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“I’m never going to live this night down,” Esme said, as many of her customers yelled and hooted and threw money at us.
“Give me that,” Linley said, taking the money that Esme had collected. “This wedding isn’t cheap, and it’s my right as a bride to collect the proceeds of the night.”
Esme happily handed over the money to Linley, who promptly shoved it in her bra.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could still see Alivia still watching me as she sipped from a beer bottle. The sight of her lips closing over the top of it made me choke on my water. I’d switched away from alcohol to try and be responsible.
I wasn’t feeling very responsible at the moment.
“Who are you looking at?” Natalie said, leaning closer and speaking in a volume that was the opposite of a whisper. When Natalie had a few drinks in her, she lost all sense of the loudness of her voice.
“No one,” I said hurriedly, but Natalie squinted in the direction I’d been looking.
Directly at Alivia.
“Who’s that?” she said.
“Shhh,” I said, trying to shush her.
“What’s happening?” Em said, leaning over to follow where Natalie was looking.
“We’re looking at her,” Natalie said, and then she held her hand up and pointed.
Then every head at the table (with the exception of mine, which I buried in my hands), swiveled to look.
“Oh, that’s Alivia, my wedding coordinator,” Linley said.
“That’s your wedding coordinator? I’ve only seen her in here a few times. I always wondered what her story was,” Esme said. “She was a hard clam to shuck. Didn’t really respond to my bartender talk. I asked Dad and he’s seen her getting groceries at the market but didn’t have any other insight.” Esme’s dad, Butch, owned the local organic grocery store and was an encyclopedia of town gossip and information.
“She’s so great. She moved here like, six months ago from Massachusetts, I think.”
It was four months ago, I had to stop myself from saying.
“Her family bought the inn and did all the renovations. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they had a hard time finding someone to run the place and brought her on. I will admit the first person they had doing the wedding really was not on top of anything. Now that I have Alivia, my stress level has gone way down,” Linley said. “She’s all by herself. I’m going to see if she wants to join us.”
Linley stood up and stumbled a little bit.
“No, she’s by herself, she doesn’t want to hang out with us,” I said, but no one paid attention to me. Esme grabbed another chair and everyone else shoved over to make room.
I glanced over as Linley greeted Alivia and they talked for a little bit. I saw Alivia shake her head and then Linley looked like she was pleading.
Please, let her say no.
At last, it looked like Linley had won and she walked over, beaming with Alivia trailing behind her, beer in hand.
“This is Alivia everyone. This is Paige, and Esme, and Natalie, and Emerald, and my cousin, Charli, but you’ve already met,” Linley said, making introductions.
“I don’t want to intrude, this is your bachelorette party,” Alivia said, and I could tell she was trying to back away.
“The more the merrier,” Linley said, putting her hand on Alivia’s shoulder. “We’d love to have you.”
Alivia opened her mouth to protest, but then sat down in the chair that Esme had brought her.
Right next to me.
“Nice to see you again,” Alivia said to me, a twinkle in her eye. Or maybe it was just my imagination and the bar lighting.
“Do you want a drink? Or a shot?” Esme asked, ever the bartender.
