Page 10 of Accidental Wedding Crasher
“Definitely not.” She winked and put her napkin in her lap. “Now that I’ve crashed this wedding, I need to get my money’s worth.”
“You definitely do. Make sure to have an extra slice of cake later.”
They were soon joined by a middle-aged couple, who introduced themselves as Burt and Victoria Thomson, as well as a few other guests.
“I’m Genevieve’s aunt,” Victoria explained, leaning forward. Once she’d said that, Evan could see the similarity between her and Elizabeth. “How do you know the couple?”
“I’m Evan, a friend of Tyler’s,” Evan explained. “And this is my date, Mia.”
“Oh.” Victoria straightened up, her eyebrows raising. “You’re the mysterious plus-one. I see. So, tell me, how did the two of you meet?”
Mia and Evan exchanged a concerned glance. Evan hadn’t expected questions like this, though he probably should have. There was no option now but to make something up.
“Well, it’s actually a cute story,” he began.
“Very cute,” Mia added. “You see, we were in a…”
“Grocery store,” Evan continued.
“Yes, exactly, and Evan reached for the last mango, and so did I. Our eyes met, and that was that.” Mia smiled, but Victoria looked even more confused.
“You do your own shopping?” she asked.
“Yes,” Evan and Mia chorused. In truth, Evan ordered his food from a delivery service, but he wasn’t about to say that. It would completely undermine their story.
“Anyway,” Evan continued, “it was very sweet. Mia told me she’d wanted the mango for a special recipe, so I told her she could have it. She thanked me and invited me over to try it.”
“It turned out terribly, because I can’t cook,” Mia continued. “But he was very sweet about it.” They grinned at each other, and Evan realized that he wasstillhaving fun. He’d been very annoyed about making small talk earlier in the day, but now that they were inventing stories together, it was almost enjoyable. He wondered if she really was a bad cook.
“I told her that the next time, I’d take her out to have some proper mango sticky rice,” Evan said. “Which was what she wanted to make.”
“And a few days later, we went to a cute little Thai place he knew and had our first meal out together.”
“And that’s it. That’s how we met.”
“Such a cute story!” Victoria smiled.
“How did the two ofyoumeet?” Mia prompted.
“It was, how long ago, Burt — thirty years now?”
“Since we met, or since we got married?” Burt asked, finally joining the conversation.
“Since we got married. Obviously. We met when we were children.” Victoria turned back to Mia and Evan. “You see, our families were always friends, and we would vacation together most summers on the Cape. It wasn’t until we got a little older, though, that we realized there was something special between us. That must have been in college, and we got married a little while after that.”
“Childhood sweethearts.” Mia smiled, and Evan saw that her beautiful brown eyes were lit up again. Clearly, she enjoyed love stories. “How wonderful.”
“It really was. Now, tell me, what do you each do?”
The small talk continued throughout dinner, which was a delicious twist on roast chicken. When it came time to cut the wedding cake, Evan and Mia cheered as loudly as anyone as the happy couple smashed cake onto each other’s faces and burst into laughter.
It was the most fun Evan had ever had at a wedding, from the dancing to the flirting to the small talk. Mia was funny, interesting, and gorgeous. He found that he could barely take his eyes off her – and he wasn’t even tempted to slip back to the hotel and work instead. He wanted to stay and enjoy the evening with her.
CHAPTER 6
MIA
Mia glanced at the screen of her phone, and her eyes widened. She’d decided to stay for dinner, since she was hungry anyway, but now it was really time to go. She still had a long drive back to San Jose, which already sounded very unappealing. If she had a little more money, getting a hotel near here would have been the obvious choice, but accommodation in Napa Valley was outrageously expensive and she couldn’t afford it. Now, she’d be driving home at night along dark roads.
