Page 37 of A Step You Shouldn't Take

Good to know.No! Bad Kimberly. I shouldn’t be thinking about Reed that way. Before my dirty mind could come up with any new ideas, I grabbed my phone and ordered two portions of my favourites. Sweet-and-sour pork balls with chicken chow mein and spring rolls, eaten straight from the carton. Food always tasted better when there was no washing-up to do, and at least if Reed had the same menu items, he wouldn’t get tempted to steal mine.

By the time the food arrived, we only had fifty bags left to finish, but I was too hungry to wait.

“Chopsticks or a fork?” I asked Reed.

“Chopsticks.”

Show-off. I was a fork girl; otherwise, I ended up with more food in my lap than in my mouth. But Reed once again proved how good he was with his fingers when he managed to eat like a native.

“What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in the world of wedding planning?” he asked between mouthfuls.

“Why?”

“Just curious.”

Where did I start? Most issues could be salvaged without the bride ever finding out—that was my job, after all, to make everything run smoothly—but sometimes, a disaster of epic proportions arose.

“The saddest day was when the bride’s father had a heart attack and died right after the vows.”

She’d been inconsolable, poor girl, and even though the bride and groom insisted the rest of the guests stay and enjoy the reception while the family followed the ambulance to the hospital, the event had turned into more of a wake.

“At least the old guy died happy, right? Seeing his daughter get married.”

“I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

“Have you ever had a couple not get married?”

“A few times. Only one where they split up at the altar.”

“What happened?”

“The bride had been really worried all day. All week, in fact. But I thought it was just last-minute nerves, even after she threw up on the groom when the officiant asked if anyone knew of any reason why they shouldn’t get married.”

To this day, I vividly recalled rushing forward with a packet of wet wipes while the priest leapt out of the way.

“I guess puking’s a good reason to call the whole thing off.”

“That wasn’t the problem. It turned out she had morning sickness, which she admitted in front of the whole churchful of guests.”

“Let me guess; it wasn’t the groom’s?”

“Her fiancé was a devout Christian who’d insisted they wait until after the wedding to…you know.”

“Did you find out whose it was?”

“Everyonedid. She started looking at the best man funny, then the groom put two and two together and punched him. Once he got up, he grabbed the bride’s hand and the two of them escaped in the wedding car.”

Reed began laughing. “Bet that was awkward.”

“The most awkward part was sending them my final bill afterwards. I almost wrote it off, but I hadn’t been in business for long and that would have left me in the red.”

“Did they pay it?”

“The bride’s parents did. They moved in the same circles as my father, and I guess they didn’t want people whispering about how they’d stiffed me.”

“Wish it was that simple to get money out of my clients. Half of them don’t have a reputation left to worry about.”

“Have many of them screwed you?”

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