Page 7 of How to Ruin a Wedding

I immediately shove a fry in my mouth, moaning at the taste of warm Parmesan and salt. Whoever invented fries, I hope they had a long, fulfilling life. “So, you must have been watching me a while to have ordered food for me.”

He clears his throat. “I was paying for dinner when I saw you stumble to the bar.”

Stumble.Because I’ve had three—wait, make that four—whiskeys here but raided the minibar in my room before deciding to make mymisery everyone else’s problem. With every sentence we exchange, I feel each sip I took in a wave of dizziness.

“It feels suspicious how nice you’re being to me,” I say; as my head grows heavy, I lean my elbow on the counter and hold my chin. “Twice now you’ve caught me in poor form, but you sit by me, drink with me, order me food. Are you trying to sleep with me?”

He blinks, his mouth opening and shutting as he thinks about what to say.

I shake my head. “If you are, I can’t anyway. Not right now.” Wow, the alcohol has effectively removed the little filter I have. “I’m too sensitive. I’ll either fall in love with you on the spot or instantly burst into tears. Maybe another time.”

He gives me a small, not quite happy, smile, maybe a little sympathetic. “You’re going through a hard time,” he says softly. “I’m not busy, so I thought I’d keep you company.”

I’d tilt my head if it wasn’t so heavy. “Not to be a pessimist, but people usually do things for reasons other than just being a good person.”

“That is absolutely being a pessimist,” he says, then sighs. “Maybe I have an ulterior motive.”

“So you want to sleep with me?”

He gives me a smile. “Your honesty is attractive enough for that to be a future endeavor.”

My body warms, particularly between my thighs. I cross them. “But that’s not it,” I say, not too drunk to miss that.

He nods. “I’m here for a wedding.”

I raise my brow. “Is attending such a miserable experience that you’d rather keep the company of a woman you found beneath a bush?”

“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” he jokes, then adds, lightly on the tails of it, “It’s my first love’s wedding.” I choke on my fry. “First and only, actually.”

I hand him my refill as soon as the bartender places it by the fries.

“Thanks,” he says, downing it in one single gulp. He drops the glass on the counter. “Have I earned the reason you were hiding beneath a bush?”

“What’s your first love’s name?”

“Anna.”

Not Eliza, so I don’t have to lie too much about why I’m here. But I wonder if Anders would enjoy me wrecking his first love’s wedding.

Then, a thought clicks. “Wait, you went to check out that plot of land with your first love’sfiancé?”

He nods. “Lucas is my best friend.”

“Your best friend is marrying your first love?” I shout, a burst of energy sliding through me. I grip his face in my hands. “Why are you here? Why would you subject yourself to this kind of agony? Are you a masochist?”

He places a hand over mine. For a moment, I think he means to remove it, but instead, he presses my palm closer to his cheek. Does the caress of a stranger offer comfort he couldn’t admit he needed? “It’s complicated.”

“Life really sucks sometimes, huh?”

He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and I have the urge to press my lips against their lids. “Yeah,” he whispers.

I just learned his name minutes ago, but I feel such a magnetic pull toward him. I need to, at this very moment, smooth out the wrinkle between his brows. It doesn’t seem like he wants to try to uncomplicate his situation for me, and I can’t really blame him. He’s already extended himself to be here, attending a wedding he doesn’t seem to want to go to, confiding in an almost-complete stranger.

He’s done two solids for me already and has this disarming charm that’s effectively removed the pit of anxiety I can’t ever snuff out when left alone with a man I don’t know. Maybe it’s the liquor stealing that security measure from me, but I felt fine with him when we were alone before.

Maybe the universe decided to place two miserable souls together, however briefly, to give them some respite from all the damage done to them.

“Okay, Anders, let’s be sad together.”