Honestly, though, engaging in those things was the last thing on my mind. Marrying Alex tomorrow would make my life complete. At that moment, everything was as perfect as it could be. My fiancé and I were making preparations for me to move into his apartment or even buy a house a little way into the suburbs. We were talking about starting a family. My family loved him. My friends loved him.
Absolutely nothing could go wrong.
My little sister, one of my bridesmaids, stumbled over to me and planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek.
“Bitch!” she yelled over the music. “You look so beautiful, I can’t. So good.”
“You’re gonna be too drunk for my wedding tomorrow if you keep going.” I ruffled her dirty blonde hair and laughed at her pink cheeks. “Slow down, okay?”
“I might head home early,” she slurred. “I’ll need a lot of sleep to not be hungover, you know?”
“I don’t know if that’s how hangovers work.”
“Still.” She poked me in the chest and swayed dangerously back and forth on her feet. “You’re going home soon? You look a little tipsy, too.”
“Probably,” I said. I glanced at my phone, and sure enough, it was already two in the morning. “Damn, I can’t have bags under my eyes tomorrow. Might be best to head home soon.”
“Remember, you can’t spend the night at Alex’s place,” she giggled and smoothed the veil on my head. Her bright blue eyes flashed. “Bad mojo or something like that. Superstition? You know. You can’t see him the night before the wedding.”
“I know, Lily.” Something in my stomach twisted because I really did want to see Alex. But it was tradition, and my family valued that way too much. “Get home. Get some rest. Love you.” I wrapped her in a hug, but her arms stayed limp at my side.
“Don’t stay out too late, party animal,” she mumbled. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Her eyes flashed again, and for a second, she almost looked sober, but she stumbled past me regardless and out of the bar.
“Belle!” Callie, my maid of honor, called to me from one of the high tops. “Jello shots! C’mon!”
I touched my hot cheeks. One more drink wouldn’t hurt. No way.
***
One more drink did indeed hurt me.
Or more like three more drinks.
Someone kept buying shots. Remembering who that someone was sent a dull pulsing through my skull, and I groaned in the back of the taxi Callie called for me.
“Screw your family,” Callie had mumbled. “Go fuck your fiancé the night before your wedding. It’s your life.”
She probably did that because, after Lily left, I couldn’t stop complaining about not being able to see Alex. Plus, I couldn’t stand my little sister telling me what to do. As good-natured as we may act in public, she never liked me. She thought everything had always been handed to me, including a gorgeous fiancé and a stable job.
She struggled, or so Lily would say because she didn’t do well in school and struggled to have a relationship that lasted more than six months. Seeing me successful and with a man for over five years must have ground her gears, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she acted obnoxious and domineering at the reception tomorrow.
My whining about all that must have irked Callie at some point, no doubt, and now, at four in the morning, I hurtled toward Alex’s apartment which will becomeourapartment after the wedding.
“I’m getting married, you know,” I said to the cab driver. “Tomorrow.”
“Congratulations.”
“And, you know, everything’s perfect. Really perfect. I can’t believe it.”
“Okay.”
“My fiancé, he’s a lawyer, you know? And he’s got a beautiful apartment. I’m going there now. I want to see him and stuff.”
“Okay.”
The cabbie didn’t look back at me, and I was pretty sure he had headphones in and was listening to music, but I didn’t care. I needed to say that out loud, despite how many times I repeated it to Callie and the rest of my bridesmaids.
Everything was perfect.