Chapter 14 #3
The idea, however ridiculous, was intriguing, and Will contemplated how to pull it off. “You’d need like some kind of blowtorch to light—” He felt Naomi squeeze his arm, rightfully reminding him that perhaps Abby wasn’t particularly interested in the mechanics of melting an alarm panel.
Plus, she seemed to have moved on from her alarm issues.
“How are things going here? And also, what is going on here? Explain to me what kind of prom you three are dressed for?” She used her chin to indicate Becca, Riley, and Freya.
Was he seeing things or had Abby held her gaze on Freya a little longer than anyone else?
Will looked to Naomi for confirmation, but she was distracted.
On her phone. Again. Her body angled enough that her screen was hidden.
“Oh, this old thing?” Riley added a hint of a southern twang to their words.
“Just a little something I whipped up for the occasion. I couldn’t find anything on theme that complemented my nearly invisible waist while making the rest of me as visible as possible, so I had to take matters into my own hands and alter a dress to my liking. ”
“I wanted to be as visible as possible, too,” Becca said.
“I, er, missed the memo and tried to find something I owned that looked like what the kids are wearing today,” Freya said.
“More work problems?” Will whispered to Naomi.
Naomi locked the screen. “Yep.”
“Hi, everyone.” Will’s colleague, Max, walked up to the group.
“Now that you’re all here, let’s get started.
I’ve met some of you, but for those of you I haven’t, I’m Max, and I’ll be the producer for this evening’s event.
” One of the producers. For an event this big, he was sharing the workload with Annalisa.
But he’d worked with Max enough to know that he never shared credit unless he had to.
“We’ve got about fifteen minutes before the other guests start to arrive. So, we’d love to get our CCI’s in while we have some time. Who wants to go—”
Becca raised her hand like she was the star pupil in class. “Me! I love me some Confession Cam. Besides, I want to make sure there’s nothing to interrupt me and Peter once we get, you know, started.”
“It’s honestly a wonder they can use any of the footage from Becca’s interviews,” Abby said as Becca left with Max.
“From what I’ve heard, they pretty much can’t,” Will replied. It had been amusing, to say the least, to hear his colleagues struggle to find any content with Becca that wouldn’t leave Nightly Global News with a hefty fine from the FCC.
There was a short silence, and then Freya asked, “Only a couple more days until you walk down the aisle, you two. Are you ready?”
Freya’s question had, obviously, been directed at him and Naomi.
But it hadn’t been obvious for Riley who answered first. “I would be a lot more ready if we weren’t having this wedding at noon.
On a Monday.” They said Monday like they were doing a Garfield impression.
“Can you explain to me how that is a thing that is happening? Who gets married on a Monday afternoon?”
“People who care about ratings do,” Freya said. “These two have the biggest following with stay-at-home moms and viewers in Europe. Twelve p.m. central is lunch time here, and end of the day over there. Ratings are king.”
“That explains a lot. The patriarchy is once again doing us in. If ratings were queen, I think we’d be approaching this a lot differently.
Ooh, queens! That gives me an idea. Naomi.
” Riley’s attention shifted to Freya, and the topic switched.
“Let’s replace your wedding guests with drag queens.
And then that could be a spin-off show: Drag Queenzilla, where a bunch of drag queens crash your wedding and—is this making sense or have these Pink Bikini cocktails finally caught up with me?
Maybe time to switch to the punch. Anyone else?
You know what? Never mind; you’re all getting one.
Don’t worry, it’s a true prom and the punch is spiked. ”
“Hoo boy, Riley is going to keep us on our toes tonight,” Abby said as soon as Riley was out of earshot. “Has anyone ever unspiked punch before? Because we might want to.”
Naomi laughed before changing the subject. “We thanked Riley already,” she looked to Abby and then Freya, “but I wanted to thank both of you for helping put this together. It’s phenomenal and the party hasn’t even started yet.”
Freya gave a polite smile. “I wasn’t kidding when I said Riley put this together. They are a good friend.”
“We—” Abby began, then stopped. Will might not have paid much attention to her use of the word ‘we’ if Abby hadn’t then glanced at Freya before starting over.
Was something going on between those two, or was he reading into things?
“I think, well, my only contribution was helping to come up with the theme.”
“I loved it as soon as you told me. What sparked the idea?” Naomi asked.
“Some late-night reminiscing over wine,” Abby said, definitely giving Freya some kind of look. Or was it? He cut his eyes to Naomi to see if she had picked up on it too, but she seemed lost in thought. Was it related to her “work” problem? His mind was spinning.
Just then, Max returned. “Okay, who’s next?”
“That was fast,” Naomi said.
“Becca got, um, distracted.”
“Sounds about right,” Abby said.
Will was tired of trying to guess what was going on in the three women’s heads and was grateful for something else to do. “I can go.”
Max nodded and pointed at him and Naomi. “Great. Let’s have you two do this one together first, and then I’ll have you each go separately.”
The “confessional” was set up by the photo backdrop where a combination of production lights and stage lights were pointing at a pair of chairs.
“Alright, kids, have a seat,” Max directed.
Not that he needed to. They’d been doing Confession Cam Interviews nearly every day for nearly a month now.
It had been uncomfortable in the beginning, and while Will still didn’t love it, he was also starting to wonder what life would be like without having someone pull him away for a regular download of his thoughts and feelings.
“Alright, guys, we want to keep this really short so that you can start to greet your guests and focus on having fun. Ready?”
Naomi and Will both nodded, and Max stepped back behind the gaggle of cameras pointed at them. “What do you think of your party so far?”
The party hadn’t started yet. But he knew the drill. They wanted a soundbite they could overlay at any point during the segment. He glanced over his shoulder at the faux cruise ship behind him and then back at the camera.
Remembering rules one, two, and three, he began, “I think the party is absolutely incredible! I feel so grateful for our amazing wedding party who put it together. I’m a little worried that it’s so good our guests might enjoy it more than our wedding.”
Naomi laughed, the way only a fiancée can at a corny joke, and nudged him with her shoulder.
“Naomi, what’s something special about this evening?” Max asked.
“This evening is extra special because I get to see so many of my favorite people under one roof,” she told Max.
“Of course, we’ll see everyone at the wedding.
But I feel like that’s going to be different.
We’ll be focused on each other and getting married.
This is only about having fun and hanging out. ”
“Speaking of your wedding, it’s coming up in two days. You feel ready?”
Naomi exchanged a smile with Will and then said, “Are we ready for our wedding? I guess you could say that we’re as ready as you can be when you plan a wedding in a month!
I think the only loose end to tie up at this point is, literally, tying up my bustle.
Y’all have been giving Abby such a hard time about that.
But don’t worry, she’s coming over tomorrow night to for our hashtag bitches be bustling pre-wedding bustle practice and wine party. ”
Will still wasn’t entirely sure what a bustle was, but he knew that Abby’s struggle with it had taken on a life of its own on the Internet.
“Will, any plans tomorrow night?”
He shrugged. “I don’t have any plans for tomorrow night. Our big party is tonight, so I’ll be at my place, getting an early night so I can be ready for the big day.”
“Aside from bustle troubles, Naomi, do you feel like you have any wedding day jitters?”
Oh, Max. Always looking for the drama.
“No, I’m not having any pre-wedding jitters,” Naomi said, laughing off the question.
“We made a lot of decisions in a very short amount of time, so I have absolutely no idea how the wedding is going to go. But even if it all goes wrong, it will all go right because at the end of the day, I’ll be married to this guy. And I have no jitters about that.”
“What she said,” Will said. He wrapped his arm around her, his chest feeling like it was going to burst open, and birds were going to emerge and start singing. “I love this woman,” he said with a grin that he couldn’t have stopped if he wanted to.