LENKA
I could go up to our room and sleep more, or I could try to calm the bride-to-be down. This isn’t the first wedding I've been to where the groom has gotten cold feet. Then again, I wasn’t really invited as a guest, so maybe it's none of my business.
I decide to make my way to Adele's room. Sometimes it's hard to tell if you're doing the right thing. When I get near her room, I realize that I’m not the only one with a plan to cheer her up.
“Hi,” I whisper to Danny’s mom as she gently knocks on the door.
“Is there something you wanted?” she asks a bit too quickly as she turns to me.
I shake my head. “I thought that maybe Adele wants to talk to someone.”
“I’ve tried so many times. Nothing.” Her blue eyes turn dull as she looks down.
I put a comforting arm on her back. “Let me try. Why not go have a rest? It was a late night last night.”
She’s reluctant to leave, but she sighs. “Maybe she needs to talk to a stranger. Someone who’s not connected to all this mess.”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
She kisses me on the cheek and says, “Good luck.”
I wait for her to leave before knocking. Maybe Adele was listening to our conversation because, after just one knock, she opens the door.
“Come in.”
She’s wearing lingerie with a bottle of chardonnay in her hand. She’s been drinking and crying. Her hair’s like a bird's nest and her makeup's smudged all over her face.
I enter the room cautiously and close the door behind me. “Adele, I know that we don’t know each other, but I thought that I’d come see if you’re okay.”
“Really?” She has her hands on her hips, acting hostile towards me.
Her room is big and beautiful, but she’s been using it as grounds to destroy many things since she’s been here. I try and avoid the broken glass, the pictures scattered on the carpet and the clothes, too. I pick them up and start to put them on the bed.
“Just leave them!” she snaps at me.
I soften my voice. “I thought that maybe you'd like to talk to someone who doesn't have a dog in this race.”
“Where’s my brother?” she demands as she sits on an antique chair facing the window.
I'm starting to feel like coming here was a bad idea. “He’s gone to see Carl.”
“Good. Maybe he’ll be able to knock some sense into him. He’s the one that introduced us. Technically, this is all his fault.” She drops the bottle on the table. Tears stream uncontrollably down her face. She’s moving around the bedroom like a blind woman without her walking stick. She bumps into the table, then moves back and then forward again. I don’t know whether to help her or just stay out of her way.
“I guess we'll just wait to see what Danny has to say then.” What else am I supposed to say to her?
She slumps down on the bed. "I think Harper slept with Carl. That's why I invited her, you know. To see if he could be faithful. I knew she'd make a move on him because she can't stand anything good happening to this family. And Carl had a reputation before me. I knew that he was a playboy, but that was supposed to be before me."
Wow. This shit is getting twisted. So Adele basically tried to sabotage her own wedding.
"You never went to college, did you?" she speculates.
“No. Not everyone in the world goes to college,” I remind her, trying not to sound rude.
“Did you ever want to go?”
I laugh. “The million-dollar question. I remember back in high school, every week my ideal profession would change. Monday morning I would think that I wanted to be a dentist, but by Thursday morning I would want to be a dancer.”
She smirks. “You were that indecisive?”
“It was pretty bad,” I admit.
Adele sniffles and brushes a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. “I knew from an early age that I wanted to get into finance. Dad said that I started writing checks to my teddy bears when I was around five.”
“What did you write them checks for?”
“If only I could remember. But I knew what I wanted, that was for sure.”
“And Danny?”
“He knew what he wanted to do, too,” she says proudly.
The mood’s lightened, and I know that talking about anything but the wedding has something to do with it.
“Carl didn't call off the wedding. I did," she confesses with a frown. "He's pissed at me. He has every right to be. I never should have come up with that stupid plan to begin with. Maybe I'm just overreacting. Maybe they didn't sleep together. Harper is still so stuck on Danny." Adele cradles her face in her hands.
“I suppose you just wanted reassurance.” I try to comfort her even though I'm inclined to agree it was a stupid idea.
She nods. “Yeah. I should have hired a stranger to try to seduce him instead.”
“If you don't trust the man you're marrying, then what's the point?” I cock an eyebrow.
“Because I love him, but I don’t want to be hurt. I wouldn't be able to deal with it if he cheated on me.” She stands and faces the window. “He’s changed lately. Spending late nights at the office, seeing friends a lot more than usual. I feel as if I need to keep tabs on him. I never used to feel like that before.”
I put my hand on her shoulder and give it a gentle squeeze. "Did he seem to care about the wedding?"
“The venue was really important to him and the number of guests. He wanted to do a theme, too. I put my foot down about that. I had no intention of having a cowboy wedding. No way!”
I laugh at the idea of it. “Well, the boat and the castle were a nice idea.”
She points. “His actually! He suggested it when I shot down the cowboy theme.”
“There you go. He was interested in some parts of the wedding." I smile.
“I bet you think that this family’s crazy?” She sighs.
I’m about to lie and tell her that compared to mine, they’re really normal. But I tell her the truth. “You guys are pretty nuts.”
We both laugh, and she gets up and hugs me unexpectedly.
A knock on the door breaks the warm moment between us.
"Yes," she blurts out.
Carl walks in, and I feel a wave of relief wash over me. Their eyes lock, and I can feel the love between them. It seems they have a lot of talking to do, so I decide to give them some time alone.