Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) (16 page)

“OK,” I say softly.

They both look taken aback. “You believe me?”
Ellie shouts.

“I’m trying to, but regardless of that, we
need to have a talk.”

I did it; I can’t believe I finally did it. I
spilled everything from the bullying when we were kids to the
recent insults and snide comments. I told them I had had enough and
that I wouldn’t stand for it any longer. Some of their reactions
were surprising; they seemed to have forgotten a lot that had
happened or at least pretended to. And then I was honest when I
told them that they were welcome to come to the wedding; however, I
would prefer them not to be bridesmaids. I don’t think that went
over to well, but they didn’t argue. Hopefully that won’t come back
to bite me later.

A half hour later, I’m sitting at dinner with
my friends. “I want to make a toast,” Abby says loudly.

“Cheers to Madie! I’m so proud of you,” she
slurs. Poor Abby has had three glasses of wine. Craig ordered a
bottle to celebrate, and I don’t think she has had a drink in a
very long time. I cover my mouth to keep from laughing. I look at
Sienna who is also amused; she too has been sipping her wine. She
isn’t a drinker either, and I can already tell that this is going
to be a fun night.

After dinner, we head out to Have a Nice Day
Café, the best dance club ever. I’m shocked to say that both Abby
and Sienna are drunk. They are in the middle of the dance floor
trying to dance like John Travolta. Craig is busy recording their
dance; no doubt that will be all over social media by tomorrow. I’m
just watching carefully to make sure neither of them does anything
they will regret tomorrow. I didn’t notice Sienna drinking other
than a few sips, but I guess I was too busy watching Abby. All of a
sudden, I feel someone’s arms around my waist and then kissing on
my neck.

Oh, hell no; those days are over. I turn
around ready to drop-kick some frat boy, but I’m pleasantly
surprised to see that Cole and his best friend Jeff are standing
behind me. My fiancé just crashed my bachelorette party.

“Hold on, you are not suppoooosed to be here
mister,” Abby interrupts before I can say a word. She throws her
arm around me and starts to hang on me. “This is a bachelorette
partay, no boys allowed.”

“What have you guys done to her?” Cole says,
laughing.

“Nothing, I’m fiiine!” She starts poking his
chest.

Sienna and Craig have now joined us also.

“Jeff!” Sienna yells and practically leaps
into his arms.

There’s a bit of a story behind Sienna and
Jeff. Cole and I had tried to set them up after she broke up with
Luke. She agreed to go out with him as a favor to me, but they
ended up having a great time. I think things could have progressed
for them except for the fact that Jeff lives in San Francisco. They
agreed to be just friends, and then things started to move forward
for Sienna and Ace, well sort of.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Cole after a
long, passionate kiss. I know this is supposed to be my
bachelorette party, but I don’t care. I’m so happy to see him.

“Craig kept posting on Facebook, so Jeff and
I decided to drive down. We were kind of bored.” I need to make a
mental note to unfriend Craig on Facebook.

“Dance with me,” Sienna says as she drags
Jeff out to the dance floor. Abby and Craig are now trying to do
some kind of line dance that doesn’t go with the song that is
playing. I giggle; at least everyone is having fun.

Cole and I start to slow dance to the very
quick up-tempo song. I tell him all about Carrie and the
stepsisters randomly showing up. I also tell him how I was worried
that all of their appearances were more signs that our marriage is
doomed. He reassures me that everything will work out fine.

All of a sudden we hear the crowd chanting,
“Go Abby, Go Abby, Go Abby.” We look over to see Abby doing some
kind of crazy dance in the middle of a circle of people. She is
going to be mortified tomorrow. I explain to Cole that she was
really struggling being away from the baby. I guess I’m not
completely surprised that she had too much to drink.

“Whoa.” Cole’s mouth drops open. I turn to
look and see Sienna totally grinding on and kissing Jeff. No way. I
have to try to stop her, or she will be so pissed at me. I start to
walk over to her when Cole grabs my arm.

“Let go, I have to stop her,” I tell him.

“Why? They’re having a good time.” Cole
shrugs his shoulders. “Let them have fun.”

This isn’t the first time Cole and I have
disagreed about those two. He really wants them to get together,
but I know she really wants to be with Ace. I’m about to yell at
Cole when I see Abby vomit all over the dance floor. Crap! Cole,
Craig, and I go out to her.

“I don’t feel good!” she says. “I want my
baby and Matt.” She starts crying. I tell Craig to go get Sienna
and Jeff. It’s obviously time for us to leave.

“Yeah, baby! Get it, girl,” Craig yells to
Sienna, and I punch him in the arm. “Stop! Don’t encourage
that.”

What a night! When we get back to the hotel,
we clean Abby off and get her into bed. Not before she calls Matt
crying, telling him how much she misses them. Sienna continues to
be all over Jeff. Thankfully, it’s not as bad as it was at the
club. She tells me to mind my own business when tell her to stop.
At least I can say I tried. Jeff doesn’t seem to mind at all
despite my hints that she won’t remember any of this tomorrow. The
rest of the night goes OK; we order room service and play blackjack
for hours. Once Craig is over his tantrum that Cole shouldn’t be at
my bachelorette party, even he has fun.

“So, Sienna, are you choosing Jeff or Ace?”
Craig asks after taking another sip of his drink. With all of the
excitement of Abby and Sienna, I have no idea how much he’s had to
drink. Holy crap, this is so awkward! Leave it to him to add to the
awkwardness, and technically, this is his fault. Although, I don’t
exactly mind being curled up in Cole’s arms tonight. Frankly, I’m
over being a bachelorette.

“Why is everyone always in my business?” she
says, laughing. “I will choose when I’m ready.”

I notice a smirk spread across Jeff’s face.
Oh this isn’t going to end well, and now I have both Jeff and Ace
in the wedding party, and I’m down two bridesmaids. Sienna was
right; I really should have never asked Ace. Those damn cousins
messed everything up.

“Just ignore him,” I tell her, giving Craig a
dirty look. Cole and Jeff finally leave at about 4 a.m. Craig is
passed out on the floor with one leg up on the couch. Sienna is
barely awake but still talking. We lay on the balcony lounge chairs
staring up at the stars.

“I don’t remember everything that happened
earlier tonight,” she says as she’s starting to fall asleep. “I’m
probably going to regret it,” She mumbles. I figure I’ll wait until
she’s completely sober to break the news of her PDA display at the
club. “You’re getting married, Abby’s married, and I’m still . . .”
She falls asleep midsentence. Poor Sienna.

~*~

When I wake up, Sienna and I are still on the
balcony. It’s a beautiful morning, so I don’t move. I can’t believe
I’m getting married in six days. I start to daydream about my
wedding. At least I can tell my mom and Grandmother that I’m on
speaking terms with my cousins. I don’t know if they will end up
coming to the wedding, but at least I invited them.

“Ohhhh,” Sienna moans. She turns over, opens
an eye, and looks at me.

“Morning, sunshine,” I say cheerfully.

“Why?” she whines. “Why did you let me drink?
You know I can’t drink.”

I apologize and explain, “I had no idea you
were drinking that much! I thought you were sipping your wine.
Besides, Abby was making a much bigger scene—throwing up all over
Have a Nice Day Café.

“No she didn’t! Oh wow, I’m so glad I didn’t
do anything like that,” she says, covering her eyes with her
arms.

“Mmmhmm,” I mumble. I may as well tell her
now to give her time to let it sink in. “Um, so do you remember
Cole and Jeff showing up last night? They were at the club and then
came back here with us.”

She still has her arms covering her eyes. Did
she fall back asleep?

“Sienna?” I ask.

“No, no, no!” she cries out. She jumps up off
the lounge chair. “I do remember them being here, and I remember
sitting on Jeff’s lap. Please tell me that’s all.” I cringe as I
tell her about their PDA at the club and then again here.

“Do you remember Craig asking if you if you
were going to choose Jeff or Ace?” I ask.

I can tell by her reaction that she doesn’t
remember nor does she remember her answer.

“No, this isn’t happening.” She dramatically
falls back down on the chair.

“Mmmmm . . . when can we go home?” I turn to
see Abby standing in the doorway, and she looks horrible. I try to
hide my smile because here I am with my two best friends, and for
the first time in my life, I’m not the one with the hangover.

She pushes Sienna over and lies down next to
her. I have to take a picture of this because no one would ever
believe me without proof.

“I have to say that you girls look really
bad.” I laugh and snap a picture with my phone.

“Stop!” Abby says.

“You better not show anyone that,” adds
Sienna.

“Of course I won’t,” I lie. You never know
when this picture will come in handy.

~*~

A few hours later we’re heading home after we
finally get Craig to wake up. When we dropped Abby off, she started
sobbing as soon as she saw Matt and Ace. It was kind of sweet even
though I’ve never seen her fall apart like that.

When we get home, Sienna immediately goes
into her room and shuts the door; she didn’t say much on the way
home. She’s either really embarrassed or she feels guilty because
of Ace.

I wander into my room and sit down to check
my email. I’m immediately excited to find a message from Bev until
I read the entire message.

She says she received the change of venue
notice and wants to discuss. Crap! I probably should have called to
explain. I leave her a voice mail. I guess this does kind of
interfere with my Four Seasons cookie theme. I’m still sitting
holding my phone when Sienna comes out of her room.

“Are you OK?” I ask cautiously. She looks
like she’s been crying.

“Yeah. I just talked to Ace. I told him that
we needed to talk. I’m meeting him for dinner. I have to tell him
what happened.” I can tell she’s nervous. “I feel so bad, and I
don’t want to lead Jeff on.”

I remind her that she had been drinking and
that Jeff knew that. He didn’t exactly push her away either.

“Ace may be done with me after this,” she
says sadly. “I need to be honest with him though.”

“Hopefully he will understand, and if you
want, I will tell him that we don’t need him in the wedding party
after all.”

“Oh no, the wedding!” she whines. “I keep
forgetting that Jeff will be there too, and I’ll have to face both
of them.” She drops her head on the counter.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I got
a message from Bev. She didn’t sound happy about the change of
venue card that she got. Believe me, I’m just as ready as you for
this wedding to be done and over.” I don’t know what to expect from
Bev, hopefully she won’t make a big deal out of it. I guess I could
always change the theme of my feature if I had to. I start to panic
thinking about starting over.

~*~

It’s Monday morning, and I’m exhausted. I
packed all night and waited up for Sienna to get home from her
date. I fell asleep before she got home, but at least I have a huge
load of boxes in my car to bring to the new house.

“How did it go?” I ask her. I can tell by her
reaction that it went better than I thought it would.

“Surprisingly, it went well,” she says
calmly. “I told him everything. At first he was really mad, but not
at me, at Jeff.” Oh great, the next thing to go wrong. I imagine a
fight breaking out at the wedding between Ace and Jeff over Sienna.
They will throw each other around and someone will fall on the
cupcake tower. I imagine my Grandmother smiling because she already
hates the cupcake tower.

“He thinks Jeff took advantage of the fact
that I had been drinking. Anyway, I calmed him down.” A smile
spreads across her face. “He told me this hasn’t changed anything
about the way he feels.” I have to wonder, though, if Ace is too
perfect to be real. Either that or he is not used to not getting
his way. Sienna is probably the only girl who hasn’t thrown herself
at his feet. She’s the ultimate challenge for a guy like him.

“So, is Allyson still hanging around all of
time?” I ask. Sienna rolls her eyes.

“Apparently she’s doing a bang up job,
whatever that means.” She sticks her tongue out. Hmmm . . . yeah,
what does that even mean?

“By the way, I talked to Ace about not being
in the wedding party, and he was totally fine with it.”

Yes! I was hoping she would take care of
that. I feel so terrible about this. I think I’m slowly learning my
lesson about minding my own business. Well, maybe.

Chap
ter 13

I tell myself not to panic. I mean I’m
probably overreacting. I have left three messages for Bev, and she
hasn’t returned any of my calls. So what do you do when someone
doesn’t return your calls? Well, in my case, I start stalking her
and show up at her bakery unannounced to talk to her.

When I get to the bakery, I notice that the
sign with my name on it is no longer in the window. OK, before I
start to overreact, there could be a good reason for that. I mean,
my feature was only supposed to be for a few weeks anyway. When I
go inside, I’m not surprised that my cookies aren’t even in the
case anymore. I take a deep breath and try not to get mad. It
wouldn’t exactly be a good thing to go off on Bev. Maybe she
completely sold out and hasn’t had a chance to request any more
orders? She would have to take the sign down if she ran out. Yes!
This could all be a good thing after all.