“She was invited to your wedding,” I reminded him.
“Yes,” Drew said, “but she politely refused.”
“Guess she changed her mind,” I shrugged, trying to stop this terrible feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. That feeling where you know you’ve done something wrong but now you’re in too deep and you just have to keep wading through the poop storm you’ve created.
“You’re lucky Carla’s not here,” Drew helped me with the drinks.
“What?” I said, feeling even more disappointed that I wouldn’t get my bit of revenge on her. “I thought she was hosting the quiz night?”
“I’m not sure if she’s going to make it tonight,” Drew shrugged. “One of Hayley’s other bridesmaids are standing in for Carla tonight.”
“Perfect,” I muttered under my breath and got a weird look for Drew.
“What is going on with you and Carla?” Drew asked me as we walked to the table.
“I’m really sorry about Celeste,” I apologized to Drew, deliberately ignoring his question about Carla because I didn’t want mine and Carla’s little competition to ruin his week. “But she wanted to meet up and I really have no other time this week.” I explained. “Tonight seemed like the only night, and as it’s just a quiz night, I didn’t think it would be a big deal.” Drew raised his eyebrows at me. “What was I supposed to do?”
“How about completely breaking it off with her once and for all,” Drew hissed at me. “I know she’s my cousin, but she’s trouble.” He shook his head at me. “Just ask him.” He pointed to the door.
I turned to look at the door just as Todd and the most incredibly beautiful woman I’d ever seen walked in.
“Holy Batman,” I give a low whistle, “who is that?”
“Todd’s new wife,” Drew told me with more than a hint of warning in his voice. “Oh,” he raised both eyebrows at me, “and she’s Ken Moore’s little sister.” There was no mistaking the warning tone in his voice this time.
I felt a little hurt by that. I wasn’t a monster; I would never go near another man’s wife.
“She’s Sophia Moore?” I asked as the realization of what Drew had just said sunk in. “How the hell did Todd land Ken Moore’s sister?”
“Todd’s a hell of a nice guy,” Drew defended Todd, “he didn’t deserve what you did to him.” Drew took a sip of his beer, “Twice!”
“In my defense,” I said, “I didn’t know he was seeing Celeste when we were in college.”
“As I recall, he forgave you and her for that,” Drew took another sip of his beer, “but you knew they were engaged the second time.” He raised his bottle to me before heading off to greet the new arrivals.
Well, bringing Celeste here didn’t go at all as I’d planned. To make matters worse, the one I was really hoping to piss off was nowhere to be seen. Just my rotten luck.
I sighed and took Celeste her drink.
“Did you know Todd and that bitch were going to be here tonight?” Celeste asked me quietly, her eyes glittering with anger.
“No,” I answered honestly, “I did not. I’m just as surprised as you are.”
Before I could start to make an exit plan, the room was divided up into bride contestants and groom contestants. One of Hayley’s bridesmaids had stepped up for the missing Carla to take over the festivities. Myself and Celeste got up and moved to the groom’s side of the room. Thank goodness the Moores and Todd were on the bride’s side.
“Do you want to leave?” I asked Celeste. “We can go have supper somewhere and see where the night takes us.” I smiled suggestively.
“Actually,” Celeste turned to me and smiled seductively. “Why don’t we just skip the dinner for the last part.”
“Mm,” I looked at her but I didn’t feel as good as I would usually have at that suggestion. In fact, I was actually turned off!
“Damon,” Drew put some more drinks in front of us, “I’m counting on you tonight, bud.” He gave me that look that told me he knew I was about to bolt.
“Of course; I’ve got your back,” I raised my whiskey to him. I don’t know whether I was relieved or irritated by being trapped like that. “Shit, that ruins our escape plans.” I whispered to Celeste.
“I don’t think I’m going to stick around, Damon,” Celeste told me.
Celeste’s eyes kept darting to where Todd and his new supermodel wife was. It would be one thing if she just looked like a supermodel but Sophia Moore actually was hounded for years to be a supermodel. She’d turned the opportunity down to build houses somewhere as the woman was also some sort of saint. The do-gooder gorgeous gene obviously runs in the Moore family. Right now I had no idea why, but Ken Moore was no longer one of my favorite ex-pro basketball players. But Todd, however, the animosity I’d felt toward him had instantly vanished the moment Drew mentioned the words ‘Todd’s wife’. I was, however, a little green with envy of Todd. I also no longer felt as guilty as I did for playing a part in Todd’s breakup than I did before. Hell, I did the man a freakin’ favor with Celeste.