Maid of Honour (The Wedding Series #1)

Six

Happy Saturday! How are we all?

***

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The god-awful beeping from a phone woke us up the next morning. I could tell it wasn't my phone because my ringtone wasn't as piercing and dreadful as that. This sounded like the worst noise in the world. In a state of shock, I blinked as the noise sent loads of little hammers to pound against my head (damn cocktails). It should've been our alarm that woke us up, not a ringtone. If someone didn't answer that phone soon, I was going to, and give whoever it was on the other end a piece of my mind.

Thankfully, James was much more alert than me. He was already leaning over to his bedside table to answer the phone. The conversation appeared to be a short one, mainly consisting of James nodding and humming in the affirmative. After he put the phone down, he jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom in a flash. He wasn't in there long before he came back, rushing around the room to get dressed, with a toothbrush still dangling in his mouth.

"Wha—? Where are you going?" I asked, with only one eye open. My throat was dry, and I had an ache behind my eyes. I repeat damn cocktails.

"Work." Came his one-word reply, muffled only slightly by the piece of plastic in his mouth.

Confusion scrunched my features. His stress levels soared, and I guessed it was to do with the phone call. He ran back into the bathroom and I heard him spit and then the splash of the faucet running.

"I thought you were off today?" I had to raise my voice a little so he could hear me over the pouring water. The scratchiness of my throat made me decide against that, and I waited patiently for him to come back into the room. He soon came to stand at the side of the bed. Finally, starting to resemble a human being, I looked at him. Natural thoughts started to appear in my head, at last.

"I know," he sighed, and I saw the regret in his eyes. "But they've called me in. It sounds like an emergency."

I sat up slowly. I grabbed my head to stop it spinning. "Is everything okay?"

Although the idea of helping to run the business didn't bother me, it was still an enormous part of mine and my family's life. Of course, I wanted to know if something bad had happened and if there was anything I could do to help fix it (although I highly doubted that).

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry," he threw me a calming yet breathtaking smile as he tied his tie. "It won't be anything I can't handle."

That I believed. James was very good at his job.

"But what about the final cake tasting?" I asked. That being the actual reason we had both taken the day off. And I tried to ignore the fact that this phone call had conned me out of an extra half an hour in bed. That was no-one's fault, but I still wanted my sleep.

"You'll have to go on your own. Don't worry, I trust your judgement," he said, almost dismissively. I guessed the cake tasting was the last thing on his mind at the moment, but he said he would be there for it. We made sure we both had the day off for it. But I got it. Work came first. It always did. And I could only imagine how this unforeseen trouble would've turned his day completely topsy-turvy, as he liked nothing unexpected to happen.

He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy this fleeting contact. I was hoping to have a cuddle in bed before we had to get up. We hadn't done that in ages.

"Love you," he said.

"Love you too," I replied. I then called to the back of him as he left the room. "Please, at least get something to eat!"