Page 83 of April

“No problem. I’ll text you later.”

“Um… Okay,” she said and stood.

???

“So, we were thinking about two to three hundred,” Monica said.

“No,youwere thinking about two to three hundred. I was thinking, like, fifteen,” Bridgette argued.

“Fifteen people at our wedding?” Monica turned to her. “That’s not even our entire family.”

“Well, I don’t think theentirefamily needs to be there,” Bridgette replied. “Do we really have to invite cousins we haven’t seen in years?”

“We should at least invite the ones wehaveseen recently,” Monica argued.

“We don’t have to make any firm decisions on the guest list just yet,” Asher chimed in. “We can go through the venueoptions first and just make sure we have one that canfitup to three hundred but, say, fifty for now, to be sure. Does that sound okay?”

“Well, if it can fit that many people, Mon willinvitethat many people.” Bridgette nodded toward her fiancée.

Monica laughed and replied, “People will expect to be invited, babe.”

“But it’sourwedding.”

“I know that.” Monica took Bridgette’s hand and put it in her own. “And I won’t let it get out of hand, I promise, but you’re marrying into an important family.”

“Your dad made sure I knew that when we told them we were engaged.”

Monica smiled at her and said, “He wants what’s best for his only daughter. My last marriage didn’t exactly work out.”

“No, but you got Aaron out of it,” Bridgette noted of Monica’s stepson, who was going to college at Tulane nearby. “When we get married, does he become my step-step-son? How does that work?”

Monica chuckled and said, “I think we can worry about that later.”

“So, Monica, anything else we should keep in mind with your family? It’s not big, from what I remember you telling me.” Asher picked up her pen and began to make notes.

“No, it’s not. It’s more the people who aren’t blood-related but are family to my parents. That’s the biggest group. When I spoke with my mother, she gave me a count.”

“Of course, she did,” Bridgette said. “She also wanted us to hire a Manhattan wedding planner and have the wedding there.”

“She did. But I said no, didn’t I?” Monica replied. “So, you’ll have your New Orleans wedding, and I’ll get my sassy, pain-in-the-ass wife. Compromise is the key to any relationship, isn’t it?”

Bridgette laughed and said, “One hundred.”

“Babe…” Monica said.

“It’s so many people… And they’ll be watching us…” Bridgette said. “People will have their eyes on me, making me all nervous.”

“So, you won’t be nervous just marrying me?” Monica asked.

“No. What? Why would I be nervous about that? I’ve wanted to marry you since the first time you walked into my office.”

“You didnot.” Monica laughed loudly. “You hated me.”

“Yeah, but in that hot, sexy, will they, won’t they kind of way. And we will. Well, we did. We have, and we will… over and over…”

“Bridgette!” Monica laughed even louder.

“They’re rich people, Mon. They’ll be staring at me.”

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