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Tori laughed as a few tears fell from her eyes. “That sounds like something Willow would have said.”
“What can I say? She did rub off on me a little bit during our time together.”
“She had a way of doing that.”
“Oh, I know. No one came in contact with Willow Stone and walked away without being changed in one way or another.” I smiled as I thought about her. I valued the times when thinking about her made me happy rather than sad, and now was one of those times.
“She really understood how to live her life, didn’t she?”
“Of course she did. That’s where the phrase Live like Willow came from.”
“It's almost as if…” Tori shook her head. “This is going to sound crazy, but it’s like subconsciously she knew she didn’t have as much time, and that’s why she lived the way she did.”
You have no idea. Guilt coursed through my body once again. I hated having this secret. “We never know when our last day is.” At least most of us. “That’s why we need to live every day as if it was our last.”
“Like, by sneaking into weddings? I don’t think that’d be a terrible way to spend your last day. Do you?”
Her question made me laugh. Sometimes, Tori was so much like Willow that hanging out with her made me feel like Willow was still around. At the same time, there were enough differences between them for Tori to keep me on my toes, even after being friends for all this time. “Definitely a pretty good way to spend my last day. You know, as long as we don’t get sent to jail for crashing.”
“Don’t worry. I know the owner.” Tori looked over at me and winked, and my stomach did somersaults once again. That had happened a lot around her these past few months, and I had no idea what it was about. Sure, Tori was good looking, but I was close enough to her that her charms didn’t work on me the same way they did on other girls. Obviously. Because she was Willow’s best friend, practically her sister.
Once we were at the barn, we got our bags out of the car and took them into the house that used to belong to Tori. She was slowly trying to renovate it to make it into a nicer space for wedding parties to get ready, but luckily, there was still a bed in the guest room, which just so happened to be the room that used to belong to me and Willow. I sighed as I laid my bag down on the bed and looked around. I had completely avoided this room since losing Willow. Even when I spent the night here in December, I had slept on the couch so I didn’t have to be in the space where so many memories lived. It actually made the most sense for me to do that again. I’m not sure why I had even assumed that Tori and I would share the bed tonight. It was probably because we ended up sleeping together so much at my house, but it wasn’t like that was our thing. Sleeping separately was what made the most sense.
“You can have the bed tonight. I’ll take the couch.”
Tori furrowed her eyebrows and pursed her lips as she looked over at me. “Really? I just assumed we’d both sleep in here. It’s not like we’re not used to sharing a bed.”
“I’d rather sleep on the couch.” I attempted to smile, but it was no use.
“But wh—” Tori’s eyes went wide when the realization hit her. “Oh, duh. I’m an idiot. I’m so sorry, Rosemary. Honestly, I completely understand if you don’t even want me to sleep in here. I can just sleep on the floor or something. I don’t work tomorrow so I’m not planning on holding back on the drinking tonight. I’m sure I’ll have no problem passing out anywhere.”
“Tori. It’s fine. It’s just a bed. You should sleep in it. I’m okay. I promise.”
“Are you sure? Because I don’t mind.”
“I’m positive. Don’t give it another thought.”
Tori took a deep breath and blew it out. “Okay. Just as long as you’re okay. That’s all I care about.”
“I’m great.” I grabbed Tori’s hand, but dropped it when a shock ran through my body. “Plus, this is your birthday weekend. I should be making sure that you’re happy.”
“I’m extremely happy. Don’t worry about that.” Tori pointed out the bedroom door. “Want to see how the festivities are going and then once we make sure Marley has everything under control, we’ll enact the plan?”
“You mean the plan to crash a wedding at your own venue?”
Tori wiggled her eyebrows. “Exactly.”
It didn’t take long for us to realize that Marley had everything under control. She was actually a wizard at making sure things went smoothly, so it was clear she would have no trouble handling the rest of the night, especially since Tori and I would be right there just in case anything went wrong. When Tori told Marley the plan to crash the wedding, Marley simply shook her head and smiled. All Tori ever had to do to get her way was flash that perfect grin of hers and people were putty in her hands. Of course, Marley wouldn’t be any different, even if she was straight and married. Tori whispered in Marley’s ear to tell her what we would be dressed as since she still hadn’t told me.
When we got into the bedroom, Tori finally took the costumes out of her bag to reveal them to me. “Which one do you want? Abominable Snowman or Sasquatch?”
I took in the big wooly costumes. The night was cool, but definitely not cool enough for either of those costumes to keep me from sweating my ass off on the dance floor. “I’ll take the Sasquatch, but I hope you don’t expect me to dance in that.”
Tori scoffed and brought her hand to her chest. “How could you even say that? Of course I expect you to dance in it.”
Instead of arguing with her, I grabbed the Sasquatch costume and took it to the bathroom to change into it. I was able to get into it by myself, but couldn’t get the zipper all the way up, so I walked back to the bedroom so Tori could hopefully zip it before she put her Abominable Snowman hands on.
“Hey, Tor, do you think you could—?” I stopped dead in my tracks when I realized Tori wasn’t even close to having her costume on. In fact, all she was wearing was a bra and a thong. My mind blanked as I looked at her body, which was arguably perfect. Once my thoughts caught up with my eyes, I stopped them from moving across her skin and looked toward the wall instead. “Shit. I’m so sorry.”
