I sent my friend a message and within a few minutes they answered. My friend wanted to meet tonight but I had the game quiz night and there’s no way I was missing that. Carla may have fired me as MC and one of the scorekeepers, but I’d be damned if I’d given her the satisfaction of not turning up.
So, I did what any good friend would do. I invited my friend to join us at the quiz. I do still have a plus one option for this wedding and its festivities, which I noticed Carla had also left open. I knew I may just have kicked the hornet’s nest, but it was going to be fun to watch her face when my friend arrived. If nothing else, I would throw the little Miss Know-it-all Over-achiever A-Plus Carla off her game.
I rubbed my hands together and gave myself a quick once over in the mirror. I looked presentable and I smelled good. This cologne Drew sent me as a gift was a little sweet but I’d left my cologne at home and hadn’t had time to replace it. I had to remember to ask Garry, the concierge, if they stocked it in one of the hotel stores. That might be faster than having to browse through the stores for that stuff.
I pulled my leather jacket on and popped my room card, phone, and wallet into my pocket. After one more hair fluff, I headed out of my room and down to the hotel lobby. I spotted Garry and asked him about my cologne.
“I will find out for you, Mr. Winters,” Garry looked at me with raised eyebrows, “If they don’t, I’ll be sure to order it in for you.” He gave me a straight face as he said, “We can’t have you wearing that woman’s perfume to the wedding now, can we?”
“Excuse me?” I looked at Garry confused. “What do you mean by a ‘woman’s perfume?’” I smelt myself, “This was a gift from Drew, the groom.”
Garry walked over to where he had some of the spare wedding guest gift baskets stored behind his desk. He took the one with a white card and opened it, pulling out the bottle of perfume. The name of the cologne was the same as the one I had but the bottle in Garry’s hand was square. The one from my basket was more shapely.
“This is the men’s cologne.” He reached beneath the desk and pulled out the bottle I had in my gift basket. “This is the woman’s cologne.”
“Son of…” I swore as it dawned on me that my basket had been sabotaged. I remembered telling Carla that I’d left my cologne at home and needed to get some the day we went to check out the poker night venue. She was the one who told me about the complementary bottle in the gift basket. Damn that sneaky little...
“Is there a problem, Mr. Winters?” Garry asked.
“No,” I shook my head, “thanks for organizing my cologne for me, Garry.” I made a mental note to leave the man a decent tip when I checked out.
I was about to go back to my room to quickly try and wash this cologne off me when my phone bleeped. I looked at the message and smiled. Then I changed direction to go and collect my guests. Guess I’ll be spending the night smelling like a woman!
***
I knew as soon as I walked into the room with the tall buxom blonde on my arm I’d done more than just kick the hornet’s nest. I’d dislodged their queen and thoroughly pissed her off as her fiercely loyal hornets went into full attack mode. As I walked into the room with my date on my arm, the entire room went quiet and all heads turned to us.
“It looks like we’re on display,” my date said with a sultry smile.
“That we are,” I breathed and plastered a smile on my face.
“Hi,” Hayley was the first to break the shocked silence of the room as she jumped up and came over to greet us. “Damon, you didn’t tell us you were bringing a guest.” She smiled at my date. “Hello Celeste.” They did that French kiss thing. “It’s so good to see you again. Won’t you come join us at our table?”
Celeste followed Hayley to the table while I went to get drinks. My eyes scanned the room as I felt something or rather someone was missing. I spun around to look back at the bride and groom’s table. Carla was not there. I scanned the room. She was nowhere to be found. My stomach sank, and I felt really disappointed and cheated.
I got the drinks, but before I could pick them up, Drew popped up next to me.
“What the hell are you up to?” Drew asked me. “Celeste?”