Cradle Broken Glass

Chapter Sixty Three

"I called on the phone earlier to make sure that the Centrepieces had been delivered and I was assured by whoever the fuck I talked to that they had been received and were being placed on the tables as we spoke. Clearly that was a fucking lie, so where the fuck are my centrepieces?" Ash bit out, her whole body tense and as she spoke to the manager. The pale faced man who looked like he was about to shit himself went to opened his mouth to respond when he was cut off again by the pissed off bride.

"Do you know who you're dealing with here? Because as far as you're concerned our wedding is going to bring hundreds of dollars in for your hotel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that Rolling Stone was going to be coming on Saturday to write an article on it. So if you don't get me my fucking centrepieces then I'm assuming you want me to take my business elsewhere and allow them to benefit off of your mistake." She finished. Ash was short, about 5"4, but the look on the man's face made it seem like he was facing up to Goliath. And as much as she knew her best friend was letting her emotions get the best of her, Layla still felt afraid herself of what she would do if everything wasn't in order for Saturday's wedding and reception.

"Look, let's all just calm down and talk to the delivery service. I'm sure we can figure out what's happened and get it sorted out." Jeff stepped in, trying to neutralise the situation.

"Do you have an office with a phone or something, somewhere where we can talk this out and try to fix it?" He continued and the owner nodded eagerly before directing them through a hallway on the side of the ballroom. Layla raised her hand up to her mouth, attempting to hide the laugh that was about her escape her when Ash turned back and gave her a glare, shutting her up immediately. The pair left the room but not before Jeff turned around to her and rolled his eyes as if to say 'this is what I'm marrying into'.

She felt bad for him. No one could have predicted that Ash would get this tightly wound up over the wedding, but all the pressure from the press and media was making her feel like she needed to have everything perfect. Layla completely understood where she was coming from, but she could not wait for everything to be over so she would go back to the Ash that she knew. And she could bet Jeff felt the same.

But nothing could spoil the excitement that everyone was feeling for the next two days. It was all anyone had been talking about and Jeff was constantly being teased about settling down despite the fact that he had claimed he would stay a single man for the rest of his life. The two of them were perfect together and Layla smiled when she thought about how neither of them had realised the other had feelings for them at first. They were lucky that she was such a nosy best friend who played matchmaker and forced them to talk about how they felt. At least she was going to take the credit regardless of what anyone else said.

"What are you smiling about?" Eddie's voice pulled her from her daydream and she noticed that she'd been staring into space for a while with a dreamy look on her face. She turned and looked at him briefly before moving around the tables and making sure that everything that needed to be on them was there and in perfect order.

"Nothing, just lost my head there for a while." She replied with a neutral tone. She noticed that Eddie had been doing that more and more since they had seen each other again. Acting like everything was normal. He treated her like a friend, which she wasn't complaining about, but it felt like there was a massive elephant in the room they were ignoring. And she didn't understand how he could be so casual about it. They hadn't had many interactions since but all of them had been polite. This was the first time they were talking after their dispute outside of the restaurant without someone else in the room, and she felt a sudden urgent awkwardness descend on them both as they made their way around the room, fixing placements and straightening the chairs.

"Is there a Layla here?" Someone said from the entrance of the ballroom and she turned to find the receptionist.

"Yes, that's me, why?"