I moved my dresses around until I found the one James wanted. I lifted up the hanger and held it out in front of me. James was right. That night had been wonderful. And this dress would be perfect tonight too. I quickly changed into it. Luckily it still fit just right. It was a strapless white dress that stopped mid thigh and had a teacup-like skirt. I had thought the poof of it looked sophisticated and fun at the same time. I grabbed a pair of white high heels. As I put them on, I spotted a pair of red ones. That would be more fun. Tonight was all about celebrating me and James. It was supposed to be fun. I slipped on the red stilettos instead. James will like these.
I ran back into the bathroom and applied some red lipstick and a pair of dangling diamond earrings. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Tomorrow morning I would be marrying James Hunter. There was no dwelling on the past. There was no worrying about the future. I was focused on this moment. Because I wanted to remember tonight for the rest of my life.
Friday
James was talking to two men in the foyer as I made my way down the stairs. He turned his head when he heard me and a smile broke over his face. It was easy to live in the moment when he looked at me like that. My heels clicked on the marble as I made my way over to him.
“May I formally introduce you to Penny,” James said to the two gentleman. “Penny, this is Porter and Briggs. Our security team.”
“Are those your first names or last names?” I asked.
“Last names. I’m Porter, ma’am,” the one on the left said and stuck out his hand for me to shake. His grip was like iron. He was the taller of the two and had a shaved head and steely gray eyes.
“Briggs,” said the other. If possible, his grip was even stronger. He had a buzz cut and blue eyes. They were both impossibly intimidating.
“It’s nice to meet both of you. So, what are you first names?”
“That’s classified, ma’am,” Briggs said.
“Oh. Well, you can just call me Penny, if that’s alright.”
“We prefer last names, Miss Taylor,” Porter said.
These guys were so serious. And, now that I was looking at them, they seemed familiar. “Actually, I do recognize both of you.”
Briggs gave Porter a nervous glance. James had said he paid them to not be noticed. I wasn’t trying to get them in trouble.
“I mean, only because I walk past you every day. Porter, you’re always sitting on a bench outside Central Park drinking… tea not coffee. Because there’s a little tea tab sticking out of your cup. And Briggs, I always see you sitting outside James’ office building after work. Eating a hot dog and reading the newspaper.”
“I thought you were laying off the hot dogs,” Porter said. “You know that’s incredibly unhealthy.”
“I’m not always eating a hot dog,” Briggs said defensively.
Porter cleared his throat. “Sorry, ma’am. We’ll try to be more discrete in the future.”
I pressed my lips together. I certainly hadn’t meant to get them in trouble. “I never would have guessed you were security. And, hot dogs are delicious, I totally get it.”
Briggs gave me a small smile.
“Mr. Hunter, we’ll work on it,” Porter said with a very serious nod.
I was surprised to see James smiling. “No, that’s fine. I’m glad to know that she’s being perceptive. I debriefed them on the Isabella situation. They’ll be looking for her. If you don’t notice her first.”
I sighed with relief. “Great.”
James put his arm around my shoulders. “We should probably get going.”
“Did everyone else already head over?”
“Mhm.”
“What about your detective friend?”
“Already taken care of.”
“And Officer Kemp?”
“It’s all taken care of. Let’s go enjoy our night.” He let go of my shoulder and slipped his hand into mine as he led me to the door.
“So everything went smoothly?” I asked as we stepped onto the elevator. I was surprised that Porter and Briggs didn’t follow us on.
“Yes. You can stop worrying about it. It’s going to be fine.”
I nodded. If he thought it was fine, then I believed him. “Aren’t Porter and Briggs supposed to be watching us?”
“They’ll get the next elevator. It’s not very discrete if they stay a foot away from us all the time. Besides, Isabella can’t get into our apartment building, the front desk knows about the situation.”
“So… what are their first names?”
James laughed.
“No, really, I’m dying to know.”
“I think I should let you wheedle that out of them.”
“You’re seriously not going to tell me?”
“I don’t want them to be mad at me,” James said. He held my hand as we walked out onto the busy street and stopped on the crosswalk.
“Is this one of those things you’ll tell me as soon as we’re married? Like when Mason’s going to propose to Bee?”
“Did I say I would tell you that? I don’t remember saying that.”
“James,” I said and squeezed his hand. “You promised you’d tell me.”
“Hmm. I promised?”
I laughed. “You know I’ll get the information out of you.”
“Oh, I have no doubt that you’re capable of that.” He smiled down at me. “You look beautiful, Penny.”
“And you look very handsome.” I ran my fingers down his tie. “Are you nervous at all?”
“About what? Tonight or tomorrow?”
“Both. Isn’t it like a bad omen or something if the rehearsal goes poorly?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. But no, I’m not nervous. Are you?”
“Of course I am.”
He turned his head away from me and stared at the Tavern on the Green in the distance.
“Not anything about you, James. I’m so sure about what we have. I just want everything to go perfectly, though. And our parents… James,” I said and stopped in the middle of the path, almost making him trip. “We didn’t tell your parents the wedding was back on! Did you call them?”
“Um… no. I didn’t.”
“We have to call them.”
He lowered both his eyebrows. “No.”
“You didn’t hear your father last night. They care about you so much. They just…”
“They care about me?” James laughed. “If they cared about me at all, they would have called me last night to see if I was okay. They clearly didn’t care that we broke up. So, fuck them. Both of them.”
“My parents are expecting to meet them at the dinner tonight.”
“I think they’ll understand after the way they behaved at the engagement party they threw us.”