What Happens at a Wedding: A Short Story Anthology

by Lucy Gage

  Immediately, I called June. She answered on the second ring. “You must be psychic I was just about to call you.”

  “Oh my god he sent me an invitation,” I choked out before I started crying.

  “Who? What invitation?”

  “He-he-invited me-to-the-the wedding.” I hiccupped.

  “I’m on my way.” June disconnected. I went to the kitchen and made myself another martini.

  An hour later there was a knock at my door. I didn’t bother checking the peephole I just opened the door. June and Mei Lu were standing there. “Let me get this straight, the asshole invited you to his wedding?” June asked pushing past me into my house.

  “That’s a cold-ass bastard,” Mei Lu said as she stepped inside. I closed the door behind them.

  “Anyone want a drink?” I asked.

  Mei Lu held up a large paper bag, “We’re having more than a drink.” We got out my blender and set to making a bar’s worth of drinks. I sat at the island bar as Mei Lu mixed up strawberry daiquiri in the blender. June was eating olives leaning on the island. “This is the rotten bastard who cheated on you with your boss, right?” Mei Lu asked.

  “Yep, that’s the one.”

  “He’s also the reason you landed an awesome job at IA Designs and now have the piece of eye-candy for your new client?”

  “Yep.”

  “Sounds simple to me,” Mei Lu yelled over the blender noise.

  “Yeah, super simple,” I said.

  “Why would he do that?” June asked.

  “To twist the knife I guess,” I said.

  Mei Lu stopped the blender. “You’re going to twist it back right?”

  “How would I do that?”

  “You go to his wedding looking hot as hell.”

  “Hell to-the-no,” I said polishing off my drink, “Two down, eight hundred more to go.”

  “You have to go,” Mei Lu said. She took off the pitcher and poured the daiquiri.

  June grabbed a glass, “I hate to say it but I agree with Mei, you have to go.”

  “How can you possibly agree?”

  “And you have to take Armand,” June said before taking a drink.

  “He’s the hottie who banged your brains out after the holiday party?”

  I nodded.

  “And he’s the hot eye-candy client?”

  I nodded again.

  She smiled. “Your such a lucky little bitch.”

  “How so?”

  “Because now you have unhindered access to that ass all the time.”

  I had yet to tell my friends about the nursery or Tina. I couldn’t bring myself to voice that I slept with a taken man. “More like I can’t touch him because he’s a client and it’s unprofessional.”

  “Fuck professionalism,” June said.

  “I’ll drink to that,” Mei Lu said. They clinked glasses before taking a drink.

  June put her drink down. “You’re going to that wedding and you are taking that fine ass man with you and you’re going to show your ex you don’t give a fuck about him or his hooker at all.”

  “Word,” Mei Lu said nodding along. “And I know the perfect store where we will find you a killer dress that will make Mark eat his own dick.”

  I choked on my drink. I started laughing. “Where the hell did you come up with that?”

  She was smiling and nodding her head, “You like it? It’s a Mei Lu original.”

  June laughed with me. “Your nutso, but you’re also right. When’s the wedding?”

  “February fourteenth.”

  “What pretentious assholes.”

  “I know right? Like how unoriginal to get married on Valentine’s day.”

  “Great so we have two weeks. That’s plenty of time to get Armand to agree to take you—”

  “Whoa guys I never said I was going.”

  “It’s not up to you. You’re going that’s the end of it,” June said. From there Mei Lu and June came up with a multitude of plans on how to get Armand to take me to my exes wedding. We were also going dress shopping on Wednesday. They could make all the plans they wanted didn’t mean I had to follow through on any of it. Then again maybe they were on to something.

  I paced my office, triple-checking I had everything for my working lunch with Mr. Scott. Today I would be presenting my redesign, which I was anxious about. If my designs were well-received phase two started. If my designs weren’t liked, then it was either back to the drawing board, or worse, Mr. Scott could take his job elsewhere. Plus, I was presenting the design for a nursery.

  My stomach clenched.

  That was the only part of the presentation that had me freaking the fuck out. The nursery. I rushed through the design on that one. I flipped back and forth between disgust and sadness and it showed. I went with a jungle theme and there might be an angry tiger or two in my drawings.

  “Ms. Ashton, the caterer is here,” Ashley’s voice came over the intercom.

  I pressed the talk button, “Great have them set up in the meeting room. Let me know when they finish.”

  “You got it.” She disconnected. As I stepped back I knocked my messenger bag over and Marks’ wedding invitation fell out. I bent down and picked it up then tossed it in my desk drawer where I saw the note Armand had written:

  I’d like a couch made of beige cashmere in my home office because it reminds me of you. Thinking of you always.

  Armand

  Xxoo

  My head fell back as I plopped into my desk chair. I stared at the ceiling. How was this my life? Invited to the wedding of my ex who never talked marriage with me, thinking he wasn’t the marrying type, only to find out he just didn’t want to marry me. And pining after a client who was taken in every sense of the word. I rested my elbows on my desk my head in my hands. “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. My head was firmly up my ass and boy did it stink.

  During my presentation I kept my eyes firmly on Mr. Scott’s forehead it was the only safe place to look. Today he was wearing a beige cashmere sweater. From the minute he sat down in the meeting room he made sure to make me notice the sweater. And I know the sweater was for me because when my eyes looked from his chest up to meet his eyes he winked before licking his lip ring.

  Totally screwed.

  After that my eyes looked everywhere and at everything except Armand’s eyes. Not that I didn’t feel him staring me down during my entire presentation. When I finished I asked, “What do you think?” That was when I finally met Armand’s eye. What a mistake.

  “Could I have a private word with Ms. Ashton please?” Armand asked, but there was no mistaking this wasn’t a polite request. His tone said not to argue.

  Ashley and Lydia stood leaving Armand and I alone. He moved towards the window that faced the hallway and closed the blinds. I stood by my presentation boards like a dear caught in headlights watching him move across the windows closing each of the three blinds. As he closed the last one he turned to me, “It’s just you and me now.”

  I can’t even count how many times Armand said those exact words in my fantasies. I swallowed. “This looks super inappropriate.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what it looks like.” He stepped away from the window. Sat back down at the conference table. He tapped the seat beside him. “We need to have a chat.”

  Fuck.

  My legs shook as I walked over to take the seat beside him. With all the false bravado I could muster I said, “You want to talk let’s talk, what’s up?”

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Armand said. He turned in his chair facing towards me his legs wide-spread as he leaned forward his forearms draped across his knees.

  I sat facing the table staring at the wall in front of me. “Does this mean you hate the designs?”

  “I love the designs. Except for the man-eating tigers it was great.”

  “You noticed those?”

  “Yes. Is there something you want t
o ask me?” He said it so calmly as if he knew what was on my mind.

  “Nope. We’re good.”

  He moved my chair so I was facing him though I kept my attention on the wall. His fingers came to my chin forcing me to look at him. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I can tell something is bothering you. Though I love your designs your presentation was lackluster at best.”

  Without wanting to I spilled it all, “My ex sent me an invitation to his wedding. It’s next Saturday and I don’t know how I feel about it. I mean … we were together for two years. He cheated on me and decided to marry that floozy and now he wants me at the wedding so he can rub it in my face.”

  “When should I pick you up?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Obviously, you need a date you can’t just show up to your exes wedding alone.”

  “I shouldn’t show up at all.”

  “You should.” He sounded just like Mei Lu.

  “But-But—”

  “But nothing.” He took my hands in his pulling me along with my chair as close to him as we could get. “What time?”

  “Four-thirty.”

  “Great, text me your address and I’ll be there at four to pick you up.”

  “You’re my client. It’s unprofessional.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you I don’t give a fuck. Now aren’t you going to ask me what you can do in return for this favor?”

  Great. A catch. “Not really,” I said.

  “To bad. What I want is for you to let me take you on a real date after this asshole’s wedding.”

  “But-but—”

  Interrupted once again by his phone. He looked at the screen. “Sorry I have to take this. But you have the green light from me on this design.” He kissed my hand then answered his phone, “Hey, what’s up?” He stood up from his chair, opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. Lydia and Ashley came back in.

  “Everything okay?” Ashley asked.

  I scratched my head, “I think so.”

  Lydia cleared her throat. “Mr. Scott will sign any final contracts so you can get started. Thank-you.” She moved to the door and paused, “Ms. Ashton,” I looked up ready to get some sort of warning from Lydia to stay away from Armand, “excellent work.” With that she left.

  Ashley took the seat Armand had vacated. “So you want to tell me what all that was about?”

  I looked Ashley dead in the face, “No. Not particularly.”

  “Right.” She grabbed a sandwich and took a bite. “Good luck with that,” she said around a bite of sandwich.

  To say I was a nervous wreck was an understatement. Even my extra-strength deodorant couldn’t fight my stress-sweat. What was I thinking going to Mark’s wedding? How did I let June and Mei Lu talk me into this? Though, I looked down at my dress. I did have on a killer dress. It was an a-line tutu dress with beading on the bust and along the hem and it was baby pink in color. It was beautiful. I’d spent all day on my hair and make-up.

  The doorbell rang. Shit I knew it was Armand. I grabbed my clutch off the dining table before answering the door. My nerves melted away replaced with butterflies when I saw Armand. He was wearing a gray suit that was tailored to his body and a pink tie that perfectly matched my dress. His hair was a sexy mess that probably took hours to achieve but looked effortless and sexy as hell. He took up the entirety of my door-frame with his body. When my eyes stopped at his green eyes they narrowed on me. He looked downright edible.

  “Hey,” I said casually. I was trying to school my features as to not give away my excitement at seeing him.

  “You look beautiful.”

  I blushed. “Thank you. So do you.”

  “Your ex is an idiot,” he said. He held out his hand, “Are you ready?”

  “That’s a loaded question.”

  “Trust me your ex will regret letting you go. Though his misfortune is my gain.”

  “His name is Mark and I highly doubt that.”

  I took Armand’s hand letting him lead me down the steps to a black BMW X5. “I’d regret letting you go,” he said, “You’re amazing.”

  My body went hot at his words. “You don’t even know me,” I said, as I got into the car when he opened my door for me.

  “Oh but I want to.”

  We arrived at the Tea Garden in under twenty minutes. I took a deep breath and got out of the car. Once again Armand took my hand and held it as we made our way inside. He whispered, “Don’t worry I got you.” We followed the signs to the out-door tulip garden where the wedding was taking place. A woman with blond hair up in a French twist wearing a pale blue dress that made her look exquisite looked at us. Her eyes went wide when she saw Armand. She hurried over to us. “Armand?”

  “Lola?” He let my hand go to hug this Lola. Then I was forgotten. No introduction as they began chatting. Then Lola took Armand’s hand, “Mimi’s here and I know she’d pissed if she didn’t see you.” With that Armand was dragged away without even a glance in my direction. I swallowed as I made my way towards the seats. Towards the front row I noticed all of Mark’s family there.

  I quickly took a seat towards the back not wanting his parents to see me. I’d talked to Mark’s mom once after we broke up. She was upset on my behalf. She’d let me cry it out with her and bad mouthed Mark. I loved Mark’s mom. We were close. She always used to talk about when Mark and I got married how beautiful her grandbabies would be. Sadly, she was the only who wanted me to marry her son. Mark did not share the same sentiment. Why the hell did I come? I wasn’t a masochist?

  Where was Armand? I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. This whole day was a bust. I was at my exes wedding with a man who acted like he liked me but whose attention I couldn't’ seem to keep. Right as the music started Armand finally came and sat down by me. I was happy for one second because then the blond who’s name was Lola sat down beside him.

  This day was just perfect. Not. I should be at home in my pj’s watching Netflix and eating my weight in ice cream. That sounded amazing. Instead of doing what I should, I was at Mark’s wedding with a gorgeous hunk who was, by all accounts, ignoring me. To say I was pissed was an understatement. I pulled my phone from clutch and sent an angry text to June.

  Desi: You are so fucking dead.

  Instantly, she texted back.

  June: What’d I do?

  Desi: I’m never ever ever ever ever ever taking your advice again.

  I don’t think I put enough evers in there.

  June: Come on, you’re having fun you know it.

  Desi: So DEAD!!!!!!!!!

  I filled the screen with exclamation points. The music started. Charlotte was making her entrance. I tossed my phone back into my clutch as I stood. Once she was up to Mark we sat back down. A warm arm circled around my shoulders. I looked to see Armand’s amazing profile. He was focused on the couple at the altar. In a word … she looked beautiful. And the look on Mark’s face? I don’t think he ever looked at me like that once in the entirety of our two years together. Armand’s arm gave me a squeeze, his hand rubbing my shoulder.

  This was nice. Mark and Charlotte exchanged vows. At which point, apparently, Lola started crying. How did I know? Because Armand’s arm disappeared from my shoulders as he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a tissue and passed it to Lola. I held in my annoyance.

  The one thing I can say for certain, was after the ceremony was finished, I was indeed over it. Mark’s cheating, leaving me for my boss, all of it. I was no longer angry or sad about losing Mark. As I watched the preacher announce them man and wife and Mark kissed Charlotte, I was over him. Not a single emotion in me stirred except for the worry that that would never be me. I made to get up to get in line to praise the new couple when Armand grabbed my hand halting me. Once again, he was acting like he knew me. As if he’d actually come with me and not stag. It irked me. I tried to pull my hand away he held tighter as we made our way
over to Mark and Charlotte.

  When we got up to the front Mark’s eyes landed on me going wide. “Congratulations, beautiful ceremony,” I said. I gave Mark a stiff hug.

  “Desi,” he whispered into my hair, “I’m sorry.” I shook it off and let go. Mark’s eyes were immediately on Armand, “Who’s this?” He asked me but didn't’ take his eyes off Armand.

  Armand held out his hand, “Armand. Desi’s boyfriend.”

  “Oh. My. God!” Charlotte shrieked, “Armand? How are you?”

  Charlotte and Armand shared a hug. When they let go Armand said, “Good, lovely ceremony.”

  “I didn’t expect to see you,” Charlotte started then her eyes slid to me, “Desi?”

  “Hey Charlotte. You look gorgeous.”

  “Thank you?” She seemed surprised to see me. Surprised I was paying her a compliment which also surprised me too. Then her attention went back to Armand, “Give me a call we have to catch up,” she said.

  Armand gave a gruff, “Mmhmm,” before wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me with him away from the happy couple.

  “You know Charlotte?” I asked as he ushered me towards the reception inside the Grey Tea Room.

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Her brother and I go way back.”

  “Oh,” was all I said trying to digest this turn of events. Did Armand ever warm Charlotte’s bed? I stewed on this as food was served during the reception. That one thought opened a can of ugly I couldn’t stop sifting through if I wanted to.

  “Don’t you agree?” Armand asked pulling me from my downward spiraling thoughts.

  “Huh?” I asked meeting those greens eyes which were staring at me intensely.

  He shook his head then took a sip from his glass. Food was cleared, and music started playing. First dance belonged to the happy couple. They danced to “Prefect” by Ed Sheeran. They glided along the floor. My attention turned to Armand. He too, was fixated on watching Mark and Charlotte dance. He looked tense. Then those green eyes cut to me and his face went soft as we stared at each other. Something warm flipped in my belly at the way he was looking at me. At the way those green eyes stared so intensely at me. At the soft smile that played on his lips that his lip ring made sexy as hell.