Newly Wed and Slightly Dead

by Danielle Garrett

  Caleb leaned in, one hand going to the side of my face and my eyes fluttered closed.

  “Anastasia?”

  Caleb’s hand dropped from my cheek and I craned around toward the source of the male voice. My stomach flipped over when I saw Wesley Cahil standing near the elevators. He had a paper bag in his hand and a pained look on his face.

  “Uh, hello, Wesley. How—uh—how are you?” I stammered.

  Wesley took a few steps closer, his eyes locked on Caleb. When he dragged his gaze back to me, I saw a flicker of confusion. “Harmony said you weren’t feeling well,” he said, holding up the paper bag. “I brought you soup and a sandwich.”

  I felt my eyes go wide and I cut a glare at my own front door. If Harmony was inside, she’d better start shimmying down the fire escape if she had a prayer of survival.

  Caleb touched my arm, a subtle gesture but it sent a message all the same.

  Wesley’s eyes darkened. “If you didn’t want to go on a date with me, you could have told me. There really wasn’t a reason to lie.”

  “A date?” Caleb repeated.

  I held up a hand. “Wesley, I’m really sorry. I told Harmony to cancel the date. I swear, I never would have told her to lie about something like that.”

  Wesley sniffed, an irritated sound. “It’s not a big deal.”

  The bag of soup in his hand told a different story, but I wasn’t about to argue.

  “I’m really sorry about this,” I said again.

  “It’s fine,” he said, his tone firmer. He looked at Caleb and then thrust the bag of food out toward me. “Here,” he said, “you might as well keep this. I don’t even like tomato soup.”

  With that, he pivoted and stalked back to the elevators.

  Cringing, I peeled my eyes off his retreating back and glanced at Caleb. He smiled, but his brows were knitted together, clearly waiting on an explanation.

  “Harmony set us up on a blind—or, as she called it, a half blind date. I told her to cancel it, but obviously she took that as more of a suggestion.” I gritted my teeth.

  Caleb chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Patrick’s door opened and he poked his head out into the hallway. I groaned.

  “Thought I heard voices out here,” Patrick said. He smiled at me. “How’s it going, Stacey?”

  “Just peachy, Patrick. Can I help you with something?”

  He shrugged and then looked at the bag in my hands. “Junebug Cafe, huh?”

  I frowned. “Tomato soup, apparently. You want it?”

  “Nah. I make my own, and it’s better than the swill from the Junebug. Guaranteed.” He smiled brightly. “I’ll bring you over some if you like?”

  Stars!

  “Um, thanks. Maybe.” I looked at Caleb. He wasn’t mad. In fact, he looked about ready to bust up laughing.

  “Well, tell Harmony hi for me,” Patrick said, giving me one last look before ducking back inside his own condo. He closed the door and Caleb chuckled. “You’re beating ’em off with a stick, huh?”

  “The only one I’m going to beat with a stick is my sister,” I growled.

  Caleb grinned at me. “Aha, now I see why you agreed to a date with me. I assure you, I can’t pull any strings and get you out of jail if you go on a rampage.”

  I snorted. “Oh, well, in that case, I guess I’ll go flag down Wesley.”

  Caleb mimed a chest wound, pressing his hands to his heart with a pained look. “Oh, ouch!”

  I giggled.

  “Now I see why you didn’t want me walking you upstairs,” Caleb teased, dropping his hands.

  “Actually, I just wanted to kick these heels off in the elevator,” I quipped.

  He grinned and leaned back in close again, bringing the electric pulsing back to a low buzz. “Feel free to kick off your heels anytime,” he said. “As beautiful as you look tonight, there isn’t a doubt in my mind you would steal my breath any less in a pair of jeans and t-shirt.”

  A swarm of butterflies took flight in the bottom of my stomach and began doing the butterfly equivalent of the conga as they danced through my insides.

  Caleb’s phone chirped and he swore, momentarily dropping his eyes to his chest where the phone sat inside his jacket pocket. “Why do criminals always pick the worst times to go on the run?”

  I snorted. “It’s downright inconsiderate.”

  He smiled at me and then gently placed a hand along the side of my jaw, leaning down to capture a kiss that was just enough to send my imagination on a wild adventure. It ended all too soon and from the look in Caleb’s eyes, he felt the same. “Goodnight, Anastasia.”

  “Night.”

  He turned away and went to the elevators, pausing to look back at me before boarding. I waved and he smiled. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” he promised.

  Then he was gone.

  Chapter 14

  Alice’s face was the one splashed across the Haven Herald the following morning when I climbed aboard the Shimmer Bus, bleary-eyed and haggard. A few passengers glanced up at me, and I hurried to take my seat. When they continued to stare, I realized there was more going on than a case of impatient commuters waiting for the bus doors to close.

  The silver-haired woman beside me lifted her purse and then scooted closer to me, glancing between the paper in her hands and my profile. I bristled and tried to slide further away, but the man beside me wasn’t budging. “Is—is there something wrong?” I finally asked the woman.

  “Do you have a younger sister?” she asked.

  My heart leapt into my throat. What had Harmony done this time? I hadn’t seen her the night before—which, considering her stunt with Wesley and the not-quite-canceled date, was probably for the best. Though, just a reminder that she had a tendency toward getting herself in trouble.

  “I do,” I answered, a nervous lilt to my voice.

  “This her?” the woman asked, tilting the paper so I could see the page she was studying.

  I didn’t find a picture of Harmony. It was a photo of me, taken at the Vanguard’s engagement party months ago. I was wearing a red cocktail dress, covered in glittering sparkles, full make-up, and my hair had been artfully arranged into a cascade of glossy curls.

  “That’s me,” I said coarsely.

  The elderly woman leaned in closer, squinting a little as she looked at my photo. “Are you quite sure, dear?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes!”

  “So, you know this killer bride?” She sounded far too excited about it.

  “She didn’t—she isn’t—” I threw away the rest of my protest and pushed off the seat. I tugged the red sash hanging above my head and the bus came to an abrupt halt. The sides expended like a soundless accordion, and an aisle appeared between the rows of seats. I grabbed my purse and stalked off the bus. It was a few more blocks to the office, but I decided I’d rather walk than sit and be interrogated by strangers for the duration of the ride.

  When I arrived at the office, Hyacinth was pacing in the lobby like a caged tiger. A very hungry tiger. “My office. Now!” she growled.

  I followed her to her office and sat in the chair she indicated. With a loud snap of her fingers, the door closed and she dropped into the chair behind her desk. “Are you aware that your picture was in the paper this morning?” she snapped, as if I’d had something to do with it. “The phone has been ringing off the hook all morning. Poor Emily can hardly keep up with all of the calls! And I’ll let you guess how many of them have anything to do with booking a wedding consultation.”

  I sighed. “Zero.”

  “Not a one! We’re so swamped with running PR that we can’t even do our jobs, Anastasia!”

  The bubble of frustration that had been building all morning rose to the surface and popped. “I didn’t give her the wooden stake, you know!”

  Hyacinth’s cool eyes narrowed into slits. “Don’t be ridiculous. No one is suggesting such a thing.”

  I lau
ghed, the sound hollow. “Really? Because it sure feels like you’re pinning the blame for this on me. That somehow it’s my fault that the Vanguard wedding is canceled. What was I supposed to do to prevent this? I don’t remember anything in all of my training and years of job-shadowing that would have possibly helped me in this scenario. As far as I’m concerned, I did my job to perfection, I put up with all of Lucinda’s demands, provided a buffer to keep tensions from ruining the wedding, and if this unfortunate event hadn’t taken place, my bride and groom would be wandering around Prague right now, enjoying their honeymoon, reminiscing about the memories of the best day of their life. So, please, if I did something wrong along the way, by all means, let me know. But if this is just you venting because of some newspaper article, then please let me go back to my office so I can get back to work on my current clients.”

  The words all flew out in a hot, angry rush and when they stopped flowing, my jaw snapped shut and I wasn’t sure which of us likely looked more surprised by the outburst.

  Hyacinth waited a long moment, neither of us blinking, before she finally relented. “I’ve instructed CeeCee to hold all of your calls today,” she said, her tone icy. “If someone at the paper manages to get in contact with you, either here or at home, you are not to respond. You say no comment and ignore them. I have a meeting with the partners this afternoon to discuss damage control.”

  I chewed on the insides of my cheeks to keep from lashing out again.

  “Understood?” Hyacinth snapped.

  “Yes.”

  Her eyes narrowed but then she waved a hand at her door, silently dismissing me.

  I jumped out of the chair and hurried for the door.

  “Anastasia,” she said, right as my hand touched the doorknob.

  I turned back to face her.

  “Block out two o’clock on Friday,” she said, tapping her company pen against the cover of her pink day planner. “We’re going to have a chat about your client load and see what adjustments need to be made.”

  The threat was clear but I smiled. “Great. I’ll look forward to it.”

  With that, I left the office, not bothering to close the door behind me.

  The firm’s offices were nice, but the walls weren’t particularly thick. As I walked to my office, it was apparent most of the conversation in Hyacinth’s office had been overheard to some degree.

  “Enjoy your office while it’s still yours,” Kait said when I passed her desk.

  I gritted my teeth and didn’t give her the satisfaction of a reply. In the end, she’d done the bulk of the phone calls to cancel the Vanguard wedding and according to her, had let Hyacinth know I was doing a good job and didn’t need her help on future weddings, not that it had likely done much good. She’d held up her end of our deal, so I wasn’t going to dig the dirt I had on her back up just to sling some mud around.

  Only once I was alone in my office with the door closed, did I release a growl of pent-up frustration. I raked my hands through my unwashed hair and swore loudly. The others likely heard that too, but I didn’t care. A stack of papers were on the corner of my desk, ones that hadn’t been there the night before when Caleb and I had come in to get Alice’s information.

  That all seemed light years away. Had it really only been the night before?

  My lips tingled at the memory of him, and I could almost smell his lingering cologne.

  The memory soured all too quickly, as I remembered the reason for his quick departure. Alice was on the run, or, perhaps by now, she’d landed in an SPA jail cell somewhere. There wasn’t a snowballs chance in Hades that the Vanguard wedding was going forward. Nine months of work just vaporized into a puff of smoke, and I was left with nothing in my commission piggy bank and a demotion looming. Hyacinth likely wouldn’t fire me, but being bumped back to an associate would be a huge tumble.

  It wasn’t about giving up my fancy office or slowing down the growth of my shoe collection. If I was demoted, I’d lose my condo and be forced to move to a less expensive place altogether. Where would that leave Harmony? If we pooled our money, we could get a two-bedroom apartment, but was that what either of us wanted? To be roommates indefinitely? A fresh wave of irritation swelled up, and I remembered Wesley’s face as he’d stumbled across Caleb and me in the hallway.

  No. Regardless of what happened with my job, there was no way Harmony and I could live together long-term. She was wearing out her welcome at a rapid pace as it was.

  I sat down and dug my phone out of my purse and dialed Harmony’s number. She was likely still sleeping, dead to the world on my couch, after a late night shift at Luna. Normally, I would wait until the afternoon to call her and let her get her sleep, but I was worked up and needed to vent.

  She didn’t answer on the first call and I immediately redialed. She picked up, her voice sounded muffled, as though her face was still buried halfway in the pillow. “Stace? What’s up?”

  “Why did you tell Wesley I was sick?” I snapped. “You were supposed to cancel the date, not postpone it!”

  “Huh? What are you—oh…right, right.” She paused and I heard rustling sounds in the background.

  “He showed up last night,” I continued, not waiting for her to offer up some lame, half-baked explanation. “When I was saying goodnight to Caleb, you know, my actual date.”

  Harmony exhaled sharply. “That’s awkward.”

  I shot to my feet. “You think?!”

  “Sorry, Stace. I didn’t think he’d—”

  “No! You didn’t think period, full stop! I don’t know why you think it’s acceptable to go meddling in my life. The only reason I’m letting you stay at my house is because I know you don’t have any other options. It wasn’t so you could move in and take over like some kind of overbearing life coach! I don’t need or want your help, Harmony. Is that clear?”

  The words were all tumbling out faster than I meant, and when I paused to draw in a breath, I cringed, hearing the harshness echo back to me.

  “It was a mistake, Stace! Stars, you act like you never mess up.”

  I frowned, the flicker of regret vanished. “It wasn’t a mistake, Harmony! You didn’t accidentally lie to Wesley. That was a choice! A choice, all right? Why can’t you take responsibility for something, for once in your life?”

  Harmony fell silent, her mid-sentence protests dying.

  “I want you to call Wesley today and apologize for lying,” I told her, lowering my voice. “Then I want you to clean up all your stuff. I mean it, Harmony. No more bras in the bathroom or make-up all over the living room. I want things clean and orderly. This isn’t going to work if I have to constantly climb over all your stuff. Got it?”

  “Got it,” she replied, her tone flat.

  Another pang of remorse nipped at me but I ignored it. “Thank you. I’ll see you later tonight.”

  “Mhmm.”

  I clicked off the call and slammed the phone back into my purse, irritated that my plan hadn’t worked. I’d wanted an outlet to burn off some steam, but instead, I felt more worked up than I had when I left Hyacinth’s office.

  Someone knocked on my door and I glowered at it. “What?” I barked.

  The door opened, and CeeCee peeked inside, her expression wary. “Do you have a minute?” she asked, keeping her voice soft. “I can come back if you’re—”

  I interrupted with a beckoning of my hand. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Come in.”

  CeeCee shuffled in a few steps and I noticed a large envelope in her hands. “Are you all right?” She asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. What’s up?”

  She held out the envelope. “These came for you this morning. They’re from the photographer. I think from the Vanguard rehearsal.” She said the last bit with a poorly concealed cringe.

  I groaned but took the envelope. “Lot of good they’re going to do me now.”

  I liked to make a special photo book for all of my clients made with snapshots from the key events along th
e wedding planning process: the engagement party, bridal shower, dress fittings, suit fittings, and the rehearsal dinner. Dimitri and Alice’s book was waiting to be completed, and now, it never would.

  “I’m sorry,” CeeCee said, wringing her hands together. “I still can’t believe it. No one can.”

  “It’s definitely a first for me. And hopefully, a last,” I replied, my jaw tight. “One homicidal bride is more than enough to last one career.”

  “Is Hyacinth still mad?” CeeCee asked.

  I scoffed. “She hasn’t said a word to me since I gave her the news this morning. She’ll get over it. I think.” I gestured at a piece of thick paper in front of me. “Though, I’ll be freshening up my resume just in case.”

  CeeCee’s lips twisted to one side.

  “It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “I have a few new client meetings tomorrow. If I can land at least two of them, I should be able to work my way back into her good graces.”

  “It’s only a matter of time,” CeeCee agreed. “The Herald will start running some new story soon enough and people will forget about this whole mess.”

  I hoped she was right. Even more than that, I hoped my career would survive until then.

  Chapter 15

  I waited until the office crowd had thinned out before calling it a day. Generally, around five and then again at six, there was a mad dash out the door as my co-workers packed it up and scampered off to happy hour, dinner dates, or home to their families. CeeCee stopped by on her way out and asked if I needed anything or wanted to go get a drink. I turned her down, and she reminded me that I had her cell phone number if I changed my mind. Kait had looped through to walk past my door, offering a smirk before she bounced off down the hall, practically skipping.

  Long after she was gone, I was still wondering if there was a chance she was right. Would Hyacinth give her my job? My office? My client list? There was no question that I’d landed on the bottom of Hyacinth’s list of star employees, but would she really go so far as to demote me back to being an associate? Or … fire me outright?