Page 102 of Storm in a Teacup
“I know it’s not super fun being the date of someone in the wedding,” she says.
“I don’t mind. I get to dress up, I get to see you dressed up. Free dinner and drinks. Pretty good day for me. Go on then.” I lean down to kiss her on the cheek, but her head moves fractionally, so I catch the corner of her mouth.
Her lips twitch, then she grabs my face with one hand and presses a kiss to my mouth. Her lips linger on mine before she pulls away, just a breath, then she fully retreats and jogs off back into the church. I shove my hands in my pockets, watching after her even when I can’t see her anymore.
I don’t want this to end. This day. This fake relationship. I don’t want it to end.
A hand clasps my shoulder, and I see Harry. “Come on, son. Cocktail hour.”
I go with Harry and Linny’s mum and sisters to the reception hall. Harry gets Sarah to put a cocktail in my hand pretty quickly and starts introducing me around to the rest of her family. I get to meet every one of her cousins, aunts, and uncles on this side, minus Mel’s parents, who are still back at the church. I get called Linny’s boyfriend about a thousand times, and while I have been called that before, this is the first day where it has truly bothered me. It bothers me because it’s not true.
I wish it was.
…
Linny finds me at the cocktail hour, drink in her hand and shoulders sagging in relief.
“I think I’m done with pictures for the night,” she says.
I loop an arm around her waist. “That’s good. More time for me, then?”
She gives me a funny look, perhaps at the overt flirting, though it’s not like I haven’t done it before. Maybe she can tell it’s real this time—morereal, rather. I was never jokingly flirtingwith her.
However, all she says is, “Yeah, more time for you.” She glares at her family members who surround us, but focuses on her dad. “Please stop torturing him.”
Harry holds up his hands in surrender. “Torturing? I’ve just been introducing him ‘round to everyone.”
She gives him a hard look, but resigns to settle into my side, pulling me back from the circle by a few steps. To only me, she says, “Apparently, I never told Mel exactly what Atti said to me after…you know. So, she feels really bad about letting him stay in the wedding party. She’s waiting to tell Julien about it until after, so he doesn’t freak.” She says the words seriously, but I can see the undercurrent of joy in her.
“You’re happy with that response, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. It’s not that I didn’t think Mel and them were on my side, I just always had it in the back of my mind that they thought I was making a big deal out of nothing. A storm in a teacup, as Auntie Carolyn would say.”
I kiss her on the side of the head. “You’re definitely not. Where is she, by the way? I haven’t seen her.”
Linny searches, then finally points to the bar. “Over there talking to the corner. I think she saw a ghost.”
That tracks.
Soon, they let everyone into the reception hall and we find our seats. Mel sits at a table with Julien, her parents, and his parents. She didn’t organize the room so the bridal party all had to sit together, so Linny and I are sat at a table with her family.
I laugh along with Linny’s family, enjoying being a part of thenonsensical conversation they’re having. Eventually, Carolyn and her date join, completing our table of eight. There’s a lot of focus on me, but I don’t mind. Linny, however, squirms at all of the attention toward me. At one point, she looks my way to saysomething, but Chelsea taunts, “They’re whispering sweet nothings, how precious.”
Linny’s mum adds in a tone that sounds like an attempted whisper, “Is this what fake relationships look like? I think I’d like one if that’s the case.”
Linny gives a glare and says, “Oh, please.” She picks up one of the place cards set on the table, unfolding it and holding it up between us. She leans forward, using the open place card as a tiny shield that I meet her behind. “I’m sorry you’re having to deal with my family so much,” she whispers, seeming genuinely distressed.
I smile. “I don’t mind. I like your family.”
“They’re ridiculous,” she argues.
“I like ridiculous.” I grab my glass of water from the table, bringing it behind our shield so I can take a sip and say into it, “I also like you.”
Her eyes squint suspiciously. “Fine.”
She drops the place card back on the table, and soon enough, our suppers are brought out. We eat, continuing to chat with her family. Carolyn launches into a very dramatic tale about a haunted armoire that the shop acquired a few years ago, and I swear Linny keeps inching closer to me. I’m not sure I can provethat, but I can prove that her hand soon comes to rest on my thigh. I at first think it’s an accident or a momentary gesture of her trying to communicate something, but she leaves it there throughout the meal. I like that her hand is there, as though she is laying claim to me.
Since no one at the table can see it, it feels like something private. Something just between us. But I glance behind us and notice someone whose eyeline would hit our backs. Someone who may be able to see her hand on my thigh. Atti. And when Ilook behind us, his eyes dart away.
