Page 64 of The Great Dating Fake Off
This clarifies nothing.
And at least forty people are enjoying their continental breakfasts, watching the fight like a show.
I just wanted a nice, quiet breakfast with Benji, dang it.
Alessia swoops in out of nowhere, face pale. She nearly bowls us over, guiding us out of earshot. “Oh good, you’re all here. We have a problem.”
Sebastian’s brows knit together. “We do?”
She gestures at the Ferraro-Mazzelli Fight Square, and then at Eloise, who is standing off to the side with something like remorse etched in her features.
“The florists came late last night and left the delivery out back of the event hall. They texted the wedding planner, who of course doesn’t live at this resort. Since she knew El had a key to the service kitchen and fridge, the planner texted El at midnight to put the flowers in the fridge”—she lowers her voice, which has been steadily getting louder—“and she didn’t get the text until we woke up. And by the time we got to the flowers, it had poured in the night and drowned them.”
Sebastian curses. “Were you able to salvage any of them?”
“Nope. And it doesn’t matter because they weren’t even supposed to drop the flowers off until Saturday at the earliest. Today is Thursday. They had the wrong wedding date.”
“It seems like the resort should have set delivery hours,” Benji says, ever practical. “Why did they drop them off in the middle of the night?”
“The Adirondacks are a lawless frontier.” Alessia’s eyes flash concern as she looks toward her girlfriend. “Now El is trying to apologize but Ro and Enzo are fighting about what to do about the flowers, while their dads fight about money.”
“El, short for Eloise, correct?” Benji asks.
I turn on him. “Wait, how do you know about Eloise?”
He nods at Alessia. “We hung out and enjoyed ourselves last night while you people went wild.”
Benji doesn’t enjoy “hanging out” with anyone. But he hung out with Sebastian’s best friend who he is about to be related to (sort of)? This is the six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon stuff I need to think about before I find myself alone with Sebastian ever again.
A muscle in Sebastian’s jaw jumps. “It’s not her fault the florist left a ton of flowers outside. They should be held accountable.”
“Oh, agreed. But try telling her that.” Alessia wipes her forehead as she sighs. “She feels that if she’d woken up from a dead sleep to her phone when they texted none of this would’ve happened.”
“Come on,” Sebastian nods sideways. “Let’s talk to Ro and Enzo and we can be their sounding board of reason. Or at least we can be buffers. It’s just flowers, and there’s always a fix.”
Alessia and I wince in unison.
“Maybe don’t say ‘just’ flowers to them when we’re over there,” Alessia offers, plucking the words right out of my head. “Ro has probably had her mind set on specific wedding flowers since she was a pageant tween. Flowers are massively important to an aesthetic.”
A loud clattering rings through the lounge as a plastic bowl strikes the ground. Cereal scatters everywhere.
“Vinny,” Mamma V gasps, scrambling to her knees. “That was my breakfast!”
“Oh Christ,” Benji groans. “Here we go.”
Benji and Sebastian rush forward just as Benji’s dad, Giuseppe, squares up on Vinny. “Did you just strike my wife?”
Vinny, despite his height advantage, seems to shrink. “I was gesturing! She walked past my elbow!”
“I was walking my food back to my table and wanted to check on my daughter,” Mamma V whimpers, plucking Frosted Flakes off the floor one at a time.
“Dad, relax. It was an honest mistake.” Ro rubs her temples, paler than I’ve seen her. After last night, it’s a miracle she made it to breakfast at all. “Mom’s fine.”
“That’s right. An honest mistake.” Vinny squares up right back, as if emboldened by Ro’s attempt to settle them down. “You should listen to your daughter, because I’m getting tired of always being your bad guy, Giuseppe.”
“What am I supposed to think, when my wife falls to the ground at your elbow—”
“You give me the benefit of the doubt. You can’t solve all your problems with violence, like you did back in high school. You do understand that your daughter will soon be my daughter, too, right?”
