by Mia Brown
“A drink for the lady,” Houston said as he sat down.
His words were normal, but there was something very different about Houston that night that I couldn’t figure out. He was acting strangely towards me. Every now and then I would catch him frowning at me, and I wondered if he just thought I looked ridiculous in the dress.
I couldn’t blame him. I felt ridiculous, that was for sure. But I was far too concerned about simply getting through the night and avoiding Lara as much as possible to worry about what was going through Houston’s mind. Also, it wasn’t like I wanted to ask him. I didn’t need to hear him tell me how stupid I looked. It was one thing knowing that I looked like I didn’t belong, but to hear it from someone like him wouldn’t do me good. Houston, on the other hand, looked like he wore suits all the time. He looked incredible, and a lot more handsome than I had ever seen him look. Maybe it was just me that didn’t feel right in clothes like this. I was the odd one out from the rest of the world.
“Thank you for the champagne,” I said to him.
“My pleasure. We need it. I can’t have us running dry.”
I chuckled. “That would be a disaster. So, what did you think of the ceremony?”
He closed his eyes and pretended to snore. “Boring,” he said.
I chuckled. “Yeah, what a snoozefest. It honestly felt like it was going to go on forever.”
“Tell me about it. I almost stood up and told them to hurry up. I mean, don’t they realize that we have important things to do tonight, like drink champagne? Hey, that would’ve made it better…handing champagne out to the guests.”
“You’re right. Why don’t they do that at weddings?”
“Clearly we know a lot more about these sorts of things,” he said. “I also spent most of my time waiting for Lara to turn into her monster form, but so far I haven’t seen anything other than a bore.”
I laughed and reflexively punched him in the arm, which got a laugh out of him, but one of the guests nearby gave us the stink eye. Clearly, they didn’t want us having any fun. What a pity we were at such a boring table. It would’ve been nice if the whole table of us were here to have some fun. I took another sip of my champagne and sighed. The quicker we got through this, the quicker we could go home, I reminded myself.
Just then I noticed a strange look appear on Houston’s face. He turned to me quickly.
“Uh-oh. Stay calm,” he said to me.
I frowned, wondering what he was talking about, then turned and saw Lara. She was mingling with the guests, but it was clear she was headed straight toward us. Unfortunately, Rick was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if I had enough time to make a dash for it, but as I turned around again, she was suddenly right at our table and there was nowhere to hide. I supposed I couldn’t hide from her forever. She came up to me with a silly little smile on her face that immediately put me in a bad mood.
“Uh, congratulations,” I said. “Welcome to the family. Speaking of, where is my cousin?”
“Oh, Rick is just checking on something. He’ll be out soon. I thought I’d walk around and see my guests. I didn’t think you were coming.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said with a big smile on my face. I could hear the sarcasm oozing out of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop it. “Oh, and this is Houston. Houston, this is Lara.”
Lara eyed Houston and did a double take.
“You’re with Cassidy?” she asked.
He grinned. “I sure am. Pleased to meet you. Congratulations. Great family to marry into,” he said.
“Oh. Well, yes,” Lara said. It was nice to see her at a loss for words. She seemed to mentally shake herself off and regain her composure. “Well, I must say, I’m very surprised to see you here. I’ll be honest; I thought Cassidy was going to arrive alone. I didn’t think she’d land someone as hunky as you.”
I had never planned on lying about Houston. I was always going to tell people that he was just my friend. But I suddenly felt too angry and too irritated. Why couldn’t a guy like Houston be interested in a girl like me? What was so horribly wrong with me that I couldn’t land a guy like him?
“Houston and I are married,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “We, uh, we got married a few days before this. A quick wedding, just the two of us.”
Lara frowned as she took the information in. She kept looking at me and then looking back at Houston and shaking her head. Now that the lie was out of my mouth I didn’t know quite what to say. All it would take was for Houston to tell Lara that I was lying, and I wouldn’t blame him for doing so. But before he had a chance to say something, Lara was talking again.
“Okay, let me get this straight. The two of you are married? I know I’m now a married woman, but you are a very good-looking man, Houston. Why on earth would you settle for someone like Cassidy? No offense, Cassidy, but you’re more of a farm girl, you know. The two of you just seem very…different from each other. That’s all.”
“Excuse me? Did you just insult my new bride?” Houston asked, and I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face at his words. “You know, we weren’t even going to say anything about the marriage, because we didn’t want to ruin your big day. We figured you would want this day to be about you, so we kept our wedding quiet. But now you’re insulting the love of my life, and you’ve gone too far. I know that the two of you have some bad blood, but I was content just to let it slide. I thought I would just let it be considering this was your big wedding day. But you’ve taken it too far now. How dare you insult Cassidy like that? Who do you think you are?”
“Well…uh…” Lara fumbled. For the first time ever, I realized she was at a loss for words, and I felt glorious about it. Then she narrowed her eyes at us and pointed to our hands. “Why don’t the two of you have rings?”
I thought that our cover was blown, and I tried to think of what to say when Houston put his hand in mine and smiled. He seemed to be enjoying this far more than I thought he would, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he felt he needed to protect me or because he was simply just a little bit too drunk. Either way, I was grateful.
“It’s my fault,” Houston said. “The actual marriage was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It was so much fun. We ran off and got married, just the two of us, like you see in a movie. I’ve always wanted to do that. But we’re still going to get rings, and we’re still trying to decide on whether or not we want to do a ceremony or just have a small party. It’s not Cassidy’s style to waste time on frivolous things. We figured there was more that we could do with the money. That’s what I love about her.”
I gulped. I knew that nothing that he was saying was the truth, but I realized how nice it was to have someone talk to me in that way. Nobody had ever said such kind words about me before, and it felt good.
Lara seemed suspicious, and a strange look had suddenly crossed her face. Then she grinned, nodded, and gazed out at the crowd. I thought she was looking for Rick to tell him the news, but instead, she picked up a glass and banged a fork against it until everyone went quiet.
“Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that Cassidy and Houston here got married a few days ago. They were sweet enough not to say anything so that they didn’t overshadow my big day. But marriage is a big deal, and I wanted everyone to be aware of it. So, can we all take a moment to congratulate yet another happy couple? To Cassidy and Houston!” she yelled.
The crowd was silent at first as they took in the news. Then, someone let out a wolf whistle, and everyone began to clap in excitement. I sat there, shocked at what was happening. I remembered what I had said to Houston about never telling small lies because they always turned into big ones. Now here I was, the lie growing larger by the minute. I gulped. This was not at all what I had expected to happen. It was too late now, and there was no going back. Houston and I stood up and waved to the crowd, and I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks. How on earth was I going to get myself out of this one? I had thoroughly boxed mys
elf in with my own lie.
Eight
Houston
An hour had passed since the big lie, and people were still coming up to us and congratulating us on our marriage. I was so tipsy now, and the more people that came up to us, the more amused I was by the whole thing.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Cassidy whispered to me.
I chuckled. “I know. I did not expect the night to go this way. What did I tell you, Cassidy? I said that the wedding was going to be a memorable one, and isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t expect this to happen. I have no idea what to even think about this whole thing. Do you think Lara knew that we were making it up? I get the impression that was why she told everyone.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I get that impression, too. That is why I don’t think you should tell anyone that it was just a joke. She’ll never let you hear the end of it. Uh-oh, here comes someone else,” I said, and we both turned to give the person a smile.
“Congratulations, Cassidy. I saw you at the last wedding. I had no idea that you were in love.”
“Oh, it happened quite suddenly,” Cassidy said.
I took Cassidy’s hand, which was surprisingly small and soft, and stroked it with my thumb. It felt a lot better than it probably should have, and I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was just because we were pretending so much, or maybe it was just because I was drunk. Either way, I couldn’t deny how good it felt to touch her like that.
I pulled her toward me, and I was now close enough to smell her shampoo. The smell took me by surprise. It was incredibly fruity and girly, and not at all the sort of shampoo I’d have imagined her using. Of course, I had no idea what shampoo I thought she would wear. I never thought of her in that way before. The smell intoxicated me, and for a brief moment, I forgot where I was. Then the woman who was talking to us spoke again, and I jolted out of my reverie to smile at her.
When the woman left, Cassidy took her hand out of mine and frowned at me.
“What’s wrong?” I said to her.
“Why did you along with my lie? I mean, I didn’t plan for it so I couldn’t warn you about it. I was just so angry, and then it just sort of slipped out. But you didn’t have to go along with it.”
I smiled. “If I didn’t go along with it I would’ve exposed you to your greatest enemy. Anyway, I didn’t appreciate the things she was saying about you. What right does she have to say that? I’m not sure why she thinks that she is so above you, because she most definitely is not. I know that you can stick up for yourself, but I wanted to stick up for you too. Anyway, I happen to think the whole thing is pretty funny. At least the wedding is not boring anymore. And, anyway, what does it matter? It’s not like it’s the sort of lie that can really hurt anyone. We’re just having fun. You’ve got to admit that the wedding is a bit livelier now, don’t you?”
She chuckled. “Yeah, it is definitely livelier.”
I realized that I liked it whenever Cassidy smiled. She turned into a different person when she had a smile on her face. Hell, everything about Cassidy was different that night. For one, it was the first time I had ever seen her in a dress. I had known Cassidy for a very long time, and this was the first time I’d even considered her a member of the opposite sex.
It wasn’t that I ever thought she was unattractive. It was more a case of just never seeing her in that way before. She’d always just been one of the guys. Now she had morphed into something else, and I wasn’t sure why I had never seen it before. In fact, the combination of the dress and the alcohol made me realize just how attractive Cassidy really was. She was barely wearing any makeup too, so it wasn’t as if she was hiding underneath a layer. She was Cassidy. Beautiful Cassidy. Why had I never noticed that before?
The moment I had seen her in that dress, I had felt something strange welling up inside me. The desire to flirt with her had been strong, but I’d managed to hold it off. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable or for her to regret bringing me along to this thing. Before Lara had shown up, I had been trying to feign disinterest in her and had kept my compliments to a minimum. But now that we were pretending to be married and in love, it gave me the opportunity to flirt as much as I wanted to. I was pretty sure that I would regret some of these things in the morning, but the champagne had loosened my inhibitions.
“You know,” I said as I leaned in to whisper to her. “Lara is even more of a bitch than I anticipated.”
She chuckled. “Ah, you doubted me!” she said. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t doubt you, but I didn’t think that she would go as low as to insult you on her own wedding day. I thought she would try to keep things nice and civil. Surely that is what most people would do. Also, I thought she would be a bit more subtle with her insults to you, but she’s not subtle at all. She’s worse than I imagined her to be, which is saying something, because I was imagining her to be pretty bad. I feel sorry for poor Rick. Once Lara drops her sweet face she’s quite the monster.”
“She is,” Cassidy agreed. “Although, as much as I like Rick, he’s a bit of a wimp.”
I chuckled. “Really?”
“Yeah, he is a little. It’s probably a good thing that he ended up with a strong-willed woman. He needs someone to boss him around, otherwise he wouldn’t do anything. I guess I’m just upset that it had to be with Lara.” She made a face when she said Lara’s name and I laughed.
“The witch,” I corrected her.
Cassidy chuckled. “Is that her new nickname?”
I smiled. “Oh yeah. From here on out, I will be referring to her as the witch. Do you have any objections?”
She laughed. “Not at all. I approve this change.” She sighed, then turned to look at me. I was once again reminded of how green her eyes were, and I realized that they were the same color as her dress. I wondered if that was on purpose. “You know, as messed up as all of this is, I really appreciate you being here, Houston. I also appreciate you going along with the lie. It would’ve been so embarrassing if you hadn’t. I sometimes say things before I’ve had the chance to think them through. So thank you for just going along with it like that. Not many people would’ve done that.”
I grinned. “Well, you happened to catch me at a particularly tipsy moment.”
She giggled, and the sound was so strange coming from her that it took me by surprise. The contrast between the tough girl I had always known and this giggling woman before me was starting to make me confused. I body-tingled from the sensation, and I quickly reached for a glass of water. If there was one thing I hadn’t expected, it was to feel this way about Cassidy. It had taken me completely by surprise.
“I get the impression that this entire night would’ve been very different if we hadn’t had so much to drink,” she said. “For one thing, we wouldn’t have pretended to be married.”
“Well, thank goodness for the champagne, then,” I said. It was too late to take back what we had done, and I figured we might as well make the most of it. Cassidy had not been looking forward to this wedding, so at least now we could have some fun with the whole thing. I was having a great time. Personally, it was the best wedding I had been to so far.
She laughed. “I’m glad you’re not upset about it. I realized only after I said it how ridiculous it was for me to say that.”
“You know, Cassidy, you look really beautiful tonight. I’m not sure if I’ve told you that or not. If you’re here to show up the bride, then you’ve done a mighty good job of it.” I was surprised by how bold I was. Also, hearing Lara say such bad things to Cassidy made me want to be extra nice to her. I wasn’t lying, either; she really did look beautiful. I just wanted her to finally know it. I was slowly starting to get the impression that Cassidy was not as strong as she was making herself out to be.
She blushed. “Uh, thank you, but you don’t have to flirt with me now. There’s nobody around to hear us.”
“I’m not flirting,” I said, ev
en though it wasn’t entirely true. “You really look amazing.”
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Nicole made me wear this dress.”
“Where is Nicole, by the way?” I asked.
“Oh, she couldn’t make it. Her boyfriend got sick, and they decided not to come. It’s a long drive when you’re not feeling well.”
“Well, I’ll just have to tell her when I get back, then.”
“Tell her what?” Cassidy asked.
“What a good job she did in choosing this outfit for you. It suits you. Did she choose those overalls you were wearing yesterday too?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Impressive. She knows what looks good on you.”
“Houston, stop it, you’re embarrassing me,” Cassidy said, and I was pleased to see that I truly had embarrassed her. She was blushing and looking bashfully at her hands. Why was it such a turn-on? I couldn’t believe how much I liked seeing this side of her. The very idea that there was a whole new side to this girl I had known for so long was very intriguing. It made me wonder what else I was missing out on. I realized that I was having such a good time at the wedding that I no longer wanted it to end. I just hoped that Cassidy was having as good a time as I was. I was just about to ask her when I noticed a woman walking toward us, and Cassidy whispered that it was Rick’s mother.
“Hi, Aunt Lorna,” Cassidy said. “Uh, this is Houston. I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now.”
“Cassidy, you look absolutely beautiful tonight. You’re all grown up now, aren’t you? And Houston, my, what a handsome young man,” she said, and I got the distinct impression that she’d also been hitting the champagne just as hard as we were. She seemed unable to stand completely still, and she was grinning at us as if she had just won the lottery. “I had no idea that you were married.”
