Wedding Haters (Event to Remember Series-Book 2) (17 page)

I ask the girl at the counter if Bev is
available, and she disappears to the back. A few minutes later Bev
emerges with a box. It’s my box filled with the leftover
cookies.

“Hello, dear. I apologize for not returning
your calls; we’ve been extremely busy here.” She sits down and puts
the box on the table in front of me. I’m not really sure what to
say.

“Um, thanks . . .” I stutter. “You can just
keep the remainder.”

“That’s very kind of you, dear, but I just
don’t have any more room right now.” She turns and points her
finger at the shelves. I’m so confused because she hasn’t mentioned
anything about the message she left me. Is that the reason she
pulled my cookies off the shelf?

“Is everything OK? You left me a message
about receiving the information regarding the change of venue.
Sienna will be contacting you to make the arrangements for the
cupcake delivery,” I assure her.

OK, this is awkward, but I don’t know any
other way to bring up this subject. I really want to ask her if
she’s not featuring my cookies anymore because of this. I mean
really, what are the chances this would all happen at the same
time.

“About that, I was surprised that I wasn’t
contacted sooner. When I initially heard about it from a customer,
I didn’t believe it. Your wedding at the Four Seasons was the
inspiration for this feature.”

A customer? Who? And why would they tell
her?

“Tell me, is it true that Sheer Happiness
Events is crumbling?” she asks curiously.

Are you kidding me? What does she mean by
that?

“No . . . not at all, where did you hear
that?” I ask worriedly.

“Oh dear, the rumors are strong,” she says,
nodding her head. “Then those girls were in here talking about your
wedding getting canceled because Sheer Happiness didn’t meet their
deadlines. I’m afraid to send any more of my customers to
them.”

“Bev, really, I promise you that it wasn’t
their fault.” I scramble to fix this. I might as well ask her about
my cookies while I’m at it.

“I, um, hope that isn’t the reason you don’t
want my cookies.” Crap! I didn’t mean for that to come out like
that. Now I sound completely desperate.

“Not in the slightest,” she assures me. “We
can do another feature after the holidays; we will have more room
by then. Maybe a Valentine’s Day special?”

Valentine’s Day, really? She’s completely
skipping over Christmas; I was expecting that to be the busiest
holiday. I’ve clearly been blacklisted, and from a Beverly Hills
bakery. I guess it’s a good thing I still have my career doing
hair. It’s totally fine though because it’s not as if I was
planning on expanding my cookie business. After all, I was worried
about having too much on my plate.

“Uh, sure. I can definitely do that. Do you
want me to send you some samples?” I ask hopefully.

“Sure! We can talk about that again in
January.”

I’m not delusional. It’s pretty doubtful that
I will hear from this woman again.

She tells me that she will make arrangements
with Sienna for my wedding cupcakes and then gives me a quick hug
good-bye and rushes to help someone in her kitchen. She leaves me
sitting alone in the middle of her bakery with a box of unsold
cookies. It’s either my imagination or it sure seems like someone
is out to destroy my life.

After leaving Bev’s I go straight to our new
house to unload my car. On the way, I break my vow and scarf down
five cookies. I’ve got to stop this stress eating nonsense; I’ve
never done this in my life. As soon as I get there, I tell Cole all
about what happened at Bev’s.

“Babe, it’s her loss,” Cole says as he wraps
his arms around me; we are lying on our brand new sectional
couch.

“Doesn’t it seem like a lot of things are
going wrong? Or am I overreacting?” I ask. I can tell he is
considering it, but he quickly disputes it.

“I can see why you would think that, but it’s
just a big coincidence,” he says as he starts playing with my hair.
“Bev would be crazy to pull the cookies just because the location
of our wedding changed. She’s the one who will miss out.” He starts
kissing me softly, and it quickly becomes more passionate. We’re
half undressed when there is knock at the door. It comes as no
surprise that it’s Susan. And I thought my day couldn’t get any
worse. Cole throws a pillow across the room and stomps off to the
door. I fix myself up, which is ridiculous because we will be
married in a few days anyway.

“Mom, you need to call before you come,” I
hear Cole say angrily when he answers the door.

“I’m sorry, honey. I just wanted to bring
these gifts over; they were delivered to our house today.” She
walks right in puts the boxes on the table. “Hi, honey.” She gives
me a warm hug. “Madison, I also brought you some fresh lemons from
my lemon tree. They would be divine in a cookie.” I thank her, but
after tonight, I don’t want to think about cookies for a while. I’m
starting to wonder if I should just take a break for a while. I can
use my free time to travel with Cole and decorate my new house.

The three of us stand there awkwardly, and
then Susan realizes that she interrupted us. “Oh, I’m dreadfully
sorry. I promise from now on I’ll call.” She hurries to the door,
but I stop her.

“Susan, no, it’s fine. Thank you for the
lemons. Would you like some coffee?” I ask her, walking to the
kitchen. Cole gives me a frustrated look and shakes his head behind
his mother’s back.

“Sure. But I’ll only stay for a few minutes,”
she assures us. Cole falls dramatically back onto the couch. Oh
well, her coming over kind of ruined the mood anyway. It’s not as
if we could just pick up where we left off right after she walks
out the door. That would be kind of disgusting.

“Tell me, is everything set for this
weekend?” She sips her coffee.

“I hope so,” I say with a sigh. Truthfully,
nothing would surprise me after everything that’s happened the past
few weeks.

“I promise there’s no need to worry a bit
about the rehearsal because it will be perfect,” she says
excitedly. With everything happening, I had completely forgotten
about the rehearsal dinner. Susan really wanted to be in charge of
that, so we gave her full reign, and I think Sienna was especially
grateful for that. Susan’s events are always excellent, so I have
no worries that it will go off without a hitch. It’s going to be a
quaint gathering with just the bridal party and family, and
considering everything that has gone on with my cousins, I’m not
sure they will be there. I tell Susan all about the conversation I
had with them.

“Good for you, honey. That talk was a long
time coming. I admit I’m surprised you asked them not to be in the
wedding, but all things considered, I think that’s for the best.”
Before I know it, Susan stays for over an hour. Poor Cole turned on
the TV a while ago. I totally knew better; when Susan says a few
minutes, what she really means is a few hours. I whisper to Cole
that I’m sorry.

When she finally leaves, Cole pretends to be
asleep.

“You can stop your pretend sleeping,” I say,
hitting him in the stomach. He curls into a ball. “You know you
could have joined in on our conversation.” I sit down on the
couch.

“Do you think that she’s going to stop by
unexpected all the time?” he asks worriedly. “Because that’s really
going to mess up my plans for you and me.” He gives me a wicked
smile and leans in to kiss me on the neck.

I try to continue reprimanding him but
completely lose my train of thought. What were we talking about
again? Oh well, it really doesn’t matter.

~ * ~

When I get back to my apartment, I look
around at the disaster that’s all mine. There are some things that
I realize I’m not good at, and packing is one of them. I finally
gave in and hired movers for the remainder of my stuff. Why I
waited this long, I have no idea. Sienna picked up the keys to her
new apartment the other day and started moving her stuff. Ace is
there helping her, and I notice something different about them.
They seem more affectionate than I have ever seen them before, and
Sienna seems to finally be letting her guard down. I’m dying to ask
her about it and get the latest. She’s in her room when I ask Ace
how things are going.

“They are progressing, slowly.” He gives me a
smile. “Of course that incident with that bloke Jeff wasn’t
ideal.”

I cringe because I totally feel responsible
for all of that. It was my idea in the beginning to introduce Jeff
and Sienna. Even though they didn’t end up together, it’s still my
fault that they even dated in the first place.

“I know. I’m sorry about that. You know
Sienna doesn’t drink, so that was part of the problem. She says you
were really understanding about that whole thing.” He flashes me
one of his million-dollar smiles.

“Things happen, you know, and I don’t feel
threatened by Jeff at all.”

Well, of course not. Don’t get me wrong, Jeff
is good-looking in a guy-next-door kind of way, but he’s no Ace
Eckelund. What is it that Cole calls him? The abs and the accent .
. . or is it the accent and the abs? Either way there is absolutely
no reason for Ace to feel threatened by Jeff. Sienna has clearly
made her choice despite her recent encounter.

“OK, you two, stop talking about me.” Sienna
returns from her room. We both jump three feet in the air.

“We weren’t talking about
you
; we were
talking about . . . my honeymoon. Ace was telling me about a few
must-sees in Hawaii.” I’m proud of my quick comeback, and it’s
totally legit because I’ve talked to Ace about this before.

“Sure you were.”

“Hawaii is fantastic,” Ace chimes in. “I
haven’t been in a few years, but it’s one of my favorites and one
of those places that you can visit over and over. I can’t wait to
return. Would you like to go with me?” he asks Sienna.

Oh. My. Gosh. Ace just asked Sienna to go on
vacation with him. I look at her face, and I can see the
excitement. This is one of those moments when you know that you are
in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I quietly sneak to my room
and let them have this moment alone. Of course, I lean my ear to
the door to listen, but I can’t hear a word. Speaking of my
honeymoon, I haven’t even started packing. So instead of packing to
move like I should be doing, I open my suitcase and start packing
for my honeymoon. I have to admit this is a lot more fun!

On Friday morning, I have a few clients,
including Mrs. Wilson. Of course, she wants to know all about the
changes with the wedding, and she reminded me how disappointed
Grandmother was initially. I guess Grandmother called her in a
tizzy after she found out. Speaking of Grandmother, I’ve only
spoken to her once since our talk, and she called only to tell me I
would need to make sure she was seated on the correct side of the
room during the ceremony. Apparently, this is a very important
factor—that the bride’s and groom’s families sit in the right
places. I guess it’s bad luck or something? Actually, I don’t
really know if it’s bad luck, but she sure made it sound like it
would be the end of the world if it’s not done this way.

In between clients, I get a phone call from
Ellie. I’m fully expecting her to tell me that they won’t be
attending the rehearsal or the wedding after all.

“Hello, Madie, it’s Ellie,” she says formally
when I answer.

“Hi, Ellie, how are you?”

“I’m fine. I just want to verify that Steph
and I are still allowed to bring dates to the wedding. You know,
with all of the changes, we didn’t discuss this part. Both of us
had already had dates prior to your um, changes . . . so if we
can’t, we need to cancel on our dates.”

I had told them from the beginning that they
were welcome to bring dates, but I guess I didn’t think they would.
Stephy is always dating someone or a few different someones but
never anything serious. Ellie has always seemed to be more
monogamous, and I had no idea that she was seeing someone or had
invited someone to the wedding.

“Of course, it’s still fine!” I exclaim. “I
didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“Yes, we just started recently. He’s really
great though,” she adds with a different tone in her voice. She
started out very cold, but as soon as she started talking about
this man, her tone completely changed.

Good for Ellie, maybe if she gets serious
with someone she won’t be so bitchy all the time. Not that having a
man is the answer to everything because it definitely isn’t, but
it’s nice to have someone special in your life. I don’t think
either of them have ever had a good serious relationship, but then
again, I really don’t know much about their lives. It’s not like
I’ve ever been included before. There’s no doubt that my cousins
have daddy issues and with good reason. My mom always told me that
their dad would randomly come in and out of their lives, and half
the time they never knew where he was. It was really sad.

“That’s great. I’m happy for you,” I say
kindly. “Are you planning on coming to the rehearsal dinner
tonight?”

“Yes. Grandmother requested that we be there
with her.”

Her response doesn’t surprise me. She makes
it clear that the only reason they are attending is because
Grandmother asked them to. I’m not delusional enough to believe
that they really
want
to be there tonight but that’s ok. I’m
hopeful that both tonight and tomorrow will be as uneventful as
possible because I’ve had more than enough unexpected surprises
that will last me a lifetime.

I rush home from work to get ready for the
dinner. “Help! Wardrobe malfunction!” I yell. Sienna, Abby, and I
are getting ready for the rehearsal. One of my straps just broke on
my dress. Luckily, Sienna comes to my rescue with her Mary Poppins
bag of tricks. She’s so good at this; I still can’t believe that
people are questioning her work. There’s no way I’m going to tell
her what people are saying. I’m still not convinced the rumors are
real; maybe Bev just misunderstood. Or maybe she was just looking
for a reason to pull my cookies from her shelves. Admittedly, that
would break my heart a little.