What He's Been Missing by Grace Octavia

skin and a thick New Orleans accent. His father had run out on his mother when he was young, so Ian was the male role model in his life. He lived in New Orleans, but came to stay with Ian most summers.
    â€œAnd half your age.”
    â€œDon’t hate on my cougar possibilities. That boy is a man! And I have an entire year to get slim and trim to make him my boo,” I joked.
    â€œA year? Wait, Ian, you didn’t tell her?” Scarlet looked at Ian.
    â€œTell me what?”
    â€œWe moved the wedding up,” Scarlet said.
    â€œMoved it up?”
    â€œIt’s in May,” Ian revealed.
    â€œIan, I can’t believe you didn’t tell her.”
    â€œWe just decided this last night,” Ian said to Scarlet.
    â€œWell, ya’ll talk all the time.”
    â€œMay? May? That’s . . . in four months.” I’d been counting it up in my head.
    â€œThree and a half,” Scarlet said.
    I peeked at her ring. It looked like she’d had it polished already.
    I said, “Why? That’s crazy. It takes at least nine months to plan a decent wedding—one that’s not going to break your pockets.”
    â€œWe kind of wanted to get it out of the way before I leave for the Congo,” Scarlet said, and in her eyes I could tell that she’d expected me to know what she was talking about. “You didn’t tell her about my trip either?” She turned and poked at Ian.
    â€œScarlet is going to the Congo this summer to work at an orphanage for girls,” Ian blurted out quickly.
    â€œIt’s not just an orphanage,” Scarlet said. “It’s a rehabilitation clinic for girls who had their limbs severed during home invasions by the rebel tribes.”
    â€œWow! That’s heavy. How’d you get into that?” I asked.
    â€œIt’s through my graduate program.”
    â€œYou’re in graduate school?”
    Scarlet shot a stare at Ian. “Well, not right now,” she said. “I start in the fall. This is just a summer pilot program they have going. Anyway, Ian and I are so excited to be getting married that we figured, hey”—she threw her hands up and the look on her face forced Ian to do the same—“we might as well just do it before I leave.” She looked at Ian.
    â€œYeah, we might as well!” he confirmed with his voice as obnoxiously fake as Scarlet’s.
    I still couldn’t piece together why in the world he was putting himself through this whole thing. But, like Journey said, it was his life. I was just there for support. Who cared what they did as long as it didn’t involve me?
    â€œAnd I guess that brings us to why we invited you here today,” Scarlet said. “Ian told me that you don’t plan weddings for friends, but I was just hoping, just hoping you would find a way in your heart to reconsider your rule.”
    â€œScarlet, I’m sorry to let you—”
    â€œWait”—Scarlet cut me off—“before you finish, let me say this: Ian’s your best friend. You two have known each other for so long. It just wouldn’t be right for anyone else to plan his wedding. Not our wedding. We’re all about to be family. And family has to be there for one another. Now, I know you have your rule, but you also have a heart and that heart has to have some love for your family. If you’re everything Ian says you are, it just has to.” Scarlet pursed her glossed lips together and looked at me like I was holding the plug to her mama on a life support machine. I felt like Ian with all those cameras flashing on him at the birthday party. I could either let everyone down or be the life of the party.
    â€œIt’s just my policy—”
    â€œPlease, just this once?” Scarlet held out her hands together in prayer and closed her eyes.
    I looked at Ian bug-eyed, but all he could do was shrug his shoulders.
    â€œIn three and a half months?” I