Page 118 of The Fast Lane
Great. “Why can’t I speak to your dad?”
I could practically hear this kid’s shrug over the phone. “He’s in Montana this weekend.”
“But he’ll be back for the wedding on Sunday, right?”
“I think he’s not coming back until Wednesday.”
I pulled up the PHOTOGRAPHER folder in the Wedding Planner. “I have receipts. He received all the payments. What am I supposed to do?”
“Um, I have a cousin who likes photography. He helps Dad sometimes.”
I perked up. “Oh, really?”
“I can ask him. Sometimes his mom works on the weekends and then he won’t have a ride.”
“Wait. How old is he?”
“Fifteen.”
I pulled the phone from my ear and stared at it. Was I getting punked?
It only got worse.
The caterers confirmed for Sunday but swore their receipts stated one hundred and fifty guests when it was supposed to be two hundred and fifty. The venue lost the reservation for the honeymoon suite and there was some convention in town starting on Sunday. Getting a new room was going to be a challenge.
The limousine company verified they’d be sending over a replacement since the white stretch limo had been in a car accident two days before.
The officiant had the flu, but he was pretty sure he’d be okay by Sunday. Then he proceeded to cough so hard and so long, I almost called 9-1-1 for him.
That was about the time the text came in from Ted. Oh, he had a tent for us. One with yellow and red stripes that said, WELCOME TO THE BIG TOP, in bold, bright letters above an oversized entrance. A literal circus tent.
“What am I supposed to do with this mess?” I asked my empty hotel room. I couldn’t tell Melanie all this. She would curl in the fetal position and never speak again. Literally. I was not exaggerating. The rainy forecast almost killed her.
I’d have to fix it. I wasn’t sure how, but it was going to happen.
I just needed a plan.
I called a meeting of the wedding party, minus parents and the bride and groom. By the time everyone arrived, I’d managed to talk the hotel into letting me borrow a small whiteboard from one of their conference rooms. My hotel room had become the Situation Room.
An hour before the rehearsal was to start, Mack, Karen in tow, my brothers and Theo, plus Melanie’s bridesmaids: her twin cousins, Lydia and Laura, Ruth, Frankie’s girlfriend, and Melanie’s best friend since college, Penny, were all crammed into my hotel room.
And Alec. Yeah, him, too.
“We have a problem.” By the time I finished explaining the many, many things that were about to explode, no one was smiling. In fact, the room had grown eerily quiet. Except for Karen who began to growl when I accidentally made eye contact with her.
“I have a plan,” I continued. “First, we don’t tell anyone else about this. Second, we?—”
“Not tell them?” Alec cut in from his spot leaning against the closet door, where he’d stared at his phone the entire time I’d talked. “Cal and Melanie need to know about this as soon as possible.”
A chorus of “no ways” and “no’s” rang out.
Penny shook her head. “Melanie is hanging on by a thread as it is.”
“And Aunt Sonya would spend the rest of her life reminding Melanie about how the wedding should have been in Texas,” Laura said. “She’s kind of a Karen.”
“She didn’t mean that, sweetling.” Mack rubbed the dog’s tummy. “Could we please refrain from making Karen jokes? She’s a very sensitive puppy.”
“Our mom tends to be a little…highly strung,” I said. “We’re on our own here.”