Everyone has baggage, but it's certainly not Selina's job to carry it for them.
*****
Radio talk show host Selina Locke was just looking for a peaceful summer in sunny Barcelona, but...
( — janelle monáe; american singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and producer. )
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"I AM FREAKING OUT!" Maia complains, running around the wedding venue almost at the speed of sound, and Selina has to sit down, dizzy from attempting to keep up with her friend. "Jesus Christ. This isn't happening. Selina, tell me this isn't happening and it's all an illusion created by my crippling fear of ruining my friends' wedding."
"Well . . ." Selina begins, twirling her champagne flute. It might not be a good idea to pop open a champagne bottle this early, hours before the actual wedding, but she's empathetically stressed. That's what friendship is all about, even if Maia has to stay the hell away from alcoholic beverages . . . for now, at least. "Why not both? It's happening, but, realistically, it's probably not as bad or as serious as your brain is making it out to be."
Maia throws her a murderous glare. "Shut up."
"Sorry." Selina downs her champagne. Bottoms up. "Maia, I'm serious. Sit down for a minute and try to think clearly and reasonably—is this situation really impossible to solve or is your judgment clouded by panic?"
Maia falls to the chair in front of her, defeated, and buries her head in her hands. "I'm a disaster. No one should have let me plan this wedding."
"Okay, no. We're not doing this, Maia." Selina sets her cup aside and leans forward, wondering when the roles reversed and forced her to be the one to hand out pep talks like candy. "They asked you to plan their wedding, not only because you're their friend, but also because you're absolutely phenomenal at what you do. Mishaps happen and they're not your fault. Even if they were, there's nothing you can't fix, but you're not going to accomplish anything by sitting here and feeling sorry for yourself. The clock is ticking and time waits for no one."
In reality, it's pretty bad.
It all started a few hours earlier, back when Maia realized half of the flowers she had ordered hadn't been delivered. After calling the company, she was informed there had been a misunderstanding and her flowers had been shipped to another wedding, which left her with the wrong order—which didn't fit her plan at all.
Selina doesn't know much about flowers, really, but a quick Google search told her Persian Buttercups didn't look that much different than roses; in her opinion, it was no big deal and, if the other wedding didn't complain about it, then they should just take the buttercups and move on.
Maia still doesn't share the same opinion. Selina knows better than to try to convince her of it and has spent the last few hours working on damage control, which is mostly about keeping Maia calm before she goes berserk and smashes a vase or two.
