Sweet Addiction: A Meet/Cute Romantic Comedy

Chapter 2

The guests file out of The Great Hall and up the grand staircase to the second level. Once Joey and I reach the top, we stand there a moment to take in our surroundings. The entire second floor is the reception hall, and ridiculously decked out in coral and calla lilies.

"Holy hell. Are those ice sculptures?"

My eyes follow Joey's gesture toward the right side of the room. "Isn't that a bit over the top? Ooohhh, there's the cake."

"Told you I delivered it. I feel you doubt my capabilities as your trusted assistant."

I nudge his shoulder as we walk to the place card table. "And I feel you really love Sam and are just afraid to admit it."

Tilting his head back, he laughs loudly. "How badass would it be if we started doing our deliveries out of a Lamborghini."

"Badass and extremely impractical. Maybe when we make our first million we'll splurge on a luxury delivery vehicle." I grab our place card. "Come on, we're table twelve."

I don't really care what table we're at, just as long as we aren't in direct view of the bridal table. Justin still hasn't made eye contact and I'm hoping to keep it that way, and with this many people in attendance, avoiding him shouldn't be a problem. Round tables cover three sides of a large wooden dance floor, the bridal table elevated on a platform and overlooking the guests. The tables are draped in white linen with coral ribbons running along the edges and beautiful calla lily filled centerpieces. The DJ is already playing music and a few people are dancing while others mingle around the tables, talking and enjoying themselves.

"There you two are." Juls comes skittering over to us in her dangerously high heels and grabs onto our forearms as we admire the sculptures. "How was it? Be honest." I cock my head to the side and scrunch up my nose as Joey rubs the back of his neck, seemingly in pain. Juls panics, her eyes bug and her fingers immediately rub her temple.

"It was brilliant!" I yell as relief washes over her, followed by a stern I'm going to kick your ass look.

"As usual, you are one badass bitch, Juls. If I ever get married, you'll be running that show." Joey rubs her bare shoulder and she winks at him.

"Well, I only have a few minutes to spare before I have to get the bridal party lined up to come in so," she steps in between us and loops her arms through ours, "let's go introduce you to some hotties." Oh, shit. I almost forgot about hot lap guy. Almost.

"Oh, my God, Juls, you missed it," Joey says through a laugh.

I lean back and hiss. "Shut up, Joey."

"What? What did I miss?" She flicks her head back and forth between the two of us as I stare him down.

Don't you dare. I'm still your boss and will fire your ass right here. He must have read my thoughts because he never finishes his sentence, or maybe it's because we're now standing in front of the hot, Chicago, man candy club. The four of them are standing near a table conversing amongst themselves, but all conversation comes to a halt as we walk up. All of them, and I mean all of them, are way too attractive to properly function around, and now it's suddenly feeling a thousand degrees hotter in this room.

"There's my girl." Ian reaches his hand out and Juls steps into him, placing a quick kiss on his cheek before she steps back. I keep my eyes on Ian, not wanting to drift to the man whose eyes I know are on me. I can feel them burning a hole into my profile.

"Boys, I would like to introduce my very best friend, Dylan." Her hand grabs mine and pulls me forward as I glance up and run my eyes down the row of men, stopping on the one closest to me. Damn, he keeps getting better looking. "And this is Joey, the hottest gay man in Chicago."