“At least you get a tax cut,” he said, shrugging. “But yeah, I don’t understand why we have grown accustomed to throwing these massive parties, spending thousands and thousands of dollars, all for one day.”
“Not to mention half of them end in divorce, which is where I really think the party should be thrown,” I said, laughing.
“Come on, man. You don’t see yourself ever tying the knot?”
“I’m sure I will,” I sighed. “And knowing my dating history, I’ll be forced into one of these giant parties, but I will fight to the death for elopement before I give in. I have to go down with some of my dignity intact, not that it will happen for a very long time.”
“I feel you,” Caleb sighed. “Women are all the same, and I tell you what, from the ones I’ve seen frequenting our favorite spots lately, I don’t have a very good feeling that I will be taking the plunge anytime in the near future.”
“Agreed,” I said, staring at a red head’s ass as she passed. “The girls at the bar are good for one thing. The marrying girls are already married, divorced and bitter, or hiding out because they don’t want to meet guys like you.”
“Hey, I resemble that remark,” he said, laughing. “But it’s not like you are the most charming man I have ever met.”
“It’s not my fault that I am too smart to hold a conversation with the bimbo at the bar.” I laughed. “Maybe if the smart girls started to come out, you’d see a completely different side of me. I don’t want to end up with another Katerina experience.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about her,” he said, shaking his head. “She was fucking hot. Dumb as a box of rocks but hot. Whatever happened to her?”
“She got a modeling contract out of LA and wanted to get hitched, so we could stay together,” I replied. “I pictured my life flying back and forth from LA, Katerina forgetting how to tie her shoes, and me trying to keep up with the latest fashion trends. It was terrifying, so I broke it off with her.”
“I’m sorry, man,” he said.
“I’m not,” I replied. “Her tits kept me in the relationship, but I was tired of explaining every little thing to her. My AI freaked her out every time she came into the apartment.”
“That’s because you would program it to freak her out.” He laughed.
“Only near the end,” I said. “I thought maybe humor would brighten our relationship, but it was not even close.”
“Alright man, we better take our seats,” he said, leading the way into the room. “I’ll hit you up at the reception.”
I nodded my head and took a seat midway down the line, smiling at the older woman who was sitting next to me. The smell of her perfume was overwhelming, and I turned my head toward the aisle for some air. There was a pink satin runway all the way up to the altar where the groom and six of his closest assholes were standing, looking worse for wear after, I was assuming, one hell of a bachelor party. The groom looked okay, though, and I could only assume that Caroline had threatened his manhood if he showed up at the wedding hungover. As the music started to play, everyone turned in their seats to watch the bridesmaids make their way down the aisle in strapless, floor-length, pink silk gowns. They smiled and blushed as the crowd oohed and awed at their presence.
When the wedding march started, everyone stood up, and I turned to wait for the bride to make her grand entrance. As my eyes panned past the people across the aisle, they stopped, landing on a beautiful girl dressed in a dark teal dress and clutching her purse in front of her. She had long, sandy blonde hair and dark green eyes that stared lovingly to the back of the room. Her curves were smoking
hot, and the way her pencil skirt hugged her body was making me weak in the knees. I was so obsessed with staring at this girl that I didn’t even realize that Caroline was approaching until she blocked my view with her giant tulle skirt and sparkling jewelry.
By the time she had passed, the girl was facing the front, and I continued to glance over at her, even after we had all been seated. She smiled as the officiant talked about true love, forever, and all that other stuff that went along with getting hitched. I could tell she was a dreamer from the dewy-eyed school girl look on her face. There was no way that I was going to let this event go by without talking to her, and maybe if I played my cards right, she could be the wedding zombie girl that I ended up taking to bed that night. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling as I looked over at her, that she was different in some sort of way. Maybe it was the nervous way she rubbed her fingers across the satin of her purse, or the fact that she was probably the most stunning woman I had ever seen, but either way, there was something about her that screamed secret.
I turned myself back toward the front of the room after several nasty looks from the people around her. I caught Caleb’s eye as he glanced back at me, nodding his head and rolling his eyes. I stifled a laugh and watched as Caroline married Troy, the man she had been obsessing over for years. Maybe they would be happy, maybe they wouldn’t, but either way, they just gave me a really good excuse to be at my best when I entered that reception hall.
Chapter 4
Reese
The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, and I couldn’t help but shed a small tear for Caroline. We hadn’t been super close in years, but she was a really sweet girl, and I was happy for her that she had found her happily ever after. I, on the other hand, was seated at a table with the older people, and I had to come up with an excuse as to why I didn’t have a date. After about twenty minutes of polite conversation, I excused myself, meandering over to the edge of the dancefloor where I pretended to take pictures of Caroline and Troy dancing the night away.
There were barely any people there that I knew, and the ones that were familiar were all my father’s friends. The last thing I wanted to do was stand around talking with my parents’ friends just so they could report back to him on how much fun I was not having, and how I had come without a date. My father had married my mother when she was just twenty years old, so in his eyes, at twenty-three, I was way behind the curve. Personally, I thought my age was just fine, and didn’t see any hurry in just grabbing some guy to make my parents happy. They had attempted to set me up a couple of times, but they all ended up being spoiled rich boys with trust funds and huge egos, something that I knew would not interest me in the least.
Just the thought of being stuck with one of those assholes at a wedding made me perfectly happy with being there alone. However, being an already awkward person, it did not make it any better that I was wandering around the banquet hall on my own, trying to not look weird, but still have somewhat of a good time. I thought I had found someone to talk to for a second when one of Troy’s groomsman approached me, but that went south really fast when he hit on me with his horrible whiskey breath and then slurred out the word bitch before stumbling away. They must have been hitting it hard before the wedding because we hadn’t even been there long enough to get wasted yet. Speaking of alcohol, maybe a couple of glasses of wine would loosen me up enough to have a conversation with someone.
“Reese,” Caroline said from over my shoulder.
“Caroline,” I replied with a smile as I turned around. “How are you? You look so freaking amazing.”
“I am exhausted,” she sighed. “And starving. They wouldn’t leave us behind long enough to actually eat the food that I had ordered.”
“I’ve heard that’s how it always is with these kinds of things.” I smiled. “But really, you did an amazing job with all of this. My mom told me that you insisted on working side by side with the planner so it could be absolutely perfect. I saw that you have the lilies you wanted since we were little, gossiping to each other about our future husbands.”
“I did get them!” she said, gushing. “I have planned this day my whole life.”