Work Wife

My Best Friend's Wedding

"You did what?" My sister Emma gasps when I call her on my way home. My commute is about a half hour on the train so I usually give her a ring when I am leaving Union Station. It's just enough time to catch each other up on our days, but I know I will be doing most of the talking on this gab sesh.

"I'm an idiot," I mutter and I pray no one takes the seat next to me as the train fills up. We got the project in by three and I told Chase I was going to use the remainder of the afternoon to go bridesmaid dress shopping. I didn't even give him a chance to say no as I told him with one foot out the door.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" She asks me which is exactly what she asked me when I agreed to be the planner.

"Do you know how hard it is to say no when you have three eager people looking at you?" I ask her, but Emma is fabulous at saying no. Her kids call her "auto-no."

I drop my head against the cool glass window and am glad when the train starts to move and the seat next to me is still vacant. I adjust my Airpod as my long, ash-blonde hair gets all tangled up in it.

"Stella, Stella, Stella...," Emma mumbles and I know she's shaking her head. "When are you going to drop this crush? I know you did it for Chase." I sigh. Emma is the only one I have admitted my crush to. I figured my secret was safe with her seeing as she lives forty-five minutes away from me and never comes to my work functions. She met Chase once when we went to a Rockies game as a company. Chase splurged for a suite and my sister begged me to come as my date because we were playing the Cubs. She immediately understood why I found Chase's dark tousled hair and round brown eyes attractive but she said he was goofy and a bit pretentious. I told her that I enjoyed the fact that he was silly with his dumb jokes and he was just professionally driven.

"He said I was his best friend today," I relay to her and then add, "It makes sense to be in your best friend's wedding."

"Oh my god, is that what this is?" Emma gasps. "Are you trying to My Best Friend's Wedding this?"

"What?" I say loudly with a scoff and look around, making sure I am not bothering anyone with my loud response.

"He doesn't end up with Julia Roberts at the end, Stel. So I seriously hope you weren't thinking of sabotaging this Mexico trip to show Chase that you are his one true love." I don't come out and tell her that is exactly what I was planning to do.

"That's...no. No, I am just...I am a master wedding planner. You know this, I worked for you. Why wouldn't I lend my expertise to my best friend?"

"No, I somewhat understood when you took on that role. You're an amazing event coordinator, I don't understand why you took on this horrific idea?" My niece interrupts her rant and they deal with a Play-Doh fiasco while I quickly check my emails. I see Ainslee already sent me several links to dress sites and I notice the dresses are all in the two-hundred dollar range. I had already bought a fabulous tropical dress from Anthropologie last weekend that I was planning on wearing so I am just oh-so stoked to spend more money on this wedding. Emma finally gets back to me and says, "Sorry, Mads stuck a whole wad of dough in her hair, look I just don't want you to get hurt out there. Unrequited love is brutal."

"It's not unrequited love, it's just...it's you know? Whatever, I have to dress shop so I'll let you go."

"Are you going to buy a blue dress?" She mocks and I glare at her even though she can't see me. I told her one time I gravitate towards blue clothing because it's Chase's favorite color.

"No, I unfortunately have to buy something pink."

"Stella, you are not a pushover. Honestly, you can be a bit scary and intimidating, but for some reason, you're a melted marshmallow when it comes to that man. I just don't want him to crush you or make things weird for you at work."

"I know, I know. I love my job which is why I would never jeopardize it by outwardly going for Chase. Or by ruining his wedding," I agree and when the train comes to the next stop right outside downtown, I am unfortunately ambushed by a crowd and I know my empty seat will be nabbed. "I'll call you tomorrow." She makes Madison say goodbye to me and does kissy noises for about two minutes before they finally hang up. I watch the city fade from view and as we glide toward the suburbs, I drop my head back and put on a crime podcast. I use a murder in Ohio to try and push Ainslee with her long mousy blonde hair and perfect smile from my mind, but I can't stop picturing her in Mexico. In her cream, lacy, barely there gown with a jewel-encrusted headpiece on top of her long wavy hair.

Since they met three months ago, I've been trying to figure out what Ainslee has that got Chase Camden to settle down. They met when he ran into a nearby salon to get a haircut before a big client pitch and she happened to be the stylist that draped her black cape around him. He came back to work all giddy and I found out after the client signed on the dotted line that his twitterpation was from the cute hair stylist he just met. I shrugged it off, always hearing about some girl that caught his attention for thirty seconds.

But it was longer than thirty seconds and suddenly he was inviting her to lunch at the office and meeting her a Pips after work. Five of us from the office would always happy hour together and suddenly there were six of us. I knew he was serious about her when he invited her to our Trivia League we do on Thursday nights. I wasn't allowed to invite Eloise into our league when I found out she plays trivia on her phone because Chase, Levi, and Henry from H.R. had already been established as our team from the start of the season. But suddenly Ainslee is joining us and our little four-top we sat at for six months was replaced with a couch on the second level, away from the main players.

He used to spend his lunchtime with me, brainstorming event ideas, complaining about needy clients, or gabbing about some show we were both watching. Then all he wanted to talk about was Ainslee. He showed me precious pictures of them from the weekend and silly memes she would send him throughout the day. He'd take his breaks outside so he could FaceTime her or dash down the street to see her at the salon.

Every Wednesday Chase and I used to go to this amazing sushi restaurant for lunch for their killer specials and it would be the one thing to get me through the rest of the week. He then started inviting Ainslee along and I became an awkward third wheel. He would joke with her that I was his work wife in a so not threatening way and she never once seemed concerned about our closeness. That it was some joke in the office. I was his right-hand woman, his best employee, and his confidant about all things Havicore. For some reason, neither Ainslee nor Chase saw me as anything more than that. And it makes me want to rip my hair out.

I close my eyes, trying to focus on the evidence found in this cold case but my phone buzzing forces them back open. I pray it's not someone from work bugging me about a needy client, but am more annoyed when I see it's Ainslee adding me to some group chat. I open my messages and see I have been added to the bridesmaid chat and the other five bridesmaids are hearting and thumbs-uping Ainslee's announcing me as her fill-in bridesmaid. My phone is vibrating like crazy and I never agreed to be added to this buzzing chat room. I don't need every thought on the bachelorette party or wedding. I hear enough about it from Chase.

I quickly type out Happy to be included and add a simple smiley face. My phone explodes again with the girls showing me what dresses they've bought and ideas they've had for the four days we are in Mexico for the bachelorette party, which is immediately before the three-day wedding extravaganza.

I was trying to get through three days of wedding hell. Now I am going to have to suffer for a week. I sigh dramatically, not caring if I disturb the man reading the newspaper next to me. I shake my head and then realize I'll be with all of Ainslee's best friends and confidants for four days before the wedding. If I need to get some dirt to try and stop this wedding, the best way may be to do it from the inside.

Suddenly I am smirking. Wondering if I was just given a golden opportunity to prove that Ainslee Weiss isn't the perfect woman from Chase Camden after all.