The Wedding Planner

Part One

I stood at the threshold, mouth agape, unwilling to believe what I had witnessed. I didn't even remember walking away from the fight. If there was a patron saint of wedding planners I would've prayed to him/her by now. A tug on my hand jolted me.

Isobel glared at everyone in the room while she kept pulling on my hand. "Nica, c'mon. Let's leave this circus!" Her voice wasn't soft at all and it echoed throughout the room.

I had broken up fights before, but never to this degree, and I always had security (Chase) around me. And never had it involved people I deeply cared for. I turned towards the hallway where Trent and Landon were trying to keep up with a very angry Jake. Then a loud sob brought my attention back to the room.

Sandrine had collapsed back on the floor, and was sobbing her mascara off. Her shoulders shook as she mumbled words into her palms. Her father knelt on one knee beside her, patting his daughter's back. Vivienne stood proud and angry, glaring in my direction with pure hatred in her eyes towards my direction. Hadn't she realize that like her, I was only a witness to this whole debacle? Was she blaming me for this?

Gaspard stayed seated on the parquet floor, carefully rubbing the blood off his lip and chin. An egg-sized contusion had started to form underneath his left eye. Jake had done quite some damage on this man's beautiful face. Gaspard's perfectly regal nose looked twisted. No doubt it was broken.

"Nica, let's go." Isobel tugged again.

In two strides, Levi stood before me. "Go with him. Make sure he doesn't pull any more stupid stunts. He's done a hell of a lot of damage here. I'll check on you later," he said to me and Isobel. Levi grabbed my arm carefully. For a moment, I thought he'd pull me into an embrace and tell me that everything would be okay, but he didn't. He stared into my eyes with what seemed an apologetic look, then he walked away.

I turned and gave in to Isobel's pull. I had taken a couple of steps when some unknown force made me turn back. And I wished I hadn't. Levi stood facing Sandrine. Her face was buried in his chest. His arms were wrapped around her and his hand was rubbing her back. His lips touched the top of her head.

Levi had chosen Sandrine over Jake. He had chosen her over his best friend. Moreover, he had chosen her over me.

I bit my lip when I felt that unexpected stab of jealousy. I had no claim on Levi. He wasn't mine. We had no relationship. With no other choice, I walked forward until the cool night air greeted me. I tried and failed to erase that last picture on my mind.

Jake had left with his cousins. Isobel and I were left to take the car that had brought me to the manor. The ride back to my hotel was unexpectedly quiet.

"Can we get something to eat? I'm starving," Isobel asked when I made the move to get out of the car.

I wasn't hungry. The events of the night had drained me. My thoughts throughout the ride had left me queasy. Food was the last thing in my mind and I feared that anything I took in would eventually make its way up again. But as a classic people pleaser, I gave in.

She chose the first restaurant that suited her just south of my hotel. It had old world charms with red velvet curtains and gilded chandeliers. It unfortunately reminded me of the manor, and made me wonder what could be happening there at the moment.

Without looking through the menu, I asked for soup in plain English, without a care whether our server understood me or not. I patiently waited for Isobel to decide and attempt to order her dinner in French.

As soon as our server left, I couldn't help the questions from spilling out."Who the hell is Gaspard? And why was he there? What was it about him that made Jake tick?"

Isobel pursed her lips and raised her eyebrow. "Don't they tell you anything? Gaspard was Sandrine's ex-fiancé. I don't know what he's doing there. I think Sandrine's parents invited him to piss Jake off."

I recalled Vivienne's words earlier that evening regarding Sandrine marrying the person she was meant to. "They were engaged? For how long?"

"Years. Decades. It was arranged, of course. I'm sure money had a lot to do with it. That's why I didn't trust Sandrine. How could anyone break a long-term engagement like that and then turn around and get engaged again to someone she met less than three months?"

"But Jake knew about the engagement."

Isobel looked about the room. "Yeah. He told me about her previous engagement to Gaspard. It's shitty. But hey, at least you don't have to sabotage their wedding." She smirked at me.

I popped open my mouth and was ready for a rebuttal when our waiter came back with Isobel's drink and then poured me a glass of water. As soon as he trotted off, I spat out, "I never said I was going to sabotage their wedding. I had no intentions of doing so." To accuse me of such thing was beyond an insult.

But Isobel was unaffected. "Oh well, it's over now."

"Aren't you a least bit upset for your brother?"

With her eyes rolling, Isobel tsked at me. "Nica, I'm glad that it's come to this. She was going to take Jake away from us!" She reached for my hand.

Her outburst had garnered a few uncomfortable looks from other diners, but unaware, she continued, "They were going to move to some third world country and join Doctors Without Borders. Like, are you kidding me? That's my brother! Hell no, I'm not letting a little French twit take him away from me."

Selfish as Isobel might have been, at least I knew that she cared for her brother. But it had revealed a lot more to me. Was this Jake's plan or was it Sandrine's? Sandrine had mentioned that she had a couple of friends, doctors, who were quarantined. Had they planned to replace these two women after the wedding? Jake had never shared with me that he wanted to work abroad, but he had always been a philanthropist.

"It was Jake's choice. It's what he wants to do."

"Nica, don't be ridiculous. Jake would never be caught with such a stupid idea."

"What made you say that? First of all, it's not stupid. It's commendable that they considered it..."

Isobel interrupted, "and second of all, it doesn't matter because the wedding is off." Thinking that our conversation had finished, she leaned back with her arms crossed over her chest.

She acted like a petulant child, but there was truth in her words. Jake had called off the wedding.

Our server came back to give us bread, which neither of us touched. Isobel struggled to keep quiet. And when she couldn't anymore, she blurted out, "Gaspard was hot though. Well, until Jake did a number on his face."

I took the bait. "I never thought he could be so... violent." I used to think he couldn't hurt a fly.

With a glass tilted to her lips, Isobel snorted. "Are you kidding me? He's been getting into trouble since college. Jake and Levi even formed their own fight club. Couple of dingbats. You should have seen my mom's face when Jake came home with a black eye that first year."

"Fight club?"

"Yeah, how do you think he and Levi met? They became best friends because of that stupid underground club."

I didn't know this. I only knew that Jake and Levi met during undergrad.

Isobel was in a sharing mood and she kept telling me things I should have known but was too naïve to have asked. "They got into all sorts of trouble. Jake was such a player back then too. I guess it came with the bad boy vibe. He dated skank after skank. My parents were so worried that one of them was going to get pregnant or something. Then Jake went to med school. We had no way of knowing if he stopped his shinanigans or not. Mom just hoped he did."

Our waiter chose that moment to appear with our meals: a creamy soup for me an artfully plated dinner for Isobel. She dug in right away, not bothering to appreciate the skill presented to her.

"You have to imagine my mom's relief when he brought you home. She thought finally, he's brought a good girl home." I distinctly remembered how sweet Jake's mother had been when we met. I had been so nervous and she was so welcoming. Now I knew why. "And then he brought Sandrine home. We didn't even know you guys broke up until that night. Mom took a liking to her, of course, because she's pretty and French."

Had it come from any other person, I would have broken down and cried, but Isobel was with me and I doubted she could handle the emotional turmoil roiling in me. I didn't touch my soup. I waited until Isobel finished her meal. When she asked if I wanted dessert, not checking if I finished my dinner, I excused myself and told her that I was going to walk back to my hotel.

Before I could escape, Isobel asked me, "Nica, is there something going on with you and Levi?"

I pushed my chair back, the legs screeching on the floor, and stood quickly. How fast could I get away from her and her meddling? "Why would you say that?"

Isobel leered at me. "I hope you know what you're doing. I wouldn't trust him if I were you." I opened my mouth but no sound came. "He's the reason why you're not with Jake anymore."

My hand flew to my chest, grasping at the lace neckline. "What do you mean?"

"He introduced Jake to Sandrine."

My body numbed. Jake had only told me that he had met someone and had fallen in love with her immediately. Levi had never mentioned that he had anything to do with it. I held onto the table when my surroundings started spinning. My chest heaved, grasping for air, trying to push the heaviness away. I had to get out.

I stumbled towards the front of the restaurant and pushed open the door. I welcomed the breeze that comingled with the faint laughter in the air. My mind was full. My heart was heavy. My tears were ready to drop.

As I trudged my way through the streets of Paris, I thought of the days I spent with Levi. Of the tenderness that he had shown me. Of the promise of something beautiful that I held onto. And of the betrayal that I now felt.

Levi had been around Jake and I a lot during the months when we dated. I had been cognizant of his presence, but oftentimes I ignored him. He had witnessed the love that two people shared, the kisses that two lovers savored. He knew what I felt for Jake and what Jake had felt for me. And he had no qualms breaking us up by bringing Sandrine into the picture.

And what of the unexpected feelings I'd felt for him these past few days? Had I been blinded all this time? After spending these two days with him, I had seen him in a more convivial light. I was enamoured by Levi's beautiful side. Was it all a ruse? All this time, had be been using me? But for what purpose? What sick game had he been playing?

I didn't know how I got there, but I found myself back in the hotel. The lobby was buzzing even during the late hour. I took the first available elevator to my floor, and held onto every vestige of courage I had left. I couldn't let myself fall apart in front of all these strangers. I turned the corner towards my room, ready for the onslaught of pain and tears that would undoubtedly come.

When I saw the tall figure leaning on my door, my heart stopped.

******

A/N: I know this is heavy on the drama. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts and don't forget that a vote is a click away!

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