by Cat Mann
****
By the time we arrived in California, I was something of a zombie. We spent all day Sunday asleep in Ari’s marvelous bed and then both jumped awake on Monday morning to the sound of Aggie pounding on his bedroom door. Ari had locked the door the night before and not being able to get in the room had made Aggie, who clearly had an agenda, even more angry. Ari stumbled to his door and let his mother in, then crawled back in bed and hid his head under a pillow while Aggie barked orders at me to get up.
“You have a dress fitting in an hour with Margaux, Ava! Then you need to sign off on all the decorations and after that, I need you to talk with the florist and then check the menu to make sure everything is right.” The schedule poured out of her without benefit of a single breath.
Ari all but pushed me out of bed so his mom would stop the angry-sergeant bit. I let my teeth clamp down on my tongue to keep from saying anything that might hurt her feelings and made my way to the shower to start my very long day.