After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid Read Free Book Online Page A

such junk lately. I’d love to go out someplace.”
    “Well, call Rachel, then. I’m sorry. I’ve had a long day at work. I’m exhausted. Can’t I sit this one out?”
    “Fine,” I said. “Fine. I’ll call Rachel.”
    I picked up my phone and walked out the door.
    “Do you want to get dinner?” I asked her before she said hello.
    “Tonight?” Rachel asked me, surprised.
    “Yeah,” I said. “Why not tonight?” Sure, I had seen her for lunch the day before, and we went out for drinks two nights before that, but c’mon. “I can’t see my own sister three times in four days?”
    Rachel laughed. “Well, no, I mean, you know very well I’d see you seven times in four days. Eight. Nine . Ten times in four days. I just mean, it’s Valentine’s Day. I assumed you and Ryan had plans.”
    Valentine’s Day. It was Valentine’s Day. I found myself unable to admit, even to my own sister, that Ryan and I had forgotten.
    “Right, no, totally, but Ryan has to work late,” I said to her. “So I thought maybe we could get dinner, you and me.”
    “Well, obviously, I’m up for it!” she said. “I am, as always, sans Valentine. Come on over.”

FOUR MONTHS AGO
    R yan was supposed to go to San Francisco for work one week. He was going to be gone from Monday night to Saturday morning.
    He asked me if I wanted to go with him.
    “No,” I said, without hesitation. “Better to save the vacation time.”
    “Got it,” he said. “I’ll tell the travel department it’s just me, then.”
    “Yeah, sounds good.”
    The weeks went by, and I found myself desperately looking forward to time alone. I thought about it the way I thought about going to Disneyland as a kid.
    And then a week before he was supposed to leave, he called me at work and told me the trip was canceled.
    “Canceled?” I asked.
    “Yeah,” he said. “So I’ll be home all next week.”
    “That’s great!” I said, hoping my voice was convincing.
    “Yeah,” Ryan said. His voice was not.

THREE MONTHS AGO
    I lost my wallet. I’d had it when we were at the store. I remembered pulling my credit card out to pay for the dress I was buying. Ryan was in the men’s section at the time.
    Then we walked around a bit more, got into the car, and came home. And that’s when I realized it was gone.
    We searched the living room, the couch cushions, the car, and the driveway. I knew I had to go back to the mall. I had to retrace our steps from the store to the car.
    “I guess we have to go back to the store,” I said. My voice was apologetic. I felt bad. This wasn’t the first time I’d lost my wallet. In fact, I probably lost it about once every six months. Only three times had I never found it again.
    “You go,” Ryan said, heading back into the house. We had just finished checking the car. “I’m going to stay here.”
    “You don’t want to come?” I said. “We could get dinner while we are out.”
    “No, I’ll just grab something here.”
    “Without me?” I asked.
    “Huh?”
    “You’re gonna eat dinner without me?”
    “I’ll wait, then,” he said, as if he was doing me a favor.
    “No, it’s OK. You seem mad, though. Are you mad?”
    He shrugged.
    I smiled at him, trying to warm him up. “You used to think it was cute, remember? How I always lost my wallet? You said my lack of organization was endearing.”
    He looked at me, impatient. “Yeah, well,” he said to me, “it gets old after eleven years of it.”
    And then he went inside the house.
    When I got into the car and started driving away, my wallet slid out from underneath the passenger’s seat.
    Didn’t matter, though. I cried anyway.

SIX WEEKS AGO
    I t was Ryan’s thirtieth birthday. We spent the night out with his friends, going from sports bar to sports bar.
    When we got home, Ryan started undressing me in the bedroom. He unbuttoned my shirt, and then he took the tie out of my hair, letting it fall onto my shoulders. I had a flash of how this would all go. He