Resist Me Not

5

The next few months were very average at work and in my personal life. I never ended up telling Eric about Ryan kissing me. I pretty much swept it under the rug of my mind too. Luckily, work was keeping me busy with new projects popping up, and Ryan traveling more to the various company project sites around the country.

When I wasn't at work, I was busy planning for my wedding. Eric and I had a date set for a May wedding in the city, and it was January now. With only four months left, the little details needed to be hashed out. As my matron-of-honor, Sasha went along with me when I went to book the flowers and musicians. Eric's mother and my mother also came into town on and off, to go on a few bridal errand outings. Both of them, Sasha, and Eric all wanted to come along with me during the food tastings appointments for the reception and wedding cake.

We were going to have our wedding in a beautiful Gothic-style church, and then two blocks away sat one of our favorite restaurants in town, Old Asia New Asia. Both Eric and I loved their Asian fusion dishes, and we were such regular customers that they were happy to host our reception. Plus, when Eric said that money wasn't an issue, they jumped at the chance even more.

It was a quiet Monday afternoon when we went between the lunch and dinner crowd to the restaurant. I had requested the whole week off from work to spend time with my mom and attend to wedding planning events like this one.

We were seated in a big round booth, and the owner, along with their best servers brought out an array of samples for everyone to taste. The owner, who was also the head chef, created dishes you couldn't find anywhere on the usual menu or in the entire city, just for us. He even created some custom sushi rolls for us to choose from to include during our cocktail hour. Once we finalized the menu, the head chef brought us the breakdown of the prices.

While Eric and his family were well-off socialites and politicians, I came from a more humble upbringing. While my family was by no means poor, we were not as rich as Eric's. My mother picked up the cost breakdown before anyone else could, and I could see the physical color drain from her face. I leaned over to look at the price tag. The quote showed that for a reception of 150 guests, it was going to cost $190 per head! The food alone was going to cost the same amount as the first car I got when I was sixteen. Eric's mother insisted on seeing the breakdown.

My mother didn't resist and handed the paper to her. Eric's mother placed her reading glasses on the end of her nose, looked at the paper, and looked up at the owner. "You can place the deposit on my credit card," she said, handing him her American Express Black credit card without blinking an eyelash.

"Donna, we can split the cost with you," my mother said to her.

"Betty, please. You're already paying for so much. It's the 21st century, and we wouldn't expect you to pay for everything. The least we can do is pay for the food."

"Well, thank you. Larry will be very thankful too," my mom said, referring to my dad, who grumbled every time we spoke about the wedding plans.

Just then, my phone started ringing. It was Ryan.

I excused myself from the table and answered, "Hello?"

"I'm sorry to be calling you during your time off," Ryan started. "But there's been some last-minute changes on the Los Angeles trip."

"Okay, what's up?" I asked, walking up to the fish tank and looking at the colorful tropical fish that swam back and forth in the aquarium.

"Peggy has the flu. So she won't be able to go with us as our on-site assistant this time. We need you to take her spot."

"But aren't you leaving in a few hours?" I asked, trying to recall the itinerary from memory.

"Yes. Mrs. Turner is changing Peggy's ticket to your name as we speak."