Page 10 of Braden

“We’re playing Chet and Ivoria?” he said in disbelief as the other couple took their side of the net. “What are the odds?”

“Poetic justice,” Elodie said, tightening the ponytail she’d put her hair into. “We’re going to grind them into the sand, right, partner?”

My kitten has claws, he thought with delight, enjoying this version of Elodie immensely. “Damn straight.”

It was harder to win this game, as Chet proved to be a skilled player. His girlfriend, however, wasn’t as good and Braden’s ruthless spikes got her every time. He and Chet trash talked each other as they played, with the latter growing more and more angry as the score got increasingly lopsided. When the final point was made, Chet and Ivoria stormed off the court, not even lingering to exchange handshakes.

“Poor losers,” Braden said, breathing hard. “You ready to go take a break and sip a cool feelgood?”

“Absolutely.” Elodie gazed after their rapidly departing opponents. “I’ve been asking myself over and over what I ever saw in him.”

“Honestly?” Braden replied, “I couldn’t imagine.”

They both laughed.

There were three more rounds before they played in the championship in front of a huge audience of wedding guests. Braden could tell Elodie was getting tired although she denied it. He was still good to go and he wanted to win this for her. The winners got crowns of some kind of leaves and gift certificates from the Resort Planet retail division, good at any store in the complex. Braden wanted Elodie to have the experience of winning. She deserved her happy moment in the sun amongst all these celebrities, sports heroes, and other notables of the Sectors. He felt fierce about it and the emotion reflected in his play. Their opponents were Marv, the professional tisba player and one of the media influencers who he was evidently casually dating.

Marv seemed surprised and amused by how hard Braden was going for the win and while that didn’t rattle the professional athlete, Braden suspected the other man wasn’t putting his all into it. The influencer and Elodie were doing their best but the contest pretty much came down to a match between Braden and Marv. The longer the game went on, the more competitive Marv got but with the game winning point on the line Braden delivered a spiked ball that barely cleared the net. Marv and his teammate collided trying to save it and Braden and Elodie were the winners.

He turned to see her standing stock-still in shock and then she gave a shriek and ran to him. They hugged and did a little dance in the sand. Unable to resist he lowered his head and kissed her, allowing some of his pent up desire to escape.

“Hey man, good game,” Marv said, coming up beside them. He stuck his hand out and they shook while the two women shared a stilted embrace. “You earned it.”

Tamarind came up to award the crowns and the prize and the documentary crew circled, making their holos.

“I can’t believe it,” Elodie said, her crown askew, clutching the gilt edged certificate. “We won. Did you see that? We actually won.”

Her happiness delighted him. “I was there, sweetheart. You played a good game. Our poor opponents couldn’t handle your sizzling serves.”

“Your spike shots more like it but I don’t care what the critical factor was—it feels ahhmazing.”

People were congratulating them and Braden considered his afternoon well spent, now Elodie had her triumph.

The mood shifted for the evening portion of the event, with a new band arriving and the hotel serving up an entire roasted pig with all kinds of side dishes. At one point Tamarind, aided by the indomitable Migs, insisted on all the guests getting up and learning a simple dance, which they then performed for the documentary crew to the accompaniment of the band. The musicians were laughing so hard they could scarcely play as the guests performed en masse on the sand and most people did their own version of the steps or something else entirely and it was chaos but fun.

They didn’t linger too much longer at the beach, although the party was going strong and showing no signs of ending. Braden snagged a plate of bacon and asparagus skewers and a couple of feelgoods and they headed back to the hotel to watch a few action holos and relax.

Chapter Four

“I’m afraid I’ve been holding something back,” she said at breakfast the morning of the second day.

“Really?” Braden eyed her with an amused smile. “So far this wedding week extravaganza has been full of surprises so what’s one more. What’s on the agenda for today then?”

“You know about the bachelor and bachelorette parties tonight. What I’ve kinda been dreading to bring up is the dance lessons.”

He was silent for a moment. “I know how to dance. We managed fine at the club on the first night when we met.”

She shook her head. “It’s not that. Tamarind wants to have a coordinated dance number for the bridesmaids. Two of the group are actually professional dancers for the SIPTL league and Tam asked them to come up with a routine for us to do at the reception. They’re going to teach it to us today.”

“But if it’s the bridesmaids where do I come in? I’m not a groomsman.”

“The idea is at the end of our routine then our dates come in and sweep us into this second dance, with Renald and Tamarind at the center.” Seeing his expression she had to giggle. “I know, it’s over the top and ridiculous but then isn’t this entire wedding a bit much? Really? Who does this kind of stuff except for celebrities? But here we are and I can’t exactly refuse to participate. And you’re with me.”

He came to her and gave her a hug. “And happy to be there so if I have to learn some dance routine bring it on. Can’t be any worse than some of the stuff we had to do in basic training. Just with a much prettier partner. Besides, my mother was old school Ardannan and she made all of us take dance lessons at one point so I’m sure we’ll do fine.”

Elodie was relieved he was so understanding and willing to participate. The bridesmaids were supposed to report to the dance studio Tamarind had rented by themselves and then the dates would show up two hours later to learn their part in the reception performance. At the appointed time she arrived at the studio, which was in a portion of the resort normally off limits to guests, intended for use by the performers of the resort itself. She knew the management had been extremely co-operative with Tamarind and Renald’s requests, it being a huge coup to have been chosen as the site for the wedding of the century, as the influencers were terming it.

When she walked into the dressing room, it was empty and she heard music and laughter from the studio adjoining so she rushed to shove her things into an empty locker and join the others.