“He’s taking me to lunch,” Josie explained with a big smile. “I was shocked when he called and asked, and I totally jumped at the chance. We’ve seen each other a lot since the breakup, but we’re usually with my folks. It will be nice for it to be just the two of us.”
“How sweet!” Leanna said. “Aww…I love it! That’s so nice that he’s reaching out like that.”
“I thought so too. Plus, he almost never takes time off of work; he usually eats lunch at his desk, so this is huge for him. I think this embargo thing is really working!”
Great…
“Good for him! Oh, I can’t wait to see him,” Leanna went on. “If Elliott can be happy being single, I guess I can too, huh?”
“There’s nothing wrong with being single,” Josie said wearily. “No one needs a significant other to complete them or make them happy. You should be happy with yourself.”
“How are you even a wedding planner?” Leanna asked, shaking her head. “You talk to people about the importance of love and happily-ever-after, and yet you’re the most jaded person I know!”
“I’m not jaded. I just don’t think we need someone us to make us whole. Plus, after watching Elliott’s journey over the last twelve years, I certainly don’t want to deal with any of that. No thank you.”
That made Skye speak up. “So you’re saying all the things that used to speak to your brother–things like how your parents and grandparents all have these amazing relationships–hold no appeal to you?”
Josie was quiet for a moment. “You know, I guess I just don’t look at it the same way he does. Sure, they’ve all been married for a long time, but those relationships aren’t perfect. My parents fight, my grandparents fight…” She sighed. “Elliott just never realized that there’s nothing overly special about our family. Lots of people have long marriages. There’s no magic to it and you certainly can’t force magic where there is none.”
“So sad,” Leanna murmured as she finished her cake.
“Oh! But that does remind me,” Josie said as she sat up straighter. “My nana and pop-pop–my dad’s parents–are going to be celebrating their sixty-fifth anniversary and they want us to help plan the party! They want to renew their vows and Nana swears she’s going to wear her original wedding gown! How cool is that?”
“So romantic!” Leanna said with a sigh, and yet all Skye could think was how at one time, this was on the long list of things Elliott wanted for himself.
Not anymore…
Rather than voice that opinion, she opted to lick the remainder of the frosting off of her fork.
It was safer that way.
“You’re awfully quiet tonight, Skye,” Leanna observed. “You doing okay?”
“Just tired,” she lied.
“I think we all are,” Josie agreed as she stood up. “Let’s get things in motion so we can possibly crawl into bed as the sun comes up.”
Sadly, that was exactly the way it went. After the entire venue was cleaned up, their supplies were taken back to the Meet Me at the Altar offices, and the staff was paid, it was nearing five in the morning. Skye dragged herself to bed and said a quick prayer of thanks that it was Sunday and she had nothing else to do but sleep.
The next time she woke up it was after lunch and she enjoyed being lazy and doing nothing but laundry and having her dinner delivered.
It was glorious.
On Monday morning, she hit the ground running. The week always started off with a staff meeting–which was really just Skye, Josie, and Leanna sitting around their consultation table with coffee and bagels as they talked about the upcoming schedule for the week. Most of the time they stayed on task, but sometimes–like today–things went off the rails.
“She called me at six thirty this morning wanting to know if we could accommodate an additional thirty guests and still stay on budget!” Josie explained, her Starbucks coffee precariously close to spilling.
“What did you tell her? I mean, if they want to stay on budget, then something else has to go!”
“That’s what I told her and she demanded a meeting today at eleven.”
Both Skye and Leanna groaned. “Oh, come on, Jos,” Skye whined. “Why? Why would you agree to that on a Monday morning?”
“What was I supposed to do? This is going to be one of our biggest events in the history of Meet Me at the Altar! We need to quickly come up with some options on how we can add thirty people without breaking fire codes and the budget. And if we can make that happen, do you have any idea how much business we could gain from this?”
“I hate when you’re right,” she grumbled.
“Okay, let’s start with me because I can say with great certainty that adding extra dessert won’t cost them anything extra. I can easily add an extra tier to the cake or we can even work on going with slightly smaller slices if she doesn’t want to change the overall design of the cake,” Leanna offered. “I believe we can also get by without having to add too much to the cocktail hour menu. It’s the main course that’s going to blow the food budget. Thirty extra people will more than likely add another five to seven thousand dollars to the overall cost. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not too terrible when you consider how much they’re already spending.”
Skye nodded in agreement. “I say we lay that out from the get-go–give her the dollar amount it’s going to cost for the additional people and then mention how we’re throwing in the extra dessert for free. Think that will work?”
“No idea,” Josie replied. “But we have to start somewhere, right?”
Once that was agreed upon, Skye went to work up new paperwork so everything would be ready just in case. Leanna went and put together a tray of mini-cakes and cookies to offer, and Josie got on the phone with the venue they were going to be using to see if they could accommodate the extra guests. By the time eleven o’clock rolled around, they were all completely prepared and ready to go.
Unfortunately, the Buchanans weren’t easily convinced and clearly wanted a discount of some sort. Skye let Josie do the bulk of the talking and it took almost ninety minutes to come to an agreement. While Josie wrapped things up, Skye wished them a good day and practically sprinted back to her office.
And ran right into Elliott.
“Oh!” she cried before he reached out to steady her.
“Sorry,” he said, smiling down at her. “You looked like you were anxious to get back here. Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” she said breathlessly. “Everything’s fine.”
Except I want to grab your face and kiss you.
Bad Skylar!
“So…how are you?” he asked softly.
The sound of his voice and his nearness mesmerized her. She bit her bottom lip as her gaze met his. “I’m good,” she replied, her voice equally soft.
He nodded. “I’m here to take Josie to lunch, but…I had hoped to see you and talk to you. You ran from the house after we had dinner together and…” He paused and shook his head. “I should have gone after you. I hate that you left that way.”
So did she, but she wasn’t going to admit that to him. Swallowing hard, she said, “It was for the best. We never should have done that.”