Three Girls And A Wedding (18 page)

Matt just stared at me. It took me
a moment to realize—“You’re laughing at me!” I cried, my irritation
doubling.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Matt said,
holding up his hands again. “You just look so…”

“So what?” I said, narrowing my
eyes.

“You’re kind of cute when you’re
pissed, okay? It’s like—angry kitten, or something. Real scary.”

I glared at him. But Matt was, at
least, smiling now. It was hard to stay mad when he was smiling like that.

“Will you at least try the food?” I
asked him. “I promise it’s very good.”

He looked at me doubtfully, took a
deep breath, and grabbed the kebab of chicken
schwarma
.
He chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled. “That is good,” he said,
smiling at me. This time, I smiled back.

I couldn’t convince him to try the
hummus, but he did taste the falafel, though he didn’t like it much. The main
courses went over much better and the sweet plates were a big hit. He actually
groaned when he tried the baklava.

“See,” I said, laughing. “I told
you you’d like it!”

“I bow down to you and your superior
food knowledge, Jen Campbell,” he smirked, leaning back in his chair and
rubbing his gut. “That was great.”

“Jen!” I turned in my chair to see
Aaliyah
, the chef of the restaurant, hurrying toward us.
“They told me you were here for your tasting but I couldn’t get away until
now!”

I stood and hugged her. I had known
Aaliyah
for years. We had, in fact, gone to college
together back in Chicago, before she dropped out to go to culinary school after
our sophomore year. I had been delighted to find she had ended up in the
Detroit area to open her restaurant.

“
Aaliyah
,
this is Matt, the groom’s brother,” I said, my arm still wrapped around her
shoulder. “Matt, this is the best chef I know.”

“Oh, shut up,” she laughed.

“It’s true!
Aaliyah
got me out of so many jams when I was first starting out.”

“Yeah, Jen was always forgetting
she needed to book caterers,”
Aaliyah
sighed. “I was
forever bailing her out.”

I laughed. I had missed her.

“Anyhow, what did you think about
the food?” she asked, directing her attention to Matt. She knew how I felt
about her food.

“It was really great,” he said.
“I’d never had Middle Eastern food before. I was pleasantly surprised.”

“
Ahh
, an
adventurer,” she said.

“We think it might be a bit much
for his brother though,” I told her. “He’s a bit picky.”

“What a shame,”
Aaliyah
said good-naturedly. “Oh well, I didn’t really feel like carting my ass all the
way up to Rochester anyhow.”

Matt laughed.

“It’s their loss, babe,” I told
her, then sighed, looking at my watch. “We have one more appointment.”

“Well, you better be on your way
then,” she said. “I’ll see you next week?”

“Yeah,” I told her, picking up my
purse. “Ginny and Josh are really excited.”

She shook Matt’s hand and walked us
to the door. As he walked out in front of us, she waggled her eyebrows at me.
“Hot!” she mouthed.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “See
you Friday.”

Once we were back in the truck,
Matt asked, “What’s on Friday?”

“Ginny and Josh are having their
shower here,” I told him.

“Both of them?” he asked,
surprised.

“We’re doing a couple’s shower,” I
explained. “Ginny already did the ladies’ luncheon thing when she was pregnant
with Danny. She wanted something a little more modern this time around.”

“That sounds nice,” Matt said.

“It’ll be a good chance for a bunch
of friends to get together,” I said. “I’m really looking forward to it,
actually.” I closed my eyes briefly as Matt pulled out onto the highway. I knew
I was being a crappy friend to Ginny and Annie lately. And it had been so long
since we’d had fun together, so long since I’d been in a big group of our
friends. This shower was just what I needed.

“Everything going okay there?” Matt
asked, looking over at me. “When I asked about the wedding before, you didn’t
really answer.”

“Things have been a bit rough,” I sighed.
“There’s so much to do for Kiki’s wedding, I know I’m dropping the ball with
the girls.” I sighed. “Honestly, they’re both pretty pissed at me.” I don’t
know why I told him that—I hadn’t told anyone that. But it was true, and
it felt really great to get it out there.

Matt frowned. “I’m sure Kiki
wouldn’t be happy if she knew she was taking you away from your best friends.
Why don’t you ask her for a little more space?’

I laughed bitterly. “It’s not about
Kiki,” I told him. “It’s my job. If it got around that I wasn’t giving this my
all, I could kiss my promotion goodbye. I’ll be stuck doing crappy birthday
parties and bar mitzvahs for the rest of my life.”

“You’ve been doing a wonderful
job,” Matt said. “The Barkers are really pleased with you. I know they’ll be
giving you a great review. I’m sure you could cool things off a little and
still get by.”

“It’s not about ‘getting by’,” I
told him. He clearly didn’t get it. “There’s a ton of pressure coming from my
bosses on this. Mr. Barker is the biggest client we’ve ever had. If everything
isn’t completely perfect, I’m screwed. Not nice, not adequate—
perfect
.”

“That sounds rough,” Matt said,
wincing. “Makes me feel relived that I work for myself.”

“You do?” I asked, surprised. When
I heard Matt worked in construction I assumed that meant he worked for a
construction company.

Matt nodded. “I opened my own
contracting firm two years ago. It’s been a bit rough getting if off the
ground, but we’re doing pretty good now. Mr. Barker has helped a lot there,
actually.”

“Mr. Barker?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s thrown some work my
way.” Matt smiled. “I wish I could tell you I was above taking help from the
future in-laws, but I’m just not that noble.”

I laughed—then yawned hugely.
“Sorry,” I said, covering my mouth. “Haven’t been sleeping much lately.”

Matt looked over at me, concern on
his face. “Don’t overdo it, okay? I know this wedding’s important to you, but
it
is
just work.”

I smiled, thinking of what my
mother would say to that comment.

“Why don’t you rest a minute?” Matt
said, leaning forward to switch the radio on, setting the volume very low.
“I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

There was work I could have been
doing in the car. I had my iPhone with me and it was the perfect chance to fire
off some e-mails. But I felt so relaxed, so comfortable. It had been weeks
since I felt so little stress. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to close my eyes for a
minute.

Chapter Twenty

The next thing I knew Matt was
shaking me gently. “Jen,” he said, his voice low. “Wake up.”

I blinked, feeling confused. Where
was I?

“Jen?”

I opened my eyes fully and saw
Matt’s face, very close to mine. My breath caught in my throat. I had forgotten
how devastating he was up close like this. He quickly moved back and looked out
the windshield, a slight grimace on his face. Geez, it wasn’t like I had
morning breath; I’d been asleep for half an hour, tops.

On the other hand, we had just had
Middle Eastern food. Great, now he was repulsed by me.

“Sorry,” I said, stretching. “I
didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said, his gaze
still on the window. “I’m glad you got some rest. It sounded like you needed
it.”

“It
was
pretty nice,” I admitted, smiling. “Now if I could just get a
few more hours like that I’d be all set.”

Matt finally turned back to me and
smiled. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” I said, picking up my purse
from the floor of the truck. “God, I hope these guys are good. I’m going to go
into serious panic mode if we don’t end up with someone today.”

“My fingers are crossed,” Matt
said, opening his door. I followed suit and we walked into the banquet hall. A
hostess met us at the door and led us into the ballroom, where a table was
already set for us.

She talked us through the menu,
poured us some water, and headed to the kitchen to get our appetizers. “I have
a good feeling about his place,” Matt said, smiling at me.

“I like the positive vibe,” I said.
“Let’s keep that going.”

The hostess reappeared with several
small plates on a tray. “
Mmmm
,” I said. “Smells good
at any rate.”

We sampled bruschetta, goat cheese
dumplings, teriyaki beef skewers, dates stuffed with pine nuts and honey, basil
leaves wrapped around tomatoes and mozzarella and, to Matt’s great delight,
miniature gourmet hamburgers.

“These are perfect!” he said
enthusiastically. “Eric will love it!”

“And they’re actually really good,”
I agreed. “What is that, Swiss and mushrooms?”

“Who cares, they’re sliders! Eric
will be thrilled.”

The hostess returned with a tasting
menu of starters: assorted salads, a choice of three soups, shrimp and fried
calamari. Matt wrinkled his nose at the calamari, but agreed the soup choices
and salads would please his brother.

I was excited for the entrees. This
chef obviously knew what he was doing. The food was simple but executed
perfectly. As the hostess brought out her tray, I knew we wouldn’t be
disappointed.

The chef had provided us three
pastas, three fish courses, three beef entrees, and three poultry choices.
Looking at the gorgeous food, I realized our biggest problem here might be
making a choice.

Matt looked up at me, an excited
look on his face. “How should we do this?” he asked eagerly.

I shrugged. “I say just start
grabbing stuff that looks good to you.”

It was the best meal that I’d had
in a long time. Everything was flavored perfectly and cooked exactly as it
should be.

“Oh, Matt,” I said, closing my
eyes. “You have to try this stuffed sole. It’s dripping in butter.”

“Okay,” he said, spearing a bite
from my plate. “But then you need to taste this beef tenderloin.”

By the time we had sampled everything,
I was stuffed. “Oh my God,” I moaned. “I’m so not going to be able to fit in my
dress for the shower.”

Matt snorted. “You could do with
some more meat on you,” he said, looking down at my legs and making me blush.

“So, what were your favorites?” I asked,
looking at the empty plates.

“It’ll be tough to narrow it down,”
he said, rubbing his stomach.

“We definitely need to have that
tortellini,” I said, looking down at the card the hostess had provided with all
the relevant information. “I’m positive that pasta was made from scratch. You
just don’t get that kind of texture from a box.”

“You know a lot about food,” Matt
said, moving closer to me so he could see the card. “Information you picked up
on the job?”

“Oh no,” I told him happily. “I
love cooking.”

He laughed. “Seriously? I so cannot
picture that.”

“Why not?” I asked, offended.

“You just seem…a little glam to be
cooped up in a kitchen.”

“I’m not
glam
!”

“Jen, I would put fifty dollars
down that everything you’re wearing right now is from a designer label.” I
didn’t say anything. “Would I be correct?”

“Maybe,” I said stiffly. He
laughed. “But this is work! I don’t dress like this all the time.”

“You dressed like this in New
York.”

“Yeah, and that was work too,” I
said. “God, if you could have seen the stress I went through trying to make
sure I was bringing the right stuff for that trip.”

I felt a sense of disappointment.
Was that why he didn’t like me? Did he think I was a snob?

“Hey, sorry. I wasn’t trying to
offend you or anything.” He looked concerned. “It was a compliment actually.
You’re sophisticated.”

Hmm. It sure didn’t sound like a
compliment.

“Alright, paint a picture for me.
Jen in the kitchen. What does she look like? What does she make?”

I scowled at him. Was he making fun
of me? “I usually wear yoga pants and a tee shirt,” I told him. “And what I
make depends on what time of day it is.”

“Okay, say, dinner. What does Jen
Campbell, chef extraordinaire, make for dinner?”

“Probably lasagna,” I said,
relaxing a little bit. Maybe he really did just want to know. “That’s Ginny’s
favorite. Or a roast, if it’s cooler weather. Annie likes fish so I might grill
some salmon for her, or sear a nice piece of trout. Or make crab cakes. They
both love crab cakes.”

He looked at me, smiling. “You know
what, I think I can picture it. Thank you.”

Why did he have to look at me like
that? His eyes were doing that melting thing again, his gaze insistent. It was
like he was trying to see inside my head.

Just as my face started to turn
red, the chef came out to speak with us. I snapped back into business mode,
relieved for the distraction. I explained to the chef what we were looking for.
It was a big job—large guest list, multiple stations for the cocktail
hour, a five course sit down menu for dinner. And it was short notice. But this
guy wasn’t stupid; he fully understood what catering David Barker’s event could
do for his career. He assured me they could handle it all, we did the money
talk, and then set up a time for Kiki to come see him next week to confirm her
menu choices.

“You know,” Matt said, as we were
walking back to his pick-up. “You’re a little scary when you get like that.”

“Like what?”

“When you go all no-nonsense
businesswoman. It’s intimidating.”

I rolled my eyes. “Men are such
babies.”

He said something else under his
breath.