Claire’s expression changed slightly.
I didn’t want to know what she was thinking.
Claire’s expression changed slightly.
***
Five minutes later, Edward returned carrying the cardboard box from his car.
He set it on the nearest empty table.
“For the groom.”
Max laughed.
“You weren’t kidding.”
“Open it.”
“For the groom.”
By now, several nearby guests were watching.
Max pulled apart the flaps.
His smile disappeared.
He reached inside and lifted out an enormous pair of trousers.
He stared at them.
“What the hell is this?”
His smile disappeared.
“Mine,” Edward said.
Max looked at him.
Then at the trousers.
“Those?”
“Those.”
I stared too.
Edward took them from him.
“I
used to wear these.”
Edward took them from him.
Max gave a confused laugh.
“Okay.”
“I was a lot heavier.”
“So?”
Edward looked at me.
“Veronica knows.”
I frowned.
“I do?”
“I was a lot heavier.”
“About three years ago, before we were friends, somebody brought birthday cake into the office.”
I remembered.
Barely.
Edward had been standing near the break room.
He’d refused a piece.
Edward had been standing near the break room.
“People who look like me don’t need cake,” he’d said.
I’d been having a terrible week with Max.
So I’d answered without thinking.
“Funny. My husband talks about me like that.”
Edward’s smile had vanished.
I’d been having a terrible week with Max.
I remembered what I said next too.
“I hate hearing it from him. I don’t like hearing it from you either.”
At the time, Edward had just stared at me.
I’d taken my
cake and gone back to my desk.
I remembered what I said next too.
Now he stood at my ex-husband’s wedding holding those trousers.
“You remember,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“That stuck with me.”
Max looked impatient.
“What exactly is the point?”
“That stuck with me.”
“The point is Veronica never told me what I should weigh.”
Edward folded the trousers over his arm.
“She didn’t tell me I’d be more valuable if I looked different. She just made me realize I’d started talking to myself the way someone else was talking to her.”
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