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The living room of the cabin Margaret and Bowen shared with Stella and Richard was packed with Wendy's friends.
Not too long ago, Wendy had been a lonely girl who couldn't relate to anyone, and now look at her. She had so many friends that it had been hard to decide who to invite to her bachelorette party. The cabin's living room wasn't big enough to accommodate all the females whom she considered friends.
She would have to apologize to so many people for not inviting them.
"Here you go." Jin handed her a margarita. "Tell me what you think."
Jin had appointed herself as their barmaid and was mixing drinks according to online recipes.
Wendy took a sip, making sure to lick some of the salt. "'It's excellent. You should apply for a job at Atzil's bar."
"No, thank you." Jin returned to her mixing station. "I have a job. Besides, the bar is not open yet."
"How is that going?" Aliya asked. "I mean your business, not the bar."
"Good," Mey answered. "We are not making any money yet, but at least we are not losing any, and we are negotiating a contract with a well-known national chain that is interested in our line."
"Which chain is it?" Wendy asked.
"We can't say." Jin brought a margarita without salt to Carol. "It's confidential."
Wendy chuckled. "Who are we going to tell?"
When Jin lifted a brow, Wendy winced. "I'm not the same person I was then. You can trust me."
Jin waved a dismissive hand. "That's not what I implied. Your sordid past is ancient history, and in your defense, you were young and naive and thought the paranormal program was the only way to have a better future. But now, you work in the village café and interact with a lot of people every day. One slip-up and the whole clan would be talking about it, and eventually, someone would say something to someone on the outside, and Mey and I would lose our chance. If we get this contract, our brand will become a household name."
"Fine, keep your secret." Wendy took another sip from the margarita. "Can you believe that it has only been a year and a half since we joined the clan?"
She and Jin had met in the paranormal program. They hadn't been friends, but they had been friendly toward each other. That was before Wendy had betrayed them the first chance she'd gotten, though, and she hadn't expected Jin to ever forgive her for that, but here they were.
"It is hard to believe." Mey walked over to the table and collected a fistful of nuts. "You'd think that being immortal would speed time up, but it seems to work the other way around. Not that I'm complaining. I've never been happier. I just wish Jin and I could bring our parents to the village, and then everything would be perfect."
"We can't make them immortal," Jin said. "And it seems cruel to dangle that in front of them."
"Right." Mey sighed. "We can't have everything we want. We should thank the Fates for what we have."
While Mey and Jin's adoptive parents did not possess the immortal gene, the sisters had grown up in a loving and supportive home.
Wendy hadn't been so lucky.
Her father had been an abusive monster, and he had driven her mother away when Wendy was a baby. But she had her mother with her now, and her father had been dealt with. She couldn't think of a single thing that would have made her life more perfect than it was right now.
"I have everything I want." Wendy looked at her mother. "Against all odds, I have my mom back, I'm mated to the best male in the world, and I'm about to marry him, and I have many wonderful friends. I can even fit into a size six wedding dress with ease. Life is good." She lifted her margarita glass. "To happily ever afters!"
As her friends raised their glasses, a chorus of female voices echoed her toast.
Across from her, Sharon chewed on her lower lip. "I'm stressed and excited at the same time. It didn't hit me until now that Robert and I are next in line."
Wonder patted her shoulder. "You have another twenty-four hours until you need to start stressing. Think of today as a grand rehearsal for tomorrow."
"None of the couples have had rehearsal dinners," Anastasia said, "but having one wedding after the other with the same people attending fills that gap. Although, to be frank, and I don't mean to offend anyone, I don't like this production line style. I think each couple should have their special day with ample time between one celebration and the next."
"It's not practical," Stella said. "It's difficult to get every member of the clan in one place, and having all these weddings on the cruise was the only way to do it."
"That's not true." Carol kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs under her butt. "We have endless time, and I don't get why everyone was in a rush to have a human-style wedding. We could make it a tradition for the entire clan to gather in one place once or twice a year, like during the solstices, and schedule a wedding for each gathering. It's not like we would get too old while waiting our turn."
"Vlad and I are young," Wendy murmured. "But neither of us wanted to wait. It was so frustrating to have the cruise delayed over and over again. I was starting to think that it was a bad omen and that we shouldn't get married at all."
