The Wedding Contract

Chapter 32





By the time the police arrive, Sophie and Steven are gone. Thank God. I don’t even know if she’s my friend anymore. The cops wrapped a blanket around me and told me to get counseling when I get home. I could just nod. I want to leave. Nick stays the entire time, but he keeps his distance. He tells them that he was walking on the street, on his way back from the chapel, when he heard me scream. When he got here, he did what he could.

The cop smiles. “You broke his ribs.” Nick looks livid, so the officer explains, “I would have done the same. F*cking a*shole.” Then he gestures at me. “Make sure she’s okay. She shouldn’t be alone right now and it sounds like she’s driving back home. She won’t even tell me her name or her next of kin. Do you know her?”

Nick looks over at me and shakes his head. The cop rolls his eyes. “And I suppose you’re Mr. Smith?”

“Yeah.”

“Folks, we can’t press charges if we don’t have names. Are you pressing charges or do you want me to let him go?”

Nick answers for me. “She’ll press charges. I’ll call her attorney and take care of it. She’s going to crack if you push her right now.”

The cop shakes his head, “I need to hear it from her.”

“What he said,” I manage, pulling the blanket tighter around my shoulders.

“Okay, tell your lawyer to get on it or the guy walks.” The cop takes Deegan away and suddenly it’s quiet.

I stare at the ground, still shivering even though I’m not cold. I haven’t said anything and I don’t know how long I’ve sat, but when I look up, Nick is still there standing across from me.

After a moment, he says, “Sophie told me about the glue, and that you didn’t do it. The tube in your pocket was full.” I just stare blankly at him. “Sky, I don’t know what to do.”

My defenses spring back up. Every wall I’ve ever made juts up from within me and I steel myself. “I don’t care.” I drop the blanket and start to walk back to my car. With each step, I walk faster and take longer strides.

“Where are you going? Sky, stop.” Nick chases after me. Running alongside me, he says, “I’m sorry. I thought you played me. I thought you were sincere and then I found out you weren’t. What would you think?”

Livid, I stop, but a placid calm smile comes across my face. “Exactly the same thing.”

“I can’t fix this, can I?” Nick asks. I shake my head and look away after folding my arms over my chest. He’s going to pretend that he had nothing to do with decimating my studio. Fine. The hell with him. “I deserve that, but you can’t drive home by yourself.”

“Watch me.” I turn and walk away. Nick is careful not to grab me or touch me. It feels like I’m rattling and all the nuts and bolts that hold me together are coming undone and falling to the ground with every step I take. When I reach my car, I get in and slam the door. The window is down and I can’t put it up until I start the engine. When I do, the car is so damn old that it takes forever for the window to go up. It slowly slides closed with Nick standing there. He could easily stop it, but he doesn’t.

Instead, he says, “Wait, Sky, let me get someone you care about. Hold on.” He looks up at the hotel, but seems torn.

I growl at him, “If you tell anyone what happened tonight, if you ruin Sophie’s wedding any more than we already have…”

“Skylar, this wasn’t your fault.”

“Don’t call me that!” The window finally shuts.

I throw the car into reverse and back out, but the parking lot is new and made for normal sized cars and mine is a monster. I have to pivot in and out and in and out nearly three times, and by the fourth time, I’ve wedged my car in between two SUVs with Nick watching. That breaks me and my forehead slams forward onto the steering wheel and I sob big, yucky, snotty cries.

Nick steps toward me and opens the door. “Move over. I’ll drive you home.”

I do as he says and lean into the passenger seat, as far away from him as possible. When we first leave, he makes a phone call to have all his stuff moved to the room. “Yeah, I’ll pay extra. Just make sure you get the camera bags. Something came up and I had to run. They’re on the path by the chapel.” After that Nick is silent.

I lean against the door and fall asleep. The next thing I know, Nick is calling my name. “Sky? Sky, wake up.” I glance over at him. “I don’t know where you live.”

“In the studio.”

His jaw drops. “You’re not allowed to do that.”

“No one knows. It doesn’t matter now anyway.”

Nick pretends he doesn’t know. “What do you mean?”

“Just go to the store.” Nick doesn’t say anything else. He drives down Montauk Highway until we come to the shopping center where his little studio is on one side and mine is on the other. The stench in the air is horrible.

Nick pulls up in front of the building and turns off the engine. “Sky, you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“Go f*ck a monkey, Ferro. I don’t have time for you or your fake sincerity.” I don’t sound like myself, but I’m too upset to care.

Nick follows me to the store. “Hey, what are you talking about? Sky?”

I shove the key into the lock and pull the door open. The smell worsens, hitting me in the face like a wall. When I step over the threshold, I’m standing in rank water. It fills my shoes and shuts Nick up. I slosh to the light switch and turn it on. I might be able to salvage the table and chairs, but all the books and albums are toast. The biggest problem is going to be the back of the store. My shooting room had tons of stuff on the floor, including my bed.

When I glance through the doorway, into the back, I grab the wall. Everything is ruined. The room is filled with water and it looks like it came down from above and flooded the place. I stand there staring, and feel Nick looking over my shoulder. “Congratulations, Mr. Ferro. You decimated your idol. You can stop pretending you care now and go get a pat on the back from your dad. Oh, and all that bullshit you said to get into my pants was brilliant. You had me convinced.”

I turn to leave, but he stops me by stepping in front of me. “I didn’t do this. How could you blame me for this?”

“My store is the only one that got flooded. The city said the problem with the pipes was within the building, Nick. I may be younger than you, but I’m not that dumb. You got what you wanted. I lost. You win.”

“Skylar, I didn’t do this.” He sounds sincere, but I’m too fried.

“Don’t lie to me anymore! I can’t take it!” I shove his chest, hard.

“I’m not lying.”

“Just go.” I turn away and look at the destruction.

“No, I didn’t do this.” Nick picks up his phone and calls someone. “The tenant in unit 281 was flooded out earlier today. Yeah, this is his son, I have the unit across from her. What happened?” He’s quiet for a moment, and the longer the silence stretches the narrower his eyes become. His jaw tightens until it looks like it’s going to crack. “Thank you.” He hangs up and looks at me. Nick sloshes through the sewage, yanks one of my signs off the glass and marches outside.

The only reason I follow is because I can’t breathe inside. Nick walks to his studio, opens the door and flips on the lights. I watch him grab a razor blade and scrape the name of his studio off the door. When he’s done, he takes a piece of tape and hangs up my sign. When he comes out, he tosses me the keys. “It’s yours.”


I catch them, but I don’t believe him. “Very funny.”

“It’s not a joke.” He’s storming away, like he’s going to take my car. Nick grabs the driver’s side door and holds out his hand. “I need the keys. I have to go have some words with my father.”

“You’re making this up, Nick.”

“Think whatever you want, Sky, but I need to go take care of this. Right now. And you can’t sleep in your place. You’ll die, the smell is so bad.”

“You did this to me. It happened while we were together. There’s no way you can convince me that you didn’t know or that you couldn’t stop it.” I ball my hands into fists at my sides.

“I know I’ve lost you and I almost lost myself. You brought me back and made me realize I was drifting. You don’t believe me, I know, but I need to go make this right. Please let me.” He holds out his hand, waiting for the keys to my car.

“I’m going with you.”