“Okay.” I nodded. He kissed me quickly and then went out the same doors as the guards.
I noticed Brandy off to my right. She tried to stand and swayed heavily to the left.
Uh-oh.
I made my way to her side and she threw one arm up when she saw me coming, like she was trying to fend me off. “Have you been drinking?” I asked.
“That’s none of your beeswax!” she said. I wished Camden were still here. I needed to get her out of the room before anybody saw her wasted.
“They’re not supposed to serve you.”
“People leave these cute little glasses of champagne all over their tables,” she informed me gleefully. Ew. She had been drinking people’s leftover alcohol? That struck me as immeasurably sad.
“Come on, let’s get you some coffee,” I offered.
“Get your hands off me!” she demanded.
There was a loud slam and I heard Lilith yelling again. Brandy took advantage of the distraction to slip away from me.
She was headed straight for Geoff and Maybelle, who were standing near the dessert table.
There was nothing I could do to stop her. There had already been one major scene caught on film; I wasn’t keen to add another. I tried to grab for her arm, to suggest that she come with me, but she just shrugged me off.
With every step we took the sense of impending doom grew stronger and stronger until I knew that everything was about to explode around me.
As if he’d sensed that I needed him, Camden joined me. “I think the Lilith situation is handled. What’s going on here?”
“Sadie’s mom is drunk. The good news is that I think things are finally about to get out of hand and will blow up in our faces soon, which means that it will all finally be over.”
Sure enough, Brandy started screaming at Maybelle, who was quick to defend herself verbally. I didn’t care for women calling other women names, so let’s just say that Brandy called Maybelle something that rhymes with foam-pecking boar, and Maybelle screeched back that Brandy was a bold trunk hitch and things just went downhill from there.
Geoff was already trying to calm them both down and I was about ready to use all the curse words on everybody if they didn’t stop immediately.
Instead, they escalated despite the three of us trying to intervene. Brandy actually took a swing at Maybelle and missed, but the momentum pushed her forward and she landed face-first in the cake. I watched in horror as the entire thing collapsed sideways, almost in slow motion, landing on Dan’s elderly grandmother.
Who hadn’t moved from her spot next to the table the entire evening. Until now. As all three tiers of the cake tumbled on top of her, Dan’s grandma exploded out of her seat like someone had set her on fire, screaming at the top of her lungs like a banshee and flinging cake shrapnel everywhere she went.
Maybelle then jumped on top of Brandy, spreading more cake as she reached for her hair, yanking on it.
Initially I wasn’t sure what to do first, but the two women had to be separated. I was aided by Geoff grabbing Maybelle by the waist and Camden picking up Brandy like she was a child.
“Where do you want her?” he asked, ignoring her struggles.
I glanced over my shoulder. All of the camera crews had their cameras pointed at us, capturing every moment live. Distress seeped into my skin as I registered the enormity of this. It was ruined. Everything.
Mandy ran up to us. “I just went upstairs to use the restroom. What happened?”
Her sister was shrieking at us as Geoff escorted Maybelle from the reception. Considering how drunk Brandy was, I wondered how long Mandy had left her alone for. But that was not the thing to concern myself with at the moment. I filled Mandy in quickly, and we decided that the best thing to do was to get Brandy up to her room. I had no idea how to do damage control here because there was no video that could be edited later. Everything was just out in the real world now and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“I’m sorry,” Mandy said with tears in her eyes. “The bartender said she wouldn’t serve Brandy and I guess I just assumed it was safe. I never even considered this possibility.”
Feeling ashamed that I’d judged her even for a moment, I said, “Me neither. Let’s get her out of here.”
Brandy went completely limp, like a rag doll, and I was terrified that she’d gotten alcohol poisoning or had lapsed into a coma and we were going to top off this house of horrors by calling for an ambulance. I ran over to her, wanting to help.
It had been a ruse designed to get Camden to let go of her, which he hadn’t done. She kicked out her feet and one of them connected with my nose. There was a flash of darkness and then throbbing pain. I felt wetness on my face and looked down to see that I was bleeding all over my dress.