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“I love it, Francis. So much. It’s the perfect ring.”
He leaned toward her to give her a kiss, but she jumped up from the couch and returned with her laptop, a legal pad, and a pen. She tore off the top page and handed it to him. “Is this list important?”
Franky glanced at the paper. Fireworks, ice cream, road trips, wineries. “It’s not a list, it’s … never mind.” His heart ached. They were a few of the lyrics from the song he’d written for Skylar. He had planned to polish up the music and record it for her birthday, but he hadn’t finished.
“We need to start planning if we’re going to get married in the fall. It’ll be March in a couple days, which gives us seven months. And I think we should have an engagement party soon. What do you think?” She didn’t wait for him to answer and began jotting lists on the notepad. “I have five friends I’m going to ask to be in the wedding, so you need to figure out who will be standing up with you and ask them soon. We’ll want to invite them all to the engagement party.”
Franky could barely catch up, and he chuckled. “Hey, I’m happy you’re so excited, but take a breath.”
She smiled. “I am excited. This is our wedding. It’s a huge deal. And I only plan to do this once, so I want to do it right.”
“Whatever you want, I’m okay with it.”
She started talking again, going over some venues she had in mind for the engagement party, but his thoughts wandered back to Skylar’s face. Hers wasn’t the look of surprise someone gets right before they express their excitement at their friend’s happy news. Hers had been a look of complete and utter shock.
“Who are you going to ask? Sebastian, I assume,” Ivy said.
Franky finally registered what she was saying. “Yeah, I for sure want Bash to stand up with me.”
“Who else?”
He really only cared to have Sebastian as his best man, but he struggled to think of others. There were a few guys he would call friends from the law firm, but nobody he was very close with. The only other person who was really close to him was Skylar.
“What about Sky?”
Ivy stared at her lists. “What about her?”
“She’s my best friend.”
She looked over at him. “Are you asking if Skylar can be a groomsman?”
He nodded.
Ivy shook her head. “I want a traditional wedding with men on your side and women on mine. I know she’s your friend, but maybe we can ask her to do something else for the wedding. She’s into photography, right? Maybe she could take engagement pictures for us.”
Franky had a nagging feeling this had more to do with Ivy suspecting Skylar of having feelings for him than wanting to be traditional, but he let it go. In the end, he chose Sebastian, a couple college buddies, and a couple friends from the firm. But his choices felt forced.
The planning continued, but Franky was distracted.
“Do you think she seemed upset?” he asked.
“Who?” Ivy was in the middle of writing something down.
“Sky.”
Ivy stopped writing and looked up at him.
“Maybe I should go see her and make sure she’s okay.” He moved to get up, and Ivy’s hand pressed firmly against his knee.
“This is our engagement, Francis. We should be celebrating, not worrying about Skylar. She’s a big girl. I’m sure she’ll be fine. And we have a lot of plans to talk about.”
Franky felt unsettled. “I know, babe, but she’s my friend. Something was off with her.”
“Can you please not call me that.”
“What? Babe?”
“Yes. My ex called me that, and it became very grating.”