Page 16 of The Bad Wedding Date

The two of us found a row of chairs and took our seats. I felt Fraser’s stare against my profile. It made my body tingle to imagine him so focused on any part of me, and I had to use all my strength to push back the rising blush in my cheeks again.

“And while we’re at it, I can’t believe you kissed me,” I said, ignoring his sultry gaze as my own confused thoughts rattled around in my brain.

“It was only on the forehead. And if that’s your attempt at a thank you, it may need some work. I’m the one bailing you out here.”

“I know that, but need I remind you that we don’t actually know each other.”

“I’m well aware.”

“Then, why the hell would you kiss me like that?”

“Like what?”

My body flushed. “Like… like that was normal. Like we did that all the time.”

“It was on the forehead. I hardly touched you up.”

Even the thought of that made me swallow. “But still. It felt…”

“What?”

“Too intimate.”

“Well, I didn’t see anyone else coming to your rescue, okay.” He pushed the edges of his blazer behind his waist and made himself comfortable, which looked impossible, given the mountain of obvious muscle in his way. “It was either kiss you on the forehead or hurt someone you love for talking to you that way. I went with the option less likely to cause a scene.”

I stared at him, open-mouthed.

“You heard what they said to me?”

“Every word.” His face turned stern, and he focused on the registrar up ahead. “I don’t like people who think they’re better than everyone else, Charlotte. Consider it a trigger for me.”

Something about the way he said that made my stomach tighten and the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

“Well, you’re going to be triggered like hell today, then,” I told him.

“Apparently so.”

I studied his strong profile. He was classically good looking, sure, but Fraser’s eyes held the world within them, and I knew there was more to this story than I would probably ever find out. Half a day wouldn’t be enough to get to know who he really was, but half a day was all I had.

Part of me wondered if it would be a privilege or a chore to peel back those layers, but one look at that unusual look of sincerity in his eyes, and I decided to live for the moment.

Babies, Smokey Robinson, forehead kissing and all.

Soon enough, the ceremony was underway. Fraser and I were two rows from the front, in full view of everything. The wedding in its entirety was the epitome of opulence, with blinding white and the richest of blush pinks scattered across every accessible surface. The walls had been draped with sheer organza, and the thousands of perfectly-placed fairy lights made you feel like you were living among the stars rather than the reality of being stuck in a forty-foot square room. Every white chair with a ribbon around the back was occupied by someone as equally as wealthy as my own family. Did Emmie even know half of them, or were they simply here at my mother’s request?

It’s about who you’re seen with, not who you want to be with,she used to say. Especially when she thought I was hanging around with the wrong kids at school. Mother would much rather me be in with the mean girls than sit around a table laughing with actual, like-minded friends who cared about me. She wanted me to ride to school with parents who drove Aston Martins, whereas all I ever wanted to do was cycle down the backroads with a girl named Ruby whose parents had abandoned her at an early age, leaving her with two grandparents who thought that money equalled affection. Ruby knew about real life. She knew about pain. Whenever I got the chance to talk to her, the world seemed real for the very first time. Not plastic. Less pretence.

She taught me things. She taught me that it’s okay to be grateful and still want something different.

I missed her then. I wondered what she’d have thought about this day. I wondered if she’d suffered any of her own.

Once Emmie entered the room to coos and cries of, “Awe,” she met her almost-husband, Lucas at the obscenely expensive flowered-arch they’d created for the registrar to stand beneath. Vows were exchanged while a harpist played tenderly in the background, and the bridesmaids played their parts by dabbing their eyes every time Emmie pretended to get choked up with happiness.

What a load of crap.

I’d spent my entire childhood around her. I knew that fake cry when I saw it.

Fraser leaned closer to me. “I think you’re supposed to be a little emotional at this point.”

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