Mission B.R.E.A.K.U.P.

Chapter 12

~Chapter 12~

After she had successfully managed to send her mother back to her room, Emma took a long shower and changed into a simple pink cotton dress she had. She was upset to say the least. She couldn’t stop replaying the scene from this morning in her head repeatedly. The whole affair was made so much worse by the fact that he had been her first, especially considering she had been saving herself for Christopher.

She decided she needed to see if Jake and her relationship was the only one affected last night. She cautiously left her room and pretended to nonchalantly walk by Cheryl’s room. She stopped when she heard a sobbing. Despite herself, she couldn’t help feeling concerned. An emotion she pushed to the back of her mind. She was supposed to feel happy. Her plan had worked.

She knocked on the door and after a flustered shuffling, a very tired looking Cheryl with red rimmed eyes opened the door slightly. Upon seeing Emma, she opened it wide and threw her arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder.

Emma stood dumbstruck. Uncertainly, she wrapped her arms around the weeping girl and stood very still. “Oh Emma! The wedding’s ruined!” she said between her sobs.

“Get a grip of yourself Emma. This is good news. This is what you wanted. You shouldn’t be feeling upset!” Emma repeated to herself mentally.

“What happened Cheryl?” she managed to ask out loud. “Emma our wedding planner cancelled on us!” Cheryl said before bursting into a fresh fit of sobs.

“What?” Emma managed to ask after a short silence.

“Our wedding planner, she had a family emergency and had to cancel. It’s a busy time of year for event managers and we can’t get any other wedding planner at such short notice. Our wedding’s ruined!” Cheryl wept.

“Shh… it’s ok. We’ll figure something out. Er, where’s Christopher?” Emma asked.

“He’s gone out to see if he can find someone. We’ve been trying to get in touch with every wedding planner in the city since this morning but no one has agreed so far.”

“Cheryl get a hold of yourself. Let’s go downstairs. I think we should discuss with the family about what we should do next. Come on!” Emma said as she led Cheryl back into her room. After washing her face and changing, a very quiet Cheryl followed Emma into the house study. It was a large cosy sort of room and Emma had asked Mrs. Cosgrove to get members of both the bride and groom’s immediate families there to hold an emergency meeting.

As they all sat down and glanced at each other expectantly, Cheryl rose and cleared her throat. “Thank you all for coming. We are faced, at the moment, with a certain problem and were hoping you could all be of assistance. Also, please ensure the other guests are not made aware of this as, well, it wouldn’t seem proper,”

She was interrupted by a knock on the door and an embarrassed Julie peeking in. “Sorry I’m late.” She said looking at the ground.

Cheryl looked uncomfortably at Emma but Emma ensured her that Julie could be trusted and had experience working with wedding planners as she was in the catering business herself. Nodding, Cheryl continued as Julie took a seat, “Well today Christopher received a call from our wedding planner saying she couldn’t make it. Her mother’s very sick and unfortunately, although she tried her hardest she couldn’t even send a replacement. We’ve been trying all morning to get in touch with any and every wedding planner we could find in the directory but to no avail. I was hoping you could offer some suggestions.”

She gulped as a soft chatter swept through the room with everyone looking slightly alarmed. Emma glanced at Jake unwittingly and saw his gaze was fixed on his sister, still and quiet. She glanced at Christopher as well who looked weary and was staring down into his lap.

“Couldn’t you fly anyone in from somewhere else?” Mr. Cosgrove asked.

“We tried Dad,” Christopher said exhaustedly, “It seems futile. Like Cheryl said. No one’s ready to come at such short notice. We only have a week left till the wedding.”

Mr. Cosgrove muttered something about ‘not being convincing enough’ and ‘not being able to carry out a deal’ under his breath before falling silent.

“Why don’t you postpone it?” Emma’s mother asked shrugging.

“Because we already booked tickets for our honeymoon for the day after the wedding and also, I have to give my SATs as soon as I come back.” Cheryl mumbled blushing in embarrassment.

Emma had noticed Cheryl was quite conscious of the age gap between Christopher and herself sometimes. The other guests simply stared at each other blankly but couldn’t seem to come up with a suggestion.

“We’ll do it,” The room fell silent as the words were uttered and all eyes turned to the speaker.

“The restaurant I work at has branches in Scotland too. It’s extremely difficult to get catering for weddings from us but I could get in a word or two with the manager.” Julie said eyeing the apprehensive audience.

 “What makes you so sure he’ll agree?” Jake asked leaning forward and listening with rapt attention.

“Let’s just say I know how to get work done.” Julie said with a glint in her eye.

Emma couldn’t help the small smile on her face. Julie had always been a talker and had a way with words. Besides, the owner of the company was her sister-in-law and Julie herself worked as senior manager in their branch in LA.

“But what about the décor?” Cheryl asked nervously.

“Emma’ll do it,” Julie shrugged.

Emma stared at Julie speechless as every eye in the room turned to her.

“Emma?” Christopher mumbled staring uncertainly at her.

“Emma’s one of the best and most sought after interior designers in LA. What makes you think she couldn’t handle a wedding?” Julie said smugly.

“Julie I’ve never done a wedding before.” Emma managed to say when she finally found her tongue.

“Yes, don’t you think it’s too big a risk?” Mrs. Ralph said looking at Mrs. Cosgrove.

Slightly annoyed by her mother’s lack of faith in her but realizing the truth in her words, Emma shook her head.

“Even if I did agree, how could I do it in a week?” she asked Julie incredulously.

“You’re Emma.” Julie said simply. Emma was flattered by the compliment but opened her mouth to argue before she was interrupted.

“Emma please,” Cheryl said softly.

Emma looked at her in surprise.

“Julie once showed me how you redecorated her house. It was so beautiful. Please Emma. You’re our only hope.”

Emma looked at Cheryl uncertainly for a while. It didn’t help that she could feel Jake’s eyes on her, unwavering. She glanced once more at Julie who gave her a reassuring smile and nod. She turned to Cheryl and slowly nodded her head as well.

“I need to know if you and Christopher had something special in mind.”