California Girls. Susan Mallery

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      She glanced at the to-do list and wished she hadn’t already wasted her first-of-the-morning groan. Item number two, after informing vendors, was to tell the guests.

      Humiliation flooded her. All the people she loved most in the world were going to know Glen had dumped her. All her friends and his friends and everyone she worked with. She was going to have to come clean.

      She pulled out her new phone and started a text to him.

      What the hell happened?

      After a second, she deleted that and tried again. We have to talk. We have a wedding to unravel.

      She started to put her phone down only to realize he was answering her right away. She waited a minute or so, then gasped when she read his message.

      I never wanted to get married. This is on you.

      “No!” Ali came to her feet, glaring at her phone. “No way, you jerk.” She typed furiously.

      This is not on me. You proposed. Until that moment, I hadn’t said a word about marriage. You bought a ring and you proposed. This is on both of us. There’s a lot to undo and you should help. I also expect you to pay for half of what’s left.

      The three dots appeared and she waited.

      I’m not going to help but I’ll send a check.

      She supposed that was something. She hesitated for a second, then typed, Want to tell me why you ended things and why you couldn’t tell me yourself?

      More dots followed by, I don’t want to be with you anymore and I didn’t want to listen to you beg.

      “What? Beg? In your dreams, you sick bastard.”

      She almost threw her phone again before coming to her senses in time. This was good, she thought. Better to suffer before the wedding than to have married him, popped out a couple of kids and then discovered he was a total asshole. Beg. As if.

      Tears burned, but she blinked them away. Just send the check, she typed and tossed her phone on the sofa.

      After pacing back and forth a few times, she managed to regulate both her breathing and her temper. There was lots of work to be done and she was the only one showing up. She would do the right thing and accept that she was building her character. Once everything was taken care of, she would find someone to make a voodoo doll of Glen and then stab it over and over again with a very sharp, very large pin.

      She got a pad of paper, used her all-in-one printer to make a couple of copies of the checklist, then sat down to figure out what to do when. Contracts, vendors, guests and a thousand things more, she thought.

      Two hours later, Ali had a rough idea of all the work that had to be done. She’d read a couple of the contracts and had learned that she was on the line for cancellation fees for sure. The venue—a building and garden high up in the foothills at the north end of the valley—would bill her for the full amount unless they could book the space within two weeks. Ali hoped all their talk about a waiting list was true. The same with the bartenders and the caterer. She wouldn’t be able to get anyone on the phone until Monday, so she was going to have to cross her fingers that it worked out.

      The florist had a kinder, gentler contract. She could get back 75 percent of the total amount due for the flowers, which was about the amount of her deposit. Yay on that. She was stuck with the dress. It was bought, paid for and altered already. No way she could return that.

      While there was more to deal with, the last issue Ali wanted to solve today was notifying all the guests. She didn’t want to have to make a bunch of phone calls, which meant doing another mailing. She had the addresses in a file on her computer, so in theory all she had to do was get something printed and send it out.

      She searched online for ideas about how to do it and settled on something simple. A couple of minutes on the Vistaprint website later, she had postcards ordered. She paid for rush delivery, then made a note to swing by the post office to pick up stamps.

      With that completed, she was ready to be done, at least in the short term. A girl should only have to face so much wedding deconstruction in a day, she thought grimly. She would pick it back up tomorrow. It was a beautiful Sunday. She should go do something, although she had no idea what. Normally she and Glen would have had plans. Or she would have hung out with Finola. If she’d known she would have a free day, she would have made arrangements to spend time with one of her friends. Well, that and maybe back the car over Glen.

      Before she could figure out if there were any movies she still wanted to see, someone knocked on her door. She opened it and tried not to look as surprised as she felt.

      “Again?” she asked before she could stop herself.

      Daniel flashed her a sexy grin. “I’m happy to see you, too.”

      He brushed past her as if he always dropped by on a daily basis and walked into her apartment.

      “How’s it going?” he asked when she’d closed the door and turned to stare at him.

      “I haven’t broken another phone, but only because I remembered in time. Glen is being a dick.”

      “Not a surprise. I take he won’t help with undoing the wedding?”

      She nodded. “I texted with him and he wasn’t exactly cooperative. He said he wouldn’t do any of the work but he did offer to send me a check.”

      “Where are you on things?”

      “I’ve made a few lists. Basically it’s planning a wedding in reverse. I’ve read the articles you brought. Thanks for that. They really helped. Now I get to plow through my contracts and figure out who gets what.”

      She felt awkward sharing this with him, but figured it was okay—they’d almost been family.

      “I also have to let all the guests know the wedding is canceled.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not exactly my idea of a good time.”

      “Are you calling everyone?”

      “God, no! That would make things worse. I don’t want to have to hear their pity or have anyone tell me they ‘just knew’ something was wrong.” She used air quotes. “I ordered cards on Vistaprint and will mail them out when they get here. I still have the database for the mailing labels.”

      It occurred to her she should invite him to sit down, only that felt weird.

      “Why are you here?” she blurted. “I mean that in a nice, curious way, but it is, you know, odd.”

      “I’m worried about you. What Glen did is unforgivable.”

      Which meant what? He was picking up the slack? Acting as a stand-in for her fiancé? Being the good brother?

      “Daniel, you’ve been great. The smoothie from yesterday should put you firmly in line for sainthood, but I’m dealing. It’s hard, I feel sad and stupid and angry all at the same time. Eventually the anger will fade and I’ll start to miss him, although that hasn’t kicked in yet.”

      “Still want him dead?”

      “Not СКАЧАТЬ