Ava busted out laughing. “Easy? Oh, no, honey. I’m glad we’ve given off this illusion of perfection or whatever, but not even close. Let me tell you a secret. Eric and I broke up two years into our relationship. For like a week, but the worst week of my life, I swear.”

“What?” She hadn’t gotten a whiff of anything like that in the four years of them being together.

“Oh, yeah. He, out of the blue, proposed, and I said no. Which, of course, became this whole big thing of him thinking I didn’t want to be with him when I did. Just...we’d never even discussed marriage at that point. We’d both just been going with the flow. I wasn’t ready, and I freaked out. I started thinking he’d just say to hell with this, with us, with me because I’d said no. Thank God he hadn’t done some big splashy proposal.” She smiled faintly. “Turns out, he felt pressured by his parents to propose. They’d given him this whole ‘if you can’t see yourself marrying her now, then why are you even together’ speech, and that sparked off a whole other thing where I was all, ‘I want you to want to marry me. Not because other people think that’s where we should be right now.’ It was a giant mess.”

“Holy shit. Wait. Was this that week you demanded we have that pizza and wine weekend?” She distinctly recalled Ava being insistent about the pizza and drinks. “You told me that was work stress-related.”

Ava shrugged. “I lied, obviously. That week was hard. But he realized how the proposal was just a big no when we hadn’t even talked about marriage or children, and he’d just assumed, let his parents get into his head. I mean, I wanted those things, just not right then. And here we are.” She squeezed Cherisse’s hand. “My point is, I can’t tell you what to do. What to want. You might think you don’t know, but I’m saying you do. Don’t let other people dictate your relationship. Any relationship, for that matter. And realize people are going to mess up because they’re scared. I’m not saying you have to forgive Keiran. That’s your call. But think hard on whether you’re letting your past with Sean color things with anyone you could potentially have something with.”

“I’m pissed off at him, yeah,” Cherisse admitted. “I just need to decide how I feel.”

Ava patted her hand. “Well, then. Sort it out. Just don’t make a scene at my wedding.”

“I promise I won’t. You know I’m not about the drama,” Cherisse assured Ava. She had some things to ponder on. “And I’m sorry I’ve been the worst maid of honor ever. I’ll do better.”

“Just make sure I don’t pull a runaway bride, and we’re good.” Ava kissed her cheek and pulled Cherisse to her feet. “For what it’s worth, Eric’s been taking bets on you and Keiran forever. So, if it doesn’t work out in the end, I get to keep my money. I thought for sure he’d won when Keiran showed up, but it’s all still in the air now, isn’t it? It’s not like Eric needs any more dollars.”