nodded and inhaled deeply again. She was trying to calm down but the fear on her face I understood. It’s the look you have when faced with losing the man you love and being hurt beyond belief by him. I’d been there. I knew.
“He got a call from Marty. We were still downstairs with the guests who hadn’t left yet. I don’t know what it was about, but he walked away and was on the phone a while. When he came back he said he needed to check on Marty. I didn’t want him leaving with the guests still down there. I may have been a little demanding but the wedding stress is a lot you know. This wedding isn’t about Marty. It’s about Mack and me. So I said that and he said I needed to calm down. Chill out. Relax!” She threw her hands up. “I told him all the stress I was under and all the things that had to be done. How I needed his help and his being up Marty’s ass didn’t help me. I wasn’t marrying Marty. I was marrying him. He just walked off. Told me to drink a glass of wine and calm down. I yelled at him that I was competing with his brother. He laughed and shook his head.” She stopped. I waited for more.
“That’s it?”
She nodded. “Yes. And I know I sounded like a bitch. But that isn’t enough to send him running!”
“I don’t believe he ran,” I told her.
“Then where the hell is he?” she was raising her voice again. She only stopped to sob.
I left my room and walked across the hall to knock on Marty’s door. After no answer, I rang the bell. When I heard the lock click I sighed in relief. Marty would have the answers. But it wasn’t Marty. It was Rowan. Her hair was messy from sleep and she was wearing a pair of boxers that I hoped didn’t belong to Marty.
“Can I speak to Marty?” I asked her.
She rubbed both hands over her face and yawned then looked back into the room. “Uh, yeah, give me a minute.”
I should probably apologize for waking her up, but it was after ten in the morning. I glanced back at Shay. “Why did it take you so long to realize he was gone?” I asked her. The time that had elapsed just now dawning on me.
“I opened a bottle of wine when I got to the room and Mack wasn’t there. I thought I needed something to calm me down so I didn’t fight with him when he got back to the room. I drank too much—most of it while watching Pretty Woman on the Lifetime Channel—then passed out. When woke up at 9:30, I thought Mack must have gone to play golf with the others but that’s when I saw his duffel bag was gone.”
“He’s not here,” Rowan interrupted. “And I’m not sure he came back last night.”
“He took his brother! He’s gone! He is leaving me the day before our wedding!” Shay wailed loudly and I glanced down the hallway to see if anyone else could hear her.
“Shay, calm your ass down. We don’t know that,” I told her.
“Mack’s gone?” Rowan asked.
“We aren’t sure,” I told her.
“Yes, I am! He is gone!”
Rowan walked over and picked up a cell phone. I watched as she called someone. When she hung up she looked at us. “I think she’s right.”
“Oh God!” Shay cried again.
“This doesn’t make sense,” I said wanting to strangle Mack and Marty both. How could they do this? It was the day before the wedding. To just disappear. “I think there’s an explanation. I’m going to find him. You go about your plans for the day. Get the massage. Get pampered. Drink a mimosa. Relax. I will handle the rest.” I grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward the direction of the elevators.
She sniffled. “Do you think you can find him?”
“Yes. And I think this is a misunderstanding. You’re emotional and overthinking this. Go. Let me handle it. Calm down.”
She inhaled sharply and nodded. “Okay. Yes. He wouldn’t leave me. Would he?” she shook her head, answering her own question.
“No. He wouldn’t.” At least I didn’t think he would. The old Mack I knew would. But I had hoped he had changed. “Maybe Marty took him out on a night out or something like that. Marty wouldn’t just let him leave me. Not like this.” She needed all of that to be true and I hoped it was.
Shay took long purposeful strides toward the elevator only glancing at me once. I gave her a reassuring smile. When she finally disappeared through the doors I glanced back at Rowan who was still standing in her doorway watching.
“Give me five minutes. I’m going with you,” she said.
I started to argue and she held up her phone. “I know where they are. Marty forgot that he is sharing his location with me on the iPhone. I needed it to find a bar he was at last week. He never ended the sharing.”
“Wait. You can see their location?” I asked. I was scared to believe I’d heard her correctly.
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “And I don’t know how much time we have. They’re at the airport.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly.”