AllFreeNovel
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Our new office is three rooms of awesome. We share a desk in our office above a bridal boutique on Main Street, and it’s been a godsend for our business. No longer is my garage a place for storage, and meetings at the local coffee shop were getting harder to hold without random patrons eavesdropping on party-planning discussions with clients.
Working with Melissa is the icing on the cake. She’s smart, funny, and far more free-spirited than I ever have been. It’s fun, living vicariously through her whirlwind of a soap-opera-drama life. Hopefully, she has some good stories for me today because I could use a little distraction. A Mack truck–sized distraction actually, but I’ll settle for a Kia.
While she’s on the phone, I’m working on my laptop, trying my best to focus on an upcoming wedding but I can’t concentrate.
I lift my phone and look for any text messages.
None.
I never responded to Luke last night. I mean, how does one respond to a text like that? It’s jarring, to say the least, and yet—
“You okay over there, killer?” Melissa asks as she hangs up the phone.
“Yeah. Fine.”
She looks down through the glass-top dining table we use as a joint desk. “Could’ve fooled me. Your knee has been bouncing like crazy. I fear you’ll shatter the glass.”
“Just trying to work through logistics. Do you have everything set with the imported woodland tables?”
“I had to practically sell my lastborn on the black market for them, but I got ’em! Seriously, I don’t think anyone understands the stress that goes into wedding planning and designing. Bridezillas get a bad rep. Well, some might deserve it. They can be monsters to the family. We, however, are professionals and put in hundreds of hours of work to make the six most magical hours of a couple’s life.”
I lean across the table and give her a high five.
“Speaking of bridezillas, how is your own wedding design coming along?”
Melissa’s engagement ring shines in the sunlight pouring through the window as she groans at the thought of designing her upcoming nuptials. She’s so theatrical that it makes me giggle.
“Trying to throw a very small, very laid-back wedding in a barn is actually turning out to be far more intricate than I thought,” she explains. “It’s my second wedding, so I don’t want it to be over the top, yet it’s Will’s first, so it should be special. His mother seems to think this is the most important wedding of her life and keeps on trying to make it bigger and bigger. I can’t believe I let her talk me into having an engagement party.”
“Doesn’t she have a bunch of kids who are already married?”
“Yes! Will is one of five and has eleven nieces and nephews. That family is in no shortage of parties. Only one of his siblings has never been married. Cade is the consummate bachelor. He’s never home long enough to date anyway. Oh! I should hook you two up. I bet you could get him to settle down.”
Holding up my palms, I declare, “No, thank you. A bachelor who doesn’t have kids is not a good look for me. Besides, I can get my own dates. I have absolutely no desire to be set up with anyone.” I go back to typing on my computer and then drop my head in my hand when I remember what I promised my mother last night. “Strike that. I told my mother I’d let her set me up. One time.”
“Letting your mother hook you up with someone is a big deal, Jillian. Are you sure about that? It’s not gonna stop at one date. She can be a bit—”
“Overbearing,” I say before she can use another adjective.
My mother is many things, but I’m trying to stay calm today. Just the thought of why I’m trying to stay Zen, distract myself, and overall forget about my current life drama has me sighing in a cry-like whimper.
Melissa brushes her long blonde hair over her shoulder and opens her laptop. “You know you can always call if the date goes south.”
“No need. I know how to walk away from a bad date. No reason to waste his time or mine.”
She looks up from her screen and smiles. “I wish I had your disposition. I feel like I was a walking punching bag for years. Just kept rolling over and playing dead so everyone else didn’t have to deal with my issues.”
“You were trying to make your children’s world stress-free.”
“True, but I was a total people-pleaser. Took me a while to take my life back.”
Melissa Jones is a divorced mom of two who has a jerk of an ex-husband, who she remains close to for the sake of her kids, Isabella and Hunter. A little over a year ago, she was arrested for breaking into her ex-husband’s mistress’s salon for her hair-color card and met her knight in shining armor. Her fiancé, William Bronson, is the real deal … if I still believed in that sort of thing.
“Took your life back is right!” I lean back with a smile. “You, my darling friend, are worthy of every bit of happiness this world has to offer.”
“That’s sweet. Write that down. Izzy’s gonna need help writing her maid-of-honor speech. Tara’s trying to convince my twelve-year-old to do a hip hop and rap performance.”
“Tara has already started writing it for her,” I say with a laugh. In fact, I heard some of her ideas, and it’s going to be ridiculous, if not kinda cute, if her daughter, Isabella, can pull it off. “What kind of speech did Tara make at your first wedding?”
