The One and Only by Emily Giffin

Author:Emily Giffin [Giffin, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: marni 05/21/2014
ISBN: 9781410468994
Goodreads: 18465837
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Published: 2014-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

The next morning, Ryan surprised me with breakfast in bed. Scrambled eggs, wheat toast, and mixed berries on a black lacquered tray. There was even a sprig of parsley on my plate.

“Thank you,” I said, although I’ve always thought breakfast in bed was far better in theory than in practice, especially when the meal is sprung on you seconds after waking. As I sat up, Ryan positioned the tray over my lap, then stretched out beside me. I had no appetite, probably because I was still thinking about Blakeslee, but took a bite of the eggs and told him they were delicious.

“Did you already eat?” I asked.

“Just a protein shake and oatmeal,” he said. I could feel him staring at me and had the feeling he was thinking about Blakeslee, too. The mood was definitely subdued, if not downright awkward.

I took a dainty bite of toast, trying not to make crumbs in his bed, thinking how much I needed to go to the bathroom but didn’t want to go through all the upheaval of moving the tray.

“What are you doing today?” he asked me.

“Remember that little kid with brain cancer I told you about?” I said. “The one obsessed with Walker football?”

Ryan nodded. “Yeah. Isn’t his name Max?”

“Yes,” I said, noting once again what a good listener he was. It was as if he was never not paying attention—highly unusual for a man. “Coach invited him to be on the sidelines with the team against Stanford. So Smiley wants me to do a feel-good story on him …”

“Smiley wants feel-good?” Ryan said, laughing a little too hard, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

“I know, right?” I said, running my hand over a crystal goblet filled with freshly squeezed orange juice, refusing to laugh.

“What are you thinking, babe?” he said.

So I told him exactly what I’d been thinking. “I was wondering whether this was a wedding gift,” I said, tapping on the glass.

Ryan hesitated, then nodded gravely, as if making a somber admission.

I picked up the silver fork in an ornate pattern. “And this?”

He nodded again, then sat up.

“Why did you keep them?” I said, more curious than anything else. “Doesn’t the girl usually keep this stuff?”

He shrugged and told me Blakeslee didn’t want them.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. She just didn’t.” His forehead went from smooth to furrowed. “Her taste changed, I guess.”

“In one year? Her taste changed in one year?”

“She changed her mind about the marriage. So why not the crystal and silver?”

It was a fair point, but I still felt confused, agitated. I said nothing, a trick of good reporting. Silence keeps them talking.

It worked, as Ryan offered up more information. “I picked most of this stuff out anyway.”

“You handled the registry?”

“Well, we went together. But she let me pick most of the stuff.”

“Huh,” I said, thinking: That’s weird.

“And besides … things ended badly … So she said the gifts were tainted …”

“I thought you said you were still friends?”

“We are. Now. Sort of.”

“Even though it ended badly?” I tried to sound breezy but spoke too quickly, giving the question a cross-examination feel.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.