Stand-In Saturday (Love For Days #2) - Kirsty Moseley Page 0,44
through my T-shirt. “That’s if I let him go, of course. I might have to fight you a little bit.” Lucie playfully raises her eyebrows at Peggy, and I send her a grateful smile.
Anne chuckles. “Oh, you’d likely lose against my mum.”
“I think you’re probably right,” Lucie agrees good-naturedly. Her smile is radiant.
“See you in a bit.” I send them both a wink. I know I’m not helping myself, but I genuinely do really like them both; they’re great.
When we step into the lift and the doors close, I huff out a breath and look at the ceiling. “Thanks, Luce. I owe you.”
She grins and steps out from under my arm. I hate that I miss the contact already.
“You owe me big. Was she one of the reasons why you needed a date so desperately that you were willing to bring along a virtual stranger under offer of an all-inclusive weekend bender?”
“One of them, yes.” No point in lying.
She chuckles, and I pull out my phone.
“I’m gonna call Tim. I need to pick up my outfit for tonight. It wouldn’t fit in a suitcase, so they offered to bring it with them, seeing as he and Heather drove up yesterday instead of flying.”
Lucie nods and chews on her nail as I quickly talk to Tim and arrange to make a quick stop at their door to pick up my excess luggage.
By the time we get to our room, me carrying my box and grinning like a fool, the waiter is literally just coming out of the lift with our ordered food.
Lucie plops on the bed, digging into her pizza, so I sit on the opposite side and take a large bite from my wrap.
“So, are all the wedding guests going to be at this party tonight? Is this in place of a hen and stag night?”
I shake my head. “No, we had those last weekend. I think this is more like a pre-wedding get-together for everyone else, a kind of thank-you for travelling so far. Only close family and friends arrived on Thursday, but tonight, everyone else should be here.”
“How many people are coming to the wedding?”
I watch as Lucie gets a string of cheese stuck to her chin, and she sheepishly pulls it off. It’s too cute. “Um, I think Jared said there are about eighty people in total. Friends, family, work colleagues of both Jared’s and Amy’s. Though mostly, the work friends are Amy’s. Not many people like Jared at his work, apparently.”
Lucie frowns. “Why not? He seems so lovely.”
“No idea.” That’s a lie. I do have an idea.
Anyone who has ever tried to plan anything near Jared and has had him take over everything knows the reason. He’s basically an evil dictator in disguise, a stickler for details. I’d hate to work for him; in fact, if he were my boss, I’d secretly put laxatives in his morning coffee and rub his favourite pen across my nutsack at every given opportunity. His superiors probably love him though; he’s the type of dependable, proactive, hardworking perfectionist who bosses jizz their pants over.
“Poor Jared.” Lucie pouts and frowns.
“He’ll get over it. He likely gives exactly zero shits what they think of him.”
She nods, picking at her pizza. “You know, when you texted me the itinerary for the weekend, I was wondering why on earth someone would choose a fancy-dress theme for a party. But now that I’ve met Amy, I get it. It makes total sense.”
I grin and nod. “Right?”
Lucie’s lips purse as she looks up at me. “She’s so great. I can see why you like her.”
My breath catches, and I clear my throat awkwardly. “Er … yeah.”
“So, what are you going as tonight?” She inquisitively eyes my cardboard box. “Can I see?”
I nod and wipe my fingers, pushing my empty plate onto the side as I pull the box closer to me and peel off the tape. Lucie leans over, and we both peer in at the vibrant green, blue, and red inside the box. When she doesn’t get it, I stand and pull the outfit from the box, holding it up against my body.
As she realises what it is, she bursts out laughing. “Oh my God, that’s bloody brilliant! I love it.”
I look down at the outfit and grin. It took me forever to choose what I wanted. After six weekends of trudging around all the cosplay shops I could find within driving distance (and several failed online orders that were subpar), I finally found the