BiBi muttered something indistinguishable and touched up her lipstick. Madison pulled her lip gloss out of her tiny bag and leaned slightly toward the mirror, speaking casually as she outlined her lips. “Everything has gone remarkably smoothly this weekend. Everyone seems to be having a nice time. You must be pleased.”
“I guess. I didn’t expect so many problems to crop up last minute. I thought I’d planned for everything.”
“You couldn’t have planned for everything,” Madison said logically. “You certainly couldn’t predict Lila would go into labor early, for example.”
“Or that Jason would go AWOL during the rehearsal. Could you believe that?”
“I can see why you’d be irritated,” Madison responded carefully.
BiBi shot her a narrow look. “You’re not going to leap to his defense? Heaven knows everyone else has, except Corinna, who was almost as mad as I was. Mom told me I was being unreasonable. She kept saying Jason’s a doctor, like that makes him so much more important than everyone else.”
“Obviously, I don’t agree with that sentiment. And I think you have every right to be annoyed by the interruption.”
“Jason’s just been sort of a jerk this weekend. Thinks he’s too good for Corinna, and apparently too important to have to rehearse for my wedding.”
Madison thought that was a bit too harsh, but she knew better than to argue Jason’s case just then. It wasn’t her place to do so, anyway. He’d have to find his own way of making amends with BiBi.
Shoving her lipstick into her bag, BiBi muttered, “Nothing to say? You seemed pretty impressed by him earlier.”
Madison turned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Is there something you want to get off your chest, Beebs? I want you to enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I’m not sure you can do that if you’re stewing about something.”
“Don’t go all shrink on me, Maddie. Not tonight.”
“I’m not speaking as a shrink, but as your friend. You’ve seemed tense all day. If there’s anything I can do to help…”
BiBi spun to face her. “Do you think my wedding weekend is pretentious and overdone?”
“What? No, of course I don’t. Why would you think I—”
BiBi held up a hand. “It wasn’t you. I heard these women…”
She stopped and drew a quick breath, then began again. “This morning, I was awake really early. Too wired to sleep. So I slipped down to the lobby coffee shop for a latte. I was sitting at a little corner table going over my lists for today and tomorrow when I heard a couple of women talking on the other side of a stained-glass divider. They didn’t know I was there, I guess, but they were saying my weekend has been pretentious and overdone. They were speculating about how much we’ve paid for everything, and saying we’re flashing our cash and wasting good money.”
“That’s absurd, BiBi. You and Carl have been saving for this wedding for more than a year. And no one who knows you would ever call you pretentious.” Which was the absolute truth. Carl and BiBi both came from financially comfortable families, and Carl, at least, was making good money now, but BiBi wasn’t the type to flaunt her good fortune. She preferred sharing it. As much as BiBi had enjoyed being the center of attention this weekend, the intention behind all her plans was to make sure her guests had a good time, and that they would remember how much fun her wedding had been.
“I know, right? We’ve been saving like crazy. And we aren’t even paying for everything. The costume party was thrown by our friends, the luncheons were hosted by other people, everything this evening is on Carl’s parents.”
Madison waved off the litany, having little interest in who was funding what. “These women you heard. Did you recognize their voices?”
“No. I don’t even think they’re guests of the wedding. I think they’re staying at the hotel and they’ve been hearing about the festivities through gossip. They seemed familiar with Carl’s family by reputation, but I don’t think they know them well, if at all.”
“Then why are you obsessing about this?” Madison asked in genuine bafflement. “A couple of women you don’t even know were being catty, and you’re letting it ruin your wedding weekend?”
“It’s not ruining…I mean, you have to admit a lot of things have gone wrong. Despite all the saving and planning, I can’t help wondering if maybe I got carried away and tried to do too much. And I can’t help wondering if other people are thinking the same thing as those women, but are being too polite to tell me.”
“From what I’ve seen, your guests are having a great time. I know I have been.”
BiBi sighed. “Thanks, Maddie. I can always count on you to cheer me up. Even though I’ve been such a jerk to you. I can’t believe I brought up Steve Gleason. I’m sorry about that.”
Madison was still a bit irked by that, but now wasn’t the time to say so. “You know you can always talk to me,” she said instead.
Glancing toward the door, BiBi wrinkled her nose. “I should probably get back to my guests.”
“Your mom will come looking for you soon,” Madison agreed.
“So, you’re sure you don’t want to get to know Allen better?” BiBi asked with a smile that was both teasing and resigned. “If you married him, we could be cousins-in-law.”
“Or I could not marry him and we could just stay very good friends,” Madison countered fondly.