The Wedding Planner

by Pavan Kaur

  “Get lost asshole. I will wear her down. Going to see how much she likes these types of activities, so keep Saturday free for now,” I tell them both. When I meet her tomorrow, I’m going to ask her if she wants to come somewhere with us, hoping she says yes.

  “What are we doing?”

  "Let me see if I can get her to agree first. So, how was your day?" I ask them both, wanting to change the subject from Emma because I already know that it's going to be their mission to make sure I don't hear the end of it until I get somewhere with her.

  Chapter 9

  Emma

  Throwing all my things on the floor, I grab the wine bottle from Tanya. "That bad?" she asks. I was sending them messages all day. This was the longest day of my life. No matter what I was saying to him, there was always a reply that had us dating or going on a date, and the worst thing is there is no way I can play this game for a month.

  "Just my luck that the sexy, hot guy who makes me smile is off limits, and I'm stuck with him for a month." I throw myself on the sofa.

  “Have you told him you won’t date him?” Amie joins me on the sofa.

  "Yep, but that didn't work. I lost count of the times he even asked me out, or somehow put it in the conversation about us together. The worst thing is he's so hot." I pout as I drink my wine.

  “We saw how hot he is. There has to be something bad about him and you can focus on that,” Tan says bringing over some pasta for me.

  "Well, I spent all day with him and this is what I learned. He opens the door for me. He treats me to something sweet every morning. He loves his family. He has dimples when he smiles. He smells divine, and as much as I don't want to admit it, he makes me smile." Pushing my fork in the pasta harder than I needed to, this is the worst thing ever. I mean I think dating him could ruin things at the wedding but being this attracted to him is not helping me either.

  "Let one of us be around tomorrow for the meeting. Maybe having one of us there, he won’t be so flirty," Tanya looks over at me, and I never thought about that. It might work.

  "I can get him to meet us at the cafe where we are having breakfast tomorrow, and we can go from there." I look at them hoping they both say yes to it. I know that Tan has someone in the shop to help out so she will be fine. Amie works funny hours.

  "I can't. I have a meeting straight after breakfast. Plus if you want to scare him off, I think Tanya would do a better job. To be honest, I'm surprised you haven't scared him off yet, you are normally…"

  "Fierce," Tanya adds the last word, which is true. If I don't want something, I don't, and if I want a guy to back off, I make them back off. But there is something about Ocean that I don't want him to back off, but I know that I can't have him either.

  “Unless…”

  "Unless nothing, you know I can't. This wedding is way too important for me to mess it up. Betty is trying to get me out and she wants a reason for it. I don't trust her at the moment. I can't mess this up," I tell them both. Jess called me today to say that after this wedding, she is handing her notice in and if I plan to leave that she would love to work with me. This is only making me want to leave too. Betty is hiding something and Jess said she will keep an eye on her things and will let me know if she finds anything. "How was your day?"

  “Well, I told Pete about what you two said this morning, and he said that I need to find new friends, as you two scare him,” Amie laughs.

  "He loves us. Come on, if he can stick around after six months with us, then he’s got nothing to worry about," I tell her and Tanya looks at me.

  "We were watching him for a year, and the fact we have seen him naked, and he's still here speaks a lot," Tan gives Amie a wink. I still remember that day. It was after they were dating for five months. Tan and I told him that Amie had been thinking about breaking up with him because his package wasn't good enough. He argued saying he had a big package, but we both needed proof. Pete was a little worried about it at first, but we kept telling him we couldn't help him unless we knew, and with that he dropped his pants for Tanya and me to get a good look at his very nice package. We told him not to worry, we would tell Amie she’d found herself something special. A minute later she walked through the door, and the look on her face was priceless. She knew what we were up to. She told Pete we were messing with him, and she never said anything to us. Tan and I were laughing so hard, we had tears coming down our faces. We didn't even get to see his face when she told him. Our stomachs hurt for a good hour after and we still tease him about it now.

  "I told him that, and he says for us to let anyone in is not an easy job, so he’s happy you like him," Amie adds. I start on my pasta as we joke about Pete and all the things we put him through. I kind of feel bad for him now, but I know that when it's mine or Tanya's turn, it will happen again.

  “I miss messing with him. Maybe this Ocean guy can be the next one to mess with,” Tanya looks over at me and raises her eyebrows. “We need some fun.”

  “I think we need to stop him from asking me out, for now anyway. Wishful thinking hoping he’s single after the wedding.” I can hope someone that hot will be single, but what I want to know is why someone that hot is single now.

  ***

  “Check the ass out on that guy.” I look behind me as the man walks over to the table in front of us. “Or…” I look back at Tanya as she eyes up the waiter making me shake my head at her.

  "Leave him alone." Amie gives the waiter a smile as he walks past us, and I start looking at him to see if he’s even that good looking, his smile is a lady killer. The waiter turns and walks up to our table.

  “You should always smile like that, you will have girls with a click of a finger,” I look at him.

  “Does my smile not work like that?” I turn to my left and see Ocean sitting down next to me.

  Yes, yes his smile does that too, but there is no way I’m telling him that. “No,” and look at him, he has those dreamy eyes too. I give the waiter a smile, making him smile back.

  “I will give you a few more minutes,” he says walking away from us, and both Tanya and I watch him walk away.

  "Now that is an ass worth watching," she says making me agree with her because that is a nice ass.

  “Is this what you do all day, check out guys?” I hear Ocean say. I roll my eyes at him.

  “Because you guys never do it, do you? I mean a girl can’t walk past you without you checking out her ass, boobs, legs, so we do it once in awhile, and the devil's coming out to play,” I turn my whole body to look at him. “So pretty boy, what was the first thing you noticed on me?”

  Ocean looks over at Amie and Tanya, and they both wait for his answer. "Legs and you have to admit that you have some sexy legs." I turn my attention back to the girls who are just watching Ocean like he’s food. "I got you these." I look at the blue box and take the note from the ribbon.

  Dear Beautiful

  You say no, I say yes, see we are already disagreeing, which makes us a couple.

  I look over at him as I open the box. "Cute." I turn the box to show the girls the six cupcakes each with a letter on it spelling, say yes.

  “What cupcakes are these?” Amie asks.

  “Strawberry…”

  “Great, that’s one of my five a day.” They both take a cupcake and start laughing. They look over at Ocean watching me.

  “You’re not having one?”

  "We have heard the noises she makes while eating the cake, trust us when we say you only want to hear them behind closed doors," Tanya says, and I look over at her. "I'm sorry. The buttercream went straight to my head."

  "Is that true, do you make a noise I want to hear behind closed doors?" Ocean moves his chair closer to mine, and he's wearing that same scent from the night at the bar. "I bet they sound amazing too," he whispers. I look at him and his sexy little dimples.

  "Tanya is joining us today, as she is doing the flowers." He looks between Amie and Tanya and it hits me that I haven't introduced them yet. "This is Ami
e and this is Tanya, girls this is Ocean Rivers."

  They all shake hands and I smile at the waiter as he stands at the table. We give him our order and I get back to the group.

  "Do you have plans this weekend?" Ocean asks me as I check my emails while they eat another cupcake.

  "You guys better leave me one, and yes, I'm washing my hair," I tell Ocean, and I don't hear anything back as I keep my head down sending this email back to Betty. As I look back up and join the conversation, Ocean and Tanya are talking about something, but I missed the start of it.

  "My friends and I were thinking about going paintballing, there are three of us and three of you." Ocean doesn't look at me and keeps talking to Tanya. I already know what's happening. He's going to get one of them on team Ocean.

  "I won't help you date my friend, that's not because you're ugly because you're far from it. I won't help you because she has worked her sexy little ass off for three years to get to where she is in her job, and no man is worth her losing that for." Ocean looks at me then back over to Tanya. "She’s worked hard for her career. We’ve watched her cry blood to get to this, so if she doesn't want to date you, then we will both back her up."

  She stops and looks at me, and for the first time I have no idea what she is about to say, and I'm worried. I know my girls would never help him, it would be the same reversed. She is right. I've had to work my ass off to get couples to ask me to help them, and not Betty, and now Betty is thinking about bring her daughter, I’m going to have work even harder. I have worked hours that no person should have to work, but I'm here now, and I plan on staying where I am.

  “You know what they say, chicks before dicks.” Tanya adds, and Ocean starts laughing as he looks over at the girls. I knew they wouldn’t help.

  "Now that's a new one for me," Ocean says through his laughter, and I can't help but watch as his dimples look so cute.

  "But we haven't been paintballing in a while, and I think the three of us could beat you with no trouble," Tan tells him, and I have to admit I would love to go again as it's so much fun.

  “Is that so?”

  "Yes, remember we made that group of men cry last time," Amie says, and the three of us start laughing. That was a good match though, and they nearly had us.

  Thanking the waiter for our food, “Is there anything else you like doing?” Ocean asks as he eats his full English breakfast.

  “Yeah, we went skydiving about a month ago, going skiing next month,” Amie tells him. We have always loved the adventurous activities. We always say that we could die tomorrow so why not live today.

  "Wow, that's amazing. Going anywhere nice next month?"

  "Austria, thought we would try something new," Tan tells him, and I watch him. I wonder what type of things he likes. That is one of the things me and my ex fought over. He hated things like that, but we always made it work. He didn't have to do that stuff, just come and watch me, but I suppose it would be nice to date someone that liked that stuff too.

  “As we are talking mostly about flowers and decorations today, are you planning on staying the whole day with us?” I ask him. I mean I don’t think he will be interested in all that.

  “Yes, I don’t have work today.” He’s moving closer to me. “I’m free all month. I’m hoping it’s enough time to break you down and agree to date me, or just give me a kiss.” I feel his lips on my cheek as he gives me a soft kiss. “You smell nice,” he whispers in my ear.

  I hate him. If I hate him, then my lady parts might not betray me. I turn to face him, and his brown eyes are watching my lips. "Be careful. Every rose has thorns, you don't want to be kissed and cut do you?" I ask him, and I see his lips curl up into a smile.

  "To get a kiss from you, every cut would be worth it," he says, and I hear Amie awwing.

  “Come on Amie. We’re stronger than this, don’t fall for it,” I tell her.

  “What can’t she fall for?” I look up and see the guy from the bar, Derek’s brother, joining the table.

  “Blake this is Amie, Tanya and Emma. This is my friend Blake.” Ocean points to us all, giving him a smile. “Since you have Tanya here helping you make sure I don’t ask you out, I thought I would ask Blake to help me win you over.”

  I look over at Tanya and Amie watching me. This is not how I planned my day to be. I have to focus which is going to be a little harder than I thought, At the moment, I’m not thinking about the party, I’m thinking about his lips kissing my skin again.

  “Why do you look like the one who is trouble?” I ask Blake making Ocean laugh.

  “That’s because he is. I’m the good one.”

  "For some reason, I don't believe that," I turn to Amie. "Meet you at the cinema tonight and tell Pete that if he’s late for dinner we're starting without him."

  “He was late once and that’s because one of you, I don’t know which one, locked him out of the apartment in his boxers.” Amie still hasn’t forgiven us for that one, but it was so funny and it still is to this day. “You might want to rethink dating her, you will get tortured by us,” Amie points to herself and Tanya.

  "Oh, I have things planned for you," Tanya winks at him, and I start laughing because of some of the things we've done to poor Pete. And the things they did to Jack had me laughing, maybe not him, he wasn't one to have a laugh.

  "So the teasing and the pranks, you do it to me. Can I do it to you?"

  “Why are you three talking as if we are dating, because we’re not.” I like to remind them all, as this conversation is getting a little out of hand now.

  “It’s only a matter of time buttercup,” he gives me a wink and turns back to Tanya. It should annoy me that he’s given me a sweet nickname but I like it.

  “Of course you can. As the three of us say, if you can’t take it, then don’t do it.”

  Ocean looks at Blake, and I can already see they have things planned, but they both also look like the type that won't make the first move so they will wait until one of us makes the first move.

  He had to be the groom’s brother. He couldn't just be the guy who manhandled me in the club, the guy that danced with me. He had to be in the wedding.

  "I have a question." We all look at Amie. "What do you two do? I mean you have jobs, what are they? Emma is a wedding planner, Tanya has a flower shop, and I work for a law firm." She points to each of us then looks at him,. She knows I've been working on finding out more about Ocean, so I like this question.

  "I'm a business owner, Blake is a web designer and Marc, the other one, is a financial advisor. I will go pay for breakfast and we can get the fun day started." He walks away from the table and Blake follows him.

  "I like him," Tanya looks at them as they walk away from us. We both look at them and Ocean turns around a little and points to his eyes then his ass making me laugh as he knows what we were looking at. "Yep, this wedding needs to happen now, so you can get that man naked and moan until the early hours of the morning." Tan looks back over at me. I agree with her but the wedding is six months away, so until then I can only look.

  Chapter 10

  Ocean

  Following Emma and Tanya to her flower shop, I can't help but watch Emma's ass, and I smile. "You know, now that I've seen her up close, I can see why you want to bang her," I look over at Blake. Only he would say that out loud.

  “I don’t want to bang her, I mean I do, but I would also…”

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know and I can see why, she's hot." He shoots a glance at the two talking, "But is it worth all the trouble? I mean she said she won't date you, so you have two choices, find another girl or drop out of the wedding." I start laughing at Blake, he's never been up for a challenge when it comes to women. He’s a you-want-me-or-not kind of guy and if they’re not interested, he walks away. Normally I would be the same if they say no, then it's no and I walk away, but Emma is different. She has a fire in her that is slowly burning me and I want more of it.

  "Neil would kill me. For the next six months I w
on't date her, but I will make sure I see her all the time. I can make up a load of shit about the wedding if I have to." I plan on making up everything I can, from cake designs, cake tasting, and I will even be there for shit that I have no idea about too.

  “No sex for six months, you’re fucking crazy.”

  "She said no to dating, nothing about sex." I look at him, I thought hard about this since Tanya said they won't help me. I respect that, so now I just have to work my sexy charm on her and hope that she can't stay away from me.

  “Well you know me, always happy to help out a friend. I think Marc will be up for this too, plus it’s been a while since we have had a laugh with a group of girls. The three of them do look like they are up for a laugh.”

  I agree with him. We're not looking forward to these tricks they play. I mean I've never even met Amie’s boyfriend and I felt bad for the guy. The fact he's still around speaks a lot. I already know they will start on me, maybe even Blake and Marc. I think if I want to be with Emma, I might have to suffer just like Pete has been doing.

  "So, I thought about the BBQ. We will need seven tables for everyone to sit and eat or you can have one long table with blankets on the ground, and they would have small flower arrangements," Emma turns to face me, and I nod like I know what she is saying. I don't care what the table has on them, and neither will any of the other guys. "And Tan does these amazing decoration designs too. I found this image. What do you think?"

  I look at the image of gold and pink balloons floating above the table. “These blankets on the ground, will you be joining me as my date so we can share one?” I ask as I hand the image back over to her.