Page 34 of Little Gray Dress

“Stop it. This is just a favor, nothing more.”

“We’ll see…”

“Fabulous!” A woman with far too much botox in her face claps her hands the moment we walk out of the elevator. “We have wedding party members arriving, and right on time!”

“Hi, Muffy!” Hannah greets Botox Lady with the dreaded air-kisses, while Lily and I mouth the name Muffy to each other and stifle back a giggle.

“We are just waiting for a few more members of the wedding party,” she tells Hannah before they walk away from us inspecting the ongoing decorating. Evan’s phone starts breathing like Darth Vader, a ringtone only a fifteen-year-old would choose, and considering we are waiting for the rest of the wedding party and have nothing else to do, we all watch him answer it.

“She is?” he says. “Right, well I totally understand, don’t worry about it at all.” He taps his phone screen and glances around at us. “Shit. Lane’s wife’s gone into labor. He can’t make the wedding tomorrow.”

From across the room, botoxed Muffy has somehow heard this and is marching our direction, her heels clacking loudly against the floor. “What is this? A rogue groomsman the day before the wedding?”

“I guess so, yes.” Evan nods his head in her direction.

“No, no, no, we can’t have uneven numbers.” She glances around at us and catches sight of Liam. “What about this handsome young man? I can arrange a tuxedo at short notice, I’ll just grab his measurements.” She walks over to him and inspects him too closely for his comfort.

“Uh…” Liam backs away from Muffy’s groping hands.

“I’m in a pinch. Is that something you would consider?” Evan asks him. “I know we don’t know each other, but you seem cool enough and my sister seems to like you.”

Liam glances at me for approval and I shrug my shoulders. “If you want to I’m good with it.”

“All right, I mean what the hell, I was going to be here tomorrow anyway right? Now I can walk you down the aisle.” He looks at me during the last sentence but our moment is interrupted by Muffy’s obnoxious clapping again.

“Perfect! And here is the rest of our party now.”

I turn to look at Hannah’s parents, a few of the bridesmaids and groomsmen from the barbecue the other night, and Jack and Greta. Greta glares at me, all the while hanging off Jack like a cancerous tumor. Jack's eyes meet mine almost immediately, before he looks me over with an almost awkward forced smile that never quite reaches his eyes. This is not the Jack I knew. He looks defeated. I’ve not really let myself spend a lot of time looking at him since I got here, and I wish I hadn’t right now either.

Here I was, expecting him to swoon at the fact that I’m wearing his favorite dress, and his expression is more like he’s just looked into the open coffin of a friend who’s passed on. I force a small smile in his direction but he only looks away.

“Before we get started, I think the bride and groom have some gifts they want to hand out.” A man walks towards us with a rolling cart full of gift bags.

“We do,” Hannah says, as Evan hands a bag to everyone, Liam included. “Evan had these specially made for his groomsmen, but please don’t devour them right now. Maybe later, or even take them home.”

“And I… had these made up this morning and I think you all should put them on right now for rehearsal. It’ll be fun!” Her giddy smile tells me these gifts are either expensive or embarrassing, or quite possibly both.

I watch as other girls start pulling black t-shirts out of their bags. “Oh my God! This is so funny… I love it!” One of the other bridesmaids pulls the shirt on, and I’m immediately afraid to look at my own.

“The Bridesmaids…” Hannah points to the front before having the girl turn around. “I’m the sweet one…” She giggles. “Aren’t they cute!?”

“Which one are you?” Liam leans over quietly asking in my ear.

“I’m afraid to look.” I hold the gift bag tightly against my chest, afraid to pull out my shirt and see what title I’ve been given. All the other girls are pulling their t-shirts on. So far, I see THE SWEET ONE, THE FUNNY ONE, THE LATE ONE, and Greta’s says THE QUESTIONABLE ONE. When I glance at Hannah she smirks at Greta’s shirt. Apparently, all the information I’ve given her this week has made her question Greta’s role in anything.

“Come on Emi, it’s fun. Put yours on.”

I reluctantly pull the shirt out of the bag and turn it to read the back before anyone else can. Shit. It would be just my luck that she’s chosen my weak spot as my title. Thankfully she didn’t choose THE CONFUSED ONE or THE STILL-LOVES-JACK ONE.

“Read it out loud, Ems,” Hannah encourages me.

“Um— THE DRUNK ONE…” I say aloud, and immediately hear Evan burst into a laugh.

“It’s just a joke,” Hannah says to Evan. “Put it on!”

I glance at Lily and Josh behind me before looking at Liam again who has a strange, almost smile on his face. “Fine.” I pull the t-shirt on over my dress and do a spin so everyone can see.

“She got that one spot on, didn’t she?” Greta announces to the room with a laugh before being elbowed in the ribs by Jack. “What?”

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