Three Girls And A Wedding (23 page)

I looked at her in amazement,
completely lost for words.

“Sweetie,” she said, leaning towards
me conspiratorially. “What’s the point of being totally loaded if you can’t
ever use it to get what you want?”

Chapter Twenty-five

I broke about a dozen traffic laws
in my rush to get home. I knew Annie and Ginny would still be furious with me,
but I didn’t care anymore. I had to get to them. I had to make this right.

When I finally pulled onto our
street, I was surprised to see that no cars were in our drive. Where had they
gone?

Slowly, I walked into the house. My
conversation with Kiki had buoyed me, encouraged me. I had been so sure that
once I saw the girls we’d be able to come up with something. Now I felt
deflated once again.

I sat down at the dining room
table, where my laptop was still plugged in. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to
try…I pulled up my excel sheets and started dialing numbers, hoping against
hope that some of our vendors would have openings on Friday. I had little luck.
The cake decorator said they could fit us in on the earlier day, but only if we
could accept delivery of the cake first thing in the morning. It did little to
cheer me up—what good was a cake if we didn’t have a venue to eat it at?

I looked over my paperwork. We had
clothes for the wedding party, a cake, an
officiant
,
and invitations. That was it. And we only had three days.

Finally, overcome with the emotion
of the morning, I put my head flat on the table and gave into the sobs once
again.

I wasn’t sure how long I cried like
that, alone in the dining room. I had just started to quiet somewhat when I
felt a gentle hand on my back. I looked up eagerly, expecting to see Ginny. It
wasn’t her. It was Matt.

“Hey,” he said, smiling down at me.
“I knocked but you didn’t answer, so I tried the door…I just talked to Kiki.
How’s it going?”

Looking up into his kind brown
eyes, this man who had judged me from the beginning as a superficial flake,
this man who must now be thinking,
Yup, I
was right about her
…it was too much, and the sobs overtook me again.

“Hey, hey,” he murmured, leaning
down to rub my back. “Jen, come on. It’s
gonna
be
okay. We’ll figure something out.”

“We?” I gulped, looking up into his
eyes.

“You think I’d make you do all this
by yourself?” he asked with a slight smile.

“There’s nothing to do, Matt,” I
said. “I’ve ruined everything.”

“Come on, now,” he admonished.
“That’s not the Jen Campbell attitude I was looking for. We’re going to figure
something out, Jen. I promise.”

He looked so sure of himself, so
confident, that I couldn’t help but believe him.

“You really want to help me?”

“Hey, I’m here, aren’t I?” He
smiled again, his eyes warm and twinkling. I thought, fleetingly, of how gross
I must look right now.

“Matt, this is…this is really nice
of you. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” He held out his
hand to help me up. “Now, we’ve got three days. Let’s plan a wedding.”

***

“She’s still not answering,” I said
to Matt. “I know she’s pissed at me, but come on!”

“Do you have Josh’s number?” he
asked. “Have you tried Annie yet?”

“I’ll just keep dialing all three
numbers until someone answers,” I said grimly.

Matt and I were in his pick-up,
speeding down the highway. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were going, but Matt
assured me our destination would help with the wedding.

“Okay, let’s go over this again,”
Matt said. “We need a venue. We need food. We need a DJ, a photographer,
flowers…”

“Centerpieces,” I added. “Favors,
seating cards, tablecloths, dishes, silverware…” I trailed off, feeling
overwhelmed. Matt reached over and took my hand.

“One thing at a time,” he said
firmly. He didn’t let go of my hand as he turned off on the next exit. “Let’s
focus on the venue right now. That’s probably the most important thing, right?”

I nodded. We couldn’t do
anything
without a venue. Matt had taken
us into Detroit, not too far from the original venue site. “Where are we going?”
I asked.

Matt didn’t answer, but he turned
onto a side street and parked in front of a large, nondescript brick building.
He turned to me. “Okay, I know it doesn’t look like much. And it needs a lot of
work. But I think this might work.”

I looked at him blankly.

“Come on,” he said, opening his
door and climbing out. I followed him to the door of the building, which he
unlocked with a key on a large, crowded key ring. He opened the door and
gestured me inside in front of him.

We were standing in a small foyer
which opened up into a large, empty room. It was clearly in the middle of a
renovation: the brick walls were exposed, there was drywall equipment and paint
laying on the floor, and one wall was covered in scaffolding.

“Okay, have an open mind,” Matt said.
“Try to picture it without all the crap in it. If we bring in tables and string
up a bunch of lanterns and Christmas lights, maybe bring in some candles… I
think we can leave the brick exposed, it adds a cool vibe, right? The bathrooms
and the kitchen are done, so there’s no problem there.” He looked at me
eagerly. “
Whaddya
think? Could it work?”

I stared at him, bewildered. “Matt,
what is this place?”

“It’s
going
to be a club,” he said. “When my crew gets finished with it.”
When I still looked confused he added, “It’s one of Mr. Barker’s developments.
I’ve been working on it for the last month. I know it’s not perfect, but I
really think it could work for the venue. There’s even a patio in the back we
can use for the ceremony.”

When I didn’t respond, he
continued. “I already talked to Mr. Barker; he’s totally up for you using it.
He insisted, in fact. And said you better not try to offer him any money,” Matt
added with a grin.

I was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t
speak.

“Do you think it’s too rustic?” Matt
asked, his face falling. “I understand. We can keep—” Before he could say
another word, I flung my arms around his neck, holding him tight.

“This is perfect,” I whispered, not
trusting myself not to cry. “Oh, Matt, thank you so much.”

He squeezed me back. “No problem,
Jen,” he said. “No problem at all.”

I pulled back, grinning at him.
“This is going to be really, really great. I can tell. And it’s totally Ginny
and Josh.” I ran to my purse. “I have to try Ginny again, she better answer her
phone.”

“I have an idea,” Matt said,
pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Why don’t you try calling from my phone?
She won’t recognize the number so maybe she won’t ignore it.”

“Good thinking,” I said, too
excited to even feel sad that there was a better chance Ginny would answer for
a stranger.

Matt’s plan worked; Ginny answered
on the second ring.

“Gin, it’s Jen,” I said quickly.
“Don’t you dare hang up. We have a venue and a plan, we can totally make this
work.”

There was silence on the other end
of the phone. “Ginny?” I asked, afraid she had hung up.

“Where are you?” she finally asked.

“Let me give you to Matt,” I told
her, immeasurably relieved. “He can give you the address.”

“Matt?” she asked, clearly
surprised.

“I’ll explain everything when you
get here,” I told her, then handed the phone to Matt. While he said hello and
gave her the address, I pulled my laptop out of my bag and fired it up, sitting
cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the room.

“She said they were downtown
already,” Matt said, joining me on the floor and peering over my shoulder. “I
guess they were begging the restaurant owner to change the date, but they
didn’t have any luck. They should be here any minute.”

“Good,” I said, opening a new
document. I took a deep breath.

“So, we have a venue. What’s next?”

“The good news is, Ginny’s wedding
is small. Only seventy-five people. That makes things a lot more simple.” I
started to type notes as I spoke. “So, we need to figure out food,” I told him.
“And we need to get tables and chairs in here.”

“Do they have to match?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I want to run it
by Ginny, but I think the venue lends itself to kind of an urban-grungy chic
feel. If the tables and chairs are mismatched I think it fits that vibe.”

“Also, it makes things a heck of a
lot easier,” Matt muttered.

I laughed. “And that.” I pulled out
my phone. “Let’s see if
Aaliyah
can come through for
me again.”

Aaliyah
was a strike-out. She clearly felt terrible but she had a big party booked on
Friday and she just couldn’t spare any staff to feed a wedding party. I assured
her it was fine, I would figure it out, but I hung up feeling slightly less
excited than I had before. Food was a huge issue. What were we
gonna
do?

My train of thought was interrupted
by a pounding on the door. They were here. I felt my stomach clench—I was
not looking forward to more of their disappointment and anger. “Let me handle
this, okay?” Matt said, as if he had read my thoughts. He went to the door to
let them in.

“Hi, Ginny,” I heard him say, his
voice warm. “I’m Matt Thompson. I’ve heard so much about you.”

Ginny and Josh followed him into
the room, Annie behind them with a sleepy-looking Danny in her arms. I could
feel tension radiating off of them from across the room. Yup, they were still
pissed. That was fine, though. This was going to work, I could feel it.

Ginny glanced at me, then directed
her attention back to Matt. “This is my fiancé, Josh,” she said, her voice
somewhat tight. “And our roommate, Annie.”

Annie nodded at him, not looking in
my direction at all.

“And this must be Danny,” Matt
said, bending down to smile at him. “Jen talks about you all the time, buddy.”

Danny smiled at him shyly. Josh
reached into the diaper bag slung over his shoulder, pulling out a blanket and
setting it on the floor. Annie plopped Danny onto it with a few toys, then
straightened.

Ginny, Josh, and Annie looked
skeptically around the room.

“So, this is the site of a future
night club,” Matt said. “I’m a contractor and my crew has been working on this
for the last few months. When I heard about your issue, it was the first thing
that popped into my head. Now, I know it doesn’t look like much, but the
bathrooms and kitchen are finished and there’s an outdoor space for the
ceremony—it’s sparse but we could bring in flowers or something. And we
can clear away all this construction stuff and clean it up a little bit.”

The three of them still looked
skeptical.

“Ginny, listen to me, okay?” I
said, standing up. “I know you’re pissed, you have every right to be, but I
really think we can fix this. Try to picture the room filled with tables and
chairs. We can put the dance floor down there.” I pointed to the end of the
room. “We can string lanterns all along the ceiling, bring in Christmas lights
and have candles all over the place. With the exposed brick and the concrete
floors, I think the vibe in here could be really cool.”

“What about food?” Annie asked
flatly, still not meeting my eyes. “I’m assuming there isn’t in-house
catering.”

I took a deep breath. “I’ll do the
food.”

Everyone turned to stare at me.

“Look, it’s not a huge deal. It’s
food for seventy-five, right? I can handle that. I have three full days.” When
no one looked convinced, I started feeling desperate. “Look, I won’t sleep if
that’s what it takes, okay? I can do this, I know I can.”

Ginny looked at me for a long
moment, then, finally, her eyes softened. “I think that might work.”

A wave of relief spread over me. If
I had won Ginny over, we were home free.

“I think you’re right about the
vibe in here,” Josh said, looking around. “I think it could be really cool.”

“We’ll clean all this stuff out,”
Matt told him eagerly. “And I’ll bring a polisher in to clean up the floors. I
think with the right lighting and maybe something to brighten up the walls,
we’ll have a cool space.”

Just then, we heard another knock
on the door. Before Matt could take a step, Kiki had burst through, Eric at her
heels. Annie and Ginny stared at her. I really couldn’t blame them as her hair
was still up, complete with tiara and veil. She did look a little ridiculous.

“Jen, oh my God,” she cried,
rushing over to me. “I’ve had so many good ideas I just had to get over here so
I could help you get to work.” Kiki spun around, spotting Annie and Ginny. “Oh,
you must be the girls. I’ve heard so, so much about you I feel like we’re
already friends.” She walked straight to Ginny and threw her arms around her.
“You poor, poor girl,” she said, squeezing her tight. “I can’t even imagine the
horrible morning you’ve had. It’s all my fault, working Jen the way I have. But
we’re
gonna
fix it, just you wait.”

Ginny could only stare at her,
completely bemused. Josh looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or be
horrified. I caught Matt’s eye and we both broke into grins.

“And this must be the baby! Oh my
God, he’s so cute!” Kiki bent down to coo at Danny. He smiled at her, reaching
up to grab at her veil. Kiki laughed, standing up again. “So this is the
place,” she said, looking around. “You know, I think it’s perfect. Very urban
chic.”

“That’s what we’re going for,” Matt
said.

“Okay, Jen, flowers, I have it all
figured out,” Kiki said, turning her attention back to me. “Mom will totally
let us take whatever we need from the greenhouse.” She looked over at Ginny.
“My mom is, like, a total green thumb. She keeps a greenhouse so she can have
roses even in the winter. With Jen’s amazing eye, I know we’ll find whatever we
need there.”