One-Off

by Lynn Galli

  “Can we talk about her dress?” Denver was craning her neck to watch the couple. “I mean, who does that? Any shade of white or ivory is a complete no-no at weddings. What was she thinking?”

  We cracked up at her vehemence. It never failed that some guest would wear one of those colors and not think anything of it. Of course, I was certain Rochelle did it on purpose. I’d only spent thirty minutes in her presence and knew she wasn’t good with someone else getting all the attention.

  Our car came to a stop in front of the parking garage elevators. Ross and Logan opened the doors before the driver could and helped the rest of us out. The car pulled ahead to park as I punched the button for the elevators. We’d all planned to go in together, but I needed to make sure the situation out front was in hand.

  “In a hurry?” Ainsley asked.

  “Just want to take care of something.”

  “Need help?”

  I glanced at her as the doors opened. “Might be a good idea if there were two of us to convince them.” I got Denver’s attention. “Tell Dallas and Colin to stay away from the windows until I come back inside.”

  “Will do.”

  Ainsley stepped into the elevator next to me. We rode it up to the ground floor and exited. Gary was waiting and looked surprised when just Ainsley and I exited.

  “Two photographers outside,” I told him. “We need you to pretend to be Conrad’s wedding planner.”

  We made our way outside where the fake couple were posing for photographs from Isaac who’d gotten out of the car with them. Gary went into wedding planner mode and started positioning them around the courtyard. Ainsley hung back as I bummed a cigarette from another guest and sauntered over to the edge of the sidewalk a few feet away from the photographers. They were looking at their cells, no longer snapping pictures.

  “You have a light?” I asked one of them. I detested smoking, but I’d fake it if it would help.

  “Nope,” one of them said without looking up. The other did a double take when he spotted my dress and assumed I was part of the wedding party. His eyes raked over me as he shrugged and said, “I can get you one.”

  “It’s all right. I’m supposed to quit anyway.” I flicked the unlit cigarette into the trashcan that they were using as a stand for their camera equipment. “Jeez, did Dad hire three photographers for this thing? It’s his fourth wedding, you’d think he wouldn’t need to capture so much of it for all eternity.” I let all the bitterness I usually felt about weddings creep into my tone.

  The photographer frowned and glanced over at Gary telling the couple where to stand. “Your dad?”

  “Yeah, that’s him.” I waved in their direction.

  “We thought this was the wedding reception for Dallas Knight and Colin Pruitt.”

  “Why do I know those names?” I glanced up in thought. “Oh, sure, a news show, right? Yeah, I’ve seen it.” I looked at the museum’s entrance and back at them. “You sure you have the right date? We have the place for the night. Dad worked for a paper before he retired. He loves news. We lucked out when someone dropped this booking a week ago. We were going to be stuck at a hotel ballroom if we hadn’t been first on the waitlist here. Not even the grand ballroom, either. Stepmommy was furious about it, but then this place opened up.”

  “Shit,” said the guy who hadn’t bothered to look up from his phone. He nudged the other guy’s shoulder. “This isn’t it.”

  “Must have canceled and used a different place,” the other guy added.

  “Darling,” Ainsley’s voice called out to me as she approached. “The wedding planner is saying that it’s time to go in.”

  “Sure.” I gave her my most accommodating smile. “Tell me we get to eat before more photos? If Stepmommy doesn’t get dinner soon, she’ll probably start eating some of the guests.”

  “Darling, be nice,” Ainsley said through laughter. “Your dad loves her.”

  “He loved the other three, too.” I reached out without thinking and grabbed her hand, holding it in mine. Couples would hold hands, and we needed to sell that. I didn’t need to hold her hand. I needed to sell that I wanted to hold her hand. “You know that news show I watch sometimes with that Dallas what’s-her-name? These guys say she’s getting married today, too. They thought this was the place.”

  Both photographers looked over this time. Ainsley’s eyes looked up from our joined hands. “Really? Guess you’ve lost your chance with her. Looks like you’re stuck with me.” She raised my hand and kissed the back before looking at the photographers. “They’re probably at that other museum we looked at. What was it called?”

  “Sure, yeah, the National Building Museum. They do a lot of receptions there.”

  The quieter of the two slapped the arm of the other photographer and pointed to the street where they’d parked. “They’re right. That place would be big enough.”

  “Good luck,” I called after their retreating forms. My hand tugged hers to get us moving toward the pretend newlyweds. As we walked back toward the building’s entrance, I thought about her cool palm and long fingers folded in mine only once or ten times. Her kiss to the back of my hand, the one that hadn’t needed to be so convincing, pretty much overtook the rest of my thoughts.

  “Did you get rid of them?” Gary asked as we approached.

  “They’re headed on a museum chase. They might circle back around, but I think I was convincing.”

  “She was pure dead brilliant,” Ainsley complimented.

  I stared at her and felt my stomach flutter when a faint blush hit her cheeks. “Let’s go in. Try not to look back or they might get suspicious.”

  We headed inside, hands still linked. It felt good to hold someone’s hand again. It had been a couple of years since my last real relationship. I’d forgotten how nice simply holding someone’s hand could feel.

  “You two sure are playing it up,” Rochelle said snidely, her eyes glued to our joined hands.

  I released Ainsley’s hand as if it burned me. As much as I wanted to snark back that she’d worn nearly white to steal some thunder and had no problem acting like the wedding couple for all to see, she was sort of right. We hadn’t needed to act like a couple to pull it off. It made it more convincing, but we could have done it as members of the wedding party.

  Dallas and Colin met us inside with questions in their eyes. “Are we back in stealth mode?”

  “For a while, at least. Let’s hope whoever’s got their wedding reception at the National Building Museum tonight doesn’t surface out front until after midnight.”

  “You sent them on a wild goose chase?” Colin laughed.

  “It was Ainsley’s idea,” I said and smiled when her blush returned.

  Dallas hugged me again then leaned down and gave my cheek a loud smooch. “Uh-oh,” she said, swiping her thumb on my face.

  “Great, there’s lipstick there, isn’t there?”

  “It looks cute. The red matches your hair,” Dallas teased.

  I swiped at the spot on my cheek. Before I could reach into my clutch, Ainsley brought a tissue to my face and wiped away the remnants.

  “Jeez, how clueless am I?” Colin asked. “When did you change your hair color, Skye? I’ve been so preoccupied with the story and the wedding, I didn’t even notice.”

  “She’s a redhead, cuz, I told you that,” Ainsley said and immediately looked like she wanted to swallow her comment.

  “Damn, really? Well, it looks good.”

  “Is dinner being served soon, Gary?” I tried to deflect the conversation.

  “As soon as we’re seated. Let’s head in.”

  I rounded out the group, waiting for everyone to go before me. Gary would time the couple’s entrance, but it felt like I needed to give everyone a push from behind. I also wanted to put some distance between me and Ainsley, who had morphed into a completely different person tonight. Or maybe I’d done the morphing. Someone had because I’d never had even an inkling of feelings toward her other than
annoyance. Tonight, I’d liked holding her hand and having her kiss it. I wasn’t too crazy about the idea that I might like her lips elsewhere.

  Thirty-Three

  During dinner I was under the illusion that I’d be able to relax and eat. Instead I found myself playing whatever the soccer position was that helped the goalie defend shots from getting through. People would make their way up to the head table to talk to Dallas and Colin, which kept them from eating. Dallas had tried to take a bite of her salad four times while one couple was talking to them before I started closing down conversations. Speeches were coming soon or the next course couldn’t be served until this one was cleared or get the hell out of their faces so they can eat some of the food they paid sixty grand for. How clueless could people be? Either way, I was becoming so good at the defender position I considered trying out for a soccer team.

  After the first course, I’d solicited the help of everyone else at the table to keep people from bothering the couple so they could eat. I wasn’t worried about Colin, but Dallas had been like me, picking at brunch then nothing but champagne for the rest of the day. The lack of food and drink along with too much sun during the photo shoot was starting to make me feel lightheaded.

  “Skye,” Gary interrupted the forkful of risotto I was about to take. He tipped his head and turned to walk toward the hallway where the caterers were surfacing.

  I sighed, dropped my fork, and got up from the table. We walked and walked and walked, all the way to the kitchen. Fleeting thoughts of my appetizer getting cold taunted me with every step.

  Finally, Gary stopped and faced me with a grave expression. “The cake isn’t here.”

  “Was someone here to show her into the location?”

  “Mia was onsite,” he said, which didn’t answer my question.

  I held up a finger and hiked all the way back to the table for my phone. The cake designer answered on the first ring.

  “Finally,” she breathed. “No one was at the delivery entrance. We’ve been driving around trying to figure out if we should just walk through the front door.”

  “I’m sorry for the confusion. They’re a little shorthanded.” My eyes went to Gary to make sure he understood that his staff issues were his problem, not ours. “Take a left onto 6th off Pennsylvania and pull into the parking garage. Someone will meet you.”

  “We’ll have to find a rolling table so we can make a grand entrance rather than what we’d planned.” Gary was scanning the kitchen, not acknowledging the fact that his staff had screwed up.

  “I’m sure you’ve faced tougher challenges.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm.

  “Setbacks happen,” he said carefully.

  “I understand that, but maybe next time, you have a backup for your backup minion.”

  His lips twitched into a barely there grin. “You’re right. I apologize.”

  “Let’s make the best of it, but I’ll expect a revised invoice.” Or maybe I should just ask for his second minion’s salary for the day.

  “You’ll have it.”

  I could have gone back to the table to eat some of that appetizer, but I wanted to make sure the cake designer knew she’d done nothing wrong. I rode in the elevator with Gary and the pilfered rolling table. We had to wait ten minutes before the delivery van showed up. The designer hopped out breathless and full of apologies.

  “I tried calling, but no one answered. I was seconds away from walking through the front door with the rest of the guests.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re here now.” I rolled the table to the back of her van. She and the guy who rode with her lifted the tiered cake and carefully transferred it to the rolling cart. They did the same with the groom’s cake. Five pastry boxes were added to the shelf below. The scones. If I didn’t manage to eat anything today, I’d make sure I got one of those.

  “We’ll take it from here.” Gary took over her stance behind the cart. He smoothed out the invisible wrinkles in the table linen, made sure the cakes looked centered, and started pushing.

  “It looks like a masterpiece. Just what we wanted.” I shook their hands and got back onto the elevator.

  “Should we wait until the entrée is cleared?” Gary didn’t give me a chance to respond as the elevator doors opened onto the reception floor. “That way it won’t look like the cake arrived late. Yes, we’ll wait. I’ll just get someone to guard this cake from any wandering fingers.”

  “Crisis over?” I deadpanned, but he was too involved in planning out the cake’s entrance to appreciate my wit.

  “Anything wrong?” Dallas asked once I made it back to the table.

  “Nope,” I assured her because that was my job as MOH. I looked down to my plate. A steak sat in front of me now instead of the risotto I’d left. “What happened to the app?”

  “You were gone for a while. Want me to ask for it back?”

  “This is fine.” I looked over and she’d already made it halfway through her entrée. Cutting a piece of the steak, I was about to lift the fork when another couple came up to talk to Dallas. I put the fork down and went back into defender mode.

  Fifteen minutes later and eight blocked couples, I watched wistfully as my uneaten entrée was cleared from the table. Gary clinked a champagne glass and wheeled in the tiered cake. Dallas and Colin made their way over to cut the cake. After a big show of feeding each other cake, lots of pictures taken, the caterers came back out to finish partitioning the cake for the rest of the guests. I waited in my seat for everyone else to get a piece first, not having the energy to stand in line.

  “The food was yummy,” Denver commented. “Normally wedding food isn’t all that great, but they nailed it here. Did you pick the place?”

  “Gary had a few suggestions and we sampled each.”

  “As much as I wanted to be Dallas’s MOH, she made the right choice with you. I couldn’t have left to fill in for her when she left the country. You did good.”

  I nodded and smiled, keeping the comment I really wanted to make to myself. Her unwillingness to pitch in and help was precisely why Dallas hadn’t chosen her.

  After a short bathroom break, I was just about to take my place in the now dwindling cake line when the band’s lead singer made the announcement that it was time for the first dance. Hurrying back up to my seat at the head table, I wanted to be in place to watch with the rest of the crowd. Pictures were going to be taken. It wouldn’t look right to have a missing person from the head table. The cake would have to wait.

  Dallas and Colin moved to the dance floor and began a slow waltz to the song of their choice. I hid my smile knowing how long it took for them to agree on a wedding song. They’d compromised by going with something they both liked and saving their two suggestions for the dances with their parents after. Looking at them, it was hard to deny what a nice looking couple they made. It didn’t make me change my mind about weddings or marriage, but they were a beautiful couple for however long they stayed together.

  On the next song, Dallas danced with her father and Colin with Elspeth. Rochelle seemed to be on a low simmer that she hadn’t been asked to dance with her stepson. My eyes got a little misty watching Elspeth talk to her nephew and beam with pride. I could guess she was telling him all about how proud her sister would have been on this day. One more song had Dallas dancing with Colin’s dad, and Colin with her mom. Soon everyone would be dancing, then there’d be the bouquet toss, and finally we could start shutting down.

  “And now we’ll have the wedding party join the happy couple on the dance floor,” the band singer announced.

  I jerked forward in my seat, fully alert and feeling my heart pound dangerously fast. I glanced frantically over to where Dallas was getting a hug from Conrad. Had she known about this? I was an executive producer for a reason. I stayed behind the cameras, out of the spotlight, away from any and all eyes. Now she was thinking I’d waltz on a dance floor in front of hundreds of people? No possible way.

  Savannah shrieked wit
h joy as she leapt from her seat and raced over to Logan. That’s when I realized I wouldn’t just be dancing in front of three hundred people. I’d be dancing with Ainsley Baird in front of three hundred people. It was mostly the Ainsley Baird part that gave me pause. We’d barely touched in the year that we’d shared an apartment together. We’d barely touched in the nearly four weeks we’d spent nonstop together. And the one time we’d held hands to fake people out, I’d gone a little nuts and not wanted to let go. This wasn’t good.

  Dallas gave me an expectant stare because I was still sitting down. I shook my head and clenched my jaw. She matched my expression and I realized I’d never win. I looked over. Could I get to Ross first? Denver probably wouldn’t mind dancing with Ainsley. She might feel a little awkward at first, but she liked the spotlight. Two women dancing together among three mixed couples would definitely draw the attention she seemed to like.

  I pushed back from my chair and stood, turning to face the other end of the table to find Ross. The search came to a screeching halt when my eyes landed on Ainsley. And all that skin. She’d taken off her jacket and now the halter top of her jumpsuit was all that kept everyone from seeing every inch of her torso. Skimpy but not distasteful and nowhere near conservative, it reached partway up her ribcage before becoming two tantalizing strips of black material that covered her breasts and wrapped around her neck. Yards of creamy skin and barely-there freckles stretched over shapely arms and onto her sternum. My traitorous mind filled with visions of licking every one of her fabulous marks.

  The vision was broken by Ross reaching down to help Denver up from her chair and lead her to the dance floor. My stomach started churning and the nerves flared making me dizzy again. I grabbed the back of the chair for some stability.

  “Shall we?” Ainsley asked from two feet away, her hand extended. She didn’t seem as put out by this as I felt. Normally she’d be the one protesting, but she seemed willing to play along with anything in order to make her cousin’s day perfect. I had been trying to follow that lead, but an alleyes-on-me dance? Why wasn’t she freaking out about this?