The Wedding Planner

Chapter 14

"Come in,"

Margie enters Marinette's office, "The last order of the day was sent out. I'm gonna send some of the drafters home, if that's alright with you."

Marinette barely looks up from her work, her face down on a pile of papers at her desk, "Yeah, no problem."

Margie hesitates by the door, "You wanna go out for drinks tonight? Some of the other girls and I were gonna meet up since it's Friday. We could have a little fun?" She tries to encourage.

Marinette shrugs, "I still have final paperwork to do for the Phillips wedding, I should really get it done."

"Oh. But that reminds me," she ducks out of the office for a second and returns with a magazine, "That Agreste guy got married last week. Apparently Angeline got to plan the whole thing."

Marinette takes the magazine in her hand. The cover is of Adrien Agreste and Chloe Bourgeois kissing in front of a chapel, petals floating down through the frame. She frowns at the bottom caption reading 'Dress designed by Angeline Flur', "Damn, we could really use that kind of publicity. I bet she's already getting calls from all over France." She groans, tossing the magazine to the corner of her desk.

"We'll get her next time. Just because she's more well known doesn't mean she does a better job than us." Margie argues, trying to keep optimistic.

She crosses her arms on her desk, "But fame also pays bills. We don't even have any more events to plan until next month!" Her voice drops to a whisper, "I don't know how we'll make it to the next quarter."

Margie nods knowingly, "We'll get there by being better than the competition. Turtle beats the hare, right?" Mari shrugs. "You sure you don't want to go out for drinks? It looks like you need one right about now."

She shakes her head, "I don't know."

Margie smirks, "We'll be at The Birdcage around 9 if you change your mind."

She nods, "Thanks. Maybe I will."

Satisfied, Margie takes her leave, closing the door behind herself.

Marinette's smile fades as she gets back to her work.

A red blur zooms out from her desk, "Marinette! Marinette!" Tikki cries, flying all around her.

She sits up, dropping her pen, "Tikki? What's wrong?" She asks concernedly.

Tikki lands on her desk and tries to catch her breath. "A minute ago, we were at your wedding, but Chloe, Miz Butterfly, the Miraculous, Adrien-"

"Slow down," she cautions, "what is happening? Why did you say we were at my wedding?" Her eyes briefly glance over at the magazine cover.

Tikki flies onto Mari's open hand, "You were marrying Adrien when Chloe came in using the butterfly Miraculous and wiped all your memories, but Plagg and I were able to escape."

"Marrying Adrien? Agreste? Don't you think that's a bit outlandish?" She remarks.

Tikki sighs, "Tell me what you know about him. What memories do you have of him?"

Mari's eyes narrow, thinking back. "We went to the same high school." She looks back at the wedding photo of him and Chloe. "He put gum on my seat on his first day, and I knew he was just another Chloe. I tried to avoid him as much as possible. He never even tried to explain himself," turning back to Tikki, "There's not much else to say."

Tikki is wide eyed, staring back at her, "We've got to fix this."

"Are you feeling alright? You don't have another Kwami sickness, do you?" Marinette inspects her small friend.