“Why the hell would they invite us?” I demand. Of him, of them, of the universe.
He leans forward and tips more coconut rum into his mug, filling it to the brim. He holds it out in offering. When I shake my head, he throws it back and pours some more.
I grab the invitation again, half expecting to realize my brain had merely malfunctioned while I was reading a take-out menu.
It did not.
“This is Labor Day weekend!” I shriek, throwing it away from me again.
“I know,” Miles says. “They couldn’t stop at simply ruining our lives. They had to ruin a perfectly good holiday too. Probably won’t even decorate this year.”
“I mean, this Labor Day,” I say. “Like, only a month after our wedding.”
Miles looks up at me, genuine concern contorting his face. “Daphne,” he says. “I think that ship sailed when he fucked my girlfriend, then took her to Italy for a week so he didn’t have to help you pack.”
I’m hyperventilating now. “Why would they get married this fast? We had, like, a two-year engagement.”
Miles shudders as he swallows more rum. “Maybe she’s pregnant.”
The apartment building sways. I sink onto the couch, right atop Miles’s calves. He fills the mug again, and this time, when he holds it out for me, I down it in one gulp. “Oh my god,” I say. “That’s gross.”
“I know,” he says. “But it’s the only hard liquor I had. Should we switch to wine?”
I look over at him. “I didn’t have you pegged for a wine guy.”
He stares at me.
“What?”
His tipsy-squinting eyes narrow further. “Can’t tell if you’re kidding.”
“No?” I say.
“I work at a winery, Daphne,” he says.
“Since when?” I say, disbelieving.
“For the last seven years,” he says. “What did you think I did?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I thought you were a delivery guy.”
“Why?” He shakes his head. “Based on what?”
“I don’t know!” I say. “Can I just have some wine?”
He pulls his legs out from under me and stands, crossing to the kitchen. Through the gap between the island and the upper cabinets, I watch him dig through a cupboard I’m realizing I’ve absolutely never opened. The slice of it that I can see from here is filled with elegant glass bottles: white wine, pink, orange, red. He grabs two, then comes back to flop down beside me, pulling a corkscrew key chain off his belt loop.
The windows are open, and it’s starting to sprinkle, the day’s humidity breaking as he pops the cork from one bottle and hands the whole thing to me.
“No glass?” I say.
“You think you’ll need one?” he asks, working the other bottle’s cork free.
My eyes wander toward the expensive card-stock invitation still lying on Miles’s threadbare kilim rug. “Guess not.”
He clinks his bottle to mine and takes a long drink. I do the same, then wipe a drip of wine from my chin with the back of my hand.
“You really didn’t know I worked at a winery?” he says.
“Zero idea,” I say. “Peter made it sound like you do a ton of odd jobs.”
“I do a few different things,” he says noncommittally. “In addition to working at a winery. Cherry Hill. You’ve never been?” He looks up at me.
I shake my head and take another sip.
The corners of his mouth twitch downward. “He never liked me, did he?”
“No,” I admit. “What about Petra? Did she hate my guts?”
He frowns at his wine bottle. “No. Petra pretty much likes everyone, and everyone likes Petra.”
“I don’t,” I say. “I don’t like Petra even one tiny bit.”
He looks up at me through a half-formed smile. “Fair.”
“She never . . .” I twist my feet down in between the bottom seat cushions and the back ones. “I don’t know, acted jealous of me? Did you have any idea she was . . . into him?”
Another wry, not-quite-happy smile as he turns in toward me. “I mean, yeah, sometimes I wondered. Of course. But they’d been best friends since they were kids. I couldn’t compete with that, so I left it alone and hoped it wouldn’t be a problem.”
