All Dressed in White

21

Meghan White was greeted by the smell of something delicious roasting in the oven when she got home. Jeff was in the kitchen wearing the apron she’d bought for him last year, the one that said, “Real Men Bake Cookies.”

“That smells glorious.” How lucky she was to have married a man who could cook. Everything about Jeff made her feel lucky. He was sweet and funny and her closest confidant. He was her best friend. She was waiting for the right moment to tell him the news. “What are we having, Jeff?” she asked.

“Rosemary and garlic lamb chops. You claim they’re your favorite.”

He greeted her with a hug that was longer than usual.

When he finally let go of her, he was looking at her as though something was wrong.

“Is everything okay?” Meghan asked.

“Sit down.”

“You’re scaring me, Jeff.”

“Just sit. Please.” Once she did, he poured her a glass of prosecco and waited for her to take a sip, but she did not.

“I don’t need wine to have a conversation,” Meghan said. “How did that meeting go? I absolutely couldn’t get out of the office.”

“I should have waited until we talked. I signed on to do the show.”

Fifteen minutes later, Meghan sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her wineglass, still full, on the nightstand. She had changed into casual slacks and a pullover. She needed some time to think. The decision was already made. She had heard the certainty in his voice. Jeff’s mind was made up. He hadn’t been asking for her permission; he’d been breaking the news: He was doing this show. And Meghan knew that, in reality, he was making the decision for both of them. How could she say no? How would it look that first she took the man Amanda was supposed to marry and now was trying to block a reinvestigation of her case?

She wiped away a tear with the back of her hand. When Amanda’s case had churned through the 24/7 cable channels, Meghan had managed to stay out of the story. Amanda’s parents had been the ones front and center, with Jeff at their side. It was months before the reporters stopped calling Jeff for comments.

When they got married, she had been terrified that the media frenzy would start again. That’s why they had gone quietly to the courthouse. It’s why she didn’t take Jeff’s name. She didn’t want the scrutiny.

But this show would put them before millions of judging eyes. Viewers would want to know what kind of woman would steal her missing friend’s fiancé. They’d want to know what kind of man could marry another woman so soon after his beloved Amanda went missing. Everyone would hate them.

She started to lift her glass, and then put it back down, reminding herself that she shouldn’t.

She pictured herself explaining everything about her marriage to a bunch of strangers on camera. When Jeff and I started to develop feelings for each other, we were just as surprised as anyone else. They’d fallen out of touch after college, but their paths crossed after law school when Meghan helped Jeff navigate a thorny immigration issue for one of his clients. He offered to take her out to dinner as a thank-you. After two dates fizzled, they remained strictly professional colleagues and friends. And then Jeff bumped into Meghan at a coffee shop near the courthouse when she was about to meet Amanda. She immediately sensed a spark between them. Maybe if Amanda had arrived a few minutes later, their paths would never have crossed again.

So how was it that they had ended up together? That’s the question the television show would want to ask. It really was because of Amanda. In the aftermath of her disappearance, they had consoled each other over the loss of a woman they both loved. They had friendship first and then a deep bond that came later. And because of that bond, Meghan now knew what she had to do.

She walked back to the kitchen, stopping first in the hallway bathroom to pour her wine in the sink. Jeff was at the counter, slicing a tomato. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. “Okay, we’ll do this. Together. For Amanda. And for us.”

He turned around and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I knew I could count on you. How were things at work today? When you got home, it seemed like you wanted to tell me something.”

He always could tell what she was thinking. “Nothing big. I did manage to get an extension on Mrs. Tran’s visa.”

“That’s good. I knew you were worried about that.”

She would wait a few days before telling him the actual news. She did not want all this talk about Amanda to overshadow the fact that she hoped and believed she was pregnant. The home test kit had been positive. She had made an appointment with her doctor for an additional test to confirm. If the news was good, she’d need to make sure that those past problems she’d had with prescriptions wouldn’t affect the baby. Wow, a baby. She felt a lump in her throat at the thought.

Jeff wrapped his arms around her again. She felt safe, like everything would be okay. “Don’t worry about this show,” he said. “We’ll just explain that we never had feelings for each other until… after. It’ll be fine. People will understand.”

It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to explain the timing of their relationship. Her parents. Their friends. The familiar story they told was that their feelings developed after Amanda disappeared. It wasn’t the truth in my case, she thought. I was desperately in love with Jeff. But there was no reason anyone ever needed to know that.

Meghan could lie just as well as her old friend Amanda.