Ghosted: Wicked Wedding Planners Series

by Alyssa Parsons

  March 20th

  The truth hurts. I have been pushing things away and not dealing with them. If I don’t meet up with Caspar and hear his side of the story, I will end up regretting it. Leanna is probably right. There must be some grain of truth in what she said over brunch today.

  Maybe my relationships following the break up with Caspar have always failed because I have never truly got over him. If I am really honest with myself, I think I did always feel that I could never have the same connection with anyone else. It’s time to face up to the truth.

  I put my pen down. Decision made. I am going to text Caspar and arrange to meet up with him. I get his card out of my purse and type his number into my phone.

  Hi Caspar.

  It’s Sammi.

  I would like to meet up with you so we can talk.

  Lunchtime would be good.

  My heart starts thumping loudly in my chest as my fingers hover over my phone screen. I hesitate for a couple of minutes and then hit send. Oh God, I’ve done it. My heart continues pounding for a while. I keep checking my phone for a reply but none has come through yet. Great, now I am not going to be able to relax for the rest of the day as I will be constantly checking my phone.

  I need to distract myself. I decide to start a new series on Netflix. I heard it’s really good so I snuggle in to my bed and begin watching it. The show is good but during the first episode I keep checking my phone. Eventually though, I begin to get gripped by the storyline and I am completely immersed in the characters and the drama. I jump when my phone suddenly pings a little while later.

  I look over and see there is a text from Caspar. I am half scared to read what it says.

  Hey Sammi,

  Great to hear from you.

  Lunch sounds good.

  Only thing is I have to go away

  with work next week.

  I’ll message you when I am back

  and we can arrange a time.

  Cx

  Typical, I think. Now that I am ready to face him, he is unavailable for a whole week. I decide not to reply straight away as I don’t want to look desperate.

  I get back to my series and spend the rest of the day eating junk food in bed. This is a great way to avoid your problems. Finally at around 9 pm, I decide to reply back to Caspar’s text. If I don’t answer soon, it will look like I am sulking and that would make him think I care.

  Sure, no probs.

  I decide to keep it my reply simple and show him that I can go with the flow. Yes sure Caspar, of course I am happy to wait a week because I am completely indifferent to this situation.

  Chapter 11

  M onday morning and before I know it, I am back in the office in front of my laptop. Honey’s wedding dress is coming along quicker than we thought and she should be able to go for her first fitting at the end of this week. I call her up to tell her the good news.

  ‘That is fantastic news,’ Honey says ecstatically down the phone. ‘Everything is running so smoothly. I really don’t know why people make such a fuss about planning a wedding.’

  Probably because you aren’t doing anything and just living happily in your little pineapple bubble, I think to myself.

  ‘Well, that’s what happens when we plan and prepare everything,’ I tell her. ‘Talking about preparations, I need to talk to you about the cake.’

  ‘Yes the cake, I have been keeping in touch with Thom to help him with the decorations.’

  ‘Yes, he has filled me in. The only thing is Honey…..he needs to stick to one idea so that he can get on with making the cake. He doesn’t work well if you keep changing your mind every minute.’

  ‘I’m only trying to help.’

  ‘I know you are and it’s great that you have so many creative ideas. That’s why Thom has been able to come up with such a great cake design,’ I decide to stroke Honey’s ego as that is the best way to get her on side.

  ‘Do you think?’

  ‘Totally, but trust me, you can leave things to him now. He is a genius.’

  I finish my conversation with Honey just as Nic comes by my office.

  ‘Hi hun, did you have a nice day off yesterday?’ she asks.

  ‘Yeah not too bad,’ I recount my day, ‘I had brunch with Leanna and then completely lazed in bed for the rest of the day watching boxsets. ‘It was lush. I highly recommend it.’

  Nic is not the type of person who easily relaxes. She is always on the go and I think the thought of sitting around not doing anything would stress her out way too much.

  ‘Mmmm maybe,’ she says unconvincingly. ‘I just popped in to let you know I am going out for a bit to run some errands.’

  ‘Yeah sure.’

  ‘If my new couple comes in before I am back, could you please go through their questionnaire?’ she asks.

  ‘Yes that’s fine.’

  ‘Cool, I’ll let Jodie know then,’ Nic waves goodbye and disappears down the hallway.

  I am still feeling on edge about seeing Caspar again. The fact that we haven’t got a date set to meet up is frustrating. Once again he has control of the situation. This seems to be the pattern in our relationship.

  My thoughts are interrupted by my mobile phone ringing. I look down and see its Nic ringing.

  ‘Hi Nic, you alright?’

  ‘Sammi, you are not going to believe this,’ Nic is shout-whispering down the phone.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘It’s Timothy.’

  ‘What about him?’ I am a bit confused to why Nic has suddenly taken an interest in him especially considering he is no longer a client of ours.

  ‘He’s in Berties’s café,’ Nic sounds overexcited.

  ‘Yes okay but why are you ringing to tell me his?’ I sometimes struggle to work out Nic’s logic.

  ‘Because, he is with another woman,’ she practically hisses down the phone.

  ‘A woman, as in a girlfriend?’ I ask even though I find it hardly likely that dreary boring old Timothy is seeing another woman so soon.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you sure? I mean knowing him it’s probably his sister,’ I try to make light of the situation.

  ‘It’s definitely not his sister,’ Nic is adamant. ‘Come out and meet me, I’m in Boot’s.’

  ‘Really?’ I moan. I‘ve got tons of admin to do. Just looking at my ever growing to-do list is stressing me out.

  ‘You need to get here ASAP,’ Nic says in a very commanding tone.

  ‘Fine, I’ll see you in a minute,’ I hang up and grab my handbag.

  A few minutes later, I am walking into Boot’s pharmacy and start looking for Nic.

  ‘Psss Sammi.’

  I turn around and see Nic standing by a face mask display near the front window. Boot’s is strategically placed opposite Bertie’s café which means Nic has found a great spying point. I pretend to show interest in the face masks so that we don’t look too obvious.

  ‘Where is he?’ I ask Nic as I try to scan the café opposite for Timothy and this mystery lady.

  ‘In the corner, to the right,’ Nic points over to their direction.

  I look over to where she is pointing and I see Timothy sitting there with a small blonde haired woman. They are canoodling. I never thought I would ever use this word but canoodling seems to fit this situation perfectly. I am shocked and I don’t know what to say.

  ‘I told you,’ Nic seems triumphant that she was right.

  ‘What a douchebag,’ I am absolutely fuming. ‘How does he think he can just move on so quickly after what he did to Jasmine?’

  ‘I know, he is an absolute pillock.’

  ‘Hang on,’ I suddenly think. ‘You don’t think he was seeing this woman while he was still engaged to Jasmine? I mean why did he suddenly call off the wedding so quickly? I bet he was having an affair.’

  ‘Of course, that makes total sense,’ Nic agrees.

  ‘I can’t believe he thinks he can carry on like this while poor Jasmine is absolutely d
evastated.’ I am absolutely furious on behalf of Jasmine and I don’t want him to get away with this.

  ‘Well he certainly thinks he got away with this,’ Nic grimaces as Timothy leans in for a very sloppy kiss with the blonde.

  ‘Ugh, that’s so gross. He is such a sloppy kisser,’ I say in disgust. ‘Right I’ve had enough of this. I’m going in there to tell him exactly what I think.’

  ‘No, we have to keep our cool and play him at his own game,’ Nic has suddenly become the voice of reason.

  ‘What have you got in mind then?’ I like Nic’s sudden thirst for revenge.

  ‘We need to outplay the little rat,’ Nic starts to smile deviously. I can see that a plan is taking place in her mind.

  ‘Okay but how?’ I am intrigued to see what she has planned.

  ‘So Timothy likes to play sneaky so we will be sneaky back.’

  ‘I like the sound of that.’

  ‘Timothy only broke the wedding off the other week and he’s only told you, right?’

  ‘Yeah that’s right.’

  ‘So it would be unlikely that I would know that the wedding is off?’

  ‘Maybe,’ I don’t see where Nic is going with this.

  ‘Don’t you remember, I was the first person to meet with Timothy and Jasmine when they first came in to Wedding Boss? I passed them on to you because I was going away on that cruise for 2 weeks.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I remember that Nic had done the initial consultation with them. Timothy was not happy when he found out she was going away for 2 weeks as he wanted continuity with his wedding planner. So he chose me to plan his wedding instead. However I still wasn’t getting what Nic had in mind yet.

  ‘So Timothy knows who I am and it is likely that I could still think that the wedding is on between him and Jasmine.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose. Please tell me where you are going with this?’

  ‘So I am going to walk in the café and order something to go. Then I will look over and see him. I will walk over to say hello. I will act all dumb like I still think the wedding is on and ask him how the plans are going…… right in front of his new squeeze.’

  I am now beginning to understand what Nic has in mind.

  ‘I am 99.9 percent sure that Blondie over there is totally unaware that he was engaged and about to get married this week,’ she says.

  ‘This is brilliant, Blondie will not be happy.’

  ‘I know, I cannot wait to drop that little bomb on him,’ Nic smiles.

  ‘Well let’s hope that little bomb causes loads of damage.’

  We agree that I will stay hidden as we don’t want Timothy to see me. We don’t ever want to get caught out planning revenge on clients even our douchebag ex clients. We wouldn’t want to be tarnished with a bad reputation at Wedding Boss. Even though, it is fun to be a wicked wedding planner when required.

  I continue to look at the face packs while Nic heads off to the café. I even get tempted to buy an exfoliating papaya mask.

  I look out the window and see that Nic has entered Bertie’s and she is looking through a menu. After a short while, she heads over to the counter and places an order. Once her order has been taken, she steps back to wait. She looks over towards Timothy’s table and attempts to catch his eye.

  Timothy and the blonde are chatting away. They are oblivious to anyone else in there. Nic is determined though. She walks over to their table with a massive smile planted on her face. I can see her call out to him and start waving. For a split second, I detect a look of panic on Timothy’s face but he quickly composes himself. God he is such a creepy slimeball.

  Nic begins gesturing and chatting to him like they are old friends. Timothy looks very uncomfortable and starts to fidget. It’s hilarious. I can only see the back of the blonde woman so unfortunately I can’t see her facial expression.

  Eventually Nic stops talking and I can see her make excuses to leave. She picks up her take-out order from the counter. I can tell from the look on her face that she is feeling smug. Meanwhile back at the table, I can see Timothy is not a happy bunny. The happy couple are not looking so lovey-dovey anymore and from the blonde’s body language I can tell she is not impressed.

  Nic is coming out of Bertie’s and about to cross the street. I cannot wait to hear what went down in the café.

  ‘Oh my god, he was so shocked when he saw me,’ Nic is slightly out of breath with excitement.

  ‘I know, he completely panicked when he saw you,’ I tell her.

  Just then I see the blonde woman storm out of Bertie’s followed closely by a very sheepish Timothy. As soon as they are out of sight we head out and start walking back to Wedding Boss.

  ‘Tell me everything,’ I am looking forward to finding out what was said in the coffee shop.

  ‘Okay so I walked in and gave my order,’ Nic starts explaining. ‘They didn’t even look up so I had to walk over to them. So I just went over with a big friendly smile and said hi to Timothy.’

  ‘Anyway, he looked a bit shocked but I have to hand it to him, he composed himself very quickly,’ Nic continues.

  ‘So what did you say next?’

  ‘I asked him how his wedding preparations were going. Well he just kind of muttered something. I couldn’t make out what I was. I could tell he wanted me to leave but I stood my ground. He tried to interrupt me by telling me he had to go soon as he had an appointment.’

  ‘I knew he would try squirming out of it.’

  ‘Yeah so I turned around to Blondie and introduced myself to her.’

  ‘You didn’t?’ I had to give it to her, Nic has got balls.

  ‘Yup, I said, Hi I’m Nic, owner of Wedding Boss. We are planning Timothy and Jasmine’s wedding. It’s not long now, just a few days.’

  ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe how well you did. What did she say?’

  ‘Nothing, she was pretty speechless. She did not look very happy. She kind of pulled this tight little smile and if looks could kill… well I don’t think Timothy would be alive right now,’ Nic laughs.

  ‘This is fantastic. At least we got our own back and hopefully Timothy got a taste of his own medicine now,’ I feel happy now that at least Timothy has been caught up in his lies.

  ‘I know, a bit of revenge here and there never hurt anyone apart from the people that deserve it,’ Nic says.

  ‘Exactly, no one should mess with Wedding Boss,’ I think back to own my little episode of revenge where I locked Linda into the toilet. She totally deserved it. No one messes with our brides and gets away with it.

  ‘You don’t think what I did was wrong though?’ Nic is starting to doubt herself. I know she is worrying this may affect the business if word ever got out.

  ‘No way, he totally needed to be called out,’ I reassure her.

  I am in a much better mood when we get back to the office and manage to get through quite a bit of admin and phone calls. Later I get a text from Auntie Jo who wants to know if I am free to come round for dinner tomorrow night. I am definitely up for seeing her. I text her to let her know I will see her tomorrow. We have both been so busy lately that I haven’t had a chance to update her with the latest Caspar news. I could use her advice for my upcoming meeting with him.

  Later that night, I think about the earlier incident with Timothy. He has also completely ghosted himself out of Jasmine’s life. I mean yes he did cancel the wedding and tell her it was off but he made up some lame excuse to make Jasmine feel that it was all her fault.

  Like me, Jasmine has had no closure and he has cut off all contact so she can’t get any explanations. I feel like we should tell her what we have seen but I feel like this news would completely crush her. Especially as this would have been the week of her wedding.

  Timothy ghosted Jasmine even though they were just a few weeks away from getting married. This was also a ghosting that happened in a long-term relationship. He was obviously too much of a coward to admit that he was leaving her for someone else. Instead he let her think it was d
ue to her intolerable behaviour.

  This leads me to think about Caspar. I knew him for years and he ghosted me. What if he had been having an affair? The thought makes me feel physically sick. But why would he arrange plans for my 21st birthday and literally stand me up on the evening? Surely he is not that cruel? My head goes into overdrive thinking of multiple scenarios about why he did what he did. None of them include any sort of reasonable explanation.

  Chapter 12

  T he next evening, I am over at Auntie Jo’s place for dinner. She has never married or had children. She owns a complimentary healthcare practice and works as a hypnotherapist/counsellor. She has been with her boyfriend Dan for 10 years but they have never been bothered about getting married. They are extremely happy though and it’s not an issue for either of them.

  Dan is a successful businessman. Something to do with property. He is away for business tonight so it’s just the two of us tonight. I am relieved as I’d rather not talk to Dan about the Caspar situation. It’s not that I don’t like Dan. He is a great guy and he does give good relationship advice. But everything is just so raw right now and I can’t be bothered to explain the situation to anyone else.

  Auntie Jo has cooked my favourite cheesy pasta bake. I can smell it cooking the minute I enter her apartment.

  ‘Mmmm smells delicious,’ I shout out to her as I let myself in to her apartment.

  Dan and Jo live in a very luxurious set of apartments. Their apartment is on the top floor, complete with roof garden and hot tub. It’s great on a sunny day. The whole interior is spacious with glossy wooden floors, white walls and great artwork hanging up. I love her place so much.

  I head in to the kitchen and perch myself onto a stool while Auntie Jo finishes preparing dinner. She pours me a lovely glass of red wine.

  ‘So how are you?’ she asks as she tosses the salad she has made with her homemade olive oil and balsamic dressing.

  ‘I have loads to tell you,’ I say as I take a long sip of my red wine. It’s just what I need after a long day.