Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69858 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Of course! I know I’ll love it.” Even if I don’t, for Collette, I’d wear a dirty garbage bag.
A tuxedo-clad server comes over with a tray of champagne, and Collette exchanges her almost-empty for a fresh one, and grabs another for me.
“Okay, so who are all these people?” I ask in a whisper. Collette’s got a decent-sized extended family, but I’m estimating that there are well over a hundred people spanning a couple different rooms.
“So much for the low-key intimate party, right?” she says with a little laugh. “Basically, you’re looking at every Burton who was ever born. And Mom’s family flew down from Toronto, so there’s that. Plus, I think all of our colleagues RSVP-ed yes, so we’ve got the entirety of Stanley and Summers in the room.”
Collette scans the crowd, mentally cataloging the remaining guests. “The rest is Jon’s side, though that’s a pretty small group—he doesn’t have a ton of extended family. Oh, and that reminds me,” she says, craning her neck to look for someone. I’ve got to introduce you to Jon’s brother. The best man.”
“Please tell me he’s not as gorgeous as Jon. I don’t want him overshadowing me in pictures,” I joke.
“He’s pretty cute, but so are you. I even thought about fixing you up, but he showed up with a date. Ah! There he is.”
Collette’s fingers wrap around my wrist, pulling me forward through the crowd. Since she’s seven inches taller than me, her shoulder blades block my view as we weave through the crowd.
So it’s not until we reach her fiancé and she steps aside that it happens.
Déjà vu, and not the good kind.
I faintly listen to Collette make introductions, but unfortunately, they’re entirely unnecessary.
Gray eyes blink once in surprise as they lock on mine, and then Thomas Decker lets out the smallest of irritated sighs. “You have got to be kidding me.”
CHAPTER SIX
Friday, September 16
“This is my nightmare,” I mutter into my champagne.
“Sorry?” Collette says, sharing a bemused look with Jon. “What are we missing?”
Oh, where to start.
I exchange a glance with Thomas. You want to take this one?
There’s the briefest moment of camaraderie that we’re in this strange mess together, but he stays silent, so I take a sip of my champagne and break the news to the group. “Thomas here is actually my new boss.”
“Wait, seriously?” Jon says with a laugh. “Oh man. I can’t believe I didn’t make that connection when you told me you took the job at Elodie.”
Thomas takes an insultingly large swallow of his cocktail in response.
I notice that he doesn’t mention that actually we’d met before he showed up as my new boss, and it doesn’t seem like he brought his brother up to speed on the encounter.
I can’t decide if I’m relieved or insulted.
Either way, I guess I can’t judge him. I still haven’t told Collette. She’s been crazy busy with the prep for the party tonight, plus I still haven’t felt up for her inevitable serendipity spin on the whole thing. Though, I have to admit, she might have a point there. What are the odds in a city this big that I’d encounter the same man three times in a single week?
And not just glancing encounters. Two out of the three (him being my boss, and my best friend’s future husband’s brother) are sort of lasting entanglements.
As for the first . . .
All of a sudden, I remember Collette said that Thomas had a date, and I shift my attention to the woman standing beside him.
“Hey, I’m Mac,” I introduce myself cheerfully. Partly to be friendly, and . . . yeah, okay, no. I’m just suffering from raging curiosity.
“Hi there. Anna,” she says with a friendly smile, shaking my hand.
Anna is pretty. Very pretty. Medium height, perfect posture, and she has good skin—ugh, nothing more annoying than girls with good skin. She also seems genuinely nice. Her smile crinkles her eyes in a really cute way, which tells me she’s way too good for Thomas, whose glower is so pointed I can practically feel my profile getting frostbite.
I’m dying to ask Anna how long she’s known Thomas and to blink twice if she’s here against her will, but Collette interjects. “This is seriously such a small world,” she says, looking between me and Thomas.
“This will actually work out great,” Jon adds enthusiastically. “Since you’ll see each other at work, it’ll be easier to coordinate the bachelor–bachelorette party.”
Oh, hell.
Jon and Collette let me know last week that they’d decided to do a joint bachelor and bachelorette party, and though it meant I’d have to temper the rowdy, stripper-focused party I’d dreamed of for my best friend, I’d actually been sort of grateful to have a planning partner in the process, since ahem, planning is not exactly my thing.
But co-planning with him?
Haven’t I been punished enough?