“For the theme, I was thinking more earth goddess—lots of ivory, with more muted accent colors like a mint green or a blush. Though,” I tapped two color swatches, “we could also have a more cream palette. If we did that, then I would go with peach and a sage green. But first you need to decide if you like the cream or the ivory.”
We all looked at the nearly identical swatches.
“What do you think, Mark?” I asked. Mark’s eyes had partially glazed over. “You’re the best man,” I reminded him, tapping my pen on the table in front of him. “These are the types of important decisions we’ll need you to make over the coming months.”
Mark growled and looked down at the swatches. “They all look the same.”
“Do you even want to be in this wedding?” I snapped.
Mark pursed his mouth. Wes looked concerned.
“Of course I do,” Mark said through gritted teeth after a moment.
“Then why don’t we table this color discussion and move on to the save-the-date notes,” Ivy suggested, kicking me under the table.
“These are adorable!” Liz cooed as Ivy laid out the options.
The glazed look was settling back over Mark’s face.
I give him a week tops, I thought as I watched him over the whipped cream on the jug of coffee I was sipping.I bet he has one more meeting in him, then he flakes out.
Mark glanced at me, met my gaze, then straightened up.
“While normally this would be a month-long process, we do need to make a decision in the next few days,” Ivy told Liz, “in order to make sure these are sent out in time. The font, logo, and border design you select will inspire the rest of the invitations, the menus, the thank-you cards, and the branding of any other print materials.”
“No pressure, huh,” Liz said nervously.
“Any of these would be pretty,” Wes assured her.
“You can take these home and think about them, and we’ll talk about it in the next meeting, which will be in,” Ivy pointed to the calendar, “four days.”
Mark’s eyes widened slightly.
“Are you going to make it?” I said snidely. “Next time, I’ll make you a nice cup of coffee to keep you engaged.”
“All that sugar isn’t good for you,” he said.
“Of course it is! It’s a mug of fun!” I waved the coffee cup at him. “We have ten flavors of ice cream in the freezer.”
“At my office, we only have healthy snacks.”
“You have ice cream?” Liz asked hopefully.
“Of course! What kind would you like? Mark, I can give you something to lick too!”
I mentally kicked myself as I played that back in my head.Keep it together.
Ivy was too professional to snicker, but Liz laughed then clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Not like that!” I exclaimed, hurrying to the fridge.
8
Mark
Iwatched Brea scurry off. What was her problem? She was clearly unhappy that I was here at her wedding-planning meeting, that was for sure.
Can you blame her? You insulted her in front of her potential clients.
