Page 78 of The Wedding

Not Jamie. Ever since the engagement party, she found it harder to sleep, whether Etta spooned her or flopped onto the far side of the bed.Last night was brutal. After sleeping three hours, Jamie woke up for two. She played on her phone. She tried to read a book. Finally, she got up and came into the den to watch TV. When she didn’t find anything on, she turned on her game, content to play until she was too sleepy to continue.

Now, five hours later, she was still in the den. Mostly because two hoursago, someone spotted her online and demanded a co-op play.

“Where the hell is your head?” Nala said into Jamie’s headset. “That’s the fifth guy who’s blasted you these past ten minutes.”

“Sorry,” Jamie mumbled. “Screwed up.” The game over screen was not her best friend right now. Yet every time she saw it, she found her chance to stretch and eat some chips.Breakfast of champions.“I’m not awake right now.” Neither was Nala. It was six where she lived on the West Coast. Yet when someone said,“I’m on break after some brutal midterms, so I demand some co-op until my thumbs go numb and I can’t see anymore,”Jamie felt compelled to oblige. She was becoming more of a people pleaser as time went by.

“You okay over there?”

Sighing, Jamie pulled her wireless controller over her head so she could experience the greatest stretch on Earth. Beatrice passed by the archway again, peeking in and shaking her head. She probably thought Jamie was no better than a teenager right now.Hormones are dicks.Yeah, she would blame everything on that. Even so, that’s not what came out of her mouth.

“It’s all this wedding planning. It’s got me staying up way past my bedtime with too many stressful thoughts.”

Jamie still had yet to click through the menu, taking her to the next loading screen. It told her that Nala was ready to go, so when Jamie didn’t uphold her end of the gaming bargain, a testy voice popped in over the line.

“I don’t envy you having to plan a wedding. Fuck weddings. I don’t like going to them.”

“I don’t like going to them either. I just got done being the maid of honor at a huge wedding in February.”

“Oh, no, did you catch the bouquet?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“That’s my nightmare.”

Jamie laughed, flinging her body across the couch and pulling thecovers around her head. Might be time to go back to bed for a few hours. Etta said something about phone conferences before lunch, and for her, lunch usually meant one at the earliest.Then I want her to cuddle me for the rest of the day.Not that she would get to experience that sort of bliss. They had wedding plans to go over.Ugh. More wedding shit. Forget it!

“You’re not planning on getting married anytime soon, are you?”

Nala made a sound that was akin to a cow dying.

“I take that as a no.”

“Give me a break. I just started school. I’m also like... twenty-two. If I’m ever getting married, it’s at least a few years from now. Besides, maybe I’ll dump my woman and move on to a better model.” She said that loud enough to alert anyone in her vicinity.

“I didn’t think I would be getting married for a while, either.”

“So don’t curse me. I like my girlfriend staying exactly that.” Was it possible to hear someone shudder? Because it sounded like Nala was shuddering.

“Fine line between love and engagements.”

“You’re telling me. I love the kinky weirdo… and she’s kinky, know what I mean.”

Jamie cleared her throat. “Go on.”

“Ooh, you’re naughty. Let’s say I left her passed out in bed with her cute butt hanging out of the covers. Looked like a cheeky magazine model. You know, the kind who advertises underwear without even wearing them.”

“I like where this is going.”

“Me too, and I’m the one who screwed her brains out before going to sleep at like eight. Which is why I’m up at this ungodly hour.”

“I heard that,” someone said in the background. “Who are you talking to? If you’re going to talk about my cheeky butt…”

Jamie checked out at, “Who cares. Make me some breakfast.”I left Etta wearing all her clothes. Pajama clothes, but clothes, nonetheless. She hadtaken to sleeping in a sweatshirt recently, even though it was an easy seventy degrees in their room, and Jamie often had episodes of sweating when she was hormonal. Etta was a furnace. Ah, that was probably why Jamie couldn’t sleep.

When things quieted down on the other line, Jamie asked, “You’re coming to the wedding anyway, right?”

“I mean, if I can. It will be right after my semester is over, so we might be able to make it. I know Ven wants to go out there again, anyway.”