Chapter 26 – Brent
I hadn’t really expected Amelia to show up. Honestly, I could barely believe that I’d even invited her along. What the hell was I doing, mixing someone I’d just met up in this whole “faux wedding” thing I had going? I don’t know, and I don’t really care - because what I do know is that I like having her around. It’s like having a “friend with benefits” that’s all benefits!
“Oh man, you have got to taste this marble cake, Amelia.” I gulp from my glass of milk and point at the cake in question. “It’s like a black and white joyride.”
“A black and white joyride, huh?” Amelia regards me over a bite of chocolate cake that looks almost as good as she does. “This one has raspberry filling. Beat that.”
“Who wants fruit in their cake?” I shoot back, rolling my eyes.
“What? Are you joking? That’s like saying you don’t like jelly donuts!” Amelia laughs, then stops. “Wait. Oh my god, you hate jelly donuts.”
“They squirt everywhere!”
“Since when does a man have a problem with squirting?” she sticks her tongue out at me and laughs again.
I laugh along with her, feeling myself relax. She actually wants to be here.
“So, this wedding stuff…nonrefundable, huh?” Amelia gazes at me across the table, and the cake sours just a bit in my mouth.
“Yup.” I nod. “Figuring that out was almost as fun as having to message all my relatives on Facebook to let them know the wedding was off. At least all of them couldn’t insist on still coming, though.”
“See, it’s not all bad.” Amelia tugs the straps of her dress, readjusting just a bit. “I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just…funny, you know? We’re both in the same situation, just opposite sides of it.”
“How do you figure that?”
“All the wedding stuff I planned - it’s not mine anymore, let’s leave it at that - and you’re stuck with all these things that your ex-fiancée probably picked, yeah?”
“Pretty much. That’s very intuitive of you.”
She grins. “I’m a lawyer. Being intuitive is my day job.”
“I’ve wondered why I even hang onto it like this,” I admit, because at this point Amelia has the effect of being some sort of truth serum on me, for some reason. “I certainly have plenty of money to just forget about it and walk away from these contractual entanglements. It’s what I should do.”
“But what someone should do is often easier said than done,” she says.
A knock on the door, and Bri’s head pokes in. “Sorry to disturb you, but I just wanted to drop off these images of some cake designs you’d asked about through email, Kelly.”
Amelia frowns, confusion on her face - and then the lines smooth out as she takes the folder from Bri with a smile. “Of course! Thank you so much.”
Bri smiles right back. “Let me know if you need anything else, okay? I’ll just be out front.” The door closes behind her, and Amelia turns to me, folder still in hand.
“So, Kelly, huh?”
I nod, halfway between bemusement and worry.
“Okay then. Let’s see what Kelly thought about cake. You didn’t break up because she liked jelly donuts instead of cake, did you?”
For just a second, I hear Kelly’s actual voice in my head. “I’m sorry. Actually, you know what? I’m not sorry. That’s not good enough for me. This isn’t the life I had planned or wanted. Thought I was marrying a tech investor, not a fucking illustrator.”
She’d had a point. I’d done a complete turnaround. I just hadn’t been expecting her to not want to do it with me. To support me in what made me happy. I know she wasn’t the one for me – and I’m so glad to have found Amelia, who doesn’t seem to care what I do for a living. She genuinely seems to like me for whoever I am or truly want to be. And I’m beginning to realize it’s mutual. Yikes.
“Brent?” Amelia’s staring at me, and I realize I’ve been silent for a good thirty seconds now.
I blink, hard. “Shit. Sorry. Just got lost on my train of thought there.”
Amelia moves to open the folder - but a little to my own surprise, I stop her. “Wait. Let’s not.”
“Not what?”
“Worry about what she picked. I know that part of this is about getting back at our exes - and it is, don’t get me wrong – I’m sure they’d be super jealous if they were here to see us enjoying the things they thought we wouldn’t get to - but I’d rather we did that by having fun on our own, than make everything all about them the whole time, you know?”
Amelia pauses. “Okay. Sure.” She tosses the folder onto a chair, and turns back to me. “I get it. The last thing I want to do here is talk about my ex, either.”
I nod, but I’m afraid I ruined the whole thing. I think Amelia can tell, because she speaks up again. “Hey. I’m having a really good time.”
“I’m glad. Me too.”
“Good. Oh, hold still. You’ve got a little something on your—” she runs her finger across my cheek - a finger that, unbeknownst to me until just now - is covered in chocolate frosting.
“Hey!” I try to look indignant, but she just laughs at me.
“Nah, I didn’t get it. Hold still—” she leans in, and instead of using her fingers, she uses her cute little mouth to lick a bit of chocolate off my cheek. “Almost. There’s just a little left…right…here.”
That’s when she kisses me. Again.
I don’t ever want her to stop doing that. Surprise kissing me like that. “Sneak attack kissing.” Because I fucking love it.