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The words felt a little like a dig, but I ignored them. “I could say the same for you,” I said, as if she hadn’t always been so annoyingly perfect.
When Annalise came close enough, she grabbed my hands that’d been hanging at my sides and leaned in, pressing her cheek against mine and making a kissing sound. I jolted at the sudden closeness, but she was already pulling back by the time I attempted to. “How have you been? We’re doing last-minute finalizing of the details for the reception. It’s going to be just magical, Margot, you have no idea.”
The ballroom itself was in the process of being set up, with fabrics draping from the ceiling and string lights halfway lining the room. I eyed the man who held the camera in his hand, feeling my lips twist into a scowl as I stared directly into the lens. “You’re making a documentary of your wedding?”
“Radiant SheMagazineis doing a special feature on it all,” Annalise gushed, biting down on her giddy smile. “Have you seen the engagement photos? They paid for the dresses and gowns, and they rented a mansion in Napa for the shoot. It wasstunning. Would you like to see? I have pictures on my phone?—”
“I’m sure I’ll see it all in your little video,” I muttered. Not that I planned to watch it, of course. I withdrew my hands from hers and slipped them into my pockets so she couldn’t grab at them again. “I’ll let you get back to it.”
“You can take five,” Annalise told the crew. “I want to catch up with an old friend, if that’s okay.”
Friend. I had to keep myself from making a face, at least until the man lowered his camera. Even with the cameras off, though, Annalise’s smile didn’t change. Even though she was everything I wasn’t, she wasn’tunbearable. Not like the rest of the people at the country club. Annalise would’ve been the picture-perfect candidate for marrying Aaron, if a different heir to another company hadn’t put a rock the size of Jupiter on her finger first.
“It’s a little over the top,” Annalise said, and without the fish-eyed lens of a camera on her, she seemed to relax a bit more. She didn’t lose her poise entirely, but allowed herself to slouch just a little. “The cameras, the gold. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you it’s all my mom’s doing.”
“Mm.”
“I’d honestly rather just elope,” she went on, shaking her head. “Or have a small wedding. But, no, my mother has to do everything to the nines.”
I studied her closely. “What a hard life you live.”
Annalise snorted a little. “I know, I know. She’s paying for it all, so I should be grateful.”
I hadn’t realized Yvette had also accompanied her daughter until she stepped into the ballroom with another woman in tow. A wedding planner, I assumed, at least from the conversation. “… and make sure the lighting is grand and golden,” Yvette was saying to the woman as they approached. “I want her to look like an angel from heaven, all warm and ethereal.”
Annalise straightened upon her mother’spresence, once more donning an excited expression over all the final wedding planning.
“Margot,” Yvette greeted in a less-than-friendly voice. “Getting ideas for your own wedding?”
I didn’t even blink. “No.”
“That’s right, that has to be coming up,” Annalise said, laying her hand on my arm. “Have you met him yet? Aaron? He’s handsome, isn’t he?”
Good God, he was all anyone ever wanted to talk about. “Where’s your fiancé?” I asked, glancing around the empty room. “He isn’t helping with the setup?”
“Oh, he doesn’t care about the way anything looks,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Just as long as I’m happy.”
“Which is just how it’s supposed to be,” the wedding planner said with a wink, causing all three women to laugh.
I didn’t. “So, he’s got no say in any of the wedding planning?”
“He got to pick where we honeymoon.” Annalise squeezed my arm with a waggle of her eyebrows. “I’m sure he’s more excited about that, anyway.”
Mrs. Holland gave a scandalized gasp and swatted at her daughter’s arm, but her words had already sunk in my stomach. Our paths were glaringly different; Annalise was blessed enough that her wedding wasn’t an arranged one—she’d managed to find love as naturally as a rom-com. She could enjoy and even tease about her honeymoon. It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about a honeymoon of my own, of course,but it was the first time I actually paused and thought about what would happen during it.
If I married Aaron, would he be expecting anactualmarriage? Surely. Who would agree to a sexless marriage?
Not that I would marry Aaron. I wouldn’t. I didn’t even know why I was thinking about it.
When I finally extracted myself from the conversation and walked out of the ballroom, I ran straight into Sumner.
“Woah.” His hands came up, latching onto my arms and steadying me. He peered down, a surprised smile on his face. “I was just thinking about you.”
And I was just thinking about my nonexistent honeymoon with Aaron. “Here I am,” I said awkwardly. Aside from my thoughts about Aaron, I felt shy to look in Sumner’s eyes after this morning, waking up in his arms and kissing the morning away. I never was shy; I didn’t know I had it in me.
Sumner must’ve thought my awkwardness was cute and endearing, because his smile broadened. He dropped my arms, though, severing our connection. “When did you want to go to Nancy’s?”
“This is about the time she takes her midday nap,” I lied, starting down the hallway, letting him follow. I fluffed my suit jacket over my arm, shaking off the strangeness. “So maybe later.”