I nodded again, because what was left to say?
Emilia paused a beat, scanning my face, then walked away without another word.
The slam of my front door sounded like an exclamation point. An abrupt end.
I picked up my phone. It was time for me to get back to work.
27
EMILIA
We were in the final hours of the reception and despite the drama of the lead-up, the day had been perfectly perfect. We’d made all of our happy couple’s dreams come true.
There were hiccups, of course. We couldn’t source another green suit with all the sensors, so Kristen couldn’t have her dance with her grandfather. The bridal party had attempted a surprise viral dance that turned out to be more cringey than cute thanks to the X-rated lyrics and twerking. The band had gotten Kristen and Carter’s first dance song wrong and they’d had to start over. Twice. Not to mention, we were edging closer to the roller skating portion of the night, and based on how drunk everyone was I doubted it would end well.
At least the company required participants to wear helmets.
But Carter and Kristen were blissfully happy, and that was what really mattered. Every lens was zoomed in on the glow of their joy, and for once, they didn’t seem to notice the cameras at all. The only thing they seemed to see was each other, and I was pretty sure they hadn’t stopped holding hands for the past two hours.
Drew, for his part, had been the perfect host. Nothing escaped his notice, except for me. It was like the man couldn’t even bring himself to glance in my direction, except when we were dealing with something work related. Thankfully, the snafus on our end were minor. One missing vegetarian meal that Chef quickly substituted and a dropped tray of champagne and we were basically flawless.
The night was almost over, which meant my time with Drew was speeding to an end.
My heart felt like it was filled with bricks. Thanks to my training I could manufacture a convincing smile, but it made me feel like I was wearing a mask.
Since everything was going smoothly for the moment I opted to hang out in a quiet corner, still as a statue until I was needed again. Nora drifted over to me wearing a worried expression.
“Home stretch,” she whispered in my ear.
She’d been rushing around all night snapping photos, but things were slowing down for her as well. She’d told me that after a while, all drunken dancefloor photos looked the same. She’d captured the moments that people would actually remember, so her work was basically done.
“You okay?” Nora asked me.
I nodded. She knew every detail about what had gone down the night before, which meant she’d been shooting the evil eye at Drew all night. “You?”
“Yeah, it’s going really well. Turns out there’s an editor fromInStyle Magazinecovering the wedding and she likes my stuff. She took my card and said that we need to talk about possible future projects.”
“Nora!” I grabbed her arm and squeezed it. “That’s amazing.”
“Something good from the wreckage,” she said. “And hey, this mess led to you getting a permanent gig here. Once we get past the collateral damage you’ll see that this turned out to be a good thing.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Yes, well, about that. I’ve been thinking.”
She nudged my shoulder with hers. “What do you mean? This job is a good thing. Think about thebankyou’ll be making now—with a full load of benefits, too. Decent health insurance for the win, right?”
“True, but... Can we talk about this later? I have a lot to think about.” Nora agreed but she didn’t look happy about it.
I’d been trying to focus on the positives of the scenario. Stable work with a steady and predictable paycheck. And instead of needing to hustle for clients in a crowded market space, I would be able to rely on the resort’s star power to bring clients right to me. On paper, I was golden.
I glanced down at the ring on my finger. Nothing golden aboutthatpart of my life.
Nora jutted her chin to where Kristen and Carter were dancing in the middle of all of their friends. “How long do you give ‘em?”
Carter was spinning his bride around the floor, mouthing the words to “Crazy in Love,” and she was beaming at him. She’d changed into her third outfit of the night, which was a beaded white bandeau top and miniskirt that was a couple inches away from being a bathing suit.
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other, but by now I knew that it was more than just a physical connection. Carter protectively elbowed anyone about to accidentally dance into her, and he always placed his hand on the small of her back when they were walking anywhere. At one point he’d kicked off his shoes so she could wear them instead of going barefoot when she couldn’t take her heels anymore.
“I don’t know, those two just might make it,” I insisted.
