Read Online Truly (New York Trilogy #1) by Ruthie Knox - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ruthie Knox
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on?”
“I’m all right. Thanks for calling back.”
“We were worried about you! I saw the video—oh my goodness!”
“Yeah.” She heard music blaring in the background. “Where are you?”
“We’re all in Green Bay for Teeny’s bachelorette. I didn’t see your message until rightnow.”
“That’s okay. I was … I lost my purse, and I can’t get in touch with Allie or my parents because they’re at the cabin.”
“That sucks! And you and Dan …”
“We broke up.”
“Oh, May. Oh no.” The background noise died down. Anya must have decided she needed to take the conversation somewhere more private. “I guess you were mad at him. For that proposal.”
“I guess I was.”
“So you just …”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“Honey, I’m so sorry. Maybe if you take a breather, he’ll pull his head out of his ass. I know you guys are meant to be together. I mean, how long has it been?”
“Four years.”
“And this whole year long-distance from Wisconsin to New Jersey—you guys did so well. I thought you were totally back on track.”
Separated by two flights, they’d been the perfect couple. It was only when May had started spending all her days with Dan that she’d begun to recognize what a profound gulf separated them, and how tiring it was to be responsible for bridging it.
Ben nudged her shoulder and held out the wineglass. She took it and held the phone a few inches away from her ear. Anya was talking too loud, which she did when she was drunk, and far too much, which she did most of the time. You could probably hear it in the bathroom. Ben had to be catching every word.
He lifted his wineglass in her direction and mouthed,
Cheers
.
May gave him a faint smile and knocked back half the glass in one go.
Meant to be together
, Anya had said.
She’d heard that before. From her mother. From Dan up on that stage, when he was telling his version of their love story to three hundred strangers and she was realizing with horror that Dan’s version of their love story
sucked
. That the woman he was describing wasn’t her—notdeep down—and she’d suffocate if she married him.
She hadn’t forked him on purpose. Not with malice aforethought. The fork itself had been an accident, a bit of flotsam she’d nervously clutched in her hand when she’d been sitting at a table in the audience and had realized that he was talking about
her
instead of giving the speech she’d come to watch him deliver.
She’d carried the fork to the stage accidentally, and it wasn’t until she got halfway up the steps that she’d seen it glinting in her hand and thought,
May, you idiot
.
Then he’d said all those things. Given that speech that was supposed to be wonderful but instead had pierced right through her shield of illusion and deflated the bubble of her romantic hopes.
Dan had dropped to one knee and pried open the lid of the jewelry box, inside of which was a very big diamond. “I’ve known for a long time that we’d end up here, May,” he’d said. “You keep me centered, and you make me a better man than I’d ever be without you. Coach was right—you’re the kind of woman I need in my life. Will you let me do the right thing and make an honest woman out of you?”
May had glanced at Dan’s hand, joined with hers.
She’d looked at the diamond, winking under the lights.
And she’d finally gotten angry. So angry.
If Dan was a Viking god, in that moment May had become a Valkyrie: the tallest woman in the room, dressed to the nines, her shoulders rounded and her biceps toned from endless stress-relieving laps in the pool.
“You
dick
,” she’d hissed.
And then without thinking—without weighing the consequences—without even hesitating, she’d gone for him. Sweet, polite, innocent May Fredericks had stabbed her boyfriend in the meat of his thumb with a shrimp fork, and it had felt
great
.
She finished her wine. Ben sauntered over and poured her
“I’m all right. Thanks for calling back.”
“We were worried about you! I saw the video—oh my goodness!”
“Yeah.” She heard music blaring in the background. “Where are you?”
“We’re all in Green Bay for Teeny’s bachelorette. I didn’t see your message until rightnow.”
“That’s okay. I was … I lost my purse, and I can’t get in touch with Allie or my parents because they’re at the cabin.”
“That sucks! And you and Dan …”
“We broke up.”
“Oh, May. Oh no.” The background noise died down. Anya must have decided she needed to take the conversation somewhere more private. “I guess you were mad at him. For that proposal.”
“I guess I was.”
“So you just …”
“Yeah.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“Honey, I’m so sorry. Maybe if you take a breather, he’ll pull his head out of his ass. I know you guys are meant to be together. I mean, how long has it been?”
“Four years.”
“And this whole year long-distance from Wisconsin to New Jersey—you guys did so well. I thought you were totally back on track.”
Separated by two flights, they’d been the perfect couple. It was only when May had started spending all her days with Dan that she’d begun to recognize what a profound gulf separated them, and how tiring it was to be responsible for bridging it.
Ben nudged her shoulder and held out the wineglass. She took it and held the phone a few inches away from her ear. Anya was talking too loud, which she did when she was drunk, and far too much, which she did most of the time. You could probably hear it in the bathroom. Ben had to be catching every word.
He lifted his wineglass in her direction and mouthed,
Cheers
.
May gave him a faint smile and knocked back half the glass in one go.
Meant to be together
, Anya had said.
She’d heard that before. From her mother. From Dan up on that stage, when he was telling his version of their love story to three hundred strangers and she was realizing with horror that Dan’s version of their love story
sucked
. That the woman he was describing wasn’t her—notdeep down—and she’d suffocate if she married him.
She hadn’t forked him on purpose. Not with malice aforethought. The fork itself had been an accident, a bit of flotsam she’d nervously clutched in her hand when she’d been sitting at a table in the audience and had realized that he was talking about
her
instead of giving the speech she’d come to watch him deliver.
She’d carried the fork to the stage accidentally, and it wasn’t until she got halfway up the steps that she’d seen it glinting in her hand and thought,
May, you idiot
.
Then he’d said all those things. Given that speech that was supposed to be wonderful but instead had pierced right through her shield of illusion and deflated the bubble of her romantic hopes.
Dan had dropped to one knee and pried open the lid of the jewelry box, inside of which was a very big diamond. “I’ve known for a long time that we’d end up here, May,” he’d said. “You keep me centered, and you make me a better man than I’d ever be without you. Coach was right—you’re the kind of woman I need in my life. Will you let me do the right thing and make an honest woman out of you?”
May had glanced at Dan’s hand, joined with hers.
She’d looked at the diamond, winking under the lights.
And she’d finally gotten angry. So angry.
If Dan was a Viking god, in that moment May had become a Valkyrie: the tallest woman in the room, dressed to the nines, her shoulders rounded and her biceps toned from endless stress-relieving laps in the pool.
“You
dick
,” she’d hissed.
And then without thinking—without weighing the consequences—without even hesitating, she’d gone for him. Sweet, polite, innocent May Fredericks had stabbed her boyfriend in the meat of his thumb with a shrimp fork, and it had felt
great
.
She finished her wine. Ben sauntered over and poured her
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