you’re happy for us, you hate weddings.”
“Hate is a strong word. I think strongly dislike is more accurate.”
She heard Ajay huff, but refused to look in his direction. Being around him threw her off her game. Instead of sounding like an intelligent realist around Ajay, she came across as a babbling chatterbox.
“Autumn, despite how you feel, I want you by my side for my wedding.” Oh, no, here it goes. “It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have my sister and best friend right beside me on my special day, so I got you this.”
Trembling fingers accepted the teal-and-white box wrapped in a beautiful lace ribbon. She looked from the box to Winter, unable to keep from smiling after noticing the huge grin reflected on her sister’s face. When she opened the box, there was a photo of them when they were teenagers.
“Do you remember when we took that?” Winter asked.
“Of course.” It was the day after a lot of drama had happened with their parents and they had promised each other that if they found true love, they would be there for each other every step of the journey. When she lifted the photo, she noticed a custom wineglass and a small bottle of her favorite red wine with a note attached to it.
“You’ve already done a great job at helping me acknowledge my feelings for Taheim,” Winter said as she watched Autumn read the card. “I need you by my side. I need you to be my maid of honor.”
Autumn couldn’t help the emotion she felt in her heart. “Of course I will, sis.” As they hugged, she glanced over her shoulder in time to see Taheim ask Ajay to be his best man. After he agreed, Ajay caught her eye and for the first time tonight, her dislike for weddings wasn’t her most prominent thought. Instead, she was trying to calculate approximately how much time the best man and maid of honor would have to spend together. Spending any amount of time with a man as handsome as Ajay was enough to make a woman like her lose her ability to think straight.
Eight months later...
I need you to be by my side. I need you to be my maid of honor. Autumn Dupree couldn’t seem to forget her sister’s words no matter how hard she tried.
“You must be so excited for your sister.”
Autumn downed the rest of the champagne in her glass before facing the enthusiastic voice. “Of course I am,” she replied through gritted teeth. “All this love, happiness and months of planning ahead for a single twenty-four-hour day. Who wouldn’t be happy, right?” The perky woman blinked her eyes a few times before abruptly walking away.
“Maybe you can work on a stiff smile and refrain from the sarcasm until after the engagement party.”
Autumn rolled her eyes at her friend and store manager of Bare Sophistication lingerie boutique, Danni Allison. “I refuse to pretend to believe in weddings when I don’t.”
“But you agreed to be the maid of honor, and in doing so, Winter expects you to at least pretend to be happy for her.”
“I am happy for her.” Autumn shifted from one leg to the other in frustration as she glanced around the crowded Reed family home. “But this is too much fuss for one freaking day. I mean, what’s in the Chicago water we’ve been drinking, because since I moved here a few years ago, there have been more engagement parties than I can count. And we already had an engagement party for Winter and Taheim right after they were engaged months ago, so I don’t even know what this is.”
“Taheim’s mom had a bunch of old college friends in town and she wanted to do something special for her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Especially since a lot of people won’t be going to Bora Bora for the wedding. Didn’t you read the email I sent you?”
She turned up her eyebrows at Danni. “You know, studies show you only have thirty seconds to intrigue a reader, and that booklet of wedding stuff you sent me lost my interest within the first five seconds.”
“You should have been the person putting that so-called booklet together. I’m just a bridesmaid.”
“You’re already aware that I’ve been hosting a lot of our Bare Sophistication masquerade lingerie parties while Taheim and Winter have been on tour showcasing all their designs from their own clothing and lingerie lines. You told me it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“It isn’t a big deal, but at the very least, I expect you to read what I email you.”
“Last I checked, fifteen percent of engagements are called off anyway, so I figured it would be a waste reading something that may not even be relevant in a few months.”
“You’re lucky I appreciate your snarky attitude,” Mya Winters-Madden said as she approached the women with Lex Turner-Madden walking beside her. “Otherwise, I’d have some real issues with that statement.”
Mya had married Autumn’s cousin Malik Madden just last month—only three months after giving birth to a beautiful set of boy and girl fraternal twins, believing for months that they were only pregnant with one child. Lex had married Malik’s brother, Micah, a year and a half ago. Growing up, she remembered conversations she’d had with Malik, Micah and Winter about how none of them were ever getting married. Boy, had the tables turned.
“Although I’m glad my cousins found such amazing women like the two of you, I still stand firm in my beliefs regarding weddings.”
Lex laughed as she shook her head. “We wouldn’t expect you to be anyone but yourself. Even so, Mya and I have both been in Winter’s shoes, and it helps when you know that those close to you support your marriage.”
“I’ll support their marriage wholeheartedly. It’s weddings that...”
“We know, we know,” Danni interrupted. “It’s weddings that you dislike, not the idea of marriage.”
“Exactly.” There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for Winter, but she still couldn’t believe she’d actually agreed to be a pivotal part of this shindig. Weddings were superficial. If one did decide to take the plunge, she never understood why they didn’t just go to a courthouse and save themselves the hassle of planning. However, she knew people were tired of hearing her talk about her view on weddings, so she had to do a better job of keeping her mouth shut.
“I’ll try my best to show my support.” Her voice didn’t sound as believable as she hoped it would, but she really meant what she said. After a few more skeptical looks, they finally turned their focus to another topic. Out of all the people Autumn had met since moving to Chicago, Danni and the ladies of Elite Events Incorporated probably knew her better than most of the friends she had back in New York. Autumn wasn’t an easy nut to crack. Oftentimes, it took people a while to understand her quirky personality. However, she’d decided long ago that it didn’t matter if people didn’t appreciate the type of person she was. As long as she knew who she was, that suited her just fine.
“Malik is the worst when it comes to changing diapers,” Mya said. “He’ll spend all day playing with the twins, but when it’s time to change a diaper, he makes himself scarce.”
Autumn laughed. “We weren’t around babies much growing up, so maybe you need to teach him
