nodded.
“I didn’t realize you guys were talking again.”
“We’re not.”
Roy looked confused. “But you must have told him you were going to be here.”
“You think I invited him here?” Melanie asked, her tone incredulous. Then, realizing that her reaction was too harsh, she said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. It’s just that...I haven’t spoken to Lawrence in nine months. I have no clue why he’s here.”
“I was just gonna say, if you want to bring him to the wedding, it’s cool with me.”
Melanie’s eyes widened. Invite him to the wedding?
“Roy, honey,” Richelle began, placing her hands on Roy’s shoulders. “You said you were going in the water, right?”
Roy looked over his shoulder at Richelle, who smiled sweetly at him, then at Melanie. And he seemed to get that Richelle was shooing him off so that she and Melanie could have some privacy.
Roy stood and dutifully took his shirt off. “Yep.”
Richelle gave him a quick kiss, and then he headed into the turquoise-blue water. Richelle sat across from Melanie on the second lounge chair.
“Wow,” Richelle said, and then chuckled softly. “We come all the way from New York to Fiji and Lawrence is here?”
Melanie looked up from the sand and met Richelle’s gaze. Her friend’s eyes were dancing with excitement. “You don’t have to sound so happy about it.”
“I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Richelle went on. “Come on, you don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s here?”
“It’s a disaster, that’s what it is.”
“You didn’t tell him accidentally, did you?”
“Accidentally?” Melanie looked at Richelle in shock. “How could I tell him accidentally if I haven’t spoken to him in nine months?”
“I’m just wondering if he saw the news about the wedding on your Facebook page, or on Twitter.”
“I unfriended him, but even if he had access, I never said where we were going to be. I’ve been very careful about that.”
“Well, maybe he heard about the wedding through a mutual friend, and he decided he’d head to Fiji to get a chance to talk to you. I’m sure he still wants closure.”
“Lawrence isn’t the kind of guy to get on a plane and come all the way here for the sole purpose of talking to me. If he’d wanted to talk to me, he would have done so in New York.”
“If you’re certain that he didn’t find out about the wedding, then it sounds like fate is making a major play.”
“Fate?” Melanie countered. “It’s simply a coincidence.”
“Coincidence?” Richelle shook her head. “No, it’s more like the universe forced the two of you together. I sense a reconciliation in the making....”
Melanie’s jaw dropped. “Don’t say that. Don’t even start on that.”
“Why not? I always thought you and Lawrence—”
“We’re over. He never even called me after the wedding, remember?” Melanie swallowed painfully, remembering how a part of her heart had hoped that he would reach out to her. Reach out to her and beg her to take him back, beg her to come to her senses.
“You mean the wedding where you stood him up?” Richelle said, giving her a pointed look.
“Obviously, he wasn’t too torn up over it,” Melanie insisted. “Because he said nothing to me. Not a call, not a text message, not an email.”
“Because you stood him up—” Richelle stressed.
“He didn’t reach out to me, and I didn’t reach out to him, which makes it very clear that both of us knew we were heading down the wrong path. It was better to leave things as they were than fight for something that wasn’t supposed to be.”
Richelle rolled her eyes. “It’s more like you broke his heart, and he was too hurt to talk to you,” she said. “Everyone has to have their level of pride.”
“Don’t take his side,” Melanie said, pouting.
“This isn’t about sides, Mel. You’re my friend, and I love you, but I’ve never once told you that I agreed with you if I didn’t. Remember how I reamed you out for putting Nair in LaRita’s shampoo in tenth grade? I still loved you, but I told you that you were wrong to get revenge like that. You should have just reported her for bullying you.”
“She never bothered me again, now did she?” Melanie countered, smiling slightly with the memory of how the tables had turned on LaRita. Once half-bald, other students had started bullying her, and Melanie’s life had gotten a lot easier.
“You got what you wanted, but you didn’t do it the right way,” Richelle said. “Just like with Lawrence. If you didn’t want to marry him, fine. But you shouldn’t have stood him up at the altar like that. It was wrong. You can’t turn around and blame him for not trying to talk to you after that.”
Melanie swallowed uncomfortably. She knew that no matter what she said, Richelle was right. Melanie couldn’t shift any blame onto Lawrence for her actions.
It was just that she never expected to see him again. Least of all not here, in Fiji.
“What did he say to you?” Richelle asked.
Melanie sighed. “That he wanted an answer. That I owed him one for how I humiliated him on our wedding day.”
“And you said?”
Melanie hesitated. Then she shook her head.
“You avoided him,” Richelle surmised. “Of course.”
“It’s a big enough shock that he’s here in Fiji, for God’s sake. I’m supposed to have a serious conversation like that on the spot?”
“Mel.” Richelle tsked. “What are you going to do? Avoid him for the rest of the trip?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I know you. You’re afraid to face him. And I understand why. But please, hon, don’t run scared while you’re in Fiji. If it’s truly over between you and Lawrence, what harm will come from talking to him? And what if it’s not really over....”
Richelle got to her feet, grinning devilishly as she did. Then she pulled off her bathing suit cover, dumped it on the lounge chair and jogged into the water to join Roy.
Leaving Melanie to ponder Richelle’s words.
* * *
“Was that Melanie?” Shemar asked when
