“Oh god,” Olivia said.Fucking Varicks.She’d instructed the inn to give them one of the standard rooms. “I’m sorry, I told them… Don’t worry about it, okay? I’ll figure it out.”
“It’s so late. I was wondering—do you mind crashing with Zack and letting Aunt Harriet sleep in your room? I know you booked separate rooms to keep the rest of us off the scent, but now that the secret’s out…”
Oh, fuck my life, Olivia thought, suppressing a groan. How the hell was she supposed to wake up her fake boyfriend and askif she could sleep in his room? She didn’t even have his number. “No problem. That’s a good solution,” Olivia said.
“Wonderful. I’ll tell Aunt Harriet. Good night, hon.”
“?’Night, Mom. I love you.” She’d started saying it every time she hung up, just in case.
“I love you too.”
CHAPTER TWENTYNatalie
This can’t be how Jonathan imagined the night before his wedding, Natalie thought, looking around the lounge area that contained the inn’s after-hours honor bar, a beautiful, library-esque room with built-in bookshelves, a fireplace, and leather club chairs where some of the guests had gathered for a nightcap. Jonathan and Natalie’s actual friends had all gone to bed—save for Zack, who’d left on a quest to find an open pharmacy—and now they were stuck with Hannah and her husband, Kevin, both of whom defied the laws of nature by growing duller the drunker they became.
“Dinner was delicious, wasn’t it?” Hannah said. “I had the chicken and the salad, and a little bit of the beef, but I didn’t try the fish, which is a shame because later at the bonfire, this woman wasravingabout the fish. So I asked Kevin if he’d tried it, but he said he couldn’t remember, and I told him he’d remember really exceptional fish, so either he didn’t have it, or else it wasn’t asspecial as that woman thought it was. But I was bummed about missing out, so I googled the chef and it turns out his restaurant is going to have a booth at the food festival in my parents’ town, the same weekend we’ll be visiting next month. Isn’t that ironic?”
“Soironic,” Jonathan said before flashing Natalie a quick smile. It was one of their many shared linguistic pet peeves, when people erroneously usedironicinstead ofcoincidence. They also shared a mutual dislike forback east(back from where?),yummy(cloyingly cutesy),fine wine(corny and meaningless), andcurl up with a good book(why would anyone curl up with abadbook?) Jonathan typed something on his phone, and a moment later, Natalie’s buzzed with a text.
This isn’t how I pictured the night before my wedding.
This is what you get for coming to my rescue, Natalie wrote back. The lounge had been empty when she’d snuck in to grab a nightcap from the honor bar, but instead of heading straight back to her room, she’d made the error of sitting down for a moment. A minute later, Hannah had bustled in, hair damp from the rain. “Goodness, here you are all alone again!” she’d said, fixing Natalie with a pitying smile while Kevin headed wordlessly to the bar. “I’m exhausted, but I’ll sit here for a bit while you finish your drink.”
“I’m fine, really,” Natalie had said. “I could actually use a few minutes by myself.”
“Don’t be silly! You should never drink alone. Especially single girls. It can be a slippery slope, you know. That glass of wine before bed turns into two, and pretty soon you’re downing a bottle a night.”
Kevin ambled over with the enormous water glass he’d filled to the brim with scotch, ignoring the neat row of appropriatelysized whiskey tumblers. “I think you forgot to sign for that,” Natalie had said.
“What are you talking about?” Kevin grumbled.
“It’s an honor bar. You’re supposed to sign for it on the sheet there.”
Kevin sniffed. “What kind of wedding doesn’t have an open bar?”
Natalie stared at him incredulously. “This isn’t the wedding. This is a hotel.”
Hannah continued, ignoring the whole exchange, “You know, I have a cousin in New York you might like. Well, he lives in New Jersey, but he comes into the city whenever he has a doctor’s appointment.”
That’s when Jonathan had wandered in with Zack and another groomsman, Chris. They’d planned to end the night at a dive bar in town, but had arrived to find it closed due to flooding from earlier. “Here’s the man of the hour!” Hannah had said. “I was just telling Natalie that it’s not good to spend so much time alone, and that shehasto meet my very eligible cousin.”
“Natalie’s a writer. She needs to spend time alone,” Jonathan had said, signing for the bourbon he’d poured for himself and his groomsmen. “She’s not one of those people who talks more than they think.” Zack laughed and then started to choke on his drink until Jonathan pounded him on the back.
A few other guests had joined for a bit, but the impromptu after-after-party had wound down, leaving just Natalie, Jonathan, Hannah, and Kevin. Natalie was more than ready for bed, but it didn’t seem right to abandon the groom. Jonathan’s ceiling had started to leak during the storm, and the inn’s handyman was still in his room, patching it up.
Finally, Kevin topped up his drink, once again ignoring the notepad where guests were meant to sign for their drinks, and he and Hannah retired for the night.
“You don’t have to wait here with me,” Jonathan said to Natalie after they left. “You look exhausted.”
“Thanks for pointing that out.”
“Notbadexhausted. I just know you’ve had a long day. I don’t know how we’ll ever repay you for everything you’ve done. You’d win the maid of honor Olympics, hands down.” He stood up, walked over to the bar, picked up a pen, and began to scribble on the notepad.
“What are you doing?” Natalie asked.
“I’m marking down Kevin’s drinks… and billing everyone else’s drinks to his room.”
“No, you’re not.”
