Page 10 of Fake It Till You Break It
She could give me all the time in the world, but I wasn’t going to change my mind. Nothing was going to make me want to see Finn again no matter what she said. The dude left us. Left our family. End of story.
But shit, how the hell was I going to get out of this one?
MIA
IT WAS NEARLY SIXwhen we finally made it to the reception hall. Half an hour late. Mom couldn’t find her wedge nude heels. And she tore the entire house apart to find them. Seriously, my room looked like a freaking category-five hurricane hit. Which is just a tad worse than what it usually looked like.
The reception hall was already packed by the time we got there. Luckily, Mrs. Adler and Jake came early to save us seats. And they weren’t hard to find, because they were two of the few guests who weren’t Asian.
The bride, Ngoc, and the groom’s family were just starting to line up by the stage, so we snuck in to sit at our table in the far-left corner. I tried to grab the seat on the other side of Mrs. Adler, but Mom plopped herself down and prodded me toward the empty seat beside Jake.
With a sigh, I waved at the family with three kids sittingacross the table. The youngest daughter, who looked about three, waved chocolate-stained fingers back at me. Looked like someone got to the chocolate fountain early.
Moving the lazy Susan in his direction, Jake grabbed some red sticky rice from the plate with the chopsticks like a pro. Then again, he spent enough meals at my house to maneuver the two sticks like they were an extension of his own hand. He offered the plate to Mom and Mrs. Adler, but ignored me. Instead, he swirled it around until the plate was on the opposite end of the table.
What. A. Dick. Even though I was starving, I leaned back into my seat and watched the bridal party shimmy across the room as the DJ shouted out their names. Concentrated on anything but my rumbling stomach. Thank goodness the booming dance music drowned me out.
Or at least I thought it did.
With dark wide eyes, the little girl gasped and rubbed her chocolate fingers all over her cheeks. Jake snorted under his breath and moved the lazy Susan until the plate of sticky rice was right in front of me. Not wanting to admit that I was starving, it took every ounce of willpower I had to move it away. Instead, I searched my purse until I found a mint and popped it into my mouth. It tasted a tad bit stale, but now wasn’t the time to be picky.
Luckily, the couple was just starting their first dance. I straightened up in my seat and turned my head to watch them.
No matter how many weddings I’ve been to—and believe me, there have been a LOT because I occasionally help Mom with her weddings in the summer—this was always my favorite part. The bride grinned so widely that my own cheeks would hurt just looking at her. And the groom couldn’t help staring at her with such joy as he whispered something in her ear. Sometimes their dances would be choreographed and be stiff, or they would just hold each other and sway before twirling a few times. Maybe there would be a dip or two. Sometimes it would be kind of cheesy. But it didn’t matter. It was always beautiful.
According to Google, the average length of a marriage is eight years, and more than half ended in divorce. Tons of brides come back to my mom to plan their second or even third wedding.
But still… in that exact moment of every couple’s first dance, all those numbers and facts didn’t matter. Nothing did. This moment was so sweet that even the most cynical person couldn’t help melting as they watched. Even if the statistics turned into 100 percent divorce, you just believed thattheywould be the ones who would make it.
As if on cue, my eyes started to well up. I fumbled for the napkin on the table before anyone else noticed. Just then, a pack of tissues landed on my lap.
I glanced over, but Jake just straightened his jacket and continued eating without looking over at me. I dabbed myeyes with a tissue, careful not to smear my makeup and lashes that took nearly forty-five minutes to apply. I had nearly poked my eyes out with the mascara wand, too. Not sure how those YouTube people could do it in five minutes.
After all the dances were done, the food finally came out. I almost cheered out loud at the sight of the crab and asparagus soup. Then swooned at the cute waiter who brought the bowl. Who only made things more awesome.
As we ate, Mom and Mrs. Adler pointed at us and giggled behind their hands, not very subtly. These weddings spurred them on the Jakia ship—their words, not mine—even more than usual. I mean, usually they were already pretty bad, but at weddings, they were crazy.
Jake and I did our best to ignore them and each other. It wasn’t hard. Jake didn’t say anything most of the night. All he did was scowl like a grumpy old man every time the DJ played a new song. So I concentrated on everyone else around us. There was a drunk uncle who kept coming up and dedicating songs to the couple, but he wasn’t too bad. I’ve heard worse.
Our hottie waiter, Dan, would stop by our table every ten minutes to see how we were doing. And each time he did, I’d inch a little closer to him. He’d bend down a little farther to “hear” me. I could tell by his flirtatious grin that he was interested. Plus, he brought me a new Coke every time I ran out.
Now I just needed to somehow slip him my number without Mom seeing. It’s been ages since I had a decent date. Notafter the last time, when Mom ran Jimmy Sutton off. Seriously, you would have thought she was interrogating someone in a courtroom for murder. ’Course she did that to every guy who came by to see me whose name wasn’t Jake. News of my crazy mom spread through the school like wildfire. Only a few guys dared to suffer her wrath.
Dylan Saunders. The freckly part-time server who occasionally worked the weddings Mom did.
Kirk Tran. The cute senior band captain with the amazingly craterlike dimples.
And Mike Le (no relation). The guy who accidentally got my smoothie order because the barista mixed up our orders.
The only thing these three guys had in common were our brief summer romances. All less than three weeks. It took me longer to watch the entire series ofGame of Thrones. But Mom was busier in the summertime, so it was easier to date these guys behind her back. For a short time at least.
And my last date was Dylan in July. Nearly ten months ago. But hopefully my luck was about to change tonight. That is, if I could somehow sneak Dan my phone number before the night was over.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. I jumped up from my seat. “I’m going to get some dessert before they run out.”
“Do you need Jake to go with you?” Mrs. Adler asked, poking Jake’s arm.
“No!” I let out a short laugh and flexed. “I’ve been working out so I’m pretty sure I can hold a plate of cupcakes by myself. Be right back.”
