The Marrying Type

by Laura Chapman

  Still, if she turned back now, wasn’t she getting in the way of her own success? Wasn’t she being a coward? Wasn’t she proving she wasn’t over her breakup with Eric? They were ancient history. She was over him. Right?

  Decision made, Elliot pulled her shoulders back and stood taller. She not only had to take this meeting; she had to win the job.

  “I’m fine,” she told Chase for the second time. “I’m still a little camera shy, I guess.”

  “Don’t worry. Happens to a lot of people.” He offered a supportive look before shifting his attention back to the lens. “Now, let’s go over how the scene will play out.”

  She frowned over his choice of words. “I’ve met with clients before. I get how this ‘scene will play out.’”

  “Filming changes everything. We have the lighting crew set up in your main office on the first floor. The couple is downstairs with Marissa having the same talk. We have one camera following them and a stationary doing a wider shot. I’ll be your main camera.”

  “Aren’t you usually?” she muttered.

  Ignoring her comment, he continued the briefing. “For our first take, we’ll try this with them seated in the office and you walking in to greet them.”

  “Normally I’d meet them at the front door.”

  “Remember, this isn’t normal.” He gave her a sharp glance. “We would’ve liked to try a few setting options for this scene, but we didn’t have enough time with this sudden change in our filming schedule.”

  She nodded that she understood while she silently stewed. Elliot hoped the network didn’t renew The Marrying Type for a second season. She doubted her ability to handle another round of constant filming but couldn’t say no if they offered her another lucrative contract. Not when the extra cash flow and exposure benefitted Engagements.

  “Keep the questions light and playful. Be enthusiastic. Do what you do best—make the couple, and camera, like you.” Chase finished his pep talk while an associate producer did a final check of Elliot’s microphone pack and attire. “Any final questions? Any comments?”

  “Just one.”

  “What?”

  “Make sure to get my good side.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll do my best with what I’m given. I’m not a miracle worker.”

  The laughter stayed in her eyes as she made her grand entrance in the office. She ignored the film crew already in position and walked toward the practically perfect couple seated on her Grandmother Lynch’s settee.

  “Welcome to Engagements.” Elliot shook hands with the groom, then with the bride as she took a seat next to the young woman. “And Sadie, welcome to Charleston. I hope you’re enjoying your new town.”

  “I am, but I’m still trying to find my way around the city.” Sadie grinned, and Elliot’s stomach twisted. It was like she was staring at a female version of the man who’d broken her heart eight years earlier. She had her brother’s smile and eyes. “I need to find the best caterers, bakers, and florist Charleston has to offer, and I’m lost. I hope you’ll be able to help me.”

  “We can absolutely help you plan the wedding of your dreams.” Elliot flashed another bright smile. “But before we talk wedding details, I want to hear more about you as a couple.”

  “Cut,” Marissa called. “Let’s try this one more time.”

  They went back to their starting positions and did the entrance two more times before they had the take Marissa wanted. While the camera crew re-set for the interview portion of the shoot, Elliot grinned at the couple.

  “You’ll get used to this,” she said. “Marissa is a perfectionist about getting the right kind of footage for her vision.”

  “We’ll figure everything out,” Sadie said, grabbing Elliot’s hand. “I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you.”

  Hand still clasped in the bride’s, Elliot’s heart raced. She somehow kept the smile bright on her face. This was what she’d feared. Sadie knew Elliot. And now she was here, in Elliot’s home with a room full of witnesses to cause a scene.

  “We’re excited to be part of this show,” Sadie said. Elliot relaxed a little, but didn’t let her guard down completely.

  “She’s become addicted to every wedding show on TV,” Adam said. “And I don’t mind. This will go by fast. Having parts of the process captured on tape will be a fun way for us to remember this time with our kids and grandkids.”

  The women exchanged a grin, and more of Elliot’s tension slipped away.

  “Sadie has spent hours on your website looking at pictures and playing with the ‘Our Wedding’ section,” Adam continued. Apparently more accustomed to the limelight, he ignored the camera crew fussing with a last-minute lighting change while he spoke. “She is obsessed with your blog.”

  “Thank you. We recently revamped the whole site. What’s your favorite part?”

  “I like the scrolling quotes at the top of the page. They’re a nice touch.”

  Elliot struggled not to grit her teeth. What was with men? Why were they completely obsessed by those quotes? They weren’t even that unique or original. What about the better user-friendliness or the top-notch photography and graphics? Her left eye twitched, but her smile never wavered.

  “I also appreciate the personalized schedules and budgets,” he said. “The nerdy accountant inside me wanted to spend hours tinkering with the options, but Sadie says we need to focus on the big picture now and worry about the details later.”

  His final comments softened her annoyance. She might like him after all. He showed good sense by appreciating the organizational feature. The man also appeared too honest to be part of some devious plan to take her down. Still, he came from a family of lawyers and politicians. She needed to watch her back.

  “This one loves the posts and pictures,” he said. “She’s been following everything on your Facebook page obsessively since we got engaged a couple of weeks ago. She’s convinced the two of you are destined to be best friends.”

  “You make me sound like a stalker,” Sadie said.

  “You make yourself sound like a stalker.” He laughed and narrowly dodged her playful slap on his shoulder.

  Marissa announced that the crew was ready to start the next series of shots. Adam and Sadie instinctively leaned toward each other. Elliot grinned. They made a good pair. The gesture apparently didn’t escape Marissa’s notice, either. She silently ordered a cameraman to zoom in on the close-knit couple.

  Once she had her cue to start, Elliot asked the first question. “Tell me about yourselves as a couple. I want to hear your story. Who are you? What do you do? How did you meet? Who proposed?”

  She pulled out her tablet to take notes.

  “We met in college. Through a Greek mixer at Duke,” Sadie said.

  “Cut. I need you to say that again,” Marissa interrupted, drawing everyone’s attention. “Give full answers—every detail. We want to include back stories for the couples featured on the show. It’s best if it comes from you and not the voiceover.”

  Elliot gave the couple an apologetic glance. “We can give you a few more minutes to come up with answers if you like.”

  “No. I’ll get it, but thank you.” Sadie cleared her throat, and spoke more slowly. “We met through my sorority and his fraternity at Duke. They worked together on a lot of projects and events. The annual New Faces Mixer gave everyone a way to meet each other in a positive setting.”

  “Basically we held a kegger, but the proceeds went to charity,” Adam said.

  “Both of us were on our houses’ respective planning committees.”

  “I was on the pledge committee, and I didn’t have a choice. She was an overeager first-year who volunteered for everything.”

  “Mandatory or not, you boys needed to work harder.” She turned to Elliot and rolled her eyes. “I’ve never wanted to hit anyone as much as I wanted to smack those guys. My sisters and I were left with most of the work while this one and his bros played video games.”

 
“The latest Call of Duty had come out the week before,” he said. “I have no regrets.”

  “Cut.” Everyone turned to Marissa. “Let’s avoid using any specific brand names or titles for this shot. The network won’t want any free promotion going to anyone, and I doubt a video game will offer any incentive for a name drop.”

  Adam nodded, repeating his comment without mentioning the game. He picked up Sadie’s hand while he did and linked their fingers together. Elliot noticed the gesture, and she felt the last of her reservations slip away. Sadie and Adam were in love—really in love.

  “Anyway,” Sadie continued. “I was ticked off by the time the social rolled around. Mostly at this one. He seemed to be their ringleader. He kept bugging me with questions and pranks. He drove me crazy.”

  “Good,” he said. “My plan worked all along.”

  “But, when the social rolled around . . .”

  “I won her over with a bouquet of fresh flowers and the promise of a romantic dinner the next weekend.”

  “A bouquet of flowers freshly picked from the house next door.” Sadie’s eyes narrowed. “But he was right. They did the trick. I loved them. I especially loved how jealous they made my sorority sisters.”

  “Catty girl.” Adam grinned and squeezed her hand.

  “We dated the rest of college, and he proposed at graduation,” Sadie said.

  “Cut! You proposed on graduation day?” Marissa asked. “Tell us about the proposal. Remember—details. Specifics.”

  “The proposal was completely romantic,” Sadie said. “He actually proposed at graduation, in the middle of the ceremony.”

  “I realized I wanted to spend my life with Sadie a couple of years ago, but decided to wait to propose until graduation. Neither one of us wanted to get married until after college, and I didn’t see the point in proposing until we were ready to get married.”

  “Neither of us believes in long engagements,” Sadie added. “Obviously. We’ve been engaged a month and we’re planning a Labor Day wedding.”

  It was a fortunate coincidence Engagements didn’t already have a wedding on the books for that weekend. An operator error—courtesy of Claire—had inadvertently marked the weekend as occupied until recently.

  “Tell us more about the proposal,” Marissa said. She added a “please” when her husband gave her a dirty glare.

  “A week before graduation, I had a ring, but I didn’t have a clue how I’d pop the question,” Adam said. “I wanted to make a grand gesture involving both of our families. I majored in accounting and work at a law firm. Creativity isn’t my strong suit, so I called Sadie’s brother. He’s good at this sort of thing. Like Sadie, Eric is a creative type.”

  “Cut,” Marissa called out. “Will your brother be part of the filming?”

  “I can ask,” Sadie said.

  “Great.” Marissa grinned. “We’ll be sure to provide some background information on your brother for viewers who might not realize who Eric Warner is by name only. They’ll figure everything out once we explain he’s the creator of the Cav. Keep rolling.”

  Adam waited a few more seconds to continue his story. “I invited Eric to dinner to talk. I wanted to ask for his blessing. We’re not super traditional, but I figured it was a nice gesture.”

  “My father died when Eric and I were little,” Sadie explained. “Eric has always looked out for me since. Of course Eric gave his blessing. He likes Adam.”

  “And I like him,” Adam said. “He’d be one of my groomsmen if we didn’t need him to walk Sadie down the aisle.”

  Another jolt of panic hit Elliot. Of course he’d walk his sister down the aisle. Why hadn’t she realized that possibility sooner?

  “After our talk, he was more than willing to help me come up with a plan,” Adam said. “He came through, of course.”

  “How did you propose?” Elliot asked, hoping to divert the conversation away from Eric and back to the couple.

  “On graduation day, Eric made sure our families were close enough to the stage to see everything. Sadie walked before me. While she was on stage I started to worry. What if she said no in front of everyone in our class and their families?”

  “Like I would’ve said no.”

  “I was still worried. By the time they said my name my hands were shaking. I took my diploma and walked off of the stage, back down the aisle.”

  “Adam stopped when he got to my row,” Sadie said. “He knelt down on one knee and the room fell silent.”

  “And, while everyone watched, I asked her to marry me.”

  “He said a few other things, like how much he loved me and how he wanted to build a life with me,” Sadie added. “I, of course, cried like a baby.”

  “Before she answered, I pointed to our families. They held a giant sign that spelled out, ‘SAY YES.’”

  “And I did. I said yes. He gave me this ring.” Sadie flashed the large diamond in an antique setting on her left hand.

  “It was my grandmother’s.”

  “He kissed me, and everyone cheered. After a couple of minutes, commencement continued, even though we totally upstaged the rest of the event.”

  “Do you have photos or video footage available from the proposal?” Marissa called out.

  “Of course,” Adam said. “It seems like everyone in our family recorded the whole thing. My brother considers himself an amateur videographer.”

  “We’d be glad to share it with you,” Sadie added. “I’m surprised we haven’t found clips plastered all over the Internet yet.”

  “Awesome. The video will make your love story segment that much better,” Marissa said.

  Setting aside the tablet, Elliot opened her laptop and turned it to face the couple. She handed them a binder of her proposal.

  “It might be hard to find a venue on such short notice,” Elliot said.

  “What about here?” Sadie asked, giving an appraising glance around the room. “I’d love to do the wedding here in the garden. It’s everything we want.”

  “It’s available.” For the right amount of money. If she’d learned anything these past couple of months, it was that she and her family usually had a price for everything.

  “Based on what you told me during our phone call, it sounds like you would like a mix of modern and traditional, old and new, elegant, but comfortable,” she said.

  “Exactly,” Sadie agreed. “I realize this is complicated. We haven’t left you much time, and we’re not the most decisive of people.” She adjusted her collar. “Will you be able to help us, or are we a lost cause?”

  “I’m always up for a challenge.” Elliot flashed a bright grin. “Believe me when I say this will be no problem. I already have a few ideas.”

  “Cut!” Marissa shouted, stepping out from behind the cameras. “Not a bad take. Let’s try the last part again with a tighter shot. And I need you to add some color to your dialogue. More adjectives. More enthusiasm.”

  ERIC SPENT THE BETTER part of the day on edge. While his sister met with a film crew—and his ex to boot—he helplessly sat through a last-minute meeting with his development team on the other side of the country. Maybe the consultation wouldn’t go well. Sadie might meet Elliot and decide they weren’t a match. Perhaps she’d find the whole filming element added too much tension to her already high-stress wedding planning.

  And maybe the U.S. rowing team would call and offer him and his weak arms a spot on the Olympic team.

  When he still hadn’t heard from his sister that night, he started to worry. Maybe something had gone seriously wrong. Surely someone would have called him or his mother if it had. No, more than likely, the day had gone seriously right for his sister.

  Damn. If she had set her heart on having Elliot plan her wedding, he wouldn’t be able to say no. Not without revealing a huge chunk of his past, which he’d kept carefully hidden from his family for the better part of a decade. Spilling his guts now wasn’t an option.

  Finally, as he watched the sun s
et over the water from his beachfront home, the phone rang. He detected his sister’s excitement instantly. Based on her fast, almost out-of-breath, talking, it meant one thing. She’d hired Elliot.

  “We have a planner!”

  “Great. Who did you decide to go with?” he asked, playing dumb to delay the inevitable news a few seconds longer.

  “Engagements. Adam’s parents are family friends, and I love our consultant. She’s sweet and organized, and she has the vision and creativity we need.”

  “Shouldn’t you meet with a few other planners before deciding?”

  “Why? I don’t want anyone else to plan our wedding.”

  “Aren’t you worried about being on that reality show she’s filming?” He was grasping for straws, but he had to try. “Don’t you have enough stress without piling on a TV show?”

  “The show won’t be a problem. It’s actually kind of fun.”

  Eric rubbed his temples and sighed, his resistance slipping under the weight of his sister’s enthusiasm. “This is what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Completely.”

  This was the moment. This was his chance to reveal everything to Sadie. He should tell her about his history with Elliot. The girl he’d met at The University of Virginia his third year. They’d been in the same British Literature class.

  Weeks into the semester, a chance meeting at the library had led to coffee, then a date the following Friday night. Within weeks, he’d fallen hard. She’d been with him when he’d developed his multi-million dollar idea: the Cav.

  With her background growing up around a family business, she’d offered him invaluable insight. When he’d finished the beta website, she’d thrown her arms around his shoulders and called him brilliant.

  Eric grinned at the memory. Regardless of what happened later, their relationship had started off well enough. Until he’d given her his heart, and she’d given him the boot.