The Invitation

The Middle

"And took the risk of going to a party where people knew him?"

"Or did they? Sometimes rich people play nice and go along with lies to stroke each other's egos."

"Would you stop that? He probably made a trip out here for the events, had his flight delayed, and he didn't get a hold of anyone in time to cancel the class or something innocent like that."

"I see. He was so rushed to catch a plane, he couldn't even leave a rose on the pillow."

"That's not what I'm saying. It makes more sense, actually. He was on a trip, had some fun, and then left without any strings."

"I thought he invited you to both of those things you were with him at? That's...I'll admit that's a lot of effort for a one-night-ish stand."

"Maybe I should give it a few more days and check to see if they find him before I say anything."

"Ha! Yeah. See if your flight theory pans out."

Candace rolled her eyes in response and went back to the coffee she'd been preparing.

"Well, dearest, I'd love to stay and obsess over this with you more, because I know that's what you're about to do, but I've got to go pick out wedding colors with my future mother-in-law. Wanna join?"

Candace's look back at Patricia didn't need a verbal response. She had no plans of ever picking out colors for her own wedding, much less someone else's. Her dream was a quiet, destination wedding with as few people possible.

"Fine," her friend replied bluntly, pretending to be insulted. "But make sure you don't forget that beef and beer thing you promised you'd come to tonight. Two nights out in a row doesn't give you permission to ditch plans with your best friend on the third."

~*~

Getting showered and dressed for the evening took Candace hours to achieve thanks to all the wall-staring moments when she'd go over the events of the previous nights again, contemplating what possibly went wrong. She'd had to rush the last few steps of her routine when the doorbell alerted her to the time. A minute later, Patricia popped her head in to the room, fresh from greeting the visitors.

"Um, Bryan brought you a date, but it isn't the guy from the karaoke place I thought would be perfect for you. It was supposed to be a surprise blind date setup thing, but he'd gone home with some other girl at the end of the night. Bryan invited a friend of his instead that said he was already interested in going. Sorry – I told him it wasn't the greatest idea to commit you to being his date, but he'd already made arrangements and-"

"It's fine," Candace interrupted, faking a smile. She was happy to be out of her own head for a while. After a few finishing touches to her makeup, she pulled on a red number Patricia had loaned her and greeted her date before they headed out to the fire station hosting their destination.

Once arrived, the group found themselves in a backup at the entrance. After some inquiry, it was revealed that the station was promoting the event on social media to help with spreading the word about some upcoming charity run. Guests were being asked to take selfies with a costumed actor portraying their safety mascot and linking back to the station's web page. Patricia, of course, overrode Candace's protests and posted a photo of the two of them.

Her date for the night was a beer fanatic named Andy and, little more than an hour after they'd arrived, he had consumed enough of the drink offerings to lose his ability to have an intelligent conversation. She waited for Patricia and Bryan to follow in a similar, albeit more responsible fashion before deciding to take a walk around outside the building for some fresh air.