Page 9 of This Is How It Started
“Probably eating the heads off small children.”
“How about Hannah? Have you seen her?” Wasn’t it just like my family to desert me on my wedding day?
“Last I saw her, she was giving Stephen a hummer in the pool house.” Adam smirks, proud of his frat-boy humor.
“You’re disgusting.” It’s the best I can do on short notice.
Adam plops down on the bed and sprawls out in his suit, not giving a care if it wrinkles. “You sure about this, Rach?”
“Sure about what?” I’m definitely sure I don’t want to burn one with Adam only hours before I walk down the aisle. But somehow I know that’s not what he’s talking about.
“Sure about getting hitched?”
“Why would you even ask that?” I look at him like, really? Really, you want to do this right now? As if I don’t have enough pressure. There are two hundred people milling around my father’s yard, including the Ackermanns, who I’m pretty sure think their son could do better.
Adam shrugs. “It just seems sort of rushed.”
“Rushed? We’ve been together a year. Besides, I thought you like Josh?”
“I do,” he says. “This isn’t about Josh. It’s about you.”
“What about me?” I stare at him, waiting for an answer, half hoping he won’t say it, half hoping he will just so we can get it out in the open and dispense with it forever.
He shrugs again. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”
“Kind of hard to do now, Adam.” I squint my eyes at him, then worry that I’ve smeared my makeup. The makeup that Josie, who used to work at the Lancôme counter at Nordstrom, painstakingly applied only an hour earlier.
“You’re my baby sister, Rach. I just want to make sure you’re happy and not under duress.”
Yes, Josh has held a gun to my head to make me marry him. I shake my head because what the hell does that even mean?Under duress.“Please don’t ruin the happiest day of my life.”
He laughs. “You sound like Mom. Okay, I won’t ruin the happiest day of your life. In fact, I place better odds on your marriage surviving than I do on Hannah and Stephen’s. Hell, I place better odds on Mom and Dad getting back together than I do on Hannah and Stephen making it through their third year.” Adam won’t say it, but he’s the one who is most bitter about Mom and Dad’s breakup, though we all are.
But I’m curious what he knows about Hannah. From where I’m sitting, my big sister has the perfect life. She and her husband are both corporate lawyers, own a lovely Spanish revival in Redwood City, and are the epitome of a power couple.
“Why?” I ask and get up to stare at myself in the mirror, wondering what is taking everyone so long, including Whitney, who should’ve been here ten minutes ago.
“Just a gut feeling that trouble is headed to paradise. And there’s the minor point that Stephen’s a tool.”
There is that. Though he’s been supportive of Josh and me. “What do you know and why have you been holding out on me?”
Before he can answer, there’s a light tap on the door and my mother and Hannah stroll in. Both Adam and I look at each other, worried that Hannah might’ve overheard our conversation.
But Josie and Whitney break the moment when they trail in behind my mother and sister. Jo’s clutching a bottle of sparkling wine and two champagne flutes. Whitney’s schlepping a duffel bag filled with hair care accoutrement and enough product to fill a salon.
“Look who I found?” my mother says and starts fussing with my dress, which is hanging on a hook on the back of the door.
“What took you so long?”
“I ran into Campbell and his new girlfriend downstairs. He came early to help his dad with the arbor and to make sure the sprinklers have all been turned off. He’s such a good boy. And the girlfriend...Jessica...a real looker.”
Adam sneaks a look at me, but I pretend not to notice, focusing instead on Hannah, who grabs one of the flutes and pours herself a glass of bubbly. Josie and I pass a knowing glance to each other. Isn’t it just like Hannah to help herself to my wine without offering me a glass first? But I’ve promised myself that I won’t be a bridezilla today. Despite the large guest list, I’ve vowed to keep everything low-key. The wedding party has been confined to just my sister, Josie, Adam and Josh’s best friend. My father has been designated the sole Gold spokesman for the wedding toast. Otherwise, my mother is liable to say something bizarre and inappropriate:
“It seems like just yesterday when Rachel had her first period.”
“Where is that little girl I caught in the pool house making out like a bunny in heat with Campbell?”
Likewise, Josh has chosen his dad to make the Ackermann toast. And that’s it. No open mike night at the Ackermann-Gold wedding. For insurance, we’ve hired a DJ who moonlights as a bouncer at the Condor Club. No one is getting past him unless they’re a sumo wrestler. He’s also promised that all requests for the Macarena will be summarily ignored.
