“Happy for you, kids,” I told them, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Jules’ stomach. Right then it moved. It really fucking moved. I felt my eyes practically pop out of my head at thesurprise.
“Jesus, it’s really real.” I couldn’t keep the awe out of my voice. Jules’ glassy eyes danced with laughter at me in return and Grey placed a protective hand on the bump.
“Fuck yeah it is,” he said. “We’re gonna have more too. Right baby?” he said down to her.
Jules rolled her eyes, looking way up at his tall frame, but couldn’t keep the smile from sliding onto her face. She obviously loved what he said too.
She reached up and patted his neatly trimmed beard. “Mama’s gotta use the bathroom.”
“Need help?” Grey asked as he wagged his eyebrows, to which she rolled her eyes again.
Grey kept his eyes on her as she waddled away until she reached the tent where an extra bathroom had been set up.
“I think she’s going to be constantly pregnant for the next ten years,” Grey joked, but something in his eyes told me he wasn’t lying.
I think love made him lose his ever-loving mind. “Woah there, bud. That’s a lot of babies,” I said.
“You’ll know when you know. But damn. She wants me even more now, like all the time. Pregnancy hormones are amazing,” he smirked and raised his beer bottle to clink mine.
“I thought pregnant chicks just cried all the time?” I asked himcuriously.
“Nope!” Max jumped in and looked at Grey. “Crying only comes after the birth, man. Mom and baby… and probably you too. Have fun with that.”
Grey shrugged his shoulders. “I can handle it.” He turned back to me, “How are you doin, man?”
“Kinda sucks you didn’t give me a plus one,” I half-joked… The other half of me was annoyed.
“We didn’t give you a plus one because Jules and I think you’d be great for someone here,” Grey said pointedly.
I looked at him skeptically and couldn’t help but think they were trying to pull one over on me.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I resigned. “Who?”
“That, we aren’t going to tell you, little bro. We didn’t tell her either. If you find each other, great. If not, too bad, so sad,” he laughed. “But we do actually think you two would be perfect for eachother.”
With that, he slapped me on the back again before disappearing into the crowd, leaving me to wonder if what he said had any truth to it.
2.Ellie Brampton
Today was finally The Day.
Saturday, July 25th. Christmas in July. The Day I’d been working on almost exclusively since January.
And things were going pretty damn well, right down to the silvery G&J stamped cocktail napkins to go along with the bride and groom’s signaturecocktails.
I tried to suppress a giddy smile as I watched people milling about and chatting happily with one another. I was hoping this success would bring me more elite clientele- the higher-paying, smaller-headcount, refined-taste type of bride and grooms. My bread and butter.
I regained my composure and smoothed my dress, mentally checking the ceremony and cocktail hour off my list.
Next was rounding up people to head into the tent for dinner and Grey’s speech. I really loved how Grey and Jules skipped out on having bridesmaids and groomsmen. Less cooks in the kitchen for sure. It avoided the usual problems I dealt with on a weekly basis: missing groomsmen during photo time, and drunk bridesmaids crying about their own love lives during the reception. I’m not sure how many times in the past few years that I’ve had to ream people out with the phrase: It is not yourday!
“We are moving the flock into the tent,” I said clearly into my headset to my assistant and vendors. “I repeat, help me herd the flock and shove ‘em in the tent please, Nikki.”
Nikki, my best friend, roommate, and assistant, suddenly appeared- looking like a chique guest in a flowery dress with her raven-black hair pinned back in an up-do- and started to direct people. She always called herself a professional temp, but her affinity for weddings and happy-go-lucky attitude made her perfect for working in the wedding industry.
Where I’ve always been an organized, cross-all-the-T’s, dot-all-the-I’s type of girl (and let’s face it, some may call me uptight), Nikki brings the fun and has the whole free-spirited, artsy-fartsy vibe. She’s also really the only friend I’ve made in Northern Michigan since I moved up here about five years ago looking to completely start over.
I guess I should amend that she’s my only outside-of-work friend. My main source of income, especially during the week and during the slower wedding seasons, came from coaching figure skating, and I absolutely loved my girls. Heck, they even felt like my own daughters sometimes, but they didn’t really count as friends considering they were all under the age of 10.
