FOR A MOMENT, ELLIE could only stare. This was it. She was finally facing her fears.
No, that wasn’t the right word. She was finally facing her…nope. Fears. That was the word.
“I knew you were working here and just too afraid to face us,” Monica said in that snooty tone of hers.
“Wait,” Harry said, taking a step back, “you knew Ellie worked here? Is that…is that why you wanted to get married here?”
Wow, Ellie thought. How could she have been so stupid for all those years? It was obvious Harry was not the one in control of his relationship with Monica. Hell, he wasn’t even an equal partner.
“Of course I knew,” Monica said, barely sparing him a glance. She was too busy looking at Ellie with a superior expression on her face. “So this is what you’ve been reduced to? Working as a secretary at a destination wedding resort?” She paused and tilted her perfectly-coiffed blonde head to the side. “Doesn’t it bother you? Seeing so many people in love, in real relationships, while you’re…you know, not?”
Beside her, Ellie felt Max stiffen but she just gripped his arm a little tighter, silently willing him to let her handle this.
“Monica,” she began pleasantly, a serene smile on her face. “It’s so nice to see you standing upright. And with pants on.”
Max let out a cough that was clearly hiding a laugh, but Ellie kept her focus on the woman in front of her. “Nice to see you could get off your back for a little while and see how…classy people live.”
Monica sputtered, searching for something to say, but Ellie had stopped paying attention. She focused on Harry.
“And you,” she said, her tone a little crisper. “Are you seriously going to stand here and pretend you had no idea why your fiancée was obsessed with getting married here on Mimosa Key? Or why she suddenly had an interest in Barefoot Bay? Are you really that damn clueless?”
“Um…I just thought…it has a wonderful reputation,” Harry stammered, refusing to look Ellie in the eye. “I just figured it was a coincidence.”
“Right,” Ellie said sarcastically. “Just like it was a coincidence I happened to come to your office to find you screwing her on your desk. After you’d left me a message telling me to stop by.”
“Wait…what?” Harry said, and this time he looked right at her even as he paled.
Rolling her eyes, she snorted with disgust. “Oh, come on, Harry! You know damn well you asked me to come to the office that day! If you didn’t want to get married, you could have just manned up and told me! You didn’t have to set me up to find you!”
“You think…you honestly think I wanted you to find me screwing Monica? Do you have any idea what a nightmare that was when people found out?”
“Good thing it was the boss’s daughter or you could have been fired,” Ellie said dryly.
“Hey!” Monica cried. “I’m not going to stand here…”
“Oh shut up!” Harry yelled, looking directly at his fiancée. “For once, just shut the hell up!” Then he faced Ellie again. “I never left you a message to come to the office, Ellie. I swear to you! I would never…I mean…I’m not that heartless!”
She could only hope the look of disbelief she gave him while she tried to come up with the right words would be enough. “Heartless? You’re not heartless? We were going to be married, you jackass! And the whole time we were planning our wedding, you were screwing her!”
“I have a name,” Monica snapped.
“Sweetheart, I believe you have many names,” Ellie said sweetly. “I’m just too nice to mention them.” She focused on Harry again. “What would you call what you did, Harry? If it wasn’t heartless? Gutless? Cowardly? Sleazy? Because I believe we can find more than enough adjectives for it.”
Clearly she’d made her point because Harry simply hung his head and took a step back.
“That’s it?” Monica cried at Harry. “You’re not going to defend yourself? Or us?”
He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “You did it…”
She paled, her mouth opening and closing but no words came out.
“You sent Ellie the message to come to the office,” Harry said slowly. “You were pressuring me. I told you I didn’t want to break things off with Ellie. That you and I were…” He stopped, seemingly remembering they had an audience.
“You thought you could just seduce the boss’s daughter and that would be that?” Monica asked snidely. “You really are an idiot, Harry.” She sighed loudly. “I could have had you fired. I would have had you fired if you didn’t call off your wedding to Elizabeth!”
“It’s Ellie!” Harry yelled. “Why on earth can’t you ever remember that?”
Ellie glanced at Max and saw him doing his best to hold in his own laughter. She knew she was seconds away from bursting out herself. This was beyond entertaining and yet…part of her pitied them. They were both so damn clueless. Monica had clearly manipulated Harry and Harry? Well…he really was just pathetic. How had she ever thought that she loved him?
“Because she’s irrelevant!” Monica replied. “I got rid of her because she’s nothing. A nobody! She didn’t deserve you!”
“Actually, I have to agree,” Ellie interjected sounding syrupy sweet. Then she smiled at the two of them. “I deserve a hell of a lot better. And that’s what I have now.” Max took his arm from hers and slid it around her waist, pulling her close.
“With the gardener? Seriously?” Monica asked with disgust. “That’s what you consider better? Harry’s a lawyer. He’s successful and works for one of the biggest law firms in Boca!”
“And he’s a spineless, gutless, pathetic excuse of a man,” Ellie said firmly. She looked up at Max and smiled. “Come on. We have a calendar to look at.”
They started to walk away but Ellie had one more thing to get off her chest. Turning, she looked at Monica one last time.
“Oh…and he’s a cheater. Good luck with that.”
And with a shared laugh, Max pulled her close, kissing her on the head, and they walked back to the Barefoot Brides offices.
****
“Tell it again! Tell it again!” Ari said giddily a little while after Ellie and Max had returned to the office and told the girls about their encounter.
“I was very proud of her,” Max said from his perch on the corner of Willow’s desk. “She handled that with such class and dignity…you know it just ticked the two of them off even more!”
Ellie looked at him and smiled. “I was really scared at first. I had no idea what I was going to do or what I was going to say, but…once I got going…”
“She kicked some serious ass without lifting a finger,” Max finished for her.
“Well good for you!” Gussie said with a huge smile. “Seriously, I am impressed.”
“So what’s next for you?” Willow asked. “Now that you don’t have to slink around looking for hiding places.”
Ellie grinned and gave Max a flirty wink before she looked at her bosses. “Well, we’ve decided we’re still going to find good reasons to slink around – just for fun.”
Her statement was met with a bunch of hoots and hollers from the girls in the room.
“But…” she quickly interrupted, “we actually came back in here to look at the calendar and see when our next light weekend might be. We were talking about getting a villa of our own for a weekend and wanted to start planning that.”
“That could be…” Ari began but was interrupted by the office phone ringing. “Excuse me. I’ll go and grab that.”
“I’ve got the phone right here,” Willow said and picked up the phone. “Barefoot Brides, this is Willow.” She paused and listened. “Uh-huh…right…okay…we’ll need that in writing. Yes. No it’s not refundable. Yes. We’ll be able to sit down with you in an hour. We’re with a client right now.” And other pause. “Then we’ll send the paperwork right over…thank you. Bye.”
Everyone sat quietly as Willow hung up the phone and made quick work of pulling up a document on her computer and printing it out. When she had the papers in her hand, she looked at everyone.
“Bad news,” she began, her voice somber. “The Olsen-Elliott wedding has been canceled.” She waved the papers in her hand like a flag. “They’re going to sign off on them ASAP because they’re checking out of Casa Blanca and have a flight to catch.”
There were more hoots and hollers before Willow cleared her throat and got their attention back. “I’m going to run these out to the concierge and have him deliver them for us. I’ll be right back!” And with a whole lot of pep in her step, she walked out of the office.
“Wow…” Ellie said. “That was…”
“The best way for this situation to end,” Gussie said. “For all of us!”
“Amen!” Ari agreed. “The thought of dealing with the two of them – especially after what you just went through again – I don’t think I could have done it.”
“It wouldn’t have been so bad,” Ellie said. “Think of all the fun we could have had and all the jokes we could have made at their expense!”
“Ooo…that would have been fun,” Gussie agreed.
Beside her, Max chuckled and shook his head. “Y’all are just a bunch of mean girls,” he teased. “And it’s awesome.”
“You know it,” Ari said.
“Well that’s over and done with,” Willow said as she breezed back into the room. “So…what did I miss? Weren’t we talking about you and Max needing to find a weekend for you to have off?”
Ellie nodded. “We were but…I know you’re all busy and we do have a wedding to get ready for so we’ll look it over and I’ll put in a request sometime next week.”
They were all silent for a moment.
“Well…” Gussie began, looking over at Willow and Ari. They seemed to be silently communicating. “I think you deserve to have this weekend off.”
“Really?” Ellie asked excitedly. “Are you sure? I mean…it’s such short notice and…”
Willow picked up the phone and Ellie heard her talking quietly to one of the front desk clerks. “Perfect,” she said after a moment. “Thank you!” Hanging up the phone, she looked over at Ellie and Max. “The Blue Casbah villa is available and is being held for the two of you if you’d like it.”
Max stood up and Ellie saw the stern look on his face and was afraid he didn’t like the fact that things had sort of gotten out of their control.
“Max,” Ellie began. “It’s okay. We can wait. It’s not a big deal.”
But he was looking at Willow. “So it’s available now? As in right now?”
Willow nodded, her smile lighting up her entire face.
He looked at his watch and then at Ellie. “The Blue Casbah is supposed to be amazing. It’s one of the newer villas.”
“I’m sure it is,” Ellie agreed. “But…it’s only a little after one and we both have to finish out the day…”
“Your weekend starts now,” Gussie said. “Go on. Scram. We’ve got it covered.”
“Are you sure?” Ellie asked, but she was practically out the door as she said it.
“Go and have a great weekend,” Willow said. “And we don’t want to see you until Tuesday!”
Rather than let them keep talking, Max grabbed Ellie’s hand and said, “Deal! Thank you, ladies!” and pulled her out the door.
It wasn’t until they were at the check-in desk that he stopped and looked at her. “I want the whole weekend, Ellie. If it’s available, I want to stay until Monday. What do you think?”
“Max…a villa is so…expensive. Are you sure?”
Behind the desk, the clerk – Marshall – smiled. “Hey, Max. Hey, Ellie,” he said and pulled a reservation folder out for them. “Blue Casbah…here are the keys…and I’ll just need you to sign here.”
Max leaned over and picked up a pen and froze. He looked up at Marshall. “I…is this right?”
“Yes, sir,” Marshall said with a grin. “Compliments of Barefoot Brides.”
“What’s going on?” Ellie asked, coming up beside him.
He signed his name, shaking his head the entire time. “Thanks, Marshall,” he said before turning and taking the keys and then reaching for Ellie’s hand.
“Max?”
They were outside before he spoke. “It seems your boss negotiated a deal for us – three nights in the villa – on the house.”
“No!”
He nodded.
“So…are you mad?” she asked nervously. “I’m sure she meant well and…”
“Ellie?”
“Hmm?”
“I do need to take care of some things this afternoon around the resort and then we both need to go home and pack but…let’s go check out the villa first.”
“Are you sure?”
Cupping her face in his hands, he leaned in and kissed her. “Consider it our last hiding place for a while.”
“As long as you always come to find me, I’m good with that.”