Page 39 of Marry Me, Right Now

“Fabulous, actually,” I said, finding myself automatically reflecting her exuberant manner of speaking. “I’m almost completely unpacked, and just learning where strange little things are kept around here.”

“Be sure to have Carol give you a proper tour. I’m sure Jacob is thorough, but women sort things differently.”

I laughed lightly, hoping that she’d get to her real point. “That’s a great idea,” I said, trying to make her feel like it was okay to give me motherly advice.

“I wish I had known in advance, Mia. I could have sent one of my assistants to help with the packing, organizing and moving. Surely that must have been days of work.”

I certainly couldn’t tell her that all of my worldly possessions were already packed because had been on the verge of homelessness.

“Actually, I was in the process of beginning to look for a new apartment, so I’d done a massive purge recently. You know how dazzling all of those minimalist homes look in the magazines.”

She laughed, obviously delighted. “Good for you, dear. Well, the reason I called is to talk about the wedding.”

Sweet baby Elvis, I thought. Here we go.

“You see, Jacob said that you’re a real ‘do it yourself’ sort of gal, and that’s wonderful, but there are so many things to consider, and I just don’t want you to get worn out. Event planning can have a lot of tiny things sneak up at you, and I assume you’ve never done this before.”

I almost laughed at her not-so-subtle way of asking if this would be my first marriage. I was only twenty-four for goodness sake.

Giggling lightly, I said, “Well, that’s true. I’ve never planned a wedding, or anything this big before. But my friends have put on many shows and events, and–”

“Dear, please let me help. I have an event planner I’ve been working with for years, and he’s just a dream, I promise. He’ll take care of things exactly the way you want them, and make all of the silly little details disappear so that you don’t have to worry about if the flowers in the powder room match the arrangements in the foyer.”

Seeing as I’d never been to an event fancy enough to have flowers in the damn bathroom, I could see that she had a point.

Plus, I quickly realized, for this show to be believable, I was going to have to ingratiate myself to Jacob’s family. I wasn’t just marrying him. I had to make this seem incredibly real, so I’d have to swallow my pride, ignore some of my issues with money, and get swept up in the wealthy old-money family wedding traditions.

“That would be amazing, Rosalind. I would love to meet with him.”

“I’m so glad to hear that, dear. It turns out that he’s between projects, and he’ll meet you at Jacob’s… oh, I’m sorry, your condo in an hour.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I don’t mean to be pushy, darling, I just want to get him started so that he can take the work away from you before you wear yourself out.” She paused for a moment. “I know I don’t’ know you very well yet, dear, and I do think that hard work is wonderful, but these are the sorts of things that really are better off left to the professionals.”

I took a deep breath, and adjusted my tone to sound like the grateful daughter in law. “Thank you so much, Rosalind. I really appreciate this. You’re right, My gut reaction is to do things myself, but I wouldn’t want to get in over my head with something this important. You’re certainly the wedding and party expert, so now that I have your number, I hope it’s okay if I text you occasionally to ask for advice?”

I could hear her beaming. “Dear, I would be delighted.”

“Thank you. And Jacob told you that we’re trying to keep this extremely small? Perhaps eighty people?”

We knew that it would swell to a hundred, likely a hundred and twenty-five, but figured we should low ball her so that she kept her guest list under control.

“I’ll see what I can do, dear. You know about the politics of large families.”

I certainly didn’t, having had no family of my own for the past five years. “We’re hoping that since it’s a quick little ceremony that it won’t seem like a big deal to those not invited.”

“Don’t you worry about the extended family. I’ll take care of all of that. You just get Zachary started with putting together a wonderful glamorous wedding.”

“Actually, I was thinking fresh and green. The natural, mismatched, elegant minimalist aesthetic.”

She paused. “Actually, you’re right, dear. That’s a bigger trend this year, isn’t it? I’m sure that Zachary will have his own ideas as well. He always has his finger on the pulse of the latest fashions. Have a great meeting!”

I was left feeling a little worried. Although of course it would be nice to have an expert taking care of things, what if he tried to force me to do something ugly, trendy, or expensive just for the sake of throwing money around?

An hour later when I opened the door, I was instantly relieved. A short, jovial man entered. “Honey, may I give you a squoosh?” He gave me a giant hug and a grin, then I led him to the dining room table, which was the best to use for an office. After pouring him some coffee, he got right to the point.

“I know that Rosalind can be the typical overbearing rich queen, but she means well. I hear that you’re getting married this coming Sunday?”

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