“You’ll be relieved to hear that one of them was to retrieve someone’s cuff links without telling them why.”
He brightens. “That does make me feel better! I was genuinely concerned about why you were so keen to win them. Hey, I feel like a celebrity! I was one of your tasks!”
“No, your cuff links were. But I’m glad you feel honored.”
“This is fun,” he claims, beaming at me. “I like your friends’ style. Okay, tell me more.”
“I had to be the last one standing at another wedding. That was hard because I’m sure by now you’ve witnessed, and no doubt laughed at, my dancing prowess.”
“I notice you’re a fan of the laughing trick.”
I frown at him. “What’s the laughing trick?”
“It’s what you do on the dance floor. You laugh at everyone else, putting the attention on them.”
“I do not laugh at people dancing! That’s mean!”
“You’re not laughing in a mean way,” he explains breezily. “You’re laughing in a ‘Good move!’ way. You sort of sway around, laughing and pointing at your pals as they fling themselves around. You’re the one fueling their outlandish moves, which gets you out of having to be outlandish yourself.”
I want to argue, but now that I think about it… he may be right.
“You know you do it, don’t you?” he says, watching me with interest. “You’ve realized now that I’m right. This is going to really throw you.”
“It will not throw me.”
“It will when you next get up to dance,” he predicts. “Anyway, keep going with these tasks. Any others?”
“Securing a good-night kiss.”
He sits up straight. “I’m listening.”
“I already completed that one. The French waiter, remember?”
“Ah yes, very nice. Hang on. We’re at a wedding right now.”
“Very observant of you.”
“So, what’s your challenge for tonight?”
“I’m not telling you that,” I say, shifting in my seat. “It’s against the rules.”
“Oh, come on, maybe I can help.”
“Trust me. This one I have to do all on my own,” I say firmly, still considering how to back out without Leo and Ruby getting cross at me or thinking I’m a chicken.
“Fine. I look forward to hearing about it though. So, has it worked?”
“Has what worked?”
“The Wedding Season survival guide.”
“Yeah, actually. I’ve dreaded a lot of the tasks, but then I think that was the point.”
“If the tasks were easy, they wouldn’t have been very distracting.”
“Exactly.”
We go back to sipping our coffee and watching the antics playing out on the dance floor. I realize that now would be a rather good time to complete my task. All the guests are here at the wedding, so I wouldn’t need to worry too much about bumping into someone who recognized me at the hotel. In fact, it would be better to get it out of the way now, rather than wait up, trying to make sure everyone from the wedding has gone to bed.
