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“No, Liam was pissed, but he had mostly calmed down by the time we got home. I got a bit of a spanking, but it wasn’t too bad, I’m sure the other girls got worse.” There was something in Hilary’s voice which made Lexie think the honey-blonde was also feeling a little bit guilty. She just wasn’t set up for serious kink in a lot of ways. She liked being dominated, but most of her and Liam’s play consisted of role-play and him bossing her around. Lexie knew none of the others would think Hilary had gotten off easy though. Since Hilary didn’t enjoy pain, any kind of spanking punishment was much more influential on her than it would be on a spankophile like Angel.
“Glad to hear it,” Lexie said, hoping to relieve Hilary of some of her guilt. “I hung out with Angel last night and she seemed pretty happy.”
“Oh good. Jessica said her butt was smarting this weekend, but she didn’t sound like it was necessarily a bad thing,” Hilary said, making Lexie feel even better. “The only person I haven’t talked to is Maria. I should really call her.”
“I was just thinking that too,” Lexie said, giggling a bit. She really liked how all the Stronghold girls watched out for each other. Sure, they were kind forced into hanging out by default, because of the guys, but there was definite genuine affection and friendship on all their parts. She just had to look at Jared’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Marissa, who never hung out with the group because everyone hated her, to know how special that was.
“Anyway, I was calling because I have a very important question to ask you...” Hilary let her voice trail off expectantly, obviously waiting for Lexie to ask what she wanted. Even without knowing what was going on, Lexie felt the stirrings of excitement. That was just how girls worked. When something big was coming, they liked to draw it out.
“Oh yeah?” Lexie feigned nonchalance. “What important question?”
“Will you be a bridesmaid in my-“
“Oh my god, YES! Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!” Lexie cut Hilary off, jumping around the kitchen and thrusting her spoon in the air. Tears sparked in her eyes from both excitement and warmth. She considered the Stronghold girls to be her best friends now, but she knew that, other than Angel, they all had female friends outside of the club. The fact that Hilary considered her a good enough friend to ask her to be a bridesmaid was a huge honor, and it made her feel all warm and fuzzy and weepy inside. On the other end of the line Hilary was laughing in delight. Lexie didn’t care that she was providing her friend with amusement, this was just too, too good to be anything but exuberant about. “I am so honored! And excited!!!”
“I’m excited too!” Hilary said with a bit of a squeal. “There’s a pretty big group of you, so be prepared. Jessica’s my Maid of Honor of course, and I’ve asked Angel to be a bridesmaid as well, my friends Brooke and Cassie, and three of my cousins.”
Lexie did a quick count in her head as Hilary rattled them off. “Holy crap, that’s eight of us!”
“I know,” Hilary said, and Lexie could practically hear the other woman rolling her eyes. “I wouldn’t have included by cousins, but my mom got all wedding Nazi about having even sides. It doesn’t matter to me, but it matters to her... and it is nice they’re included, I just originally wanted a smaller bridal party.” Her voice turned a little bit smug. “Liam’s going to have Olivia as one of his groomsmen, and he’s insisting she choose whether or not to wear a bridesmaid dress or a tux, so at least I get to watch my mom struggle with that.”
Ha. Hilary’s parents were pretty rich. Well, mostly her mom. She had some major trust funds, apparently, and spent a lot of time doing charity work and was a really good person, but she also had certain ideas about the way things should be done. On the other side of the equation was Hilary’s father, who was a university professor, and didn’t seem to care the slightest about his wife’s social rules. Most of the time, Hilary was pretty good about following ‘the rules,’ but Lexie could see some epic battles coming up with the wedding planning.
“Are you guys paying for the wedding or are your parents?” Because that always made a difference.
“They are. I mean, we could pay for it on our own and, I thought about it, but honestly it’s better to just let my mom have this. We can invite everyone we want to, even if it does mean some extra hassle on some things, but it’ll be amazing. She keeps insisting she’s going to let us make all the decisions, even though she pushed for the even numbered sides of the wedding party. I didn’t have anything against even sides, so one just isn’t worth fighting, but I could practically hear her grinding her teeth over Olivia in a tux,” Hilary said, sounding somewhere between exasperated and amused. “I don’t care if she has input on a lot of stuff, but there are certain things I am not going to compromise on. Olivia being one of Liam’s groomsmen is one of them.”
“She’ll make a hot groomsman,” Lexie said. “Five bucks she chooses the tux.”
“I am so not taking that bet,” Hilary said, snickering. She sighed. “I’m feeling kind of bad about not having Maria as part of my bridal party, because I already feel really close to her, and I think we’d probably stay friends even if she and Rick broke up, but we’re not actually close yet, you know?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lexie said, reassuringly. “We just met her a few months ago, I seriously doubt she expects to be asked to be bridesmaid.”
“That’s what Jessica said too.” Hilary still didn’t sound entirely convinced though.
“She’ll be fine, trust me. I didn’t think I was going to be a bridesmaid, and I was fine with that. The important thing is being invited and getting to be there. She’s still going to get to come to the wedding, and the bridal shower and the bachelorette party, right?”
“Yeah, and the rehearsal dinner as Rick’s date.”
“Are you going to do that stupid thing with the head table where you don’t let the wedding party’s dates sit with them?”
Hilary laughed. “Trust you to come up with the most insulting way to ask that. No, we’re not. We’ve been talking about it, and I don’t think we even want a head table. It would have to be a mile long, and I am not separating people from their dates. That’s not an honor, it’s just rude. Even my mom agrees it’s an antiquated tradition.”
Antiquated. Now there was a word Lexie didn’t hear often, but that was Hilary through and through. Her dad used a lot of old fashioned sayings and terms and so did Hilary. Liam was picking up on them too, along with the rest of the group to a lesser degree.
“So she’s going to be involved in every step of the wedding process anyway, except she doesn’t have to spend money or plan anything on the parties, and she gets to wear whatever dress she wants the day of. She’ll be thrilled.”
“Good grief, you make being a bridesmaid sound awful,” Hilary said, giggling. “Can you please say that in front of my mom? She’d probably faint.”
“I’ll try to work it in sometime.”
“You are going to get to choose your dress though. My mom has agreed to pay for them just so we can pick them from this fancy boutique she likes without you guys having to shell out an arm and a leg - I told her it was that or David’s Bridal because I wasn’t going to make you guys pay something ridiculous for a dress - and I’m just going to choose a color and you can get whatever style you want. Oh, as long as it’s floor length.” Hilary rolled her eyes again. At least, Lexie was pretty sure she did. Even though she couldn’t see Hilary, she could just sense it.
“Awesome,” Lexie said, a bit relieved. Even though she’d never seen Hilary’s cousins, the other bridesmaids she did know (and she’d met Cassie and Brooke once) all had very different body types. Lexie was definitely the smallest, in every way, and a lot of the dresses that would look gorgeous on the others wouldn’t look good at all on her.
They chatted for a little bit longer as Lexie filled Hilary in on the new arrangement with Patrick. Of course Hilary was excited for her, although a little bit worried about breaking the news to Liam. All of the guys were so overprotective of Lexie. Didn’t any of them worry that maybe she could do Patrick some damage? She scowled a bit as she hung up her phone and put it back in her pocket.
It was definitely Ramen time.
