We’d been in touch mostly via text where I sent her updates as to what was happening with me. Not explicitly detailed updates, but she basically knew what was going on. I wondered what she was doing at Noah’s house.
“What are you guys doing here in the middle of the day?” She could have been there to work, but she had Allan with her, and that seemed odd.
“Juliet!” She hugged me and pulled back to say, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I couldn’t wait one second longer and had to tell you in person. I did what you said. I got a new dream.”
“What’s going on? What do you mean?”
Allan came over to join her, putting his arm around her shoulders.
Shelby grinned at me. “Allan and I are going to Las Vegas to get married. Right now. And we want both of you to come with us and be our witnesses.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Now it was my turn to shriek in happiness for her. “What? That’s insane! I’m so thrilled for you guys!” I hugged both her and Allan while Noah congratulated them. “But Vegas? Why now? Why not wait until the weekend?”
Allan said, “We were talking this morning, and we decided that we wanted our forever to start now.”
“We don’t have to worry about anyone else being there, so there’s no reason to wait,” Shelby added, but I heard the way her voice faltered at the words anyone else. I knew that it was in part due to her mother not being here, but given that Allan was so flagrantly choosing Shelby, just like he said he would, she must have also been talking about Harmony.
I wondered if Harmony knew. And if she didn’t, I would have liked to be there when she found out and her head exploded.
“Do you already have airline tickets?” Noah asked.
“Not yet,” Shelby said. “We wanted to make sure you guys could come so we could all fly together.”
“We could drive,” I offered, but that quickly got shot down.
“I have a photo shoot tomorrow afternoon,” Noah said, right as Allan added, “I have a deposition,” and Shelby jumped in, “Demolition for this needy movie star I’m working with.”
“And I have to feed and walk a dog,” I announced, feeling a little less than.
“Let me make a call and get us a flight so that we can go on our own schedule,” Noah said. It took me a second to understand what he meant, but Allan got there much faster and protested, “You don’t have to do that.”
But Noah had his phone out and walked away from us with Allan following at a bit of a distance, presumably to try to talk Noah out of it.
That wasn’t going to happen.
“You’re getting married!” I said to Shelby and hugged her again. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I can, but you’re going to be a married lady.”
“I know this puts you in a bind, but I’m going to keep paying rent until you make other arrangements.”
This hit me hard, like running straight into an accidentally closed door. Of course she would be living with Allan after she got married. But that was supposed to be two years from now, not tomorrow. “You’re moving out.”
Her lower lip started to tremble. “I don’t want to leave you. I think that’s one of the reasons I held on to the idea of a double wedding for so long—that neither one of us would be leaving the other. I don’t want you to be alone.”
“I can get another roommate.” At her crestfallen expression, I hurried to add, “Of course she won’t be you. No one could ever replace you. And I’ll come visit you and you can visit me and we’ll do girls’ nights.”
“Right.”
But my promise felt a little hollow. Things were going to change completely. While I was ninety-nine percent thrilled for her that she was marrying the man she loved, that one percent twinged with sadness at the idea that we weren’t going to be living together anymore.
Noah and Allan were arguing. Allan said, “You can’t do this. You can’t hire a private jet to fly us to Las Vegas.”
“It’s already done.”
“I’ll pay you back,” Allan insisted.
“No, you won’t. It’s a wedding gift. I also made hotel arrangements for all of us.”
Allan looked exasperated and like he didn’t know what to do.
“Give it up, Allan,” I called out. “You won’t win.”
Noah grinned at me and winked, and Shelby sighed. “I love how he looks at you. Do you even see it? How soft his gaze is every time you speak? It happens when he and I are talking about you, too.”
They talked about me? Like how? I wanted to ask her, but given that we had company, I couldn’t really dive into it. So I settled on, “I don’t know what you’re trying to say here.”
“He’s about to fly us on a private jet to Las Vegas, which I personally have always dreamed about doing, and he’s made hotel and car arrangements. And no matter how good I am at interior design, this is not for me. This is all for you. Because I’m your best friend and he wants to make you happy.”
“No,” I protested. “He’s a really generous person. We—”
“I swear on all that is holy, if you say that you are only friends, I will hurt you. This is my wedding day. You have to humor me. And I say you may not know it yet, but that boy is falling for you.”
My throat suddenly felt too tight, and my head went a little woozy. That couldn’t be true. I was about to say as much, but Shelby continued, “I am also officially asking you to be my maid of honor. I stopped by our favorite rental shop and picked up a white dress for me and a purple one for you.”
“I’ve been waiting my whole life to be your maid of honor.” We hugged again. Allan came back, wanting to talk to Shelby—probably to tell her this was all too much—but Noah seemed determined, and Shelby was even more determined to get her way and seemed enthusiastic about the luxury setup.
I made my way over to Noah and pulled him aside.
“You don’t have to do all this,” I told him.
“I want to. And technically, I’m not doing it. My new assistant is.”
“You hired another assistant?” His last one had moved to Florida, and I knew he’d been looking to replace her. “When?”
“A few days ago. Reina helped pick him out. His name is Kyle. He’s very good. I needed one.”
“For things like last-minute Vegas weddings?” I asked, shaking my head. I was pretty sure this didn’t fall under poor Kyle’s job description.
“Exactly. I did try to tell you about hiring him, but then you did that thing to my earlobe that makes me lose track of space and time and so I forgot.”
I blushed at his words and hoped that Allan and Shelby hadn’t overheard.
Noah cleared his throat and announced to everyone, “The plane will be ready to go in about three hours, which gives us time to pack up and head out to the private airport. Let’s meet back here and I’ll have a car ready to take us over.”
Both Allan and Shelby thanked him profusely, but Noah just waved it away. They left, promising to rejoin us soon, and when the door closed, I hugged Noah. “Thank you. This means a lot.”