“Oh, hello.” She grinned and surprised me with a warm side hug. I was a couple inches taller than her. “I’m Meredith. It’s so great to finally meet you!”
“Mer, Yaz, and I all roomed together at Hamilton,” Katie supplied, and I nodded. Hamilton College in upstate New York, one of the prestigious NESCAC schools. Their field hockey team was pretty good.
“But Reese was like our fourth roommate,” Yasmin added. “She was an hour and a half away at Hobart and would visit like every other weekend.”
Reese shrugged. “You had better parties.”
“More like betterboys,” Katie countered.
“Yeah, I heard about this!” Amanda snapped her fingers. “There was some Italian exchange student you had a crush on sophomore year?”
The bridesmaids giggled, and I silently sipped my soda. Even though Katie had chosen bridesmaids from different chapters of her life, they seemed as thick as thieves. Why couldn’t there be a work friend or something? Someone who could be slow on the uptake like me?
“For you, Killer,” someone said, and Meredith and I turned to see a cute blond guy holding two glasses. He smiled crookedly at the group as Meredith accepted a copper-colored cup garnished with lime. Moscow mule, I guessed. “Ladies.” He toasted us with his bourbon. “Katie.”
“Wit…” they singsonged back.
A nickname?I wondered. Hadn’t Meredith mentioned someone named Stephen?
In any case, the guy kissed her cheek before melting back into the party. Meredith beamed and took a sip of her cocktail. She wore no engagement ring, but her gold wedding band was inlaid with pale blue gemstones. They looked like aquamarine.
She’d think Grandma’s ruby was cool, I thought.
Katie’s cousins soon asked if she’d thought about any potential bachelorette weekend destinations, but before she could answer, Marco arrived with hors d’oeuvres. “Would any of you care for tomato soup and grilled cheese?” he asked.
I watched the bridesmaids’ eyes narrow at the tray, which held shot glass cups of tomato soup topped with bite-sized grilled cheese sandwiches. They were smaller than a potato chip and totally didn’t match tonight’s upscale foodie vibe. “This is my dads’ idea of a joke,” I explained, giggling. “When Austin was in elementary school, all he wanted for dinner was tomato soup with grilled cheese.”
“Crusts cut off, too.” Katie smiled. “If the crust wasn’t cut off, it was a deal-breaker.”
I nodded.
“That’s adorable,” Meredith said, taking one American Girl–sized meal for herself. “Yaz, you want one?”
“Yes, please!” Yasmin smiled, but Marco and I both sucked in a breath before disaster struck. You could tell from the way Meredith was trying to balance her drink that she didn’t have a good grip on the little plate, and when Yasmin stretched to takeit, her phone started to slip from her hand. She tried to catch it at the same time Meredith passed off the appetizer.
And even though it wasn’t remotely my fault, I wanted to click my heels three times to disappear after the soup spilled down the front of Yasmin’s red dress.
Shit, I thought, wincing as the other bridesmaids swarmed Yasmin. Was this mess how they’d remember meeting me?
“Napkin?” Reese asked Marco. “Could you get some napkins, please?”
Dad swept in out of nowhere. “Seltzer and a dish towel, Marco,” he amended, knowing basically every cleaning hack. “We’re going to dab, Yasmin,notrub…” He began ushering Yasmin toward the kitchen, with Meredith following and apologizing profusely.
“Mer, stop! It’s totally fine,” Yasmin said. “It’s not like you spilled onKatie…”
As if on cue, Katie glanced down at her ivory dress. “I think I’m going to switch to white,” she said mildly, passing off her red wine to Amanda. “I’ll be—”
“Katie!” Paige half shrieked. “She’s coming!”
“Paige, can you ever keep your cool?” Courtney whispered as Katie stole her wine back from her sister. She took a long sip. “Like, just once?”
“Showtime,” Katie muttered, but it wasn’t until Amanda murmured that Austin and the groomsmen were also heading over that I realized who they were talking about.
Finally, I thought, shoulder muscles unwinding.Someone I know.
“Samira!” Katie gushed, stepping forward in her sky-high strappy heels for a hug. “I’m so glad you made it! How’ve you been?”
Samira Bhatia, a longtime family friend, squeezed Katie back before breaking away with a smile. “I’ve been great, Katie,” she said. “Busy with school, but what else is new?”
