If I had cried, she could have comforted me without changing anything.
Calm left her nowhere to hide.
“I thought it would be nice,” she said.
“To have Derek’s father and your aunt walk you?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should have told me.”
“I know.”
“Before I learned it from Derek.”
“I know.”
“Before I finished paying for the wedding.”
Another silence.
That one told me she finally understood why the receipts mattered.
“Are you saying you only paid because you thought you were walking me down the aisle?”
“No.”
My answer came immediately.
“I paid because you’re my daughter.
I paid because your mother and I always wanted to help you have a beautiful wedding.
I paid because you asked and I was able to do it.
None of those checks were a purchase price for a place in your ceremony.”
Her voice softened slightly.
“Then why are you holding the honeymoon over my head?”
“I’m not holding anything over your head.
The wedding bills I agreed to pay are paid.
The honeymoon is something you assumed I would also pay for.
Those are different things.”
“Derek said you told him you’d take care of it.”
“I said we could discuss it once the wedding expenses were settled.”
“That’s basically the same thing.”
“No, Amanda.
It isn’t.”
I heard movement on her end.
A muffled voice.
Derek.
Then Amanda said, “Hold on,” and the phone shifted.
A moment later Derek was speaking.
“Richard, I think emotions are getting mixed into something pretty straightforward.”
There it was again.
That smooth, reasonable tone.
“What’s straightforward about it?” I asked.
“You said you were helping with the honeymoon.
We planned around that.”
“You planned around money that had not been transferred.”
“Because we trusted you.”
I looked at the fifty-eight thousand dollars’ worth of receipts on my table.
“That’s an interesting word to use.”
His voice tightened.
“Look, nobody was trying to disrespect you.
The ceremony decision was about aesthetics and balance.”
“And the rehearsal dinner?”
“Capacity.”
“You told me it was for immediate family.”
“It is.”
“Then you told me I didn’t qualify because I wasn’t in the ceremony.”
“That’s not exactly what I said.”
“It’s exactly what you said.”
For the first time since I had known him, Derek lost some of that polished calm.
