It's Not A Competition

Her cell phone rang, and LaRue James considered not answering when she saw the face and name splashed across her screen. But she reconsidered because her best friend Cassie Leoni never called, always texted. So she picked up.

"LaRue!" Cassie squealed. "You'll never guess what just happened. Nick proposed! I said yes! I'm engaged!" She was breathless with excitement and more than a hint of triumph.

LaRue didn't hesitate, but responded with the expected enthusiasm at the news. She didn't let the jagged thorns of jealousy into her voice as she asked for details. Cassie would be hyper-alert for it, even in her excitement.

After they hung up, LaRue flung her phone across the room. She couldn't help herself. It clattered noisily onto the wood floor and she winced, hoping she hadn't broken it.

"What was that?" Eric, her boyfriend, called as he came down the hall. "Are you okay?"

LaRue was getting up off the couch when he came into the room. "I'm fine," she said. "I dropped my phone."

Eric regarded her with a lifted brow but didn't say anything. He just waited as she crossed the room to retrieve it.

"Cassie called. Nick proposed." LaRue said flatly.

His face split into a wide grin. "That's great! I didn't know he was going to do it so soon, but that's awesome."

"Wait, you knew about this?" LaRue was inspecting her phone but instantly forgot about it as she whirled to face him.

"Yeah, he told me about it last week." Eric said.

"And you didn't tell me?" she demanded.

"He told me not to! He wanted it to be a surprise. He was planning this whole thing. I guess he changed his mind." Eric lifted his hands in confusion. "What's wrong? Aren't you happy for them?"

LaRue took a deep breath. "Of course I am. Cassie is my best friend. I just wish you had told me, is all."

"Nick asked me not to," Eric repeated.

LaRue nodded. Of course Nick would have wanted to keep it quiet. He probably knew that if LaRue knew, Cassie soon would have, one way or another.

LaRue made herself smile. "I'm so happy for them! It's great news," she said and Eric grinned in response.

"We should plan a dinner with our friends, to congratulate them," he suggested. "We should have it at Mas. Your parents would be cool with that, right?"

"That's a great idea," she agreed, meaning anything but, but she wouldn't voice that. The last thing she wanted to do was host a party for Cassie, especially at her parent's restaurant. Of course it was the best place to host a party, and LaRue had celebrated many things with her friends there. Mas was a popular, trendy place and hard to get a table at. LaRue was sure her parents would love to throw Cassie a party; she was LaRue's oldest friend, and they adored her. She tried not to grit her teeth when she smiled up at Eric. "They definitely would."

LaRue thought she was going to lose it. For the past several weeks she had been bombarded with endless texts and links and calls from Cassie. A date had been set; almost a year away. She wondered how she was going to put up with this for an entire year. Cassie was brimming with happiness and was enthusiastically sharing all her ideas and plans with LaRue. And, as expected, triumphant over her getting engaged first, even though she and Nick had been together for less time than LaRue and Eric.

"I'm sure he'll ask you soon," she crooned, meaning Eric, the last time they had talked. "I mean, he'd be crazy not to."

"If it happens, it'll happen when the time is right. We don't want to rush into anything." LaRue had responded.

"But you guys have been together for so long. What is it, four years now?" Cassie's voice brimmed with satisfaction. She knew exactly how long LaRue and Eric had been together; six months longer than she and Nick. It had always rankled that LaRue had been serious with someone first, had moved into an apartment first. Now, though, she had pulled ahead. She was engaged.

"Five years, actually." LaRue had replied with gritted teeth. "Five years next month."

"Then whose rushing? More like he's dragging his feet. Are things good with you guys?" the concern sounded genuine but LaRue could hear the hopeful undertone.

"Things are great! Never better," LaRue had rejoined with enthusiasm.

"Well, then I'm sure it'll happen soon. Nick told Eric before he proposed; maybe our engagement with inspire him!" Cassie laughed. She would love that. "Anyway, I was telling Delana that I was thinking we should..." and she was off in another tangent of wedding planning.

The months peeled by, and LaRue tried to ignore Cassie as much as possible. Which was almost impossible, as Cassie was including her in every aspect of wedding planning. LaRue had seethed quietly when she was passed over as Maid of Honor; that went to Cassie's older sister, Delana. Cassie had taken her aside and said she had really wanted LaRue to have that role but that it wouldn't have gone over well with her family. "I hope you're not too upset, Rue. I know you really wanted to be my Maid of Honor," she had said with a face full of sympathy. "But my parents are paying a ton for the wedding and, well... you understand." LaRue said she did, and she really did. She didn't like it but familial fidelity trumped.

She gave the correct responses, but it rankled that Cassie really thought she was practically devastated at being passed over. She wasn't devastated, she was annoyed. LaRue didn't have a sister or even a female cousin she was close enough to to give that honor to. When the time came, it would be Cassie and they both knew it.

Delana was not a great Maid of Honor, and LaRue unfortunately found herself in the position of doing most of what should have been Delana's job. Delana had a career and a husband and a son (another Cassie first, she was an auntie; LaRue's brothers were both younger than her and neither had any interest in anything serious right now). She was thrust into planning all the bridal events; the shower, the bachelorette trip, the post-wedding brunch. Before she could say no (and she wouldn't have even though she dearly wanted to, she wouldn't give Cassie that satisfaction) she found herself hip-deep in all things Cassie's Wedding.

She and Eric did host a dinner party for the couple and invited all their friends. Then there was the formal engagement party and LaRue found herself practically in charge of that as well. Cassie's parents seemed thrilled to hand LaRue the responsibilities that should have been theirs; "just tell me how much dear, and who to write the checks to" Belinda, Cassie's mother, had told her. LaRue met each challenge with a smile but inside was gnashing away. She planned a gorgeous engagement party, her parents insisted on catering it, and everyone loved it. Cassie picked away at some of the smaller, inconsequential details and LaRue was forced to agree that "it wasn't perfect, but close enough!"

More often than not, it was LaRue and Cassie meeting with the wedding planner instead of Nick and Cassie. Cassie called or texted with everything to do with the wedding, to get her opinion, and then usually did the opposite. She was in her element. Cassie had always been great with events and planning them and this was THE event of her life.

She was also adding the usual commentary about "when LaRue eventually gets married, she'll have my wedding as a blueprint!" and "all the guesswork will be taken out of it since I paved the way." LaRue smiled and bit her tongue. She wondered that her tongue hadn't been ripped to shreds by now with all the tongue-biting she was doing.

It had always been like this between them. She and Cassie had met in the second grade when LaRue's family had moved to the city for her mother's work. LaRue had been new; exotic with her rich black hair, honey-toned complexion and tip-tilted green eyes. She spoke with an English accent because her parents did; she'd been born in the UK but had lived in the states since she was two. The accent was faint now, but she dialed it up as needed. Her new classmates had been fascinated with her.

Cassie, bright blonde hair and sky blue eyes, peaches and cream complexion, tall even then, had been the popular girl and had taken LaRue under her wing, so to speak. There developed a mixture of envy and admiration between the girls as they measured each other. Over the years, that had solidified into fierce competition with one another blended with friendship between kindred spirits.

They had been measuring and weighing their accomplishments against the other for the entirety of their relationship. That was for everything, from grades, to birthday parties, to athleticism, to boyfriends, college acceptance... everything. LaRue had been wild with jealousy when Cassie got into her first pick college and she hadn't. Cassie had been appalled when LaRue was accepted into her prestigious graduate program before Cassie. LaRue had met Eric and was "serious" before Cassie even met Nick. When Cassie was promoted in her role before LaRue, she thought she might put a fist through the drywall of her tiny apartment. When Eric and LaRue had moved in together, Cassie had very nearly dumped Nick out of sheer frustration of how "slow" their relationship was progressing.

LaRue had grown complacent of late, comfortably ahead of Cassie in practically everything, from her career to her personal life, to her savings, and the fact that she and Eric had closed on a gorgeous apartment in a trendy part of the city. They had a cat. Upgraded their fish tank. Hosted elegant dinner parties. And, of course, she had Mas and could get a table anytime. That had always been her ace-in-the-hole, go-to. The restaurant was incredibly trendy and popular and had been for about ten years. Cassie hated that she had to go through LaRue to use it, but she did it because it was too good not to.

And then Cassie had met a life goal that they had been talking about since second grade. She was engaged. She was getting married. She was planning the perfect wedding. She had the perfect ring. Everything was perfect.

The bachelorette trip was absolutely amazing. LaRue had planned it with military precision, with contingency plans in place and plenty of room to pivot. She knew Cassie like the back of her hand and knew what would thrill her. There was no room for error; she had made sure that everything went off without a hitch, that the fun started in the airport and carried them through, with everyone exclaiming over the details and thanking LaRue for everything. Cassie had been gobsmacked, had tried to find things to criticize but anything and everything should could have found fault with, LaRue had a solution or a fix for at the ready. No detail had been too small or overlooked. It had been the best bachelorette party in the history of bachelorette parties. Cassie could never top it, when it was LaRue's turn, and both of them knew it.

She came home, gloating and glowing. The icing on the cake was a gift certificate that Nick presented her and Eric for a spa package "for all her hard work on making Cassie feel special." She and Eric had spent a long overdue weekend, just the two of them, enjoying each other's company and blocking out the rest of world (Nick had surprised Cassie with a romantic getaway, a pre-honeymoon, for the weekend so LaRue was off wedding duty for two and a half glorious days). They compared notes on Monday and LaRue wasn't displeased to hear that Cassie's weekend had been fraught with one small disaster after another, that she and Nick had argued the entire time, and that their flight had been so delayed that she had arrived back in the early morning hours and still had to get up and go to work.

All was well now; Nick and Cassie had made up, their hotel had been refunded, they got vouchers for the disastrous flight. But LaRue's weekend with Eric had been infinitely better.

Now it was count-down until the wedding. Only two months to go. LaRue subtly needled her friend about superficial and inconsequential details, even thought everything was well in hand. Cassie rejoined by hinting at her pity that LaRue's current unengaged status. Business as usual.

LaRue was not feeling well. She'd even thrown up on Monday morning, and the smell of the coffee she loved had driven her out the door earlier than usual. It must have been the leftover lasagna she and Eric had eaten the night before. It must have gone off. Except Eric felt fine.

The week was rough. By Thursday she wasn't feeling any better. "I don't have time to get sick," she lamented. "The wedding is two weeks away." She was going to bed earlier and earlier, exhausted.

Eric insisted that she go to the doctor and accompanied her to Urgent Care. There, she laid out her symptoms. "I can't keep anything down," she complained. "I'm tired all the time. There's something wrong. Is it the flu?"

"It's not the flu," the nurse said. "You're pregnant."

She froze. So did Eric. They gaped at one another, then Eric started laughing and LaRue burst into tears. He crossed the room and hugged her, kissing the top of her head. Then she was laughing and he was swiping at his eyes.

"I hope this is good news?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," said Eric. "I don't know yet," said LaRue, "I think so."

They left the building in a daze and splurged on an Uber instead of navigating the subway system. They held hands the entire time, smiling wordlessly at each other. Eric especially looked pleased.

At their apartment, Eric disappeared momentarily and came back with a small, unmistakable shaped jewelry box. Inside was a gorgeous emerald ring banded in gold. It was exactly the thing LaRue would have chosen. He explained that he'd had this for awhile, had been waiting until after the wedding so that it would be completely about them. "I had this plan," he said. "But this feels right. LaRue, I love you so much. Will you marry me?"

She had laughed and cried at the same time, saying yes over and over and crying anew when he slid the ring on her finger. The cradled each other and settled on the couch, arms around each other.

LaRue had an idea. "Let's elope." she leaned back and looked at him. "Let's not wait, not plain some crazy wedding. Let's just... do it."

Eric loved the idea. They called their families. They went to city hall and got marriage licenses. They planned for the following Friday, eight days before Cassie and Nick's wedding.

Later, at home, LaRue picked up her phone. She felt triumph rising in her as she scrolled her contacts until she came to Cassie's name. She hit dial, and pressed the phone up to her ear.

"Cassie!" she exclaimed into her phone. "You'll never believe it... what are you doing this Friday afternoon?"