Chapter 10
Laney
Laney was surprised at how quickly the time passed. She was relieved that for the most part, they were able to evade her parents. She didn’t sit down at the table with her family until the last minute, when she noticed her mom giving her the stink eye, telling her to get her butt in the empty seat before it was taken. That was Laney’s plan all along, but it hadn’t worked out. She had to sit with her family.
Thank God it was hard for her mom to play twenty questions with Morgun when people were eating and then sitting through the speeches and the slideshow. That dragged on, but Laney was thankful for her mom being preoccupied with it. Her parents had to give a speech, welcoming Natasha into the family, and that took up her mom’s total concentration.
After that organized part of the evening was over, Laney made another getaway from the table. She just had to get through the drunk hours and the dancing, the cake cutting and maybe even a couple gifts and she could go. Helena, being mother of the groom, had people cornering her to talk with her well after the tables dispersed for the dinner things to be cleared away and the dancing to begin.
Unfortunately, Laney was also caught up by a few family members. Cousins, aunts, uncles, all wanting to speak with her. Morgun disappeared during it, leaving Laney to handle that on her own. After nearly half an hour of making small talk, her face hurt from forced smiling and her throat was so dry she could hardly swallow. Another drink was definitely in order.
Laney found Morgun standing with a group of twenty-somethings discussing politics of all things. She watched with amusement as Morgun didn’t notice her hanging back behind the semi-circle. Morgun had a drink in her hand, a vodka cranberry, Laney thought, since that’s what she’d ordered before dinner. Her cheeks were slightly pink, since the room was getting warm, and her whole face was animated as she spoke.
Laney’s chest squeezed strangely. Like there was something buzzing deep down inside of her.
Laney hung back, unseen and unnoticed, until a lanky guy in a suit which was already getting sloppy, the buttons on his shirt undone at the top, his tie long gone, his jacket shed somewhere, decided to open his big mouth, swipe his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes, and ask Morgun a very inappropriate question.
“So, you ever sleep with guys?” Shaggy Blonde Caveman slurred, already drunk before the real drinking had even started.
An unnatural hush fell over the group. One of the women inhaled sharply. Another cleared her throat uncomfortably. The dark-haired behemoth beside the shaggy drunk asshole laughed and elbowed his friend in the side.
Laney was ready to charge in and save Morgun, but as she stepped closer, Morgun easily held her own. She smiled casually, like she didn’t mind being asked a rude question like that at all, and shrugged.
“No. Do you?”
“Ooh,” the asshole’s friend said loudly, elbowing his buddy again.
Shaggy Asshole didn’t take that well. His face darkened. Disgusted, Laney decided to cut in. She had no idea who this guy was or why he was at the wedding. She didn’t recognize him and neither her brother nor Natasha had such shit taste in friends or acquaintances.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Laney exclaimed, draping her arm around Morgun’s waist. The contact felt jarring and suddenly it was like she’d swallowed a whole swarm of flies, but Laney pressed on. Without explanation or making pleasant excuses to the group, she pulled Morgun away and led her to the bar.
“Thanks,” Morgun sighed.
She was so grateful that she momentarily forgot about Laney’s arm. Laney didn’t forget. She hadn’t forgotten at all. She slowly let it fall away, but losing the contact made her feel strangely bereft. It was like getting the covers tugged off you first thing in the morning when you were nowhere near done sleeping.
“That guy was an asshole.”
“He was just drunk. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine!” They edged a few steps further up in the line that extended back from the bar. Now that the dinner was over, apparently everyone in the place had developed a massive thirst.
Morgun’s expression changed, growing amused. Amused and all too knowing. Laney could feel the color draining from her face, and she was glad that the lights weren’t fully on in the large room anymore. The lighting was terrible. It was so dark at the back of the open area, and harshly lit at the front near the head table and the dance floor area. The huge windows in the room did nothing for it since it was dark out.
“You know what I think?”
Laney didn’t want to know. Morgun, she was sure, saw too much already. Of course, she decided to tell her anyway.
“I think that you care. In fact, I think you aren’t this tough, hard hitting, thick skinned, mean, ruthless person you make yourself out to be.”
“I just don’t want you to think that my brother or sister-in-law or any of my family knows that guy. I’ve never seen him before. My brother certainly doesn’t have friends like that.”
“Relax. He’s just drunk. Like I said. And I think it’s more than that. You do care about what people say and what people think.”
Laney stiffened. She felt cold all over, like someone had just thrown in her into a bathtub full of ice cubes.
“What’s wrong with being who you are?” Morgun asked, totally genuine.
Laney was about to list the thousand things she could immediately think of just off the top of her head, starting with her parents, the assholes she had to work with and endure every day, and a large portion of the rest of the world, but Morgun took her silence for a non-answer and shrugged, but that shrug said she wasn’t fooled.