I was sitting in my office clicking onto yet another venue in Hershey for Max’s wedding when my personal assistant, Alex, buzzed in, “Hey, Allie, wassup?”

“Hey boss, you got a cutie wit a bootie here says he knows you. And that he really needs to see you.” Then she tried to whisper to me, even though if I could hear her. That meant so could he. “Something you forget to tell me about, Ms. Lady? You promised me I could cross examine the next one before they got they mitts onto you.”

On an exasperated sigh, I replied while scrolling through the appointment list on my phone, “Alex, you do realize that even though you’re so-called whispering that if I can hear you, he can to, unless he’s deaf. Even in that case he could just read your lips.” I thought I could hear a familiar laugh at that. “Plus, I don’t have anything scheduled for the day. Did you happen to have gotten his name?”

“Nah, I was too busy staring.” I swear I need to start hiring and hanging with people with filters. She didn’t even bother letting go of the button as she asked him, “What’s your name hot stuff?” I thought I heard the answer, but that couldn’t be right ’cause he never came by my office. “Says his name’s Chase. Should I let him in? He could always just stay out here and keep me company.”

“You are so full of it, you know damn well who Chase is, Ms-Act-Like-You-Confused. We all went to the same friggin’ high school.”

“Well, the Chase I knew sure didn’t look like this.”

I could just imagine how red Chase was getting at that comment. “Send him in here.”

“Sure thing, boss, and send him back out here to me when you’re done with him. I call next.”

As Chase walked into my office for the first time ever, I got a chance to see that he was one of those rare people that actually looked better in the light of day than in the dim lighting of the bar. It had been such a long time since I had seen him minus Donny and Max, and even longer since I had seen him before the sun had already set.

“Nice office,” was all he said as he pulled up a chair and had a seat at my desk.

“Not that I’m complaining at all, or anything like that, but what are you doing here?”

“I would have called, but I don’t have your number, and I did not want to call Max to get it. We’ve got a bit of a problem.”

“Ugh, that’s the last four words I wanted to hear this morning. I know I’m going to regret saying this, but you’re gonna end up telling my anyway since that’s why you’re here, what’s wrong?”

“It’s the license. I came to you because I didn’t want to Max to get all worked up. I’d rather go to him with some type of plan in place. And I’d much rather come to you with this than go to Donny with any problem bigger than two plus two.”

“That’s a lot more than a bit of a problem.” I started rumbling through my bottom drawer at that, trying desperately to find my emergency pack of smokes. “So, what exactly is this problem?”

“Pennsylvania requires that both parties be present to pick up the license, and it’s a three-day process.” When I just looked at him like, get to the real problem, he continued on, “And that means we need to get on a plane if we plan on keeping this on Max’s short notice time line.”

“Ha! See ya’ bye. I’m not getting on a plane.” Everyone who knows me knows I do NOT do planes, never have, never will. Point blank period. “It doesn’t take that long to drive there, as long as we don’t make any stops.”

“Have you ever driven with a pregnant woman?” Chase asked this with a look of horror on his face. “If they’re not stopping somewhere to pee, they’re stopping somewhere to either throw up or eat. And that’s not even including all the added time due to inevitable road construction.”

“Chase, she isn’t that far along.”

“Justine, I have four sisters, remember? It doesn’t matter if she’s two months along or five, pregnant women and road trips do not mix.”

I shuddered at that. “Remind me to never get pregnant.”

“Will do.”

“Fine, they fly ahead of us, and we continue on with the party bus like we planned and meet up with them when we get there.”

“You know your brother is not going to be happy knowing we’re all on a party bus, while he’s stuck on a plane, with someone who can’t even drink. That was supposed to be his so-called bachelor party, while we stuck your parents on the jet with Chelsea so they could get to know her a little better. Kind of wouldn’t be a bachelor party, without the bachelor.” He may have had a point, but it didn’t mean I was going to concede. “Dude has a private jet; we can do a party jet instead of a party bus.”

“Ha! Y’all sure can, minus me. Y’all go right ahead, and I’ll just drive by myself.”

“He’s not going to go for that either. His sister driving across the damn country with no one but herself. No way.”

“Then what do you suggest, Chase, that doesn’t involve moving the date, and me getting on a plane? Because me and planes do not agree with each other. Planes tend to like to fly in the sky, whereas I like the comfort of the ground directly beneath me.” Why in the world did I just have a sudden thought of straddling Chase in his seat when I said beneath me? I swiveled my chair to face the outside windows to shake that line of not so disturbing images. As corny as it sounds, I was saved by the bell when the phone rang. After I heard what was relayed to me from the other end however, only thing I could do was bang my head on the desk.

“Justine?” came from Chase in a deeply concerned tone. He probably figured I had finally snapped and lost my ever loving mind.

After maybe the eleventh bang, I lifted my head just enough to look up at his worried expression. “Don’t worry. I don’t need a straitjacket or anything, just a new brother that doesn’t expect us to pull off the impossible one week from today.”

“I don’t wanna know what that call was about, do I?”

“You probably don’t. But, just so that I can return the favor of delivering bad news to you like you did to me, I’m going to tell you anyway.” I have to admit, when all he could do was give a groan in response I got a slight delight, so I continued on with what I’m more than sure was an insane looking smirk. “That was Danielle. The wedding dress she went to go pick up today? The fucking idiots sent it to the Ohio shop! Looks like I definitely WILL be driving down there.”

“Sure, but not by yourself.”

“And just who’s going with me? Danielle is not going to pass up a chance to get on that jet, and I wouldn’t even ask her to, knowing how bad she’s been longing to get on it. Allie was already flying in last minute to keep things in order while I’m gone. And sad as it is to say, I don’t have any other real friends. I mean, I guess I could just hire a driver or some shit like that.”

“Oh hell no. A driver? Someone none of us even know? That is so not happening. A young, beautiful, single female with a body meant for ravishing, alone with some possible freak that might drive you to some backwoods alley and rape you? No way.” After a slight pause, he added, “I mean, I’m sure that’s what Max would say.”

“Fine. What would you suggest then? Because we’re running out of time as we speak.”

He seemed to think about it for a minute, getting his words in order before saying, “Well, you could still hire a driver, maybe get like a Hummer limo, you know, just to have some kind of fun out of it, drive across the country in style. But, you should take someone with you. That person could even split the cost with you, or maybe even pick up the entire bill, since they would be getting some fun out of it too.”

“And who would that person be?”

“Me.”

And even knowing that this had ‘bad idea’ written all over it, and I had every intention of saying ‘no way’, I found myself saying, “Why not?” instead. I blame it on the fact that we were on a time crunch and didn’t have another minute to spare arguing about it. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.