I nodded in agreement. The hotel was another one of Sadie’s sponsors. Every single aspect of her wedding had a corporate sponsor—from her shoes to the travel to the alcohol—and the camera crew was here to capture every moment for all her fans, who wanted to be just like her and would go to the same hotel and buy the same jewelry and order from the same bakery that did her wedding cake.
As far as I knew, she and Dan weren’t spending any of their own money on this wedding.
Other than what she was paying me.
“The food is fancy,” I agreed.
“All of this is over the top. I mean, the party I had after I got engaged was my wedding.”
Krista surprised me. She never mentioned her ex-husband, and certainly not in a joking way like this. “This is the gig. And speaking of abusive jerks from your past, are you staying away from the cameras?”
“Yes, Mother Hen.” She gave me a slightly impatient smile. “I’ve told you, you don’t have to protect me. I’m fine. Even if I’m on camera, I don’t worry about him anymore. Things have been changing for me recently. Did I tell you I went out on a date last week?”
That made me almost giddy with joy. Krista deserved the absolute best. “You did?”
“I did.” She looked very pleased with herself. “But when I tried to describe to him what we do—I wish you could have seen his face. I said women pay us to pretend to be their bridesmaids so that when they get married it looks like they have more friends than they do. He didn’t get why that mattered.”
It mattered because every woman who hired us was looking for help. Either she didn’t have close friends or the groom had more groomsmen than she had bridesmaids and she wanted to balance it out or she was looking for a professional to handle all the small but important details. For someone who would support her emotionally and physically （I had become a true expert at holding a bride’s gown while she peed）。 It was not uncommon for women of this generation not to have any true friends. Or like in Sadie’s case, to have one really close friend who had screwed them over. Her former best friend had exploited Sadie’s fame and used it to get her own following. Sadie had a hard time letting people in since then.
More often than not, the brides who hired us wanted a grown-up in their party to keep an eye on unruly family members （Sadie’s mom） or to manage rowdy bridesmaids. Unlike them, we would not be trying to hook up with a groomsman or going on a bender.
Sort of like Sadie’s third bridesmaid, her cousin Mary-Ellen, who I’d noted was currently on her third mimosa. I was going to have to remind her to eat something and/or escort her from the brunch if she didn’t slow down.
“Is that Camden guy single?” Krista asked and I arched a single eyebrow at her. She sighed. “I know, I know, no messing around with guests at weddings. It just seems like a shame.”
It was a sentiment my mother wholeheartedly shared. She’d been devastated when I’d left my cushy finance job and started working as a bridesmaid for hire. Until she decided that weddings were the perfect place for me to meet Mr. Right, despite me telling her it wasn’t going to happen.
She was fervent in her belief that I would catch the bouquet and everything would magically fall into place. I let her live in her fantasy world because it just wasn’t worth the argument.
Krista kept talking. “Your rule doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate that delicious man. And you can deny it, but I saw you checking him out, too. If this was any other situation, I would tell you to leap on him like a cheetah on a sickly gazelle.”
“That’s a lovely image,” I said and, without thinking, took a sip of my mimosa. I immediately spit it back into my glass.
“People are going to think you’re pregnant. Or Mormon,” she told me with a laugh.
“I don’t care what other people think.” And I wasn’t about to start now. “We’re here to do a job, and that’s all that matters.”
She put on her serious face. “Right. Sorry. It’s just so beautiful here that it’s easy to get caught up in the fantasy. Should we even be talking to each other? Since we’re trying to be undercover?”
“We’re both bridesmaids.” I was technically the maid of honor, but she knew what I meant. “Which would mean we’re both friends of Sadie’s, so it would make sense that we’re friendly. Although we should probably be mingling with the other guests.”
“Sure thing, boss.”