“I expect an apology for that in the next blog post,” he said.
“Don’t hold your breath.” I turned to Madison. “Let’s grab Amy and get some sister shots in the photo booth.”
“Definitely.”
Amy was standing by a table, talking with some of our mother’s cousins. “Sorry,” I said, grabbing her arm. “We need to borrow the bride.”
“Thank you,” Amy sighed as we pulled her away. “Who were those people?”
I laughed. “You’re the worst.”
“You’re one to talk!”
I started to sputter a response, but Madison interrupted. “Think they’ll let us cut the line for the photo booth because we have the bride?” Amy and I exchanged a look. “What?”
“You follow rules,” Amy said.
“That’s so cute.” I put an arm around her waist. “Don’t worry, we’ll have you corrupted in no time.”
“Outta the way,” Amy said to the waiting guests as she dug through the prop box and began loading us up with boas and signs. “Bridal party, coming through!”
After we spent way too long making silly faces and posing for pictures, Amy bounded off to find Tyler, and Jake came to pull Madison onto the dance floor. I went back to our table, but my parents soon joined the dancers and my grandmother went to talk to her nieces and nephews at another table, leaving me alone at ours.
I watched the dancing from my seat, leaning an elbow on the table and propping my chin in my hand. If this were a movie, I thought, Alex would come up behind me and ask me to dance. And I’d look at him in shock and ask what he was doing here, and he would tell me Amy invited him after all.
Unable to stop myself, I glanced longingly at the door to the mansion’s ballroom. No one was coming.
A couple of songs later, my dad approached me at the table. “Come on. It’s time to dance with your dad.”
I rose and took his arm, and he led me out to the dance floor. “You doing any better?” he asked.
“Just one more wedding left to go after tonight.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I’ll be okay.”
“I know you will be. You always land on your feet. Doesn’t mean you’re okay now.”
I thought for a minute. “I am okay, I guess.”
“Your mother said you were a huge help getting everything ready for the wedding.”
“It was the least I could do. I still need to make it up to everyone.”
He fixed me with a hard look. “Just be sure you’re making time to take care of yourself too.”
“I will, Dad.”
He kissed my forehead. “And remember that your mother and I love you. No matter what Jake says.”
I smiled. “It’s not too late to trade him in for a dog.”
I was rewarded with a wink. “I’m still working on your mother.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
And then there was one.
Alex didn’t look at me during the rehearsal. I tried to catch his eye, but when it became apparent he wasn’t going to look, I took that as a clear sign that trying to talk to him would be futile.
Megan and Tim were both semi-practicing Catholics, so the ceremony would be held at Megan’s family’s church, with the reception following at a swanky hotel in DC that boasted a spectacular view of the National Mall. Megan’s mother didn’t quite make eye contact with me either, which I recognized as evidence she had read the blog and disapproved of my sexual proclivities while drunk. And apparently even the priest was a Buzzfeed reader, because when he explained the communion to the wedding party, he made a point of saying that only Catholics were to take the communion. “If you aren’t Catholic, or are and aren’t pure enough to take communion at this time”—he looked pointedly at me—“you will simply bow your head.”
I considered chiming in that I wasn’t Catholic, so my religion was the issue, not my purity, but I kept my mouth shut and glowered silently at the floor instead.
I wanted to be deliriously happy for Megan. Isn’t that how you feel on your best friend’s wedding day? But the priest’s comment at the rehearsal had knocked me for a loop. It meant everyone at the wedding—and on Megan’s side, that included people I had known for most of my life—had read the blog and knew what I had done. And even worse, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which groomsman was creepy and which one was avoiding me like the plague, so not only had I humiliated myself, but Alex was probably suffering too.