Save the Date

28

"Tell me honestly. Am I picking up weight?" It was the night of Shannon's bachelorette party and I was at McKenzie's house getting ready. Mackenzie stood in front of her full-length mirror in only her underwear pinching at loose skin where her love handles would have been if she had an ounce of fat on her. "I'm not answering that," I said applying mascara to my eyelashes. "You're just fishing for compliments. You know damn well that you're not." She looked back at me and stuck out her tongue in good nature. "Put on your dress and let's go, we're going to be late," I said tugging at the black cocktail dress that I had bought for the occasion. The bridesmaids were all going dressed in black and Shannon would be the only one in white. The other guests could wear what they liked. Eventually, I shoved McKenzie out the door and the night could get started. The plan was simple: we would start at Marcello's and make Shannon collect money from strangers (as per tradition) and then we would visit Nick's to spend said collected money on drinks. I had hired out the upstairs VIP section and Mackenzie had organised a male stripper. The stripper turned out to be a middle-aged man with a beer belly dressed in a too-tight fireman's uniform. We all practically died laughing when the stripper tried to take off his pants. His leg got stuck and he lost his balance and tipped over. He tried to recover gracefully but by then we were all doubled over in laughter and the stripper put his pants back on and left. "This is the best night ever! He didn't even have tear-away pants!" Shannon cried through tears of laughter. "Where... did you... find him?" She was laughing so hard that she struggled to speak. The party was in full swing and we were all quite tipsy already. I was having a pretty good time except for the constant thought of Luca. I still found myself looking for him around every corner. From Nick's the next stop was Cascades, the only nightclub in town, to meet up with Richard's bachelor party. The bachelorette party moved as one outside to wait for the party bus Viola had hired to take us to the club. While we were waiting Alexi lit up a cigarette. McKenzie looked at me and mouthed "Okay?" and I couldn't help but giggle. All the ladies were laughing and chattering excitedly about what the evening still had in store. Eventually, the bus pulled up and the girls clambered up the stairs to get in. Shannon and McKenzie were in front of me hooting about something. I brought up the rear making sure no one was left behind when I thought I saw Chris's midnight blue Subaru in the parking lot. If it was him, I hadn't seen him inside. A strange icy feeling spread through me. I couldn't dwell on it long though because McKenzie had Shannon in stitches retelling her story, for the fifth time about when she had broken my nose. "Hey weren't you supposed to go on a date the next day?" "She did!" and they continued laughing the entire bus ride to the club. I took another shot of tequila. At Cascades, the boys were already partying hard. When Richard saw Shannon he ran towards her, picked her up and spun her around, "She's nearly my wife!" he shouted just as a song ended and his deep voice boomed over the dance floor. At this, the entire club noisily erupted in celebratory cheers. I didn't have to pay for one drink that night, it was glorious. The night passed in a blur of shots and dancing and spontaneous cheering. Even though it had been a long time since I had had so much fun I kept scanning the room. Not just for Luca but now with a wary, albeit blurry, eye for Chris.