I bit the inside of my lip and called her. When she didn’t answer, I left a voicemail saying that I was so sorry and to please call me.
She didn’t.
When I woke up Monday morning and saw I had neither a call nor a text from her, I felt a twinge of annoyance. What if I had been in a car accident and was lying in a hospital bed and that was why I had missed her shower? She really wasn’t going to call me back to find out what happened?
By the time I got on the Metro, that annoyance had morphed into dread. She was really mad if she didn’t even care if I was dying in a hospital bed. And I didn’t know what to do—should I tell her what Caroline did and risk her not believing me? Or just act like, Oh no! Ditzy Lily screwed something up again! Please don’t hate me?
Maybe I should just quit instead of facing her again. No, I wasn’t making real money off the blog, but there had to be some other writing job that would pay the bills. I didn’t like my job anyway, I rationalized to myself. So maybe if I just didn’t go back, I could find something that I actually enjoyed doing and it wouldn’t have to be about never seeing her again.
Just get there, I told myself. Take your cues from her.
Morning, Alex texted me just before I got to Starbucks. When he asked about the shower the previous night, I hadn’t gone into detail. Just said Caroline was a nightmare and left it at that. So he didn’t know I was a wreck today.
Hey.
Left you something at Starbucks. You seemed a little down last night.
How did he know that from a couple of texts? You’re the best.
I know.
I cut the line and waved to Taylor, who pointed toward the pickup counter. The weather had flip-flopped back to cold after the previous day’s sunshine and warmth, so it was a hot coffee, not iced. Seven more weeks and you’ll be done with weddings. You’ve got this! —A was scrawled on the sleeve.
Bolstered by the knowledge that one person was still there for me, I steeled myself to see Caryn and walked the remaining three blocks to the foundation.
She looked up, annoyed, when I came into her office. Not that her eyebrows actually rose anymore, but she looked at me expectantly nonetheless.
“Caryn, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah. You said that in your voicemail.”
“I—”
“You could have at least told me you weren’t coming. When you realized you screwed up.”
“I didn’t realize I screwed up until I got there at two thirty—”
“Caroline showed me the email and the text messages, Lily. You can cut the crap.”
“What text messages?”
“She texted asking where you were and you said you thought it was at three.”
I was stunned into silence. “And the messages were from me?” I asked quietly.
“Unless she’s got another Lily Weiss in her phone who was supposed to be at my shower.” She crossed her arms.
Caroline was better than I had given her credit for. She must have changed someone else’s contact in her phone to say my name and gotten them to send a fake text from me. And there was a zero percent chance that Caryn was going to believe that was what happened because what kind of crazy person does something like that?
You’ve got this, Alex had said. I nodded to myself.
“We must have crossed wires at some point,” I said.
“How’s that?”
“I emailed her when she was talking about shower stuff and asked what time it was, and she told me three.”
“She showed me the email—”
“There was another email. And I don’t know what happened, maybe autocorrect added the one and the two for the twelve and said three but . . .” I pulled up the email on my phone and showed it to her. “And if you scroll, you can see that that was in response to my question of what time the shower was.”
“So why didn’t you ask, if there were two different time emails?”
“I must have missed the one that said twelve. Caryn, I’m really sorry, but it was an honest mistake.” She looked unsure. “I got there at two thirty to help set up and they were already cleaning up. I was devastated. I bought a Lilly Pulitzer dress to wear to it and everything. So I’d fit in.”
This finally elicited the ghost of a smile. “You? In Lilly Pulitzer?” I gestured for her to give me my phone back, and I pulled up the selfie I had taken in front of the mirror before leaving for the shower.
“Is that vintage?”
“Look, the point is I really did try and I’m so sorry that I screwed it up. I have a present for you, too, but it’s too big to bring on the Metro.”