Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) (13 page)

“No. Well, not exactly,” she hesitates. “I’m
just saying that maybe there’s a chance that this isn’t her
fault?”

Baby Ace starts crying, so Abby gets off the
phone. When I get home, I refuse to sit around and do nothing, so I
make cookies and do something I hardly ever do: I eat cookies, a
lot of cookies, and then I throw up.

I completely lose track of time, and I’m in
the middle of tying ribbons on cookie bags when Sienna finally
comes home.

“Hey,” she says softly. She looks completely
exhausted. I can tell by her body language that she hasn’t gotten
anywhere with the wedding.

“I guess you don’t have any good news for
me?” I ask knowingly. She shakes her head and frowns.

“I’m so sorry. I spoke with the director
today. They are investigating it, but I guess in the meantime there
was another event booked.” She looks away, but I can see the tears
welling up in her eyes.

“It’s not your fault,” I remind her. I
swallow hard; I don’t want to start to cry because it will make
Sienna feel even worse than she already does.

“So, um, what do you suggest we do now?” I
ask. “What about all of the guests? The DJ, all of the plans?” I
suddenly feel overwhelmed; it looks like Cole may get his wish
because a Hawaiian beach wedding is looking better and better all
the time.

“I wanted to talk to you about that; we’ve
been working on a few options.” She sits down and pulls out her
phone. “We can have the wedding at a country club. It’s a beautiful
place, but it will be a tight fit with the number of guests that
are expected. There’s also another venue we are working on. I’m
just waiting to hear back from them about availability.” I try my
best to pretend that I’m not completely devastated about all of
this.

“I’m sure either location will be great,” I
say unconvincingly. “Tell me what we need to do; we only have two
weeks.” Sienna scrolls through her phone.

“As soon as you choose the venue, we will
switch everything. I have Craig and Nicole ready to contact the
guests, and honestly they won’t even know the difference.” She rubs
her forehead. “I know this isn’t how your wedding was supposed to
go, and I feel absolutely horrible about it. I promise I will do
everything I can to make it a beautiful day.”

“You don’t need to feel bad about anything.
None of this is your fault,” I reiterate.

While Sienna and I are talking, I miss
several calls from Grandmother and my mom. I knew it wouldn’t take
long for them to find out. I decide to let every call go to
voicemail because I know I’m not prepared to talk to any of them.
My phone rings again, and I’m about to turn it off when I see it’s
Susan calling. Cole must have explained what’s happened. It’s time
for me to be honest with myself and everyone else that our wedding
plans have changed.

“Hi, Susan. How are you?” I try to sound as
cheerful as I can.

“Honey, I just got a strange call from Cole,”
she says. “Please tell me what’s going on with the wedding.”

I tell her the whole story from start to
finish except conveniently leaving out the Ellie part. I get choked
up a few times, but I manage to do it without becoming
hysterical.

“I have never heard of an event being
canceled at the last minute. What about the deposit? This is
absurd.”

“I don’t know what’s happening,” I reply.
“It’s being investigated, but we don’t have time to wait. Sienna is
working on a new location. They will inform all the guests of the
changes as soon as we have it set.”

“Oh dear. “ She sounds completely in shock.
“How are you holding up? I can’t imagine how you must feel.
Honestly, I’ve been so impressed with Sienna. I’m shocked she could
make this kind of a mistake.”

I don’t want her to think badly of Sienna, so
I decide to explain everything that happened with Ellie.

“Oh my goodness, how could she do this? I
know most families have problems, but I never could imagine
something like this. It’s very disappointing,” she exclaims. Ahhh,
finally someone is not suggesting that Ellie is innocent. I ask her
if she thinks I made a mistake with my confrontation.

She doesn’t say anything at first. “No, I
don’t think you made a mistake,” she answers finally.

“I’m not convinced that your cousin is behind
this, but I’m proud of you for being honest about your other
feelings.” She continues, “I think you’ve been holding in these
feelings for a very long time. You have a lot of issues with both
of them as well as your grandmother and even your parents to some
extent. The time had come to be honest.”

Wow, I never thought about that. “I still
haven’t spoken with my grandmother; that will probably be the most
difficult part. No doubt she’s already heard Ellie’s side, and
she’s come to her own conclusion.”

I can’t continue to stress about this because
that’s what got me into this whole mess. If I had stood firm on my
own feelings, then I never would have let them talk me into asking
them. For the first time in a few days, I start to feel better. I
thank Susan for listening before we hang up.

Sienna goes to bed early but not before I
hear her on the phone. She must be talking to Ace; I overhear her
say something about this being damaging to her company. I keep
forgetting how this will affect her. I guess losing a wedding at
such a high profile location can’t be good for business. As
devastated as I am, I need to remember that other people are being
affected also.

The next morning when I wake up, I feel a
little better, at least emotionally. All of those cookies
definitely did a number on my stomach; that was my first and last
time I will be stress eating. I vow never to do that again.

I’ve managed to avoid all calls from my
family, but I know I can’t do that forever. I just don’t know what
to say, or rather, I do know what to say, but I’m not sure how to
say it. Ugh, I think I need professional help.

The best (and easiest) place to start is with
my mom. When I call her, it doesn’t start out good. She yells at me
for making a scene in a public place and not talking to Ellie about
it at first. I try to explain that I was in the heat of the
moment.

“When are you ever going to take my feelings
into account?” I say to her, my voice starting to crack. “You
pressure me to ask them to be bridesmaids. But you failed to
realize that we haven’t spoken in months or maybe even longer.”

“Honey, that should never matter when it
comes to family,” she insists.

I’m more frustrated than ever; I guess this
is never going to change. This will be a battle for the rest of my
life, unless I want to completely cut ties with all of them. Sad to
say that there have been many days in my life that I have
considered that.

“Mom, stop!” I yell, and I start to cry. “I’m
your daughter. For once, can you be on my side? Think back to all
those times I came to you when they would do something mean to me.
Please try to put yourself in my shoes.” Mom doesn’t say anything.
Maybe she’s actually thinking about it, but I’m getting more and
more frustrated.

“Of course you don’t have anything to say,” I
say sadly.

I hang up on her because I’m not getting
anywhere, and I don’t want to say something I may regret later.
Well, that didn’t go well at all, but I don’t care. I made a vow to
myself last night that I wouldn’t let any of them bully me ever
again. I have to do something productive; this is not a positive
start to my day. I have a wedding in two weeks and no place to have
it. The most important thing is marrying Cole; I will worry about
everything else later. There is only one place I have to be
today.

When I get to Sheer Happiness Events, I can
see Sienna and Craig busily working through the window. I sent
Sienna a text that I would be coming by to discuss everything. She
seemed happy that I was coming in, so I’m praying that means that
things are looking up.

“There’s the blushing bride-to-be,” Craig
announces when he sees me. “Can I just tell you that I’m amazed at
how you are keeping yourself together with everything that’s
happened. I thought you were going to completely fall apart.”

I guess he doesn’t know anything about my
public verbal attack on Ellie because I’m pretty sure that could
count as falling apart.

“I appreciate your faith in me, Craig,” I say
with a smile. “I’m hoping you guys have good news for me?”

I notice Nicole look up from her desk. She
gives me a friendly wave. I don’t know her well, but Sienna says
she’s great.

“Craig, leave her alone,” Sienna says,
hitting him on the arm. “Madie, we do have good news for you. We
found a location that I think would be fantastic.” She runs into
her office and emerges with some pictures. She shows me a picture
of a beautiful beachside resort. It’s definitely not as elegant as
the Four Seasons but it’s very nice.

“What do you think?” she asks nervously.

“Wow, it’s really nice. I don’t think I’ve
ever seen this resort before.”

I start to look through the brochure. The
lobby is very tropical, with big palm trees and lots of hot pink
everywhere. It’s bordering on tacky—the only things missing are
plastic flamingos. On the other hand, the ballroom is amazing. It’s
bright and airy; part of it has a glass roof that reminds me of a
green house. The best part is the balcony extends out over the sand
and overlooks the ocean.

“What is this place?” I ask her. She gets an
excited look on her face.

“It was an old hotel that was abandoned. The
new owners just opened a few months ago after a massive renovation.
They’re only using it for events, so it will not be a hotel
anymore. I know the lobby is hideous, but it’s available the night
of your wedding. What do you think?”

I look through the pictures one more time.
“It’s perfect,” I exclaim. Sienna and Craig high-five each other,
and Nicole cheers from her desk.

“There is one tiny little issue,” she says as
she holds two fingers together. I don’t like the sound of that.
Usually when Sienna says that it’s really a bigger issue than she
is letting on. “They have no catering staff. So we will have to
find a caterer, but I have made a few calls so hopefully I will
hear something back.”

This is just great. There will be no food at
my wedding; my guests will starve. We will have to go to Costco and
get lunchmeat platters, and we will have to serve
pigs-in-a-blanket. Don’t get me wrong, I totally love
pigs-in-a-blanket, but I just didn’t want to serve them at my
wedding.

Oh well, we have no other option at this
point, so I tell Sienna to book the resort anyway. I call Cole to
tell him the half-good news, and he pretends to be upset about us
not eloping, but I can tell he doesn’t care either way. He tells me
as long as he marries me and we can start our life then he’s happy.
I’m instantly reminded of what really matters, just him and me
exchanging our vows.

“I miss you so much,” he whispers, his voice
getting deeper. “I will be home tomorrow night, and all I want to
do is hold you.”

My heart does a little flutter and I walk
outside to talk to him in private. I’m not the kiss-and-tell type
of person, and I don’t need the staff of Sheer Happiness Events
hearing my personal conversation.

“So, what can I do to help?” I ask when I
come back inside.

“You OK? You’re looking a little flushed,”
Craig says, giving me a wink. “It was getting a little hot in here.
Why did you walk outside? It was just about to get good.” I knew he
was listening.

“It was getting hot and it got hotter, so I
had to leave. Some things are private,” I say with a sultry tone.
As expected, Craig wants to know every detail.

“That’s no fair; we needed a good love scene
to lighten the mood around here.” Craig pouts as he stomps off. I
give a little chuckle, and I see Sienna smile.

I spend the rest of the afternoon at Sheer
Happiness. Sienna divided the guest list between Craig and Nicole.
I thought they were going to have to call all two hundred people,
but they’re designing little note cards with “Change of Venue” on
them. She also found a caterer to do the food, but unfortunately,
it will be a more casual buffet style, not quite the four-course
dinner as planned. Grandmother is going to pass out when she hears
of these changes. Well, that’s if she hasn’t disowned me after my
fight with Ellie. She may completely boycott my wedding now, and
considering my conversation with my mother, she may not be there
either.

“So, I guess Vegas is out?” Sienna says after
Craig and Nicole have left for the night. With everything that has
happened, I totally forgot about Vegas. I guess this was one way to
get out of it.

“Um, yeah, I would say so. Oh well, even
though it would have been fun to be in Vegas, I’m wasn’t looking
forward to an entire weekend with the evil stepsisters.”

I can tell that Sienna is disappointed; she
was really looking forward to the royal treatment at the
Bellagio.

“I’m sorry,” I say as I put my arm around
her. “I know you’re bummed, but we will do a trip some other time.
With everything going on I couldn’t leave town now anyway.”

I don’t want to admit it to Sienna, but I’m
disappointed too, not about the Vegas trip but about not having one
last weekend with her and Abby. She must have been reading my mind
though because she suggests we at least do a spa day, which was
part of our original plan anyway.

“I know it’s not Vegas, but it will be fun,
and because we won’t be roommates any more after next week . . .”
she trails off and looks away. “Anyway, I will get it scheduled,”
she adds, clearing her throat.

And there it is, that weird awkwardness that
has never happened with us until recently. We haven’t really
discussed moving or the house; it’s been the elephant in the room
for sure, and I still feel horribly guilty even though I know I
haven’t done anything wrong.