“Will you be okay at this reception with the booze flowing?” I ask, “The last thing we need is you getting sauced and causing a scene.” I hear how much of an asshole I sound like but can’t seem to make myself stop.
She waves her hand dismissively. “I’ll be fine. Carly and Charlene made sure to have options included for me when they did their planning. They consulted me and I talked them out of some of their ridiculous ideas. Sadly, I was not able to talk them into overhauling most everything.” She rolls her eyes. “The centerpieces are atrocious. You’ll see. They’re about as classy as that Ally’s hair.” Her eyes roll backwards.
“The ceremony was nice,” I say, staring at her. “I thought it was perfect.”
My mother smiles as the doors open and we head out to the banquet level of the hotel.
“It was.”
Her expression appears genuine and I’m taken aback. I know things with her and my brother have been rough the past couple years, so that she’s even been invited to his wedding is no small feat.
My mood softens a little as we head into the banquet room and I get back into party mode.
***
It was a good night. The whole wedding had fewer than fifty people, but we ate great food, there was good music, too.
And my favorite part of the evening, when the doors opened during the first course of dinner with a drumroll and Suki, our childhood nanny walked in with Adele who had slipped out a few minutes before.
Suki had said she couldn’t come, but Adele made arrangements for her to arrive, though it was late due to a medical appointment she had. Her arrival made the whole family ecstatic.
We all gave speeches, some of them made people laugh, some of them got some of the girls weepy. My father cried during his speech, talking about his Cancer wake-up call and how much he loves his family, and this got most of the room crying. My mother stared at the tablecloth for most of that speech.
Dad then took credit for matching the bride and groom up, talking about meeting Carly in Buffalo and then hiring her and putting Carly in Aiden’s apartment.
Most everyone got drunk and danced their asses off. Except my mother. She sat back, though, and chatted with Carly’s mother, aunt, as well as Suki.
I got drunk. Shitfaced, in fact. It helped numb the pain in my face and fist as well as made it easier to ignore the shit weighing on me. I had eyes open in case Sienna or Roger Greer showed up, and they didn’t, thankfully.
But Meryl did. And that resulted in an escalation of my alcohol consumption.
Meryl popped in for dinner and our eyes didn’t once meet. I intentionally didn’t allow my gaze to go near her. She did not bring her fiancé, but I did notice she suddenly had an engagement ring on her finger. Not big, not microscopically small either. I guess my eyes did stray to her a time or two. But she didn’t get the chance to see it because I managed to get away with it without her noticing.
She didn’t stay long, looked like she wanted to approach once; I felt her linger near the head table as she said goodbye to my brother and Carly and I intentionally got into a conversation with Dirk, who was holding a sleeping Lilly.
And then no Meryl; I didn’t see her leave.
As the night wore on and the drinks flowed, I dodged what may have even been a pass from Ally, who was equally smashed as me, sort of fast-dancing, mostly singing together and pumping our fists in a co-ed group to You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC, telling me how she was going to Photoshop my black eye and slightly swollen upper lip out of the wedding photos, but that it’d cost me. I told her she should edit her weave out of the pictures to appease my mother and that made her cackle. The fast song went slow and before I could get a chance to vacate the dancefloor, she wound her arms around my neck and slow danced with me.
I noticed then that my mother and Aiden were dancing, too, and in conversation. Aiden even had a smile on his face as they talked.
This took me by surprise, in a good way, and my eyes met my sister’s. Adele, dancing with her husband, pulled her lips tight and her eyes went big when we were facing one another, her chin jerking toward Aiden and our mother. I gave her a wink and a smile and that’s when Ally’s grip tightened.
I took it as harmless at first, but then she said something and I looked down to ask her to repeat it and saw she was giving me a look, a look I recognize. Looking up at me through lowered lashes, smiling. Did she think I was winking at her?