“Gia was answering my phone today for about half an hour when I couldn’t, and she never told me you called.”
Nicole shrugged. “That’s some assistant you’ve got there.”
“You hired her. Or did you forget that part?”
“I don’t want to argue, Red. I made a judgment call. I just went with your whole list and I invited everyone on my side. So now we’re having a very large wedding.”
He stared at her, incredulous. “Nicole, that’s not going to happen. We cannot send out all of those invitations. There are people on that raw list that would be totally inappropriate to send an invite to. Clients, friends I haven’t seen in a dozen years, vendors that work with Jameson International, you name it. That’s why I wanted to sit down tonight and go through it with you.”
“You want me to cancel the damn invites?” she said, her voice rising.
“Yes.”
“Fine.” She grabbed her phone and called Marcie. Of course, it went to voicemail. “Hi Marcie, it’s me—Nicole. I really need to make a change on those invites, so could you call me back as soon as you get this, please?”
When she hung up, Red began pacing. “This is totally ridiculous. I wish you would have told me you were so upset, Nicole.”
“I did tell you. I tried over and over again to tell you and you kept ignoring me. It’s not fair.” The tears stung her eyes and she was angry with herself for being a crybaby yet again.
Red shook his head. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t available, that I dropped the ball on this. But that doesn’t mean you go out and try and take revenge on me by sabotaging our wedding.”
“Me, sabotaging our wedding? You left me hanging in the breeze,” she said, getting off the couch, taking her phone, and walking out of the room.
“Nicole!” he called after her.
“Just, please leave me alone!” she called back, and went to walk the property.
During her walk she called Marcie over and over again, to no avail—and she even sent an email just in case Marcie couldn’t get to her phone for some reason. Then Nicole tried her mother. Her mother said she was in bed and didn’t have time for hysterics (even though Nicole was mostly calm by that time). She assured Nicole that Marcie would call her back soon and not to worry.
When Nicole got home from her walk, she was a bit more in control of her emotions. Red was having a beer on the verandah.
“Hey,” she said.
He stared outside and nodded. “Hey.”
“Isn’t it funny how we have this huge mansion but we only use a few of the rooms?” she said.
“That’s hilarious,” he said, without smiling.
“Red, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I freaked out.”
Red turned to her. “I just wish you’d held off on doing what you did. I mean, I trusted you.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll fix it.”
“How?”
“I’m going to get in touch with Marcie and have the order stopped and changed.”
“But she hasn’t called you back yet?”
Nicole shook her head. “Maybe she fell asleep early. As long as I get her by the morning we should be fine.”
Red took a long pull from his beer. “Man, what a day.”
“Can I sit with you?”
He nodded, and she came and sat beside him. Soon they were holding hands and even though she knew everything wasn’t back to being okay—at least it was a start.
***
That night they went to bed together and Nicole slept curled in Red’s arms. There seemed to be an unspoken agreement not to discuss any of the wedding stuff and just be good to one another.
The next morning, Red was off to work before six a.m. The only thing he said before leaving was that she should call him with any “important updates.” And then he hugged and kissed her and told her he loved her.
Nicole was anxious enough after he left to put in an early morning call to her wedding planner and send another email marked urgent.
Two hours later, she still hadn’t heard back.
Now she called her mother again, this time at work, and asked if she could swing by Marcie’s house on her lunch break. Her mother said that she would, but called back later to report that Marcie wasn’t home and hadn’t called her back either.
Nicole was partly worried that something had happened to Marcie, partly worried that the woman was just a total fruitcake, and also annoyed that nothing could seem to go right in regards to this wedding.
She also knew that if Marcie had actually put in the rush order yesterday, then in all likelihood the place would be printing and possibly sending them out by now. A few more hours and it would be too late to take it back.
Marcie called her at just after five p.m. “Oh, honey, I can’t tell you how absolutely terrible the last fifteen hours of my life has been,” she said, to start the conversation off.