6. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
I t was officially under a week until the wedding, six days to go. Jane sat on Haley’s living room floor, a stack of printed emails to her left and a pile of gift bags they were assembling to her right. Most of the guys connected to the wedding party would be staying at Blake’s family’s house, with the other guests at the hotel, thanks to the canceled block of rooms they were able to switch over to Haley and Blake.
One of Jane’s jobs was to help keep everything organized. She had the running list of RSVPs next to her, updated that morning. Haley had jumped online and ordered a bunch of invitations—off-white with a thin navy border, just like the invitations she had pinned on her secret Pinterest page—and had them overnighted to her, then they stamped them and sent them out the next day. The RSVPs were coming in electronically. The venue was working with them because of the short notice, so they had until Thursday night to nail down an exact number for food and seating. Jane wasn’t sure they’d need it. The immediacy of it, coupled with the holiday weekend, made people decisive—like, open the envelope, send the email the same night decisive—and the for-sures had gotten a heads up before the invitation landed in their mailboxes anyway.
Haley ripped open a bulk-size box of mints and started separating them into piles. “We’re going to have dinner Thursday night with everyone who’s there,” she said. “And then on Friday, we girls can all get our nails done and the guys can go golfing. It’s the only thing Blake wants to do. He said it was his wedding wish.”
“His wedding wish?” Jane said. “Is he allowed to have a wedding wish?” She looked around, pretending to search the room. “I’m going to need Auntie Miss to weigh in here.”
Haley laughed. “Well, since it doesn’t have to actually do with the wedding, I think the judges would rule yes on that one,” she said. “He even threw Saturday out there as an option but I said no way.”
“ Saturday ?” Jane said. “Before the wedding?”
“Right?” Haley said. “He was like, I’ll go early and only play nine holes. Yeah, right. Guaranteed, he would lose track of time and totally be late to his own wedding.”
“Unshowered,” Jane laughed. “Sweaty. Visor imprint on his hair. Weird tan lines.”
“Gross,” Haley shuddered. “I’m worried enough as it is that he’s going to get sunburned on Friday and ruin the pictures. I made him promise he’d do both a hat and sunscreen. I’m literally going to text him every hour to reapply, too.”
“Maybe it’ll rain,” Jane said.
Haley made a face. “I don’t want it to rain, though.”
“Just for a couple hours on Friday.”
“During peak sun hours?” Haley said, brightening. “That would work.”
“You never know,” Jane said. They both had been obsessively checking the forecast. Random, quick rainstorms sprung up all the time on the beach but so far it looked perfect, holding steady at mid-80s and sunny all through the weekend.
The wedding party was as follows: Jane, maid of honor, and Blake’s sisters Maddie and Ashley, bridesmaids. On Blake’s side, Tommy was obviously the best man, with Maddie’s boyfriend Ian and Blake’s childhood friend Kyle as the groomsmen. Kyle would be arriving later, right before the rehearsal, with his wife Kristy.
“Ashley’s not bringing a date,” Haley said. “I think it was a little up in the air, but Blake told me this morning she was just coming on her own.”
“A little up in the air?” Jane said. “What does that mean?”
“You know Ashley,” Haley said. “One day up is down and the next day down is up.”
Jane knew. “Is there someone she would bring?”
“Maybe?” Haley said. “I guess so, if it was up in the air? I don’t know, honestly.”
Blake was the oldest, with two sisters. His middle sister Maddie had dated her boyfriend Ian on and off in college, then they’d gotten jobs in different cities and had broken up for good until reconnecting at a mutual friend’s birthday party a couple of years later. They’d been together since and everyone was sure it was just a matter of time until they got married themselves. (Haley hadn’t mentioned that as one of her factors for wanting a faster wedding, but Jane was sure Haley was happy, at least, to get her date locked in first.)
Ashley, the youngest, was a little less settled. Maddie was kind of like the boulder in the middle of the ocean and Ashley was the waves—sometimes calm, sometimes fun, sometimes a little tumultuous, always unpredictable. She was the one who made her family laugh the hardest but also the one who made them sigh the most. Haley liked to joke that Blake’s family motto was Oh, Ashley . Jane, for her part, liked to joke that Haley loved Ashley until she wanted to throttle her, which happened on a semi-regular basis.
“So with Ashley coming alone—”
“It’ll be Ashley, Maddie and Ian, you and Tommy, me and Blake.” Jane winced a little at the you and Tommy and Haley immediately amended herself. “Sorry. I mean, it’ll be Ashley, Maddie, Ian, you, me, Tommy, Blake.”
Four girls, three guys. “Is that weird?” Jane said. “The odd number?”
“No, it’s better,” Haley replied. “An even number would be worse because then everyone would be totally paired up in some way. This way it’s just the two couples and the three free agents. And then Kyle and Kristy will get there later.” She shook her head. “Thank goodness Ashley and Tommy are cousins.”
Thank goodness was right. “Free agents is a nice way of putting it,” Jane said.
“You are a free agent,” Haley exclaimed. “Girl. Seriously. We have not talked enough about the fact that you are about to hit the market as a highly sought-after, highly regarded, fully-coming-into-her-own-as-a-woman-and-an-overall-force-of-nature free agent.”
“Wow,” Jane said, shaking out a piece of tissue paper. “That’s quite the spin.”
“Just you wait,” Haley said. “Once we get past this wedding, I am going to be able to devote all of my energy to this, and believe me, I will. Do you think you want to go younger? I think maybe you should go younger.”
“The only place I want to go once this is all over is my couch,” Jane said.
“Definitely younger,” Haley said, ignoring her. “Until Tommy comes crawling back, at least. Which he will.”
“Stop.”
“Just saying.”
Jane laughed. “Well, don’t.”
Haley gave her a look like we’ll see and changed the subject. “I put together a playlist for when we’re getting ready for the wedding. You’ve got to listen to it and tell me if we’re missing anything.”
Later that night, after the songs had been added and the bags had been stacked in the back of Haley’s car and Jane had modeled her dress for Haley two ways—hair up, hair down, final decision TBD—Jane went in the bathroom to wash her face. Everything is going to be fine , she told herself as she studied her reflection in the mirror. She was really starting to believe it. It would be fine. This is how it usually went for Jane: She liked things to be the way they were supposed to be, then she got herself worked up over the idea that they wouldn’t be, then after a lot of stress and angst and hand-wringing it never turned out as bad as she imagined. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy , her mom would tell her when she was growing up. Her mom was a big fan of visualization from her time playing sports. If you imagine it being awful, it’s going to be awful , she would tell Jane.
Jane thought sometimes things were awful just because they were awful. But her mom had a point, too. Jane had seen it bear out, over and over: Experiences were tied to expectations. Plus, weddings were never what she imagined, anyway. She and Haley talked about it all the time. When she was expecting something over-the-top, drop-dead romantic, it usually ended up being a very ordinary night that ended in her feet hurting because she wore the dreamy but impractical shoes. When she expected something awkward, maybe, or was feeling a little more sensitive, she usually ended up having more fun than she thought.
It will be fine , she thought.
It’ll be so busy , she thought. There won’t even be any time to worry about Tommy.
You are an independent woman ! she thought. YOU decide your experiences!
And then: It’s Haley’s wedding , she thought. Her WEDDING.
That was the thing. It was Haley’s wedding, but part of it belonged to Jane, too. That was how weddings worked, why people cared so much about them. They were for the people getting married, but a little piece of them belonged to everyone there, too.
It’s Haley’s wedding, she thought again, less emphatically but somehow with more certainty, and, just for a second, until she blinked them back and reached for her washcloth, her eyes welled up with tears.