Chapter 13
Brooke
Saturday brunches with Jordan and Maddie are rare.
They almost never happen during the summer, and they’ve been happening less frequently in the offseason too.
Back when we were starting out and had lives outside of work, we brunched every weekend.
Now, Maddie and I are swamped at the agency.
I barely have to time to help my sweet neighbor, Mr. Edwards, with his kitchen garden.
Maddie doesn’t get to see her sisters as much as she used to.
Jordan’s booking clients all over the country and is rarely in town, no matter the time of year.
I get to see Maddie almost every day, but I miss having Jordan at my side with her camera.
She’s so damn talented that it’s almost annoying.
She’s always patient with her clients, amazing with children in the wedding party, and the queen of capturing candid moments throughout the night.
For the first time in over a year, the three of us are all working the same wedding. The combination of a full-service venue and second marriages for both the bride and groom means a little less work for us and a later start to the day. Therefore, brunch!
We fall into our usual chatter about work and life. It feels just like all of our other brunches, except for the lack of mimosas. We’ll have to wait for drinks until our secret end-of-the-night toast.
“So,” Jordan says, champagne-free orange juice in hand. “How are things at Spencer Soirees? Judy still digging in her claws and micromanaging the hell out of the two of you?”
Maddie raises her eyebrows and turns to me. Bless her heart for attempting to not answer that question honestly for my sake. Let’s see how long she keeps her mouth shut.
“She hasn’t been so bad lately,” I say, my voice a pitch higher than normal. My cheeks warm and I bite my lip as Maddie and Jordan take in the lie.
“Actually,” Maddie says, putting her fork down.
Fifteen seconds. She tried. I grab my coffee mug from the table. When Maddie’s fired up, she talks with her hands, and when it comes to my mom, Maddie starts at a ten and only goes up.
“She’s been just as bad, if not worse; lately she’s unhinged.
She agreed to work with the Foley’s in order to get the Quincy wedding.
And she’s making Brooke work on it which, like, will be amazing for Brooke but now she has to work with Caleb Foley after he basically took her heart, ripped it out of her chest, stomped on it, and then left her there in front of everyone and moved away like a little bitch.
” Maddie’s hands are still wide open in the air when she stops speaking.
“Take a breath, Maddie,” Jordan says. “I was there, too.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I protest. “It’s not even the most crushing thing that’s happened to my love life in the last five years.”
They both cast me a sidelong glance.
“You keep telling yourself that, Brooke,” Jordan says. Oh, I will. It’s my one and only coping mechanism.
“I’m sorry, she just, ugh,” Maddie continues.
“I can deal with a tough boss, a micromanaging boss. I thrive under that kind of pressure. You don’t believe in me?
You don’t trust my judgment? Watch me prove you wrong.
What I can’t deal with is how she treats you, Brooke.
She holds passing down the business over your head and treats you like you’re not one of the most coveted wedding planners in the area. ”
I smile at my friend, my eyes stinging with the threat of tears.
Maddie’s always had my back, and it means the world to me that she comes to my defense again and again.
Her words sound harsh, but what she always forgets is that I’ve been dealing with Mom my entire life.
I know how she operates, and I know that she loves me and will eventually pass Spencer Soirees over to me.
She has to. It’s my job to carry on the legacy.
“It’s not that bad. The Quincy wedding will be planned flawlessly by yours truly, and she’ll finally realize she can take a step back and let me step up.” I bite into my bacon, egg, and cheese (perfect pre-wedding fuel), and try to ignore the looks Maddie and Jordan give each other.
“Don’t for one second think I didn’t see that,” I say.
“Listen, it sucks that I have to see Caleb all the time now, but it’s fine.
I’m pretending that incident at the party never happened.
And honestly, he seems to have completely forgotten about it.
Maybe he was blackout drunk and doesn’t remember what happened. ”
Another look between Maddie and Jordan.
“I hate both of you,” I say and take another bite of my sandwich.
The Thompson wedding got off to an amazing start.
Jordan nailed the awkward dynamics of photographing a blended family.
She should add good with angsty tweens who are super emo over having new stepparents to the About Me section of her website.
Maddie managed to find the missing best man just in time for his toast. And, with Caleb’s help, I’m about to pull off the end-of-the-night-burger-and-fries surprise.
I look down at my clipboard for the upcoming action items.
10:30 p.m. - Caleb arrives with to-go burgers and fries.
It’s 10:20 p.m. He’ll be here any minute.
The guests (and my stomach) are doing the Cha Cha Slide.
I want to pull off this epic surprise for the guests and make my clients happy.
I’m anxiously tapping my pen on my clipboard when Jordan appears next to me.
“Excuse me,” she says, looking across the room. “What exactly is Caleb doing here?”
“I forgot to tell you at brunch. You’re going to want to get photos of this!” I so did not forget to tell her. In fact, as the photographer, this is something she should have known in advance, so I tell her now. By the time I finish, Caleb is next to us.
“Good evening, ladies,” he says. His hair is wavier thanks to the humidity and lack of Whalers hat. “Brooke. Jordan.” His smile grows as he looks at me and then at the clipboard I’m holding close to my chest. “Can I see that?”
I find myself handing it over to Caleb’s waiting hand.
I’m not one to let my clipboard out of my hands at any point during the night, but somehow this is the second time it’s ended up in his hands.
I look next to me, expecting Jordan to still be standing there, but she must have snuck back into the dancing crowd to snap more candids.
“You’ll notice I’m even a few minutes early.” Caleb pulls a pen from his white chef coat. The sleeves are rolled up just enough to have me staring at his toned forearms. Until he draws a line through 10:30 p.m. - Caleb arrives with to-go burgers and fries.
A line! I press my lips together to hide my horror. I’m a checkmark person. Not a cross-a-line-through-it person.
“That’s going to drive you crazy, isn’t it?” Caleb teases, handing the clipboard back to me.
“Yes,” I sigh. “It sure is. You’re really good at that, you know?”
“At what?
“Driving me crazy.”
“Brooke.” He lowers his mouth closer to my ear. “I don’t hate the idea of driving you crazy.”
My mouth opens and I suck in a breath.
“Brooke,” Maddie interrupts. “Buses are here!”
“C’mon,” Caleb pats my shoulder like an old pal, giving me whiplash. What was that about? “Let’s make these guests’ night!”
Outside the venue, Maddie grabs an armful of brown paper bags from the catering truck. They’re crinkled and greasy. Perfect.
“God,” Maddie groans. “These smell delicious.”
Caleb smiles, all teeth and dimple. “Thanks, Maddie. I made extra for your team and the other vendors.”
“You did not!” Maddie yells, hopping onto the first bus.
“I did!” he shouts back to her.
We work together to load bags on both buses. Caleb grabs two bags from the Foley’s van and makes sure each bus driver has one of their own. He’s still the kind and considerate guy he’s always been, despite his ability to get under my skin.
“You didn’t have to make extras,” I say.
“I know, I wanted to.” He hands a greasy bag to me and another to Maddie as she hops off the bus.
She opens it, unwraps the burger and takes a giant bite.
I’d give anyone else a good talking-to about eating while we’re in the presence of wedding guests, but only a few are out here getting some air, and I know better than to give Maddie a talking-to about anything.
“He’s making it hard to hate him,” Maddie says with a fake whisper.
Caleb laughs. “I heard that.”
“I know,” she says, and pats his cheek with two quick taps. “I’ll work on getting the guests out here.” She skips to the venue entrance, stopping to talk to Jordan. I can’t wait for her to get shots of the guests’ reactions.
“She is…” Caleb says.
I laugh. Maddie is so many things. “…amusingly endearing?”
“Something like that, I don’t think anyone has patted my cheek like that since I was a kid.”
“You better get used to it,” I say, nudging his shoulder with mine. “She’s going to be working the Quincy wedding with us.”
“Is that why she doesn’t like me?” he asks.
Maybe he was blackout drunk five years ago. If that was the case, I should try to forget it ever happened.
“Oh…the whole Foley’s planner thing. How you hate us and refuse to work with us.”
“I don’t hate you, Brooke” he says.
“Yeah, but you don’t like us,” I say. He opens his mouth to say something, but I speak before he can.
I don’t need him saying anything nice to me.
“Thank you for doing this, Caleb. I mean it. The groom’s ecstatic and these guests are so wasted.
Those burgers are going to make their night and improve their morning. ”
“You’re welcome,” he says, his brown eyes fixed on mine.
He opens his mouth like he wants to get out whatever he started to say before, but the double doors of the venue open and guests stumble out.
Jordan is suddenly next to us, shooting me a mischievous grin before she turns to the guests and captures the final moments of the night.
Another successful wedding.
Only a few more tasks before I can dive under my fluffy white comforter and fall into that glorious sleep that only comes with the exhaustion of a wedding day.
I devoured Caleb’s food on the drive home, and it was the most delicious burger I’ve ever had in my life.
Way better than any drunk fast-food burger.
He failed to mention he was making smash burgers on brioche buns with some kind of delectable sauce I can’t quite describe.
If he had, I might have snuck a few bags off the bus.
Okay, I wouldn’t have. But I would have wanted to.
He was tolerable tonight, nice even, but I can’t understand why he’d helped me.
Why he’d made extras for the vendors. Maybe it was a selfish favor.
He’s right about it being a great addition to the catering menu.
Guests were practically salivating as the smell of greasy food hit them from across the parking lot.
The best part of the night had been hearing the squeals and groans as they boarded the buses.
No. The best part had been the smile on Caleb’s face. He stood by the doors, listening to all the delighted sounds coming from inside. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his smile, dimple on full display. That is, until the flash of Jordan’s camera nearby shook me from my daze.
I’m finishing the final step of my skincare routine when my phone buzzes from my bedroom.
Jordan: Really sucks that you HAVE to see Caleb all the time, huh?
Above the message is a photo. The first thing I see is that amazing smile on Caleb’s face.
I don’t need a photo to remember it, but I’m glad I have one.
He’s looking toward the door of the bus and I’m standing next to him, looking at him with…
oh god…a big fat grin on my face like a pathetic, lovesick teenager.
Ugh, I basically was one with him. And Jordan captured the mortifying moment.
I throw my phone onto my bed and walk back to the bathroom.
If I ignore it, maybe it will cease to exist. I don’t even make it to the door, though, before I turn around and pick up my phone again.
I lay on my bed and look at the photo. I save it to my camera roll.
Caleb has a glow I haven’t seen from him before.
He’s proud of himself. And me, I look happy.
Incredibly happy. Something I haven’t felt in a while.
The feeling starts to come back and I’m grinning that big fat stupid grin all over again.
Brooke: I hate you
Jordan: You’re so fucked.