The rest of the rehearsal dinner guests had arrived and joined them in the bar. Daisy knew a few of them from visiting Freya’s family during their time at college, but most were strangers. Usually confident in any situation, she felt out of place here. She couldn’t put her finger on why and decided not to look too deeply into it as she was only here for the weekend. After all, weddings were supposed to be fun.
She knew Charlie had walked into the room when she saw Freya’s eyes light up and a huge grin spread across her face. So, that was what love looked like? She saw them gravitate towards each other like magnets, leaving her wondering whether or not she could sneak out to her room until the rehearsal dinner or stay and go back to the girls table. She looked over at the table in question to see it abandoned. They’d all left to join their other halves after taking their cue from the bride-to-be. Typical.
It hadn’t occurred to her to ask someone to be her plus one, but then who would she ask? Most of her work colleagues were workaholics like her and wouldn’t have taken the time off, and she didn’t really have anyone else to ask. There was nothing like getting out of her normal routine to see exactly how unbalanced her life was.
“Daisy?” a deep husky voice made her freeze in mid-thought.
“Huh?” she turned to see a vision of male perfection standing in front of her. She had to look up to see his face so he must be over six feet. Her eyes swept over his charcoal gray designer suit and crisp white shirt, moving up to his messy, spiky dirty blond hair that looked styled to perfection, deep blue eyes and oh that yummy designer stubble. He was also wearing a smug look that told her he knew she was checking him out … and liked what she saw. Great, he was one of them.
“Yes?” she replied, pulling herself together.
“Charlie mentioned you were here on your own and I thought I’d come and introduce myself. Everyone else seems to be coupled up.” He held out his hand, expecting her to shake it - which she did. “Noah.” A nice firm handshake. She hated shaking hands with business clients who had limp handshakes, it more often than not told her they would be a walkover in the boardroom. Going by his handshake he wouldn’t be, not that this surprised her.
He’d also noticed the couples thing.
“Nice to meet you, Noah. Yeah, I didn’t realize it would be all couples or I would have brought a date.” There was no point letting him know she was a loser without the prospect of a date.
“I’m glad you didn’t, or I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to.” Oh, he was smooth she’d give him that. What was the harm in flirting? She was out of practice but maybe a weekend of flirting with Noah would help loosen her up a bit. She knew his reputation through Freya and she’d been warned off him. Which was fine by her, she didn’t want nor have time for any type of relationship right now anyway. However, there was no harm in talking to him. She grinned, maybe this weekend really would be fun after all.
“Oh, I think you’d always find someone to talk to,” she laughed. It was good to laugh. When had her life got so serious that she’d stopped laughing? Oh yes, when her job had gotten more stressful and she’d started working under the threat of being laid off. Well, she wasn’t going to think about that this weekend, she was giving herself time off from her regular, boring life. This weekend she was going to be carefree and fun Daisy - if she could remember how that went.
Noah grinned then put his hand under her elbow, directing her towards an empty table. “Let’s grab a seat and you can tell me how you know Freya.”
Daisy wasn’t sure why, but sitting with Noah like this was kinda nice. She loved how his eyes twinkled when he was flirting with her and the side of his mouth raised in a semi grin. She was sure he’d practiced that look in front of the mirror for hours. She grinned at that ridiculous thought.
“Something funny?”
“No, not at all. I was just thinking how weird it is that there aren’t any other singles. There’s usually been at least a few at the weddings I’ve been to. Guess there’s no need for the usual singles table then.” Good save, Daisy.
“Are you asking me to be your date, Daisy?” he teased.
“What no!” she was mortified, but then remembered she was supposed to be flirting with him. She couldn’t flirt if she was flustered around him.She reminded herself that she’d never see him again after this weekend. He was also a player, which meant anything that happened this weekend would never go any further. She could go back to her life, but with the memory of this weekend to keep her going until she did find ‘the one’.
Finding her inner flirt she looked him in the eye. “Or maybe, I am.”