Three Girls And A Wedding (17 page)

“Okay,” he said finally.

Why,
though?
I felt like screaming.
Why
did you act that way? What did I do to ruin things?

“So,” he said, clearing his throat.
“Kiki said it was a perfect day.”

I smiled. “I’m glad she thought so.
I wanted it to be special for her.”

We stood in awkward silence for a
moment, looking at everything except each other.

“I guess I should go help Eric,” he
said finally, gesturing behind him.

“Yeah, of course, and I should…” I
trailed off weakly, unable to come up with any task that needed doing.

“Listen, Jen,” Matt said, stepping
closer. “Can we at least be friends?”

I blinked. “Of course we can.”

He sighed, looking relieved.
“Good.
 
I’m glad. Well, I should go.
Talk to you soon?”

“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you
around now the day’s getting so close,” I agreed.

“Okay…bye then.” It looked like he
wanted to say more, but, after a pause, he merely walked away, leaving me
feeling like I might cry. Friends. Great.

I should be happy for that, happy
that he didn’t want more, that he wouldn’t be distracting me from my work. Now
we could go on without being awkward around each other. I should have been
happy.

But I wasn’t.

Chapter Nineteen

‘Registering for gifts
is a fun aspect of planning your wedding—and often the only thing you’ll
get your hubby-to-be excited about! Make sure you register for a variety of
items and a variety of price points. And do register at more than one store!
You want to make sure you give your guests as many opportunities as possible to
find a gift—easily and without hassle! Don’t be afraid to let you fiancé
choose some items that he likes—even if you might think they’re
tacky!’—
The Bride’s Guide to a
Fabulous Wedding!

“I cannot believe you didn’t ask
him what you did to put him off,” Annie said, shaking her head. “You had him
right there, the perfect chance to find out!”

“Annie, give me the gun back,”
Ginny demanded. “She has a point though, Jen. Didn’t you want to know?”

We were wandering around a large
department store at the mall, helping Ginny and Josh to register. Actually, I
don’t know how much help we were being. Annie kept trying to steal the register
gun (she thought it was fun) and Josh was walking Danny around the store,
trying to keep him from crying—or getting into everything.

“I was way too embarrassed,” I told
them, picking up a ceramic vase before setting it down again. “Besides, I’m
over him. Totally.”

Annie snorted. “Yep. Sure you are.”

“I am!” I said, offended. “It was
one kiss, for God’s sake. It’s not like we even went on a date or anything.”

“I don’t know, Jen,” Ginny said,
zapping a set of dish towels. “I haven’t heard you talk about a guy like that
in a long time.”

I scowled. I didn’t need this from
them today. I needed a little support.

“It’s over, okay?” I snapped. “Just
drop it.”

Annie raised her eyebrows at me. I
sighed. She still hadn’t forgiven me for our fight. And I had meant to make it
up to her today, honestly I had, but I was completely exhausted. Jason had
called me back to the office yesterday after the shower—apparently there
had been a major snafu with the airline tickets for more than a dozen
out-of-town guests. It had taken hours to get it worked out.

But I wasn’t doing Ginny any good in
this mood. “I’m
gonna
go take Danny,” I said. “Let
Josh come back and have some fun.”

Before I had gotten very far, my
phone started ringing. I accepted the call and pressed the phone to my
ear—but all I could hear was sobbing. “Kiki? What’s the matter?”

“The food…and we’re…I don’t know
what…” I could barely understand a word she was saying, she was crying so hard.

“Kiki, take a deep breath…We can
fix it, whatever it is, okay? Just relax and tell me what’s wrong.” I looked up
and saw Annie standing a few paces away from me, glaring. I sighed and turned
away. What did she want from me?

Kiki was taking great shuddering
gulps now. “The caterer just called and canceled. They had a fire in their
kitchen or something—they’re shutting down for three months!”

I took a deep breath. This was
not
good news. We were two months out
from the wedding. How on earth was I going to find another first-class caterer
to serve three hundred guests?

“Okay, try not to panic,” I told
her. “It’s going to be fine. I’m going to get on the phone with Jason right now
and we’ll start making phone calls, okay? We’ll find someone, Kiki, we will.”

“But I’m not even going to be
around to go to tastings,” she wailed. Shoot. I had forgotten that. Kiki and
Eric were leaving that evening for Denver, some kind of work trip, and they
wouldn’t be back for a week. We couldn’t wait that long.

“Kiki,” I told her, rubbing my
temples. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do, Jen,” she said,
sniffling loudly.

“Then I need you to trust that I’ll
handle this, okay? I will find an awesome caterer and I will personally taste
the food. And as soon as you get back we’ll set up another tasting to set your
mind at ease. How’s that?”

Kiki took a deep breath. “I guess
that works,” she said. “But it’s so much pressure on you to do alone. Oh! I
know! Matt can go with you!”

My entire body went cold. “Kiki,
that’s not necessary,” I told her. “Really.”

“Oh, Jen,” she said pleadingly. “It
will make me feel so much better. Honestly. Eric is so picky and Matt will know
what he likes. Please, I’ll worry so much less if I know Matt likes the food
too. Besides, he’s the best man; it’s, like, totally his job to help out with
stuff like this.”

Well, what the hell could I say to
that?

“Okay, Kiki,” I sighed, resigned.
“How about I email you the tastings we set up and you can pass the info along
to Matt and see what he’s free for?”

“Oh, perfect! Jen, thank you,
seriously, you are a life saver!”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
“I’ll send you an email, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, sounding much
happier now. “You know, I really thought you and Matt hit it off in New York.”

I didn’t try to suppress my groan.
I could not deal with her matchmaking right now. “Actually, Kiki, I didn’t get
the impression he liked me too much.”

Kiki
tutted
.
“I know he comes across as gruff sometimes,” she said. “But he’s had some bad
luck with girls. I think he’s just defensive.”

I sighed. “Well, regardless,
there’s lots of work to do on this, so I better let you go. Good luck packing
and all of that.”

“Thanks, Jen! I’ll talk to you
soon, okay? And thanks again, thanks a million!”

I hung up and took a deep breath. I
was going to have to go into the office and start making calls. The girls were
not going to be happy about this at all.

***

Jason insisted on joining us for
the tastings the following day. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad
thing. On the one hand, it would mean I wasn’t alone with Matt. On the other
hand, it would mean Matt and Jason were going to be in the same room together.
In addition to the awkwardness it presented—the guy I was totally
head-over-heels for and the guy I was kind-of, sort-of dating, together for an
afternoon—I knew they couldn’t stand each other.

We had made appointments to visit
five kitchens. Under normal circumstances, we would have paid to have the
caterers meet us at the wedding site. But we didn’t have time for all that.
Instead, Jason and I drove from kitchen to kitchen in his Audi while Matt
followed us in his truck. Matt behaved exactly as I expected him to. He was grouchy
and indifferent and barely said two words to either of us, except to answer my
questions about the food.

The first two caterers we tried
were total misses. The food was okay, but not up to the standard we were
looking for. The third showed some promise, but I still thought we could do
better. Right as we were leaving for the fourth (panic was starting to set in
for me now. What if we didn’t find someone?). Jason got a phone call and
stepped away.

Matt and I stood in awkward silence
for a moment. So much for his wanting to be friends.

Before I could think of anything to
say to lighten the atmosphere, Jason was back. “God damn it,” he muttered,
shoving his phone in his pocket. “The flight arrangements are
still
fucked up.”

My mouth dropped open. We had spent
hours on the phone with the travel agents, trying to get everything in order.

“I’m
gonna
have to go to the office,” he said. “We’re switching agents. I’ve had enough of
this.”

“But what about the tastings?” I
asked him.

Jason looked at me in exasperation.
“This is a huge problem, Jen. Don’t you think you can handle the food?”

“I don’t have a car,” I said,
knowing I sounded petulant but not caring. I did not want to be left alone with
Matt, particularly not when he was in this state.

“I’ll drive you,” Matt grumbled. He
could not have sounded less enthusiastic about it if he tried.

“Is that okay?” Jason asked,
looking at me.

“Yeah, of course. Go take care of
the flights.” Jason looked at me for a moment, then over at Matt, before
leaning down and kissing my cheek. “You’ll do great, I know it,” he said, his
voice soft. Then he was gone.

I stood there, frozen in shock for
a moment. What the hell had just happened? Jason had never kissed me before,
not even on the cheek. What was he playing at, doing it now in front of Matt?

“Are you coming or not?” Matt
asked, his voice like acid. I gave myself a little shake, and followed him to
his truck. This was going to be a long afternoon.

The ride to the fourth site was
excruciating. We were both completely silent, and tension was radiating off
Matt in waves. I had partially hoped he would cheer up a little bit with Jason
gone, but clearly that was not to be. He seemed, if possible, more irritated
than ever now that it was just the two of us.

I felt stung by his behavior. What
on earth had I done to deserve this attitude? I kept wishing I could go back to
that morning in New York. I never should have gone down to the lobby to wait; I
should have gone straight to Matt’s room where I could make him talk to me in
person. What on earth could I have done to him to cause him to be so rude?

And then it hit me. It didn’t
matter what I had done. I was a human being, a professional, and I deserved to
be treated better than this. I hadn’t done anything to intentionally hurt
him—in fact, I had apologized to him, even though he wouldn’t tell me why
he was mad. I had tried to call him. He was the one being a huge baby.

As the silence stretched on, I
found myself becoming angrier and angrier. How dare he treat me like this? Who
the hell did he think he was?

When we reached the fourth site, a
small Middle Eastern restaurant in the city of Dearborn, Matt turned off the
engine and went to open his door without a word to me. “Hang on a second,” I
said, my voice shaking with anger. He turned to face me, eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know what exactly it is
about me that you hate so much,” I said. I felt my hands tremble so I buried
them under my thighs. “But you’re acting very rude. I have a job to do here,
and it’s been a very tough week for me. I could do without your attitude.”

He stared at me incredulously for a
minute. “You think I hate you?” he finally asked.

It was so not what I was expecting
him to say. “Does it matter?” I snapped. “The point is, this isn’t about
me—or about you. It’s about Kiki and your brother. You agreed to be here
and do this for them, so could you please stop acting like it’s torture?”

He was silent for a moment. “You’re
right,” he said finally. “You’re right. Sorry. Let’s just…let’s just go inside
and do this, okay?”

“Fine,” I said, getting out of the
car and slamming the door rather harder than was necessary.

“What is this place?” Matt asked
skeptically as we walked to the door. The building was, it must be admitted, a
little rough on the eyes.

“Don’t judge it by its exterior,” I
told him. “The food is amazing.”

“I guess we’ll see,” he said, but
he held the door open for me. I took it as some progress.

Once we were sitting and had been
served iced tea, he seemed to relax further. “How’re Annie and Ginny?” he
asked.

“Um, good,” I said, taken aback
that he had remembered.

“Wedding plans going okay?”

I winced slightly, thinking of it.
Annie and Ginny were spending the day addressing invitations. I was supposed to
help. Before I could think of an answer, the waiter was back with the appetizer
plates.

“This is what they would serve for
the cocktail hour,” I explained to Matt. “Hummus with veggies, falafels and…” I
took a bite of something I couldn’t identify by sight. “Chicken
schwarma
, I think.”

Matt was just staring at me.

“What?” I asked, self-conscious.

“Sorry, there’s no way this is
going to work,” he said.

“Why not?” I assumed he was talking
about us doing the tasting together.

“Because I have no desire to try
this stuff,” he said. “And I’m about ten times more adventurous than my
brother. There is no way in hell he’s be okay with this being served at his
wedding.”

I glared at him. “I’ll have you
know, it’s delicious.”

“It might be,” he said, holding up
his hands. “I’m just saying, I know my brother. And he won’t be down with
this.”

“Fine,” I snapped, throwing down my
napkin. “But the chef of this restaurant is a personal friend of mine, and
she’s prepared a tasting menu for us, which your brother’s new in-laws have
paid for, so the least you can do it try it.”