Page 3 of The Boss and the Wedding Mess

"Hey! Stop right there!" the guy behind me shouts furiously, nearly ripping the church door off its hinges.

Damn it. I have to hurry.

I reach the car, open the door, and see the guy rushing toward me like a steam engine. I immediately get in, lock the door, and fire up the engine.

"What's going on? Who is that?" Vanessa asks me, confused, while the guy reaches the driver's door and tries to open it.

“Hey, open up!” He slaps the glass—not hard, just enough to get my attention. No chance.

“This is the wrong church!” I say and glance at Vanessa, who looks unsurprised. “Seriously?”

She must not have wanted to tell me the right church, so we'd be late. "Oh, come on, I crashed the wrong wedding!"

"Okay, yes... I'm sorry!" Vanessa admits.

"What was that about?" the guy outside shouts. I continue to ignore him until I finally gather my courage, take a deep breath and finally crack the window an inch so he can hear me clearly.

"Hi, yes, sorry. Wrong church. Thanks for your understanding."

"Excuse me? Understanding?" he asks incredulously and takes a step back as I floor the gas and speed off with squealing tires.

I can still see him standing in the rearview mirror with his arms spread wide. I’m so mortified I wish I could sink through the floor. Thankfully, I'll never see him or this wedding party ever again...

Chapter 1

London

I stop a few streets away and take a deep breath, turn off the engine, and look at Vanessa.

"I assume you don't want to tell me which is the right church?"

"Are you thinking of going there now too?" she asks, her voice trembling so much I almost start crying myself.

"No, it’s okay." I take my hands off the steering wheel, rub my face, then reach into the back seat for my purse and grab my water bottle. After a sip, I say, "Those were complete strangers. Ihope the bride still marries him. The guy didn’t even do anything wrong."

"Maybe we should go back and clear things up?"

"I did shout that I was in the wrong church." Whether that helped… "Better not interfere again."

Vanessa and I sit in silence for a moment.

"Are you mad at me for lying to you?" she asks.

"What? No. No... I put way too much pressure on you. I was so angry at that jerk. I shouldn’t have forced you to drive to the church with me to try to stop the wedding." I check the time. It’s way too late for that now anyway. "Maybe he’s learned from his mistake and will stay faithful to her?" I wish that for her. But I don’t believe it.

"How exactly did you find out about it?" There simply wasn't time for this earlier. Between all the tears and my anger, some questions remained unanswered.

"I was in town and met a mutual friend. I asked him what he was doing later, and he told me he was going to a wedding. Then he mentioned names, and I asked to see a photo. There he was. Dominic. It was really my Dominic. What a crazy coincidence."

"It's a small world," I murmur.

"And London's just a village," she adds in a mumble.

Vanessa lowers her gaze, then pulls out her phone. I watch her scroll through photos of them together before deleting them all. "Two months. I never noticed a thing. I mean, we both worked a lot, only saw each other on weekends or talked on the phone in the evenings. How on earth was I supposed to know he had a fiancée?"

"Do you know anything about her?"

"Yes. She has a bakery and is busy on weekends. She even does deliveries herself. Her hours are from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM. After that, she stays late to prep cake bases. She usually doesn’t get home before midnight."