By Katie Elizabeth.
Chapter 1.
Welp, there goes that dream.
I shut my laptop and picked up a client’s vision board instead.
I was halfway through pulling out the roses and silk pieces to match when Madison stepped into my doorway.
“Mrs. Calloway—I mean, Natalie from this weekend—is on line one for you,” she said.
“How sad does she sound on a scale of one to ten?”
“I honestly can’t tell…”
As if she knew I was tempted to make her pretend to be me instead, she walked over and hit the speaker button.
“This is Katie Elizabeth speaking,” I forced myself to say.
“Um, hi.” Natalie’s voice was flat. “I was just calling to say sorry about my wedding… You put a lot of work into making things perfect and—well…”
“You don’t need to apologize to me at all.” I shook my head. “I should be apologizing to you.”
“You’re not the one who made everyone waste their time.”
Neither are you.
“Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I will definitely hire you again if it works out with Ryan.”
“I won’t charge you a dime.”
“Well…” She sniffled and laughed at the same time. “I’ll hold you to that. Our final flight is about to take off, so thanks for everything. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.” I ended the call, stunned that she had yet to put two and two together.
That the grim reaper of weddings has gotten away unscathed yet again…
“Anything else I need to know today, Madison?” I asked.
“Someone named Michelle Arrow booked an emergency brunch in SoHo with you in like two hours,” she said. “I tried to ask her what it was about, but she said it was personal. Sounds like a scam.”
“It’s not.” I smiled. “She’s a friend, and my old college roommate.”
“So, you’re not close?”
“We have lunch like six to eight times a year, and it always feels like we’re picking up right where we left off in each other’s lives.”
“Is she important enough for you to lose hours of work ahead of the three-million-dollar Kensington wedding?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
She gave me a blank stare, and I could feel her judging me.
“I don’t have many friends as it is, Madison,” I said. “It’s nice to socialize with someone outside of the office whenever I get the chance.”
“It’s athree-million-dollarwedding.” She crossed her arms. “We’re already a week behind on florals…”
“Can you ask Michelle to come here and we’ll just have some brunch catered, then?”
