The Easy Way Out Read Online Free PDF

such a frenzy of guilt I’d end up pledging lifelong commitment. It was much easier to think of ways to help my brother reach a decision than it was to come up with my own.
    *   *   *
    Tony’s third call was more of the loopy, sentimental same, with the addition of an embarrassing bit of rhapsodizing about the charming way Vivian lined up the shoes in her closet. But during his fourth, he nonchalantly told me something about his engagement to Loreen that convinced me he couldn’t go through with the wedding and that I had to help him get out of it.
    â€œAnd the irony of the whole thing,” he said, “is I knew I shouldn’t be marrying Loreen, even before I met Vivian, even before I gave her the ring.”
    â€œThat doesn’t make any sense, Tony,” I reminded him, eager to be the voice of logic. “If you felt that way, why did you do it?”
    â€œBecause I couldn’t get out of it. Don’t tell me you don’t know what was going on the night I proposed.”
    I confessed I didn’t. He let out one of his mammoth sighs and proceeded to tell me, as if it was something of little consequence he was tired of repeating, that to begin with, my father had been the one to suggest he give Loreen a ring for her birthday.
    â€œTo tell you the truth, Pat, I didn’t think it was such a hot idearight from the start, but I was desperate to try and come up with a present. You know how bad I’ve always been at buying gifts. I figured I might as well. Anyway, shopping for a ring was less humiliating than trying to pick out a dress for her. I spent a fortune on the thing, my first mistake.”
    According to the running tab I was keeping, it was far from his first, but I made an encouraging grunt, and he went on:
    â€œEven before I had the box in my hand, I was terrified someone was going to steal it. I was convinced of it. I started having trouble at work, sleeping, you name it. It got worse as soon as I picked the damned thing up from the jeweler. It became an obsession. I’d go from carrying it with me all the time to keeping it under the mattress to trying to rig up a hiding place in the tank of the toilet.”
    Tony’s apartment was such a tight, solid cell, it was hard to figure out how oxygen could get in, never mind a thief.
    â€œThe funny thing was, all that worrying made me think I was doing the right thing by proposing. I figured I must have really cared about her to care so much if the ring got stolen. And then, on the plane to Boston, I started talking to this woman sitting next to me and she ruined my life.”
    â€œThat’s what you get for flirting the night you’re going to propose.”
    â€œIt wasn’t flirting. She was one of those types you used to hang out with in high school: know-it-all genius with a face like a horse. I told her why I was going to Boston and said something about how relieved I’d be to deliver the ring and get it out of my hands since I was living in constant fear that someone was going to steal it. She was sitting there with a calculator, and without even looking up, she said, ‘Maybe you’re hoping someone will steal it.’ And that was it, Pat, that was all she said, but I looked over at her and I knew she was absolutely right. I wanted that ring out of my life. If the window on the plane had opened up, I would have chucked it out. By the time we landed in Boston, I’d decided to put off the engagement. I went to one of those airport shops and bought Loreen an expensive clock radio for a birthday present. I told your parents I planned to postpone the whole thing, that I just wasn’t sure. The two of them went completely nuts, locked themselves in the bathroom and started fighting. Half an hour later, they told me they’d already spilled the beans. So what was I supposed to do? Loreen arrives all dolled up, Ryan has this fancy meal prepared, your father has on a