Chapter 4 - The Truth About the Dare
Chloe called me that evening.
I almost ignored the number because we had never been particularly close. Chloe had gone to college with Ryan and Ava, which meant she belonged to the group I privately called “the Before Nora Club.” Their gatherings were filled with stories from years I hadn’t shared and inside jokes nobody bothered explaining.
But something made me answer.
“Nora?”
“Yes.”
“I need to tell you what happened at my party.”
I sat on the edge of my bed.
“I already know enough.”
“No. You don’t.”
Her voice sounded nervous.
“Then tell me.”
Chloe explained that the Valentine’s gathering had started normally. About fifteen people. Dinner, drinks, music, then games. Ryan arrived alone because I had volunteered for an early shift the next morning.
Ava arrived twenty minutes later.
Wearing a red dress.
Not Ryan’s shirt.
That detail caught my attention.
“What happened to her dress?”
“I’m getting there.”
Around eleven, someone suggested truth or dare.
According to Chloe, Ava became unusually aggressive about Ryan participating.
At first the dares were harmless.
Sing a love song.
Call an ex.
Take a ridiculous selfie.
Then Ryan lost a round.
Ava announced that his dare was to marry her the next day.
Everyone laughed.
Ryan laughed too.
But someone said, “Nora will kill you.”
Ryan apparently responded, “Nora trusts me.”
My stomach turned.
Not Nora wouldn’t be hurt.
Not I would never disrespect Nora.
Nora trusts me.
My trust had become permission.
Chloe continued.
“At first I thought Ava meant one of those fake Vegas wedding packages.”
“So did Ryan?”
“I think so.”
“What changed?”
“Ava pulled out her phone.”
She had already researched marriage-license office hours.
Already found a chapel accepting Valentine’s Day walk-ins.
Already knew what identification they needed.
The room became quieter.
One friend told Ryan it had gone too far.
Ava teased him for being afraid.
Ryan said he wasn’t afraid; it was simply stupid.
Then Ava asked, “If your relationship is so strong, what difference does one day make?”
I closed my eyes.
“And Ryan?”
“He took the dare.”
Of course he did.
His pride had always been easiest to manipulate when somebody suggested he was scared.
“What about the shirt?”
Chloe became quiet.
“Ava spilled wine on herself later.”
“Accidentally?”
“I thought it was accidental then.”
“Now?”
“I don’t know.”
Ryan had apparently taken her to Chloe’s guest room and given her the spare shirt he kept in his gym bag because they planned to work out the following morning.
Ava changed.
Then she never changed back.
At two in the morning, several people went home.
Ava stayed.
So did Ryan.
“Did they sleep together?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe said quickly. “I swear. Ryan slept on my couch when I went upstairs. Ava was in the guest room.”
That should have comforted me.
It didn’t.
“What happened in the morning?”
“Ava woke everyone at nine and reminded Ryan about the dare.”
“And he still went.”
“Yes.”
Nobody forced him.
Nobody tricked him into signing documents.
Nobody dragged him into my workplace.
He got dressed.
Got into Ava’s car.
Walked to my counter.
And smiled.
I thanked Chloe for telling me.
Before hanging up, she said, “Nora, there’s one more thing.”
I waited.
“Ava asked me something about three months ago.”
“What?”
“She asked whether I thought Ryan would have married her if they’d dated in college.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“What did you say?”
“I told her that was a weird question because he was engaged to you.”
“And?”
“She said, ‘Engaged isn’t married.’”
A chill moved through me.
The following afternoon, Ryan learned the same information.
Chloe told him because I refused to.
Apparently their conversation was considerably louder.
Ryan drove directly to Ava’s apartment.
He hadn’t been there since the wedding.
When Ava opened the door, she was still wearing the cheap silver ring from the chapel.
Ryan noticed immediately.
“Take it off.”
She looked at her hand.
“Why?”
“Because this is over.”
Her expression hardened.
“You don’t get to order me around.”
“I have an attorney preparing paperwork.”
“Good for you.”
“You said one day.”
“I said marry me for one day. We did.”
“Then why won’t you sign?”
Ava crossed her arms.
“Because maybe I’m tired of pretending.”
Ryan stared at her.
“Pretending what?”
“That this was only a joke.”
There are moments that divide a life into before and after.
For me, it had been the instant Ryan pushed his identification beneath my glass counter.
For Ryan, it may have been that moment.
Ava finally said aloud what everyone else seemed to have suspected.
She loved him.
She claimed she always had.
She listed twelve years of evidence as though presenting a legal case.
Who stayed with Ryan when his first serious girlfriend cheated?
Ava.
Who loaned him money after his business failed?
Ava.
Who drove three hours when his father had surgery?
Ava.
Who knew what coffee he drank?
What music calmed him?
What his college nickname was?
Which shoulder hurt when the weather changed?
Ava.
“What does any of that have to do with Nora?” Ryan asked.
“Everything.”
“No.”
“Yes. She came five years ago and suddenly I had to ask permission to see my best friend.”
“You never asked permission.”
“Exactly.”
Ryan apparently stared at her for a long time.
Then she said the sentence that destroyed whatever illusion remained between them.
“I knew if I could get you to marry me, she’d leave.”
Ryan’s face changed.
“You planned this.”
“I gave you a choice.”
“You manipulated me.”
“You said yes.”
That answer sounded painfully familiar.
Ava stepped closer.
“She wasn’t right for you.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
“You were always worried about disappointing her.”
“Because I loved her.”
“Then why did you marry me?”
Ryan had no answer.
Because the ugliest truth was also the simplest.
Ava might have designed the trap.
But Ryan had walked into it willingly.
That evening he appeared at my workplace.
He waited outside until my shift ended.
I saw him leaning against his car.
I considered walking the other direction.
Instead, I approached him.
“You can’t keep showing up.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To tell you that you were right.”
I folded my arms.
“About?”
“Ava.”
I almost smiled.
“You’re going to have to narrow that down.”
“She planned it.”
“I know.”
His eyes widened.
“Chloe told you?”
“Yes.”
Ryan looked almost offended.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The question was so absurd I actually laughed.
“Because I’m not responsible for protecting you from your wife.”
His face collapsed.
“Please stop calling her that.”
“Why? Is it inaccurate?”
He looked away.
“I was stupid.”
“Yes.”
“I thought it was harmless.”
“Yes.”
“I thought you’d be angry for a day, maybe two. I thought we’d fight and then…”
“And then I’d forgive you.”
His silence confirmed it.
I stepped closer.
“Do you know what bothers me most, Ryan?”
He looked at me.
“You knew I’d be hurt.”
“Nora—”
“You expected it. You planned around it. You calculated that I’d be angry for forty-eight hours and then forgive you. My pain was part of the cost, and you decided the joke was worth paying that cost because you assumed I would absorb it.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I never thought of it like that.”
“I know.”
That was the problem.
He had never thought of me at all.
Ryan wiped his face with one hand.
“What can I do?”
“Nothing.”
“There has to be something.”
“There isn’t.”
“I’ll cut Ava out forever.”
“You should make that decision for yourself, not as payment for getting me back.”
“I’ll go to therapy.”
“Good.”
“I’ll change.”
“I hope so.”
His voice broke.
“And none of it matters?”
“It matters.”
Hope flashed across his face.
I shook my head.
“It just doesn’t change my decision.”
I walked toward my car.
“Nora.”
I turned.
He stood beneath the parking-lot lights, looking more frightened than I had ever seen him.
“What if I get the marriage annulled?”
“That solves your marriage.”
“What about us?”
I thought carefully before answering.
“There is no us.”
I drove away.
Behind me, Ryan remained in the parking lot.
But while he was finally accepting that Ava had manipulated him, I was about to learn something harder.
For years, I had blamed Ava for invading my relationship.
May you like
The next person who contacted me would force me to ask why Ryan had opened the door every single time.
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