Page 58 of Very Special Forces

Solomonstopped and raised his eyebrows.

"Lexi,hi!" Julia said, her face suddenly lighting up as she tuggedBryce's hand. "Honey, it's Lexi from my gym who helped us getLily's Bar."

Bryce'sface lightened, leaving no impression of his annoyance from amoment ago. "Oh, yeah, sure. How are you doing?"

"Good,thank you."

"Are yougoing inside?" asked Julia. "We just had our first meeting with thewedding planner."

"Itmight be the first and last," laughed Bryce, shaking hishead.

"Oh,honey! Francesca was lovely."

Brycelaughed but it sounded hollow. "I'm kidding. We had a constructivediscussion and I think this might be the planner we go with. Lexi,you didn't say you were getting married."

I heldup my left hand and waggled my fingers so he could see the ring."Never take it off," I said, not that he'd noticed clearly since Iwas sure he'd spent a lot of time looking at my otherattributes.

"It's sopretty," said Julia, reaching for my hand and smiling.

"We haveto run but let's catch up some time," said Bryce. He pulled Juliaafter him, leaving her to teeter in her heels, half-turning to wavean apologetic goodbye, half-hurrying to catch up withhim.

"Whatwas that all about?" asked Solomon.

"That'sthe couple I'm looking into," I explained.

"Kind ofa jackass. Him not her."

"That'sthe current consensus."

"You cantell me more about it later," Solomon said as he pushed the dooropen.

"Goodmorning!" Francesca looked up from behind her desk when we entered.She smiled broadly. "How are you both?"

"Great,"replied Solomon.

"Happyto hear that. I know this was short notice for a meeting and you'reboth busy so shall we get down to a business?" Francesca stood androunded the desk, grabbing the only folder lying on top andgestured towards the rear salon. I walked into the small roomfirst, Solomon close on my heels and Francesca shut the door behindher. "It's just a few formalities and some box checking," sheexplained. "Then you're all set for a happy, drama-free weddingday. The big day is getting close, huh? Just a weekaway!"

Sheplaced the file on the table and opened it, flicking through thepages. "If I could get your signatures here, here and here, then acheck for the venue, that would be great. Also, the venue wouldlike to know if you preferred the cream or the white for thelinens."

"White,"I said.

"That'swhat I thought. Here's the seating plan. Can you double check it?"She pushed a simple graphic towards us with round tables andnumbered squares around it. Each number corresponded to a namelisted down the side of the page. "Of course this will look a lotprettier when I send it to the printers."

"We needto add my grandma," I told her. "She needs to sit with my mombecause no one else can tolerate her."

"Okay,"said Francesca without any sign of concern. "Let me see who we canbump from that table."

Tenminutes later, it was agreed that instead of moving a person, wewould simply squeeze in another chair. We confirmed the numbers andSolomon and I both initialed the document.

"Ichecked with your dressmaker and the dress will be ready in thenext couple of days," she said next. "You will need to make timefor one final fitting but they don't expect any further alterationsto be made. The last item is the florist. They're having troublesourcing the roses you asked for and have sent over a selection foryou to choose from." She pulled several photo prints from her fileand arranged them next to each other.

"Theyall look identical," said Solomon.

"I agreebut the florist insists there are subtle differences in color andsize. They can still make them up in the same arrangements with theother flowers you liked so whatever you choose should befine."

"Up toyou," said Solomon.

Ipressed my finger against one of the photos. "This one."

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