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Sometimes I wanted to get a spray bottle so I could squirt them—you know, the way you do with a cat or a dog when it’s misbehaving—when their public displays of affection got a little too intense.
Men who are that good-looking should not be allowed to be such assholes. It was false advertising.
I was excited about her wedding, her life, everything. But sometimes, when the topic of the wedding came up, I got sad. Not inconsolable or anything, but it felt like my happiness for my best friend and my sadness for myself were both staking claim in my chest, punching each other as hard as they could to see who would get knocked out first.
“Hey, pornstache. Nice of you to join us.” “Fuck off, Theodora,” he said without even glancing my way.
One of the most annoying things about Teddy? She was familiar, even though I didn’t want her to be. Don’t think about it.
But then, when Emmy and Teddy graduated from college, Teddy wore this dark green dress that just…Never mind. The point is that I know Teddy is pretty. Beautiful, even. But beautiful like a lion or an elk or any other large and dangerous animal. Beautiful to look at, but you didn’t want to get too close because it’d rip your throat out or trample you or spear you to death with its giant horns. So yeah. Teddy was beautiful or whatever.
Life had begun to feel bittersweet, and I was getting all of the bitter and everyone else was getting the sweet.
“You are many things, August Ryder, and some of those things aren’t great, I’ll be honest,” I said. “But a bad father isn’t one of them.”
The smile that grew on Teddy’s face was infuriating. She was staying in my house, with my kid, I was going to pay her non-Monopoly money, and she still somehow found a way to get the upper hand.
For a moment, she looked confused, probably wondering why I was still looking at her. Believe me, Theodora, I’m wondering the same thing.
When I curled into his side, I felt his lips in my hair. “You can cry, Teddy,” he said. And so I cried. And cried. And August Ryder held me the whole time.
“Teddy,” he said as he pulled back. He looked serious now—earnest. “I want to be with you. I want us to be together. This summer was incredible. I loved every second of it, but I don’t want it to be over. I want it to be our beginning. “I don’t have much to offer,” he went on softly. “Just a quiet life with a grumpy man from a small town, but I can promise to love you every day.”
