Page 33 of The Surprise Wedding
Work on the wedding continued over the next couple of days, and things were coming together. Jenn was preparing the final batches of food for the wedding. The wedding cake, already baked, was sitting in the walk-in fridge, waiting to be frosted. Travis had assembled the plans for the various security details—and there were a lot of them between airport runs, booking limos, and keeping the Married in Malibu site clear. A few fans had been seen trying to camp out in hopes of seeing their hero, Zach, live and in-person, but Travis moved them along. Amy had finished one sitting with the happy couple, and the final portrait was almost done. It was special and unique and included Japanese touches of gold. Kate had buckets of flowers in her fridges for the bouquet, centerpieces, and for the beautiful hanging arrangement. The venue looked impressive and magical thanks to Meg’s efforts. No one had seen the wedding dress except Liz and Meg, and they were ecstatic.
While everyone else was focused on Friday’s wedding, Liz was up in her office working on the next one, because the business could never just stop. A couple of times a day, Liz would walk around the venue and the offices and check on the team. She told everyone how thrilled she was with the creativity and hard work that was going into making this one of their most impressive weddings ever. Nate was overjoyed that Liz thought things were going well. His professional reputation was riding on this wedding going off without a hitch.
On Wednesday, Tamara was in the shop, filling coffee orders in the quiet of the late afternoon. Normally, she could do this in her sleep, but today she wasn’t doing a very good job. The physical side of her work usually came to her automatically—adjusting the controls on her antique espresso machine with a deft touch, steaming the milk, adding syrups, knocking out coffee grounds. On any other day, she was the best in the business.
Today, however, she’d already messed up three orders. That had to be some kind of record for her and really not the sort of record she wanted to set. Even the teens had noticed, although they didn’t say a word. Again and again, she’d get partway through an order and then find herself thinking about Nate.
“Oh, not again,” Tamara said to herself. Realizing there was no point in wasting more coffee, she asked one of her helpers to make a double cappuccino, extra dry, with soy milk.
Since it was almost time to close for the day, she asked the teens to put the pastries away, hang the Closed sign, and then gave them permission to leave early. She stepped out the back door to try to clear her head and then walked around to the front of the shop and stood there, hoping the view of the ocean would calm her. Unfortunately, that also meant looking toward Married in Malibu.
She knew why she had been messing up. Something had been bothering her for the past couple of days. At first, she tried to ignore it, but by Wednesday, that was no longer an option. She had to face facts. She had not seen or heard from Nate since he dropped her off on Monday morning. Actually, she had seen him at the tasting on Monday evening, but that didn’t count. It was the longest she’d gone without seeing Nate in forever.
On top of everything else, she’d also been plagued by thoughts of her ex—that loser, Brad. It hadn’t made any sense until now. Back then, she’d known something was up with Brad, but he’d always said everything was okay. Then he began being unavailable, always busy either with work or sports, and eventually it turned out that he’d been dating her best friend, Stacy. That had been the worst time in her life. It had shaken her self-confidence to the core, and it had taken her years to get over it. Now, she was afraid it was happening all over again.
Nate had been busy this week—or so he’d predicted on Monday. He hadn’t come by for one darn coffee. He hadn’t even sent her a text. This was feeling horribly familiar to Tamara. Was Nate being busy a way for him to say that he didn’t want her anymore? She felt sick to her stomach. How could this be happening again? Was it because she’d said she needed time to think? She hadn’t meant for him to keep his distance.
Tamara began to cry. She was so confused and so worried. Just when her life was changing for the better, this had to happen. She stood on the beach, the setting sun dipping below the horizon, feeling that all the good parts of her life were sinking too.
Yapping nearby brought her back down to earth. Tamara smiled through her tears as she saw the little dog at her feet, looking up at her.
“I suppose you think it’s all simple, don’t you?” she said as she bent down to pet him. “I like Nate. He likes me. What else is there to worry about? Well, a lot, as it turns out.”
The dog sat there, leaning against Tamara’s leg.
“I mean, it’s not like dogs even have exes, or problems with their love lives, is it? Your main worries are all about food.” Which reminded her that was probably why the little guy was there in the first place. Tamara went inside to get some scraps of food, but she wasn’t quite quick enough with the door. She looked around to see the little dog staring up at her.
“You can’t be in here. This is a public restaurant.”
But that was the thing with small dogs and people you loved—they got in places they weren’t supposed to be, and they stayed there.
Tamara went about her chores, trying to refocus her mind. She was busy bussing the tables, stacking chairs, and generally getting the place ready for the morning when there was a knock at the window. She looked up and saw Liz smiling at her.
She went to the door and opened it. “Hi, Liz, come on in,” she said.
“Oh, thanks, Tamara. I don’t want anything,” she said before Tamara could even ask. “I saw your light on, and I just wanted to talk to someone, anyone, for five blasted minutes about anything that isn’t to do with a wedding!”
“That bad, huh?”
“No, it’s not bad—it’s just insane! But I have to say that everything is going to be perfect.” Liz spent the next few minutes regaling Tamara with everything that was happening across the street, including a funny story about one of Zach’s fans who had tried to get inside the venue by posing as a delivery driver. Travis recognized him as one of the kids he’d moved along earlier in the day. Liz kept talking, and then suddenly she paused.
“Tamara, what’s wrong?”
Tamara’s face crumpled, and she could see that Liz was shocked. She was probably used to Tamara being sunny and happy, but right now she just couldn’t pretend. She opened her mouth to try to shrug it off, but before she got out the words, Liz said, “And don’t say ‘nothing.’”
Tamara sighed. “Oh… you know… just some old stuff that is coming home to roost.”
“Actually, I don’t know, but something is upsetting you. I’m your friend, and I want to help you.”
Liz’s soft, kind voice was enough to cause Tamara to begin to cry for the second time that day. Liz pulled out one of the tissues she always had on hand, and Tamara dabbed at her eyes. She took a few moments to pull herself together and then realized she needed to be honest and just tell the truth.
Liz listened quietly and patiently as Tamara told her story from the beginning. She talked about her family and their view on marriage; she talked about Brad and how he and Stacy had deceived her; she talked about thinking she didn’t deserve a second chance and that she was determined never to be deceived again, by anyone. As she spoke, Liz reached out and held her hand, squeezing it softly.
When she had finished, Liz said simply, “But how did the weekend with Nate really go? You told me that it was great.”
“Well, that’s the thing. It was better than great—it was incredible.” At the mere mention of Nate’s name, Tamara couldn’t help but break into a wide smile.
Liz asked, “So what happened between Monday morning and now?”
