Wedding Woes

Chapter Three

Annie had gone so far past her baggage limit, that the airline charged her a humungous fee to take all four of her suitcases on the plane. Emily’s eyes watered at the penalty Annie faced for ensuring she had a pair of shoes to go with every outfit. The blessing was that they were the same size shoe, and she knew she’d get away with stealing a pair now and again.

‘You are crazy!’ Emily shrieked, as they sauntered through security and collected their shoes. ‘What did you take? Every single outfit you own?’

Annie stuck out her lower lip playfully. ‘You’ll thank me when some hot Miami dude hits on you, on account of me bringing that red dress you love!’

‘Oh my gosh!’ Emily squealed. ‘You brought it? I completely forgot! Argh how amazing will I look, a flower in my hair and flip flops, and that sexy little red number!’

‘Not half as amazing as me, wearing that gold bandage dress that Charlie bought me’ gushed Annie, slicking on nearly a whole tube of lip gloss. ‘It’s such a shame he can’t come out till the wedding weekend. I’m gonna miss him.’

‘Or you could do a little flirting out there, what he doesn’t know wont hurt him’ winked Emily, nudging her friend playfully.

‘This is why I love you Emily Clement. You are by far, the wisest person I know.’

‘Don’t you ever forget it Annie’ she grinned.

As the plane set off, she was buoyed by thoughts of Ellie waiting for them. No doubt she would be perfectly coiffered, and in spite of their copious amounts of makeup, the ten hour flight would leave the pair of them looking like they hadn’t slept in a week. Annie always snored, it was her prerogative, and though it used to annoy her once, it was now a familiar drone. Like people who got used to living by an airport, or a train line, she was used to the roaring of Annie’s snores. No doubt many a man she slept with wondered how on Earth such a pretty girl created such guttural, ear splitting noises in her sleep.

As per usual, they were seated in front of a pair of over excited twin boys on their way to DisneyWorld. Their mother seemed completely nonplussed by their feisty behaviour, and as Annie succumbed to sleep, as she always did within the first five minutes of any flight, she sighed audibly. The mother didn’t hear her exaggerated discontent, so she tried to concentrate on ideas for a new book. In spite of the irritation, the boys behind her gave her a great idea about two little boys who terrorise others, and she giggled to herself, her fingers flying over the keyboards.

Turn every negative into a positive.

Like this holiday. Enjoy every second, forget Saul, forget that sleazy editor, forget Coldplay Guy.

She found herself nodding off, and after closing her laptop and putting it away, she willed dreams of hunky tanned Hugh Jackman lookalikes to consume her.

With only an hour till landing, and feeling groggy and disorientated, Emily made an action plan. Head to the bathroom, re-apply war paint, then wake up sleeping beauty. How she managed to sleep through the twins hammering away at her seat, she did not know. As she stood up, she collided with a man carrying a vile smelling cup of coffee. Her special ‘A-list Celebrity’ style white jeans took the brunt of the splash. It was a small mercy, a very minute mercy, that the coffee was cold. The man apologised, but eager to get to the bathroom and assess the damage, she barged past him without so much as a word.