The Paid Bridesmaid(6)

Where had this flirtatious creature come from?

Then he winked at me. I’d never been winked at before.

When I didn’t respond, too caught up in my openmouthed shock, he added, “Save me a dance?”

He walked off toward the elevators and now I was the one leaning hard against the wall, my hand over my fluttering stomach.

What the what? Where had that come from? I’d been ready for him to grill me and instead he winked at me?

My ovaries just did not know how to take that.

I waited for a minute or two until I was certain he was gone. When I reached the elevator bank, I let out a sigh of relief that he wasn’t waiting for me. I was supposed to be shutting this guy down and it was like he’d completely changed his entire approach toward me and I didn’t understand any of it. He was giving me a serious case of whiplash.

As I got onto the elevator, I wondered if this was Sadie’s doing. She’d been not so subtly encouraging me to go out with him . . . maybe she’d done the same thing to him?

Even if she did interfere, isn’t it a good thing when a handsome man flirts with you? my inner-Mom Voice asked me and I did my best to ignore it.

Besides, it didn’t really make sense. Most men, when they discovered they were being set up, tended to run in the opposite direction. Was I supposed to believe that Camden was the one guy in the universe who said, “Yes, my best friend’s fiancée, I would like you to arrange for me to date that woman I’ve never met and maybe fall in love with her and have a wedding just like yours.”

Ridiculous.

If Camden Lewis enjoyed solving puzzles as Sadie had said, maybe he enjoyed being one, too. I just didn’t have the time to try to figure him out.

Brandy’s room was two floors above mine. I knocked on her door and heard a heavy thud and a muttering voice. A few seconds later her door was thrown open in a dramatic fashion.

“Can I help you?” Sadie’s mom asked, slurring her words. She had her robe loosely tied and her face felt familiar. She had the same delicate features as Sadie, the same honey-blonde hair that I’d assumed was from a bottle.

The similarities ended there. Currently the stench of booze oozing out of Brandy’s pores was overpowering. I could see dozens of tiny, empty alcohol bottles on the floor. I wondered if, when the hotel had agreed to comp these rooms as part of their sponsorship, they’d factored in the thousands of dollars Brandy was going to run up from her mini-bar in her apparent quest to drown her liver.

“We met earlier. I’m Rachel. Sadie’s maid of honor? I told her I’d walk down with you to the party.”

“I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”

She shut the door on me and I heard it lock. Then there was another loud thump, some cursing, and another thump. I knocked again.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything?” I asked loudly.

But Brandy didn’t come back to the door. For a moment I wasn’t sure what to do, but figured it was better to let her sleep this off than drag her to a party where she most definitely would not be on her best behavior.

I headed to the cocktail party, which was on the south lawn. Music was playing and several tables had been set up, covered in white linen tablecloths. Tiki torches outlined the area and a DJ was playing easy-listening music in the corner. An employee offered me a lei and I ducked my head to let her put it on and thanked her.

Right away I noticed Dan and Sadie talking to Camden. First I wondered why she was here already without making an entrance. But considering how annoyed the filming director looked, I assumed she’d blown that off. Camden ran his fingers through his hair and then laughed and that heavy fluttering was back in my stomach.

Wrenching my gaze away, I spotted Krista, who was deep in conversation with an older couple. Her face was animated and lively as she told a story. It made my heart happy; when I’d first known her she’d tried so hard to make herself small, to not be noticed. Now that she felt safe and secure, she was a freaking delight.

I couldn’t put her and her employment / my business in jeopardy for someone like Camden.

Troy breezed past me and called out, “Find your name, the games are about to begin!”

At every table a different board game was set up for four people, and there were name cards at each chair. I started looking for my name, figuring I would be seated close to the front with the bridal party.

Sure enough, I was at Table 2. I was about to sit down when I noticed that Camden’s name card was set up right next to mine.

So was this a “you’re the maid of honor and he’s the best man” kind of situation, or was Sadie taking this matchmaking thing too far?

Either way, it wasn’t conducive to my plans. I grabbed his name card, planning on finding Krista’s and switching them so that I’d at least get to spend the evening with her by my side.

“What are you doing with my name card?”

Obviously, I was going to get caught. Because this was how things worked for me. I placed the name card back down, sighed, and closed my eyes, asking the universe for strength, before turning around to face Camden.

He looked amused. “In case you didn’t hear me, what were you doing with my name card?”

Moving you to another table. “Looking for you to make sure you knew where you were sitting.”

“That was thoughtful of you.” His words sounded nice, but his tone let me know that he did not believe me. As well he shouldn’t. He gestured toward the set-up board game on the table, one I’d loved as a kid and had sometimes even played by myself because I was an only child. He tacked on, “I thought maybe you were afraid of a little competition.”