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Ian kicked me under the table and I realized I was staring at Scarlet.
“Really? Wow!” I snapped. “I’d be honored.”
“Awesome!” Scarlet smiled.
“Ian, who’s the best man?” I asked. “Don’t tell me it’s Xavier! You’re just asking for trouble. He’ll probably try to sleep with half the bridesmaids.” Xavier was Ian’s college roommate and one of the top male whores on campus. And that designation was for good reason. Xavier was a beefcake, a mocha chocolate version of Ian. Sometimes I felt bad for some of the other guys on campus when Ian and Xavier were together. It just didn’t seem fair that they got so much attention. And even less fair that unlike Ian, Xavier was clearly primed to take advantage of the situation. No one’s girlfriend was safe.
“Nah, X is my dog, so he’ll be in the wedding, but my cousin Elon will be the best man.”
“Oh, Elon. Fine-ass youngun.” I grinned and batted my eyes. Elon was twenty-one and mixed with every race in New Orleans. He had silky tan skin and a thick New Orleans accent. His father had run out on his mother when he was young, so Ian was the male role model in his life. He lived in New Orleans, but came to stay with Ian most summers.
“And half your age.”
“Don’t hate on my cougar possibilities. That boy is a man! And I have an entire year to get slim and trim to make him my boo,” I joked.
“A year? Wait, Ian, you didn’t tell her?” Scarlet looked at Ian.
“Tell me what?”
“We moved the wedding up,” Scarlet said.
“Moved it up?”
“It’s in May,” Ian revealed.
“Ian, I can’t believe you didn’t tell her.”
“We just decided this last night,” Ian said to Scarlet.
“Well, ya’ll talk all the time.”
“May? May? That’s . . . in four months.” I’d been counting it up in my head.
“Three and a half,” Scarlet said.
I peeked at her ring. It looked like she’d had it polished already.
I said, “Why? That’s crazy. It takes at least nine months to plan a decent wedding—one that’s not going to break your pockets.”
“We kind of wanted to get it out of the way before I leave for the Congo,” Scarlet said, and in her eyes I could tell that she’d expected me to know what she was talking about. “You didn’t tell her about my trip either?” She turned and poked at Ian.
“Scarlet is going to the Congo this summer to work at an orphanage for girls,” Ian blurted out quickly.
“It’s not just an orphanage,” Scarlet said. “It’s a rehabilitation clinic for girls who had their limbs severed during home invasions by the rebel tribes.”
“Wow! That’s heavy. How’d you get into that?” I asked.
“It’s through my graduate program.”
“You’re in graduate school?”
Scarlet shot a stare at Ian. “Well, not right now,” she said. “I start in the fall. This is just a summer pilot program they have going. Anyway, Ian and I are so excited to be getting married that we figured, hey”—she threw her hands up and the look on her face forced Ian to do the same—“we might as well just do it before I leave.” She looked at Ian.
“Yeah, we might as well!” he confirmed with his voice as obnoxiously fake as Scarlet’s.
I still couldn’t piece together why in the world he was putting himself through this whole thing. But, like Journey said, it was his life. I was just there for support. Who cared what they did as long as it didn’t involve me?
“And I guess that brings us to why we invited you here today,” Scarlet said. “Ian told me that you don’t plan weddings for friends, but I was just hoping, just hoping you would find a way in your heart to reconsider your rule.”
