Chapter 2

The next afternoon, I went over to Garry's place to get my things.

Three years had left odds and ends scattered all over the apartment, and this was a good chance to clear them out in one go.

The moment I pushed the door open, I heard Doreen laughing.

Garry was standing behind her, head bent, fastening a necklace at her nape.

"Why aren't you wearing the one I gave you?"

Doreen touched the necklace at her throat.

"That one's too expensive. I'm scared I'll lose it."

Garry laughed.

"I gave it to you so you'd wear it. If you lose it, I'll just buy you another."

Doreen was about to say something when she caught sight of me in the entryway out of the corner of her eye, and her voice cut off.

"Tamara?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. Garry just picked up the necklace for me while he was away on a business trip the other day."

He gave a lazy hum.

"She'd been going on about it for ages. I happened to come across one."

I frowned.

"That trip you took, didn't you say you were too busy to even find time to bring me back anything?"

Garry's expression stalled for a second.

I dropped the necklace and turned to Doreen instead.

"What are you doing here?"

Doreen rubbed her nose.

"My phone died. I was passing by, so I came up to charge it for a bit."

I glanced at the phone lying on the coffee table.

"Doesn't your place back onto the complex right next door?"

Before Doreen could get a word out, Garry cut in.

"Don't give her a hard time. I'm the one who asked her over."

"There's a company celebration dinner tonight, and we can each bring a plus-one. You hate that kind of thing, so I asked Doreen to come with me."

The two of them went right on hashing out the plans for the evening.

Standing in the entryway, I suddenly remembered something.

Back when Garry and I first started dating, Doreen rarely got mixed up in our business at all.

I stood there, thinking back to those early days with Garry.

I was always afraid of leaving Doreen out.

I'd invite her along to meals, buy an extra ticket whenever we went to a movie.

At first Garry hadn't liked it.

"Why do you always drag her along on our dates?"

Back then I'd just laugh and loop my arm through Doreen's.

"She's my best friend. What's the harm?"

Later, Garry stopped complaining.

Later still, even when I said nothing, he'd be the one asking whether Doreen was coming.

I don't know when it started.

The place I had cleared out for her with my own hands.

Until in the end there was barely any room left for me to stand.

At that thought, I suddenly lost any desire to keep asking.

"You two go ahead."

Garry looked up at me, and he seemed a little surprised.

My phone buzzed.

It was a message from Garry's mother.

"Tamara, don't forget to come back this weekend for dinner with Garry."

"His father says it's about time we sat down and talked about the two of you getting married."