Alexa felt a lightness of being from all the good energy in the room and it took her a second to hear the distress in her daughter’s voice. Finally, she did as she was told. That’s when she saw Penny for real. She looked devastated. “What’s the matter? Are you crying?”

Penny was crying. “It’s off, Mom. The wedding’s off. And it’s all my fault. And yours.”

Chapter 20
The Call-Off Call

The Mother of the Bride

Alexa excused herself from the others and found a quiet spot in the library. She positioned the phone so she could sit at the desk and focus on her daughter. Penny’s face was a mess, streaked and wet, like she was eleven years old and hadn’t been invited to Mallory Marquart’s birthday party because she lived in the “poor section” of town. Alexa used the same tone of voice now that she used then, gentle but firm. “Penny, Penny. What do you mean the wedding’s off?”

“We got into a huge fight. I had to work, he had to work. I felt terrible bailing on the trip home this weekend and I took it out on Chase. And he tried to calm me down, but I . . . I don’t know, Mom. I don’t know what happened. We’re both under so much pressure with my work and his campaign and the future of democracy. If I hear that stump speech one more time! So then I said terrible things about being dragged around to all these stupid fundraising events, about having no shared goals and that he was more interested in his campaign than our wedding. And then he said that he was, in fact, more interested in fundraising because I could handle the wedding. How hard could planning a wedding be? You’ve already been to so many and you always come home with a list of complaints, he said. That made me mad because he was right. I do not need another cheap bathrobe with the word ‘bridesmaid’ on the back. And then I questioned his commitment to me and he said I was the one with the commitment problem. And you know what? He’s right about that, too. I don’t know how to be in a marriage. How would I know that? Who would I have learned that from? Not you. What does a lifetime commitment even look like if we can’t do the simple task of planning a wedding together? It’s too much. I can’t do this.” She ended the monologue with a sob.