Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin [116]
"You don't think she's… beautiful?"
"Frankly, no. I don't."
"Why not?"
"I need reasons?'
"Yes."
"Okay." He exhales, looks up at the ceiling. " 'Cause she wears too much makeup. Cause she's too, I don't know, severe."
"Sharp featured?" I offer.
"Yeah. Sharp and… and overplucked."
I picture Darcy's skinny, high-arched brows. "Overplucked. That's funny."
"Yeah. And those hipbones jutting out at you. She's way too skinny. I don't like it. But that's not the point. The point is—is that it is Darcy." He shudders and then takes his beer back from me. "Hold on. Let me get another round." He crushes out his cigarette and strolls over to the bar, returning with two more beers. "There you are."
"Thanks," I say, and then set about chugging mine.
He laughs. "Man! I can't let you outdrink me."
I wipe the foam from my lips with the back of my hand and ask why he didn't tell me about Darcy and the reunion before now.
"Oh. I dunno. 'Cause it was no big deal. She was wasted." He shrugs. "Probably didn't even know what she was doing."
"Yeah, right. She always knows what she's doing."
"I guess so. Maybe. But it really wasn't significant."
That explains why she thought Ethan was gay. Turning her down—it must be the only explanation. "Guess her fifth-grade charms wore thin on you."
He laughs. "Yeah. We did go out once upon a time." He makes little quotes in the air as he says "go out."
"See. You picked her over me too."
He flashes his dimple. "What the hell are you talking about now?"
"On the note. The check-the-box note."
"What?"
I sigh. "The note that she sent you. The 'Do you want to go out with me or Rachel?' note."
"That's not what the note said. It didn't say anything about you. Why would it say anything about you?"
"Because I liked you!" Somehow I am embarrassed admitting it, even after all these years. "You knew that."
He shakes his head firmly. "Nope. Did not."
"You must have forgotten."
"I don't forget shit like that. I have a bomb-ass memory. Your name was not in the note. See. I'd know because I liked you back then." He peers at me from behind his glasses and then lights another cigarette.
"Bullshit." I feel myself blush. It's only Ethan, I tell myself. We are adults now.
"Okay." He shrugs and inverts the cover of his matchbook. Now he looks embarrassed too. "Don't believe me."
"You did?"
"Big time. I remember always helping you out in four square so that you'd get to be king. I'd always pound the king when you were in the queen position. Tell me you didn't notice that."
"I didn't notice that," I say.
"As it turns out, you're markedly less perceptive than I once thought…
Yeah, I liked you. I liked you all through junior high and high school. And then you dated Beamer. Broke my heart."
This is big news, but I still can't get past the fact that my name wasn't in that note. "I swear I thought Annalise saw it."
"Annalise is a sweet girl but such a lemming. Darcy probably told her to say that your name was in the note. Or somehow tricked her into thinking it. How is Annalise, anyway? Did she have her kid yet?"
"No. But any minute now."
"Is she going to the wedding?"
"If she's not in labor," I say. "Everybody is but you."
"And you. Terrible thing about your spleen."
"Yeah. Tragic." I smile. "So you're sure my name really wasn't in the note?"
I am focusing on evidence from twenty years ago. It is absurd, but I ascribe all kinds of meaning to it.
"Positive," he says. "Pos-i-tive."
"Damn," I say. "What a bitch."
He laughs. "I had no clue that I was the man. Thought it was all about Doug Jackson."
"You were not the man. It was all about Doug Jackson," I say. "That's the point—I was the only one who liked you. She copied me." Again, I notice how juvenile I sound whenever I describe my feelings about Darcy.
"Well, you didn't miss much. Going out with me consisted of sharing a few Hostess cupcakes. Wasn't very exciting. And I still hooked you up in four square."
"So maybe Dex will hook me up the next time we all play four square," I say. "That would