Chapter 3

It’s been two weeks since my first day and I’ve done nothing but get coffee for people, photocopy documents, and answer phones. It was boring as hell.

Eric and Missy even resorted to making paper airplanes in the office to keep from getting bored. Emma, being the preppy bookworm she is, just practiced for the SATs when nothing was assigned to us.

Missy flew all the way from Chicago for the internship. She was currently staying with Eric for the summer. They’ve known each other since they were little but got separated when Eric moved to New York with his parents. They’ve been visiting each other back and forth ever since.

Eric was gay, if it wasn’t obvious. It actually was if you just looked at his attire and the way he walked. I didn’t want to ask directly since I’m afraid he’d get offended or something. He was proud to be gay and was just one of the girls. He was hilarious and has a great sense of humor. It was tons of fun hanging out with him.

Emma said she was planning on going to NYU. She had an older sister who already graduated and was now a doctor. She also has younger brother who played baseball. Her parents were lawyers and they all lived on the Upper East Side. It sounds like she’s stuck up but she really isn’t.

We’ve all grown close over the past two weeks. We also know most of each other’s secrets. I even told them about Nick since I feel comfortable with them.

“He’s such a jerk.” Missy frowned, crossing her arms together.

“But he sounds so hot.” Eric sighed dreamily.

“Eric.” Emma scolded him. I just laughed it off.

I also told Stella all about them. She said she was happy that I made new friends. She, Nate and I met up last Friday to talk about our first week on the job. Nate said he was doing well. He even got to take pictures and stuff. Stella was also doing well. She told us that a bride threw a fit because she hated the wedding cake even though that was exactly what she requested.

“She’s a meticulous diva!” Stella complained, throwing her hands up in the air.

Today’s weather was fair, perfect to be outdoors. I would probably be in the park playing with a soccer ball but I’m stuck here in the stuffy office. Missy was straightening her hair with a pink straightening iron she brought with her from home. Emma was on her MacBook, typing away on the keyboard. Eric had dozed off on the couch in front of me. He was snoring pretty loudly. I put my feet on top of the coffee table and scrolled through my twitter feed.

“I wish something exciting would happen.” I grumbled. Missy and Emma nodded in agreement.

It was a slow day. Nobody seemed to be needing coffee this morning. Mara took over the phone answering and everybody was photocopying documents themselves. We had nothing to do.

A loud ringing sound made us jump from our seats. Eric woke up with a jolt too.

“Wha –?”  Eric mumbled then turned in the sofa, making him fall on the carpeted floor with a groan.

“Who’s phone is that?” Missy asked, turning off her styling iron.

“I think its Riley’s.” Emma said her attention back on her laptop.

“I got it.” I told them as I walked over to my desk. It had a pencil holder, two picture frames (one of me and my best friends and one of my family), my laptop, my coffee mug and the telephone.

I picked it up. “Hello, Riley Summers speaking.”

“Riley, dear!” I recognized my aunts overly happy tone. “Get your things ready. Tell the other interns too. We’re going to a wedding.”

*****

“We’re here!” Mickey sang as she got out of the town car. I followed suit and placed my sunglasses on top of my head. Emma, Eric and Missy piled out of the car behind me.

It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. Once they did, I saw we were in a park. I turned around and came face to face to the wedding venue.

“Oh God, no.” It was the boathouse in Central Park. More specifically, it was the place where the first wedding I attended was held, the wedding Nick and I attended.

“What? You don’t like the boathouse?” Missy noticed my glare. Mickey went inside, not even waiting for us. She must be really busy.

“It’s where the first wedding she attended was held, Missy. You know the one with N – I – C – K.” Emma spelled out, trying not to hurt my feelings by saying his name.

“Oh Riley, you could stay out here if you like.” Missy pulled me into a side hug. “It is a beautiful day to sit down on the grass and watch clouds pass by. I could join you.”

I took a few deep breaths then put on a smile. I’ll just suck it up and get through the day without breaking down or something. It would be unfair to Missy if she had to stay because I know she’s itching to go in. “No, it’s ok. I could handle it.”

I sauntered over to the brick arch and told myself, “Besides, it’ll be a great learning experience.”

I entered the double doors and took in the pretty scene in front of me. The wedding hall was nicely decorated with flower bouquets on pedestals lining the aisle. There were chairs set up as pews. There was also an arch decorated with white and pink roses at the end of the aisle where the bride and groom will be standing in a few hours.

“Place that over there by the post.” I heard my aunt say to someone. A guy walked past me and placed a potted tree on the spot my aunt pointed.

“Make sure to move the pedestals a bit. They seem to be taking a lot of space.” She told him and the guy nodded. “Come on everybody. We need to check the reception hall.”

We went outside and walked to the other side of the boathouse. We walked through the doors, giving us a clearer look of the hall. It was pretty much decorated the same as the wedding hall. Flowers were everywhere. Even the chandelier was decorated with flowers. I wonder if the groom had any say in this.

“Missy, right?” Mickey pointed to my friend beside me. She nodded eagerly. “Great. Could you put these on the table over there?”

“I’m on it.” Missy saluted my aunt. Mickey handed her a bowl of pink and white roses and pointed the table at the far side of the hall. Missy pulled me with her and we both made our way over to the table Mickey pointed to. Missy placed them in the middle of the table.

 I observed that the plates also had a pink rose on them.

No surprise there.

The clients must really love roses. Or maybe it’s just the bride.

“Mikayla!” A woman, almost the same age as my aunt, with pin straight brown hair, rushed to my aunt. It was Clara. “Thank God you’re here!”

Wow, she looked like she was hit by a typhoon. No wonder my aunt insisted she take a break from all of this.

“What’s the matter, Clara?” Mickey asked, leading her to a chair.

“I don’t know what to do! We ran out of napkins, the favor boxes are not yet ready and the guests are starting to file in but the guest book attendee isn’t here yet. Help me, Kayla! Why did you have to leave me alone?”

Well, at least she has something interesting to do.

“Calm down. Take deep breaths and munch on this chocolate bar, ok?” My aunt handed her assistant a small bar of chocolate. Where she got it? Who knows!

“We have extra napkins in the van, remember?” She rubbed Clara’s back. “Eric go get the napkins and go help the crew set up.”

“Will do.” Eric said and left to do what he was asked to.

“You are going to man the guest book until Tanya gets here. Missy will help you with that. She seems like a chatty person.” Mickey gestured for Missy to go with Clara.

“Riley will help Nessa on the favor boxes while I finish checking on things. Got it?”

Clara nodded as she finished her chocolate bar. “You’re a life saver!” And with that, Clara and Missy went to the wedding hall to start greeting guests. My aunt took a deep breath as she smoothed down her lavender blazer.

“Go to that room over there, Riles. You’ll find Nessa, you remember her right?” I nodded recalling that Nessa was a member of my aunt’s crew. Each wedding planner had their own crew that would go with them to the wedding. She was definitely my favorite person to hang out with while my aunt is busy. “Good. Tell her that I told you to help with the favor boxes. Go straight to the dressing room after.”

“Ok.”

“Great! Now get along, kiddo.” I bid my aunt goodbye and made my way to the room. “Riley, is that you?” A familiar red head greeted me with a huge smile. “It is you! I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I missed you too, Nessa.” I pulled away from her hug and gave her a once over. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and white blouse with a pink flower was pinned to it. Her red hair was in a high ponytail making her look casual but classy. Her hair was a darker shade than Missy’s. “You look great!”

“So do you, Riles. I didn’t even recognize you at first. Who are you dressing up for?” She asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled my eyes and said, “My mom outsmarted me.”

“Any average teenage girl I know would die to be in your heels right now.” Nessa shook her head in amusement.

“I know.” I shrugged, thinking about how Missy and Eric reacted that first day of work.

She clapped her hands and smiled at me. “So, I guess you’re here to help me with the favor bags.”

“Yep!” I said and sat down on a chair. I looked at the table in front of me and saw all the unfinished bags. Seeing all of them made my eyes grow wide. Don’t they have more than one staff member for this?

“I know it’s a lot.” She said when she saw my eyes wide open in shock. “But with the two of us, it’ll be over in a flash. I could’ve finished these earlier but I had to stick on the labels and ribbons by hand. Now this is what you do.” She sat down on the chair opposite to me and got a personalized, white favor candy bag. “Get a bag and fill it with these personalized Hershey kisses.”

“Got it.” I said and saluted her. She laughed before beginning to fill a candy bag. I got one and filled it with some kisses that I saw in a bowl. I hope these are enough to fill all the remaining candy bags.

Nessa and I chatted while we filled the bags. I even told her about Nick. She said he was ‘a stupid arsehole who doesn’t know what he’s missing’. Other than telling her my sob story, it was really fun to catch up with her. One thing I love about her is that she’s just like a teenager despite being twenty six. We get along so well. I was glad she was on my aunt’s team.

After we finished all the bags, I helped her carry all of them to the reception hall. We arranged them on a table with the help of a few staff members. She shooed me away when it was done, telling me that my aunt probably needed my help. I said goodbye and told her we had to hang out again soon. Nessa agreed and let me leave.

I walked to where the dressing room was located. I think it was at the back of the wedding hall. I passed Clara who was still attending to the guest book. Guests were steadily arriving! I bet the wedding’s going to start soon.

My aunt was waiting in front of the room along with Missy and Emma. “All of you are here and accounted for.” Mickey said in pleasure.

“How about Eric?” Missy asked, not forgetting about her best friend.

“I talked to him a while ago.” Mickey waved it off. “Here are your earpieces and emergency kits. Eric already has both.”

I slung the emergency kit bag on my shoulder. It looked like a cute, small satchel but when you open it, it looks like a first aid kit with everything in its place. I remember it has a tin of bobby pins, small can of hairspray, face powder, lip gloss and lip stick, small sewing kit, tissues, traction pads for heels and instant stain remover.

“Cool!” Missy took her kit giddily.

“Very impressive.” Emma nodded approvingly.

“Get ready girls.” Mickey told us and knocked on the door to the dressing room. We were opened by one of the bridesmaids. She was already in her knee-length, pink bridesmaid’s dress. She smiled at my aunt and opened the door for her.

She stopped us when Mickey walked in. “Who are you?”  

“We’re with the wedding planner.” Emma told her confidently. Before I knew it she pulled us into the bustle of the dressing room.

We each got pulled aside by one of the bridesmaids.

 “My hair is losing its curliness and I can’t find the hairspray. Do you have any with you?” She asked me hopefully.

“Yes, I do.” I got the bottle of hairspray from the emergency kit and gave it to her. She immediately began spraying the liquid all over her hair. A bit too much if you ask me. If she sprays anymore, I’m going to have a coughing fit.

“Thank you! You’re a life saver.” The bridesmaid gave me a quick hug and went back to the other bridesmaids. I went over to the maid of honor who was sitting in front of the mirror trying to fix her hair.

“I think these would help you.” I said as I handed her a few bobby pins.

“Thank you so much!” She gladly took the bobby pins and began pinning her hair in all the right places. I moved on to the little flower girl who was sitting patiently on the sofa. She was holding a flower wreath hair band in her hands, probably waiting for someone to help her with it.

I bent down so I could look her in the eyes and smiled. “Hello dear, would you like me to help you with your hair band?”

The little girl nodded and gave the headpiece to me. I placed it on her head and secured it with bobby pins so it won’t fall off. She mumbled thanks before I left her to sit on the couch. I heard my earpiece screech making me jump slightly. “Riley, are you done with the bags?”

“Yes, aunt Mickey. They’re all filled and in the reception hall.”

“All mishaps averted, ma’am.” Missy said, reporting for duty. Emma was standing beside her.

“Great, now come over here.” I turned around and saw my aunt standing near the mirrors next to the bride. We trailed her. I think Missy was slightly bummed out that I didn’t get to use the other items in my emergency kit.

“You are the luckiest girl in the world. When I did Whitney Houston’s wedding, she was way more nervous than you. Plus, you look ten times better than she did.” We watched from the sidelines as my aunt tried to calm down the bride. It looks like the bride has the case of the pre-wedding nerves which is totally normal by the way.

“No, I’m not.” The bride shook her head then turned to the full length mirror. “I’m fat. This isn’t going to work. And I’m going to marry the wrong guy.”

“Look at me.” Mickey said calmly. “You are exquisite. You’re timeless. You’re the envy of your future sister-in-law who I heard say at the last fitting “Look at those thighs. I’d kill for Tracy’s thighs.” But you have more than great thighs. You have the love of a man named Rob, a man who walked into rehearsal dinner said “I can’t believe she picked me. I can’t believe I’m going to marry the most beautiful woman in the world.””

The bride smiled at her as she continued. “Not only does that tell me your marriage is going to work but it’s going to last forever.”

“Thank you.” Tracy smiled then hugged my aunt. We then followed my aunt outside the dressing room where she stopped to talk to two of the staff. “Keep to areas A, B and E. I don’t want any interference with the video tape.”

We walked out of the back rooms before she turned to tell me, “Now that’s how you handle a nervous bride.”

“You handled the bride?” Eric frowned, finally joining us. “I can’t believe I missed that.”

“Don’t worry Eric. There will be plenty of other things to do.” Mickey informed him. We didn’t even take twenty steps when we came across a woman in pink, who by the looks of it was the bride’s mother. My aunt greeted her and said, “I know who you’re looking for. They’re in the first room to the right.”

We passed the priest on our way. Mickey stopped him and asked where he was going. “Nature calls.” He answered.

“Oh, no. You must go back later, father. We’re about to start.” She led him to where he was supposed to be right now which was at the other end of the aisle getting ready. I adjusted my earpiece just to make sure it doesn’t fall off.

“Get ready guys. Team one which is Missy and Emma go to that side and Team two Eric and Riley go to the other so I could have eyes on that part of the room.” She ordered then talked into her earpiece. “We’re going in one.”

We walked to our respective sides. I looked around and saw the different guests taking their seats. Most of them were wearing something with pink touches with their outfits. Honestly, this looked like Barbie’s wedding. It was much too girly for my liking.

“Team two go to M12 we got a dark tower chocking the AV.” I heard my aunt through the earpiece. ‘Dark tower’ was the company’s code for someone who was blocking the view of the videographer. We had to re-learn all of the code names on our way here. Surprisingly out of everything that should’ve slipped my mind the codes are the forgotten ones .

 “Can you see the guest?” Eric asked to which I shook my head. We looked around until I saw the person who was blocking it. She was an old lady with a very high up-do.

Oh, that’s definitely a problem.

We approached the woman and I spoke first.“Excuse me Ma’am. You’re in the preferred seating list.”

Eric smiled politely and said, “If you would please come with me.”

He helped her stand up while I led her away from that seat. I let her seat as far away from the cameras as I could before talking into my earpiece. “Dark tower demolished.”

“Alright, places everyone.” Mikayla said just as I arrived back at my post. “Todd, the lights please and maestro on three.”

I then saw the same two guys who my aunt talked to about the video camera interference. She nodded and sent the two away then her voice came through my earpiece. “Eric, send in the FOB. That’s father of the bride if you forgot.”

“That’s odd.” I looked at Eric quizzically. He blocked the microphone of the earpiece and told him. “I already sent him in before I joined you guys near the dressing room.”

“I already sent him in fifteen minutes ago.” He told her. I saw Mickey look at the girl next to her and tell her something before she walked out the door.

“Clara, cover me up north. Team one and two follow me.” Mikayla said into her piece. The FOB is MIA

“Ooh how exciting!” Eric clapped giddily as we left our post. We met up with team one and my aunt in the hallway.

 “Watch and learn teams. This will be a good learning experience for you.” She told me before leading me to the end of the aisle where the groom’s room is. She went in and told them, “Hey guys, its show time. Put your jackets on.”

I heard someone singing at the stairs and to tell you the truth, it wasn’t pleasant to hear. I walked closer and heard it sounded like the father of the bride, the drunken father of the bride. I held my earpiece and said, “I got a twenty on the FOB.”

Talking in code is another upside to this job. It’s so fun!

My aunt and the rest of the interns immediately found me and Mickey approached the father. She unbuttoned her blazer and revealed a belt that held different bottles and small boxes buckled around her waist. It had everything: aspirin, a small bottle of water, perfume, breath mints and loads more. It even had a few granola bars for those bridesmaids who skipped breakfast because they wanted to make sure their dresses still fit.

She got what looked like perfume and sprayed it all over the bride’s father.

Yep, it was definitely perfume.

 “My daughter’s getting married today.” The father slurred. Mikayla put back the bottle and took out some pills. The father looked at her and asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m the wedding planner.” She smiled at him.

After we fixed the FOB issue and the interns praising my aunt for her unbelievable skills, Eric and I went back to the starting point at the other end of the room to see if everything is clear. Team one was standing on the sidelines. Mickey went up to the second floor to check if everything is in order. The bride soon walked down the aisle a few moments later. Everybody was intact and ready, just like they should be.

“Did you see your aunt’s kit?” I nodded in response to Eric. “I so want that on our next wedding escapade.”

I laughed before I watched the ceremony start. I smoothed down my hair and was surprised to find a pin tucked into it.

Huh, I never knew Stella put a pin into my hair. She styled my hair today, like all other weekdays.

It was familiar. I could feel the crystal flower on the end. Realization struck me immediately.

It was the pin that Nick and I got at the first wedding we attended.

How did Stella get this? It was at the bottom of my drawer where all the clutter I acquired was scattered in. I tried to pull it out to examine it further but I made it fall in the process.

I’m such a klutz.

I was about to turn around and get it when an all too familiar voice made me freeze.

“I think you dropped something miss. Riley? No way!” 

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This was meant to be posted last Thursday but I was busy. I'm sorry :( 

Today's my birthday but I squeezed in time to update because I love you guys a lot :) 

Vote, comment, fan! Love ya'll :* 

- Cassidy xox