The Hustler Wedding [Alex Gaskarth]

Chapter Eleven: The Unity Shot

    "Air, stop messing with your hair. Luce! Air is touching herself!"

    A loud snicker came from the doorway, and Cass jumped up from her seat at the vanity and ran to snatch open the oak-stained door.

    "Alex, Jack! GO AWAY!" She yelled. "We're doing stuff!"

    "But I just wanted to talk to 'Lia," Alex pleaded. Even from my position in Chessie’s make-up chair, I could hear the puppy-dog pout in his voice. Very nearly thirty years old, and he hadn't changed a bit from the guy I'd been paid to date almost five years before.

    "Let me handle this." I picked up a white silk robe the wedding planner had dropped off- apparently, normal ones caused fuzz and lint on dresses- and pulled it over my white slip, and walked to the door. Just as I'd expected, Alex was fighting with Cass about whether or not it really was bad luck for him to see one of the bride before the wedding, an adorable puppy pout plastered across his face.

    “Hey, babe,” he grinned. “Lookin’ good.”

    “Yeah, man, I might have to marry you.” Jack agreed.

    “Go away! I’m trying to get ready, so I don’t look like a total pumpkin beside you.”

    “You won’t look like a pumpkin... more like a churro,” Jack corrected.

    Alex shook his head. “Nah. Cinnamon stick, definitely.”

    I laughed, brushing a hand over my hair. “Shut up. And go!”

    He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Me and Jack just happened to be strolling down the hallway, and we heard some inappropriate words coming from this room.”

    “You creep. This room is at the end of a dead-end hallway. You were totally spying on us.”

    “AIR! GET IN THE DAMN MAKE-UP CHAIR! We have twenty minutes!” Lucy declared.

    I rolled my eyes. “Why did you fire Brüno, again?”

    “Because I love you and wanted you to suffer. Have fun!”

    I shut the door on his and Jack’s faces, and hurried back to the makeup chair, so she could finish brushing mineral powder or whatever on my face.

    Fifteen minutes later, I set out to totter around on my excruciatingly tall and painful heels, as per Lucy’s orders. As she put it, it was better that I had a chance to get used to them for a couple of minutes before I had to walk down the aisle. As Chessie put it, I was a lucky bitch to get to leave Lucy’s company for any amount of time while she was in Wedding Coordinator mode.

    I clacked around the wing where the wedding was being held, but it was almost deserted - all of the guests were already seated inside, waiting to get the show on the road. Growing bored, I decided to try and find a way of getting outside for a few minutes of fresh air.

    It took me a good few minutes to figure out there was no way I was getting outside and back in in time to get married. So, I started teetering back to the events hall in hopes that I’d arrive on time, and Lucy wouldn’t kill me. I stumbled past a young couple, then over-corrected myself, and would have fallen over, if someone else hadn’t grabbed my arm and steadied me.

    I stood back upright, in order to see that it was the girl who'd stopped me from falling offstage earlier. She was smiling sympathetically and supporting my arm. Even in heels, she still had a good few inches on me.

    "Not really," I confessed. "These shoes are the least most comfortable thing I've ever worn.”

    She smiled again, and bent over, tugging at something below the cuff of her jeans. Almost before I knew what was happening, she was holding out her studded black Converse by the laces. “Here. You can wear these, if you want. They might be a little big, but it’s better than upping your life insurance.”