Best Jerk

by Lulu Pratt

  “I don’t know,” Carter said. “They are so good, and we’ve already turned two caterers down. We don’t have a lot of time to fuss about a small thing like this.”

  I had to give it to the guy. He was level-headed about this. And invested. Most grooms left their future wives to arrange the whole wedding with me, and they barely got involved. Not only did Carter tag along to everything we had to do for the wedding, but he was invested in the choices. I might not have known the guy very well, I might have thought that Abigail was rushing into something, but Carter was slowly starting to win my approval. He was there for Abigail, and if he could be there for her through the parts men usually hated, I knew he would be there for her through everything they might go through together as a married couple.

  “Maybe we should think about doing something else instead,” Grayson said, and I stifled a groan.

  “Maybe we should keep looking,” I responded. He was set on messing everything up, wasn’t he? God, I wished he wasn’t so hot. If he were ugly and a dick, I could cope with what he was doing and manage to hate him. But he was so attractive, and I couldn’t help thinking about our time together. I couldn’t help wondering if there was more to him, something good and nice beneath that shitty attitude he insisted on wearing like it was something to be proud of.

  “I have an idea,” I said, thinking of the one person who would give them exactly what they needed. Why hadn’t I thought about it before? “I want to introduce you to someone.”

  We left the third caterer with the promise that we would return if we couldn’t find anything else.

  “It’s always good to have a plan B,” I told Abigail when we walked to the cars. “This woman isn’t a wedding caterer, but her food is to die for, and she’s serious about her food. Everything she does is with love.”

  “That sounds like what we need for the wedding.”

  It was exactly what I had been thinking. We parked outside the little shop on the corner and walked in. Rachel was Isaiah’s mother and a favorite among everyone who had visited her shop at least once. Customers drove especially from other neighborhoods to buy food from her because everything she made tasted like she couldn’t have imagined anything better in the world than to satisfy that customer at that time.

  “Hello, Rachel,” I said when we walked in.

  “Callie!” Rachel exclaimed and came out from behind the counter. “It’s such a pleasure to see you. What brings you to my shop? You’re usually too busy during work hours, and you keep my son away from me too.”

  She smiled, only teasing me.

  “I want to introduce you to Abigail and Carter,” I said. “They’re getting married in less than two months, and they desperately need food and a cake that will go with their fairytale wedding.”

  “That’s soon,” Rachel said. “But I’m sure we can make it happen. What do you have in mind?”

  Abigail explained her ideas to Rachel while I supervised the meeting. Once she was done, Rachel nodded.

  “I will whip up some samples for you. Will you give me half an hour?”

  Abigail and Carter nodded, and we walked to the seating area where we could wait.

  “She’s a sweetheart,” Abigail said when we sat down. “I like how much she cares about what we want and how important this is to us.” I noticed how she didn’t speak about herself in singular form anymore. A pang shot through my chest. This was really happening, wasn’t it? She was getting married.

  “Rachel will bend over backward to give you what you need,” I said.

  “Sounds to me like you’re biased,” Grayson said. He had been quiet until now, and for a moment, my irritation had subsided.

  “Oh, you’re still here,” I said coldly. “I thought you’d left because you weren’t complaining right away.”

  “You’re keeping it in the family, so to speak,” he said, ignoring my comment. “I’m sure Isaiah will be happy to know you’re sending business his way.”

  I shook my head. “It’s his mother’s way, first of all,” I said. “And I wouldn’t have suggested her if I’d thought she wasn’t worth our while. Why don’t you have a little faith for once?”

  “In you?” Grayson asked, and his eyes were drowning deep when he said it. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to mock me or to draw me in somehow, but I had to pull myself away and stop staring at him. Was this damn sexual tension never going to end? I wanted to go back to hating him, to feeling like he was the world’s biggest dick. Not to think about feeling the world’s biggest dick.

  Half an hour later Rachel returned with samples of food for all four of us, and when we tested it, Abigail and Carter were sold.

  “What do you have in mind for a cake?” she asked Abigail.

  When Abigail explained, she nodded.

  “I can do that for you,” she said. “And I’ll add it to the price.”

  Abigail and Carter were looking at each other. Rachel left for us to talk about it.

  “It’s a great price,” I said. Money hadn’t been an issue, but it was still best to find the most value for the lowest price. “And she’s invested in you as a couple.”

  “And her food is to die for,” Abigail said. “I can only imagine what the cake would taste like.”

  “It seems to me like she’s using her son’s connection with the wedding planner to get business.”

  I glared at Grayson. “The wedding planner has a name,” I said. I turned back to Abigail and Carter, trying my best to ignore Grayson and his ridiculous remarks. “I think this is the best deal. The price is great, and the food is delicious. You said so yourself. And everything will be made with love on the day, including the cake. I’ve seen Rachel bake. She’ll pull off exactly what you want.”

  Abigail and Carter looked at each other, questions in their eyes before they both nodded.

  “I think this is the best fit,” Carter said. “I’ll put down a deposit.”

  Abigail was all smiles when Carter stood up to find Rachel and pay her up-front fee for her services. When I glanced at Grayson, he was furious. What the hell was his problem? I had expected him to be happy we had found a caterer, so he wouldn’t have to keep tagging along from one place to the next, at least. If anything, he should have taken that as a good sign.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked.

  Grayson looked surprised, but he nodded and stood up, following me away from Abigail.

  “What the hell is your problem?” I asked. “Are you going to bitch and moan about every choice they make? This is their wedding, for God’s sake. Can’t you be happy for your best friend?”

  Grayson shook his head, and he didn’t even try to hide his anger.

  “This is too soon, and you know it,” he said. “This whole wedding is a joke. They don’t know each other.”

  I shook my head. “They’re happy. Can’t you see that? And despite what you seem to think is right and wrong, they can make their own choices.”

  Grayson shook his head. “I don’t expect you to be open-minded about it. You’re in the business of making a success of the wedding. You can’t see that sometimes the wedding just shouldn’t happen in the first place.”

  Grayson walked away from me and joined Abigail as Carter returned. I couldn’t figure him out. I wasn’t sure if Grayson’s reactions were about him caring for Carter or if there was something else behind it. I had doubts about Abigail’s choice to rush into this too. But I was happy for my best friend that she was finally heading to her happily ever after. Why couldn’t Grayson do the same for his best friend? What was stopping him from wanting someone else to be happy?

  Chapter 10

  Grayson

  Tony and Jack came to town to be there for Carter the way I was. They were the other two groomsmen. I knew them well enough. We had been out a few times, but they were more Carter’s friends than mine. They were typical fast-lane city boys, dressing in the latest fashions and open to current social events. They were like Tweedledee and Tweedledum,
both of them dressed in jeans that were a little too tight for my taste, shirts that were identical save for their color, and neither of them had a hair out of place.

  We talked about the wedding — big surprise. Tony and Jack asked Carter how he was holding up, how he felt about taking the leap with Abigail, and what he thought of her choices for the wedding. It was all the right questions to get Carter talking. It was everything I had never asked him directly because I hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

  “What are we going to do for your bachelor party?” Tony asked.

  “Nothing too wild,” Carter said. “Abigail isn’t going crazy either, and it won’t be fair.”

  “When you say she’s not going crazy, you mean she’s not going to get wasted and end up in a thong somewhere. But you must know she’ll go all-out,” I said.

  Carter shrugged. He knew I was right. Tony and Jack threw a few ideas around like skydiving or a paintball arena. It was all very modern, but these weren’t the kind of things I could work with. I thought about Vegas, the place where bachelor parties often took place. But Abigail had asked me not to do something too rough. I was the best man, so I was in charge of the plans.

  An idea popped into my mind. This was where I could really ruin things for Carter and Abigail. It was a dick thing to do, but I needed to save my friend, and if I managed to do something Abigail would hate at the bachelor party, it could very well be the end.

  Something like a stripper. Abigail would hate that, and if I was able to get some photos or other proof of him doing something unwholesome, it would be perfect.

  It was a terrible thing for a best man and a friend to do, but I was running out of ideas. Talking to Carter didn’t work, messing up the small planning things was only irritating him so that he withdrew from me and clung to Abigail more, and John wasn’t on my side with this either. Even though he agreed it was too soon.

  So I had to resort to something more serious. I knew Carter would hate me for it, but eventually, he would see why I had done it, and he would understand. He might even thank me for it. Right now, it wasn’t about my friendship with Carter. It was about his future.

  “Why don’t we do a night in Vegas?” I asked. “We should really make this special.”

  Carter started shaking his head, but Tony and Jack loved the idea and ran with it.

  “There are amazing shows in Vegas,” Jack said. “We should book something for a night and go out for a few drinks afterward.”

  “I agree. We’re all willing to chip in to make it happen,” Tony offered.

  Carter glanced at me. I knew what he was thinking. Why was I being so nice about this when everything else had been a problem? But I saw him shrug it off, and I knew he was considering that it was boys’ night and the party I was interested in. Which was partly true. It would be great to hang out with Carter again.

  Having a few drinks afterward would be great. I knew Carter had a weakness for shooters, and if I gave him the right shots and got him too drunk to come home, to have to stay over instead, I could set the whole thing in motion. I knew what alcohol pushed Carter to the point of no return, and once he was too drunk, I would have strippers come in. No man who was drunk enough could say no to a naked woman, even if she wasn’t his future wife.

  “I don’t know, guys,” Carter said. “I don’t know if Abigail will like the idea.”

  “What is she doing for her bachelorette?” I asked.

  Carter shrugged. “She mentioned something about a spa day and drink afterward. Bachelorette games and that kind of thing.”

  “Do you know how much alcohol is involved with those games? And Vegas is like a spa day for men. Come on, man. It’s your night to let loose and to celebrate your last night as a single guy.”

  Carter shook his head. “I’ve never seen it as a celebration of being single. I was to celebrate getting married.”

  For fuck’s sake, Carter was so tied up in this woman, it had started fucking with his view on life. But it was fine if I had to accept his new definition of a bachelor party if it meant I could get him to come to Vegas. Tony and Jack were very on board with the plan, and it made it easier to convince Carter.

  “What a way to celebrate,” Jack said, and he was right. It was a way to celebrate.

  Finally, Carter agreed to a day in Vegas where we saw shows and had a night out drinking after which we would stay at a hotel and then fly back first thing in the morning. It was perfect. If we drank too much, we wouldn’t make our flight. It was cash I was willing to forfeit if it meant I could save Carter’s ass from this marriage.

  Tony and Jack were all over the plans, running with it, and the more excited they got about it, the more Carter seemed to like it. I had just had to get the right people involved and talking about it with Jack and Tony had been the right idea. I was happy with the direction the conversation was going.

  By the time our lunch was over, we had settled on Vegas as our bachelor destination, and we each had something to take care of. I volunteered to handle the hotel bookings. Jack would take care of the show, and Tony would book the air tickets.

  “Run your plans by Abigail before you finalize, please, gentleman,” Carter requested. “It’s about peace of mind. I asked her maid of honor to do the same thing.”

  Of course he did. God, Carter had turned into a pussy. But it was fine. I would get that out of him. Whether this wedding took place would depend on how well I managed to plan our trip to Vegas. I planned to make it work.

  We left the restaurant. In the car on the way back, Carter started talking about the plans.

  “Maybe the Vegas idea isn’t so bad after all. I mean, it sounds like a lot of fun. I was skeptical when you suggested it at first. I was worried Abigail won’t like the idea.” I was banking on that. “But I think it could really be fun. Thank you for that. I was pleasantly surprised that you want to make this such a big thing.”

  He meant after I had been such a dick about everything.

  “Of course,” I said. But I was still being a dick. I was being a two-faced asshole now too. I was pretending like I was trying to show Carter a good time when I was really only trying to break up his relationship. Because if I pulled this off, it wouldn’t only be the wedding that was off. It would be their entire relationship. I wanted them to get to know each other better before considering marriage so a full breakup hadn’t been the plan, but if I got rid of Abigail altogether, I had to admit I wasn’t going to be sad to see her go. It wasn’t that she was a bad person, but she was the wrong person.

  I felt terrible about what I was about to do. I was going to cheat my best friend into a situation he didn’t want to be in and a thing he didn’t want to do. But I was doing it for him, for his future. He wouldn’t see it that way, but sometimes, you had to take one for the team and do something that would hurt more for the sake of happiness. And this was about Carter’s happiness.

  “Vegas actually sounds like fun,” Carter confirmed after we spoke about it a little more and he thought about it more. “I think it will be a good time.”

  He had that right.

  When we arrived home, Carter disappeared to phone his fiancée. Why he had to be so stuck with her that he couldn’t go one day without talking to her was beyond me. He never used to be that way. But it was about to end. I would make sure of it.

  I walked into my room and closed the door. I opened my laptop and researched hotels in Vegas. Also researched places that offered out strippers. I wanted at least two for the night, girls who would look like they were only joining us for a party, and later on things would get wild. They needed to be sexy, curvy, with long hair and big bright eyes. Carter’s type.

  Thinking about it, it was my type too.

  Girls like Callie. I imagined Callie stripping for me, moving to music, pulling her clothes off bit by bit. I closed my eyes and imagined her perfect breasts, round and the skin smooth and white with the perfect-sized dark nipples at the center of each, hard and poking out at me.

>   Her legs, long enough to wrap around me and slender, especially in stilettos. And her ass, juicy and round. Beautiful, plump if she danced to music and shook herself so it jiggled. God, I could come in my pants just thinking about her pussy. The feel of it in my hand when I pushed my fingers against her clit was still fresh in my mind, how wet she had been in the club and how my dick had felt inside her. It mixed what I had seen of Callie with my imagination, and I came up with the hottest stripper.

  I opened my eyes and shook off the thought. I could perv over Callie all day, but I had to take care of the bachelor party plans, organize strippers to come to our hotel room and take care of Carter in a way that would take care of this wedding.

  I confirmed the hotel booking and paid for it and put the deposit, date and place down for the strippers. Just before I hit confirm, guilt shot through my chest. I was potentially ruining my best friend’s life, but I was doing it to save his life. And nothing else had worked. This was the best way to take care of Abigail and this unwelcome wedding once and for all.

  I hit confirm and the confirmation message popped up, telling me I would receive an email with the information as soon as it was processed. I closed the windows, cleared my browsing history in case anyone opened my browser for any reason, and closed the laptop. I took a deep breath. I was doing what was necessary. I pushed away all the thoughts of guilt and worry about it and accepted that this was what needed to happen.

  I was going to save my best friend yet.

  Chapter 11

  Callie

  The wedding was beginning to take shape, all of it happening a lot faster than usual, but things were coming together. I worked day and night to give Abigail what she wanted and make her wedding a day to remember. I enjoyed planning her wedding because I knew exactly what she wanted, and it made it easier for me to give her options. Planning my best friend’s wedding was a dream come true. I always knew that when Abigail got married, it was going to be an affair to remember.