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Picking strawberries was hard work,so we put our haul in the car and then went to the farm café for iced tea and sandwiches made of thick homemade bread, goat cheese, apples, and drizzled in the farm’s own honey.
“Oh look, a wedding,” Natalie said, pointing out the window. Two people in wedding attire were posing on the hill with a photographer snapping away while other people in formal wear trooped down to the barn for what looked like a reception.
“We should crash it,” I said as a joke.
“Dare you,” Natalie said.
“For real?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why not? Worst they can do is kick us out. I bet it happens all the time.”
“We’d be more convincing if we weren’t dressed so casual,” I said, pointing at my ripped jeans and tank.
Natalie had on this billowy loose dress in a shade of green that was so perfect with her skin tone.
I couldn’t stop looking at her.
“They’re probably going to get wasted anyway. Come on,” she said.
We finished our food and started waltzing down the hill as if we knew exactly where we were going.
“Walk with purpose,” Natalie whispered in my ear as we stopped outside the side door to the barn. It was wide open and no one really seemed to pay attention to us. They were too busy hovering around tall tables and reaching for hors d’oeuvres.
Natalie strolled in, grabbing two little glasses of champagne from a passing tray.
I was too scared to go for a plate of bacon-wrapped scallops that passed by me.
It was almost as if we were invisible.
Natalie handed me my glass and we hovered on the periphery of the party, somehow blending in.
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered, and sipped at the champagne.
“I know,” she said, before she scurried away to snatch a few snacks off a tray as the server’s back was turned.
“Hey!” someone said, and Natalie’s eyes went wide.
“Go, go, go,” she hissed, and we ran, but no one chased us. Somehow, I managed not to spill all the champagne as we rested under a large tree away from the barn.
The newlywed couple were still taking pictures, probably completely oblivious of our crashing their reception.
“I saved a little bit,” I said, holding out my glass. Natalie had dropped hers on the grass, but she had some squished mini tarts in her hand that we shared.
“We earned this,” Natalie said, licking her fingers.
“We should probably get out of here before we get kicked out,” I said.
“True. We need to make it our next destination.”
I hadn’t known there was a second part to the date.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” she said.
* * *
We endedup about an hour away from Castleton at a street fair. It was a bitch to find parking, but I shoved my car in a tiny space and called it good.
