"How’s Finn?" Carter asked, elbowing Grant.
"He joined the Marines," she replied.
Carter was surprised.
"It will be good for him," Mrs. Burbank said. "He needs the structure."
"Our son was adopted," Mrs. Burbank told Allie, "and he's always been a handful. I had hoped once he reached his twenties, he would mature and become more grounded, but that never happened."
After the other members of their small group left to join other conversations, Allie turned to Carter and asked, "Are you telling people I'm your girlfriend?"
"Why not?" he replied, letting his hand slowly drift down her back. "We basically are. We live together, and we have a dog together."
"We don't really live together," she corrected, "and you barely came to visit that dog."
"Because you wouldn't let me see your apartment. I can't believe you didn't let me help you," he snapped.
"Because of you, I was arrested," she hissed at him. "That's why I didn't tell you—because I knew you would just make everything worse."
She threw his hand off and walked away, her heels clicking on the floor.
Carter inwardly groaned. Why was she so antagonistic? Didn't she want him? He grabbed another of the cocktails from a server and drained it.
Sometimes I don't even know why I bother with Allie.
41
Allie
The next morning, Allie sat next to Liz at breakfast.
"It's so early," Liz said with a yawn.
Brandy and her mother were coming over soon. They needed to start making serious headway on the wedding planning. Liz and Allie had only managed to sleep a few hours since the engagement party the night before had gone on so long.
Carter had left without saying goodbye, and Allie felt terrible about how things were left between them.
"You were really harsh to him," Liz said. She had her tablet out and was going through the inspiration images for Brandy’s wedding, trying to make sure Allie had been familiarized with the design direction.
"I just don't really know how to relate to him. Like, what are we? Are we coworkers? Is he my boss, roommate, boyfriend? It's complicated," she said, moving her eggs around on her plate.
Liz wrinkled her nose. "You're overthinking it. He's handsome, smart, funny, good-looking, filthy rich. What more do you want?"
Allie flipped through the tablet while Liz finished her yogurt.
"So this new wedding planner hasn't quit?" Allie asked.
"Not yet. This one did Ginny's wedding. She didn't want to do Brandy's, apparently, because she can't stand her, but Ginny and Brandy's dad offered the planner triple her normal fee. So here we are."
"Does she have a dress? Flowers? Venue?" Allie asked.
She didn’t know a lot about weddings, but Stacy loved weddings. Allie's former roommate was constantly planning dream weddings, looking at wedding magazines, and watching wedding TV shows, so Allie knew a bit about them just from osmosis.
Liz stole a bite of bacon from Allie's plate. "Brandy has a dress and a venue. They’re having it at the country club." She pulled up pictures.
"That’s going to be nice," Allie said, marveling at the pictures of the historic building.
"They only just finished fixing everything from the hostage situation last year."
