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“No worries,” she said, looking around. “I’m not supposed to be drinking on the job.”
I took the beer from her. “Where’s your office?” I asked.
“Follow me,” she said, and we walked back inside and up the stairs, along a hallway where the rooms were numbered and through a small door to another hallway and through another door.
“This is it,” she said. “Be it ever so humble.”
The room was small, but clean and bright with a little window that faced the back lawn so she could monitor the reception from here.
“Have a drink,” I said, handing the beer back to her. She moved two stuffed flamingos to the floor and flopped down on the little loveseat and patted the spot next to her.
“Go under the desk and open the minifridge,” she said.
I found the little fridge under the desk stocked with all manner of drinks, including a few hard seltzers.
I selected one and popped it open.
“Nice,” I said.
“One of those drawers in my desk is just snacks. I’m a professional.”
The music from the reception filtered through the window as Alivia closed her eyes and sighed.
“I know I need to get back out there, but I cannot deal with them. They will not stop fighting about everything. It was a challenge to create a goth and cottage-core reception that made them both happy. You’d think we could just do black lace and teacups with skulls on them, but no. They had completely different visions and neither would compromise. I wonder what their house looks like.”
“Sounds like they’re going to have to figure their shit out if they want to stay married,” I said.
“Seriously. I don’t see how it’s going to work when both of them want what they want.”
She shook her head. “It’s days like these that definitely make me want to elope, if the time comes.”
She set the beer down on the corner of her desk.
“I’d elope if I can ride in a carriage like that, it’s beautiful,” I said.
“That was one of the things we got right, except for the fact that one of the original horses had a shoe problem, and we had to find a different horse.”
“So much horse drama,” I said with a laugh.
“All in a day’s work.”
She turned to her side to face me and I realized that we shouldn’t have come up here alone. Why did I keep putting myself in these situations?
“It’s nice to take a break from the madness and talk with you,” she said.
“I’m happy to help,” I said, sipping my drink.
“I know I should go back down and make sure everything is okay, but I really, really don’t want to.” She leaned closer and I couldn’t stop myself. I leaned toward her. I was going to blame the suit this time. I couldn’t handle a sexy woman in a suit. Alivia was pushing all my buttons right now.
“We can just hide up here. Pretend there’s another emergency,” I said as her face got closer.
“This feels like an emergency,” she said, and I started trembling.
She was going to kiss me. I knew it. She knew it.
I knew I should stop her, but I just…didn’t want to.
I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to remember what it was like. If I’d embellished on how good things had been. Maybe this kiss wouldn’t be that great. Maybe the last kisses had been so good because I’d been caught up in hooking up with a stranger.
