“Welcome to the nuptials of Adam & Hayley”
I stared at it, my mind going blank. My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst out of my chest.
“What… what is this?” I murmured to myself.
“Hayley,” a voice said from behind me.
His voice, Adam’s voice, made me jump. I turned around, and there he was.
He looked a bit older, his jaw more defined, his eyes softer. But he wasn’t smiling. He just stood there, hands at his sides, looking at me as if I was the only person in the room.
“What is this?” I demanded, my voice trembling. “Why is my name on that banner? What’s going on?”
He took a slow step towards me, his face etched with regret.
“Please, just give me a chance to explain.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But my feet were rooted to the ground.
“You’ve got two minutes,” I said, folding my arms tightly across my chest.
“Three years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life,” he began.
Yeah, no kidding, I thought bitterly, but I remained silent.
“I was going to propose to you, Hayley,” he said. “I had the ring. Everything was planned. And then… she showed me something.”
“She?” I whispered, already having a good idea who he was talking about.
“Your… my ex, Miranda,” he looked away, his voice thick with remorse. “She showed me a video of you on holiday. I think it was in Thailand. You were drinking and shouting that you didn’t want kids. She told me it was recent and that you’d been lying to me about wanting a family, especially with me. It shattered me, Hayley. I felt like I didn’t know you at all.”
The air rushed out of my lungs. I remembered that video. It was years ago, during a girls’ trip. I’d been venting after a drunken argument with a guy who assumed all women had to want kids. The same guy who made his wife take care of their kids while he sat on the beach drinking beer.