Mistakes We Never Made

Three days before Sybil and Jamie’s wedding, Emma Townsend is with the bride-to-be and their friends Nikki and Willow. She has made an itinerary for their day, but by the evening, they’re beginning to get tired. Emma suggests doing tequila shots because they—the “Core Four”—always do shots when a milestone happens in their lives.

When Emma goes to the bar, the bartender tells her that the hotel does not allow the bar to serve shots. She asks for four tequilas served without ice, and he reluctantly complies, giving her “sipping tequila” (4). When she requests limes, he adds that they only have the fruits that are in season, and because it is June, they don’t have a winter fruit like limes.

Seeing that Sybil is talking to a man while sitting on a railing, Emma pulls her back toward the group, thinking about how they first met. Emma was eight years old and in a new school. She was wearing a pair of shorts on which her mom had sewn rainbow beads, and Sybil complimented them.

Emma leaves Sybil at the table with their friends and goes to retrieve a lime from an arrangement she saw near the host stand.