“Yeah, I guess.” She shakes her head and focuses back on me. “Okay, now back to your life. Are you seriously not dating anyone? You can’t go to this wedding alone.” She pulls out her phone and looks up at the ceiling. “I have a friend whose son is single. Maybe I can get him to come as your date.”
Mouth gaping, I snatch the phone out of her hands. What the hell does she think she’s doing? “What? No!” I snap. “That’s the worst idea ever.”
She holds her hand out for her phone. “Well, if you’re not dating anyone, it doesn’t matter, does it? It’ll save you the embarrassment of sitting at the singles table.”
Is that really a thing? If it is, I’m screwed. “I’m a bridesmaid. I get to sit with the bridal party.” At least that better be the case. I’m not sitting at the damn singles table looking pathetic.
My mom shakes her head. “I don’t know, sweetheart. I’m going to ask my sister and find out what she and Hallie planned out.” Hallie wouldn’t do that to me. So, help me God, she better not.
My mother tries to snatch her phone out of my grasp, and I stand. “Jesus, Mom, I’m dating someone,” I blurt out, throwing my hands in the air. The last thing I want is her setting me up with one of her friends’ sons. I’ve met some of them over the years and they’re definitely not my type. I prefer men to actually be men and not spend more time in the bathroom fixing their hair than I do. “I don’t want you calling Aunt Beth,” I snap, handing her back her phone. “If I show up at the wedding with someone, I don’t want the guy I’m seeing to get mad. It’ll cause more problems than I want right now.”
My mother gasps in delight. “Oh honey, why didn’t you just tell me that? When do I get to meet him?”
What the hell did I just do? I thought by admitting I was with someone it’d get her off my back. Now I have the feeling it just made things worse. “Soon,” I promise her.
She waggles her brows. “How about for the wedding? I don’t care where he’s at or how much it costs. I’ll pay for his plane ticket. There’s no excuse for him not to be there.”
The woman is relentless. It’s the one thing I’ve always admired and yet hated about her, even though I love her to death. She’s a woman who always gets what she wants. The only things she never achieved was getting me to stay in New York and seeing me marry a high-society man.
Time ticks away and the longer she stays pestering me, the longer I don’t get to finish my work before it’s time to leave for the bachelorette party. Walking over to my bed, I pick up the green tutu. “That’s not going to happen, Mom. It’s too late to get him here.”
She snorts. “Please. I can make anything happen.”
“Not this,” I say, wishing she’d leave. “If you don’t mind, I should probably start getting ready.”
Narrowing her gaze, she turns and starts for the door. “Fine. I’ll let you get ready.” She stops at the door and then smiles at me over her shoulder. “But if your boyfriend doesn’t show up the morning of the wedding, I’m getting someone for you. End of story.”
And with those last words, she hurries out the door and slams it shut before I have time to argue. Groaning, I collapse onto the bed, wishing like hell I never came to town. I couldn’t do that though. I love Hallie and I want to see her walk down the aisle. Unfortunately, this whole ordeal has turned into my own personal nightmare.
“You just have to get through the wedding,” I whisper to myself. I can only imagine what kind of pompous ass my mother’s going to find to be my date.
My phone rings and I smile when I see Hallie’s name pop up. “Hey girl,” I answer.
She giggles and I can already tell she’s had a little bit to drink. “Well, hello, my favorite cousin. You ready to have some fun?”
I look over at my bridesmaids’ outfit. “Oh yeah. So ready.” She’s most likely too drunk to even notice my sarcasm.
“That’s the spirit,” she laughs, proving my last statement. “We’re on our way to pick you up in the limo. Be there in ten.”
“Hey,” I say quickly. “Question for you.”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
I get up and walk over to the window. There are so many people walking the streets, wearing their St. Patrick’s Day get up. “At your reception, do you have assigned seating at the tables? Like will I be with the bridal party?”
“Good question,” she replies, slurring her words. “Hannah and my mom did all of that. Let me ask her.” Hannah is my other cousin, and her older sister by seventeen months. She graduated high school a year ahead of us. Our mothers loved girl names that started with H so they made sure to give us all H names. I listened to her ask Hannah about the seating chart and I cringed when I heard Hannah speak.