Plus One
two
Leanne had forgotten to get a picture of Jude for me, but after texting him for a few days, we decided to meet up for coffee and see if we’d be able to stand being together for the wedding, which was in Mexico of all places. Apparently it was a dream of Hana’s to get married on the beach.
There was a coffee shop in town about five minutes away from where each of us lived, so it seemed like a good place to get to know each other. We made plans for noon, but I showed up at 11:55, and he at 12:05. This annoyed me immediately, because if there was one thing I hated, it was tardiness.
I had no idea what he looked like, but when he walked in, something like a sixth sense just informed me That’s him. He was wearing black Ray Bans and had messy dark hair, like he’d just rolled out of bed. But the thing I noticed most of all was the black ring jutting out of his lower lip. I myself had my nose pierced, but a lip ring? I wasn’t sure I could deal with that.
Something about his overall attitude bothered me, the way he walked towards the table with a certain arrogance, like he was doing me a service by being here. Which he technically was. But I didn’t want to think about that.
“Hey,” he said, stopping at the table..
“Hey.”
“Are you Michaela? Michaela Collins?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Jude Kelly.” He extended his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too. Wanna, um, sit?”
“Sure. Let me just go buy a coffee.” I nodded, and he got in line. I watched him flirt with the barista for a bit before he ordered a regular coffee with milk, no sugar. Then he came back and slid across from me. “So . . .”
“So,” I agreed. “Where do we begin?”
“I guess the fact that we’re going to a wedding together,” he said with a shrug.
“Good idea,” I said. “And thanks for offering, by the way.”
He shrugged again. “Yeah, well. Leanne said you were desperate.”
I furrowed my eyebrows, a little annoyed. “I wasn’t that desperate.”
Jude snorted. “Okay.”
“I wasn’t!”
“I said ‘okay’, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it was clearly sarcastic.”
“All right, whatever,” Jude said. “So, what? You want me to show up and be the cute boyfriend so your family approves?”
“My family?” I said, confused. Then, “Wait . . . Leanne didn’t tell you whose wedding this is?”
“No . . .” he said, now equally confused. “Why . . . whose is it?”
“It’s, um, kind of my ex-boyfriend’s,” I said slowly.
He looked at me for a long moment before he shook his head. “Oh no. No way. No fucking way.”
“Jude, come on.”
“There is no way I’m pretending to be your boyfriend at your ex-boyfriend’s wedding! And why you were even invited in the first place?”
“First of all, you don’t have to be my boyfriend, just my date,” I said, exasperated. “And second . . . we were all friends in college, okay? Believe me, I don’t wanna go either.”
“So, what. we just show up, he sees you with me and leaves his fiancee for you? Is that what this is?” he practically shouted.
“No! And would you keep your voice down?” I demanded, even more irritated than before. “I just need to . . . not look pathetic, I guess. I’m not trying to win him back; I just want to show him I’m over him.”
“But you’re not.”
“That’s not the point, Jesus.”
“It’s Jude, actually.”
“Oh my God,” I covered my face with my hands. “You know what? Forget it. Forget it. I’ll go alone.” As soon as I said that, I regretted it. Showing up alone to Marcus’s wedding would only confirm everyone’s suspicions that yes, I was still hung up on him.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be so sensitive. I said I’d go, didn’t I?” Jude asked. “It’s just a wedding. How hard can it be?”
Jude and I spent the next hour going over basic information about each other. I learned his birthday, his middle name, the college he went to, his major, his hobbies, his pets, and his family, and he learned mine. He also didn’t know any of my friends besides Leanne, so I made sure to show him pictures and fill him in about all the others.
Finally, he stood and stretched. “Well, this was fun and all . . . but I’ve got a date. I’ll text you sometime.”
“You’re going on a date?” I demanded.
“Yeah . . . why?” He raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m your fake date, remember? Just because you can’t get one doesn’t mean I can’t either.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot. “You’re an asshole.”
“So I’ve been told,” he said cheerfully. “See you later.”
I left the coffee shop feeling even less confident than I was before. I had no doubt that Jude would accompany me, since he’d said he’d always wanted to travel to Mexico, but would he be a believable date?
“How was it?” Leanne asked when I came home. “Did you guys hit it off?”
I shrugged. “It was okay. He seems okay.”
When it became clear I wasn’t going to give out any more information, Leanne scoffed. “I’m seeing Jude at work tomorrow, I can just get the details from him,” she threatened.
“Go right ahead,” I said carelessly. I had a feeling as to how Jude would describe me: controlling, bossy, uptight. Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Leanne left a while later to go to her yoga class while I stayed home to brood. I was lying on my bed reading a book when my phone rang. To my surprise, it was Hana. For an awful moment, I considered not answering, but then shook myself out of it.
“Hello?”
She was crying, which startled me even more. “Michaela?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, Michaela ‒” She couldn’t even finish her sentence.
“Hana? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”
“No, no, everything’s ruined and now I’ll never be able to get married, and ‒”
“Hana,” I interrupted. “Tell me what happened.”
Tearfully, she began to explain. “Two of my dearest cousins, Priya and Lily, were in a car accident yesterday.”
“Oh,” I said slowly. “That’s terrible. Are they okay?”
“Yes, thankfully, but they’ll have to be in the hospital for a ‒ a while, and the doctor said they won’t be able to travel for at least a month.” She started to cry again.
I was still having trouble understanding. “Hana, I’m sorry, but I still don’t get it.”
“They were two of my bridesmaids, and now they won’t be able to come, and now the ratio of bridesmaids to groomsmen is off, but we can’t just postpone because it’s in Mexico and everyone already booked their flights and oh, it’s just a mess!” Hana wailed.
“Okay,” I said, now slightly annoyed. “So, what does that have to do with me?”
“Will you and Leanne take their spots as my bridesmaids? Please?”
I felt my mouth drop open. “You want me?”
“Yes, you and Leanne. Marcus and I discussed it and he agrees. You’re both our close friends and we don’t think there’s anyone better to replace Priya and Lily. We’ll pay for you to fly out early for the rehearsal and the dinner, and we can get the dresses refitted, and it would just be an amazing help if you agreed.”
I swallowed. The irony of being Hana’s bridesmaid was definitely not lost on me. On one hand, I really didn’t want to do it. But as much as I hated to admit it, Hana and Marcus were my friends, and they needed me. Plus, everything was being paid for, right? What was the harm? It was Mexico. for God’s sake, and now I had the opportunity to be there for five days instead of three.
“All right,” I said finally. “I’ll tell Leanne; she’ll be thrilled.”
Hana squealed. “Thank you so much, Michaela! You’re a lifesaver, you truly are. I’ll call you later in the week and you and Leanne can come and get the dresses fitted. In the meantime, let me email you the travel information. Is it just you, Leanne, and Oliver coming? Or are you bringing someone?”
I hesitated. Would Jude be okay with coming down a little earlier? Then I realized: who cared? He was doing it under my terms. He was my date. He was coming whether he wanted to or not. “Yes, I’m bringing someone,” I answered.
Her response was a second delayed. “Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much, Michaela, and thank Leanne too. It means so much to me, really.”
“Of course, Hana,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll see you later.” I hung up with her before debating my next move. I would have to inform Jude, of course, but how? And what would his reaction be? I settled on sending him a text.
Something important just came up. Can we meet again this week to talk some more?
His response came about five minutes later. I wondered if he was still on his date. What happened?
Too hard to tell through text. Are you free at all? Wednesday, same time same place?
Ok was all I got in return, but it was enough. I put my phone down with another long sigh.
Leanne returned home not long after that, and when I delivered the news, she practically screamed. “Are you serious? Hana wants us to be her bridesmaids?”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” I said wearily. “I figured you’d be in, so I told her we’d do it. We have to meet her sometime later this week to get the dresses refitted. She and Marcus said they’d fly us out early for the rehearsal and the dinner too.”
Leanne looked like she might explode with joy. Then she paused. “Wait, what about Jude?”
“What about him?”
“Well, he’s coming with you, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” I said testily. “I’m seeing him again on Wednesday and I’ll tell him then.”
“Do you think he’ll be fine with it?”
“Who cares? He agreed to do it, so he technically has to be.”
Leanne shrugged. “If you say so. You know how Jude can be.”
Unfortunately, I did.
✿ ✿ ✿
“So now you’re a bridesmaid at your ex-boyfriend’s wedding?” Jude said, nearly spitting out his coffee. I nodded wearily, and he looked at me for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Oh, man. You have the worst luck ever, don’t you?”
“I’m starting to think so, yes,” I said grumpily. “Anyways, so are you in or not?”
“Hell yeah, I’m in. Five days in Mexico? Sounds sick.”
“Easy for you to say,” I answered, but inside I was relieved. Part of me was afraid Jude would refuse and I’d be back at Square One. “Anyways, that’s good, because I already told Hana I was bringing someone.”
“Without asking me? How confident of you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m an optimist,” I said dryly, and he actually cracked a grin. “By the way, how was that date of yours?” I asked.
He looked confused for a second before it clicked. “It was . . . fine,” he said at last. “Just a date. You know. Oh, wait. You don’t.”
And we were back to where we started. “Very funny. Hilarious,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Just because I couldn’t get a date to this wedding doesn’t mean I’ve never been on a date before.”
He shrugged, changing the subject. “So, we’re really doing this? Going to a destination wedding in Mexico together?”
“I guess so. I mean, it’s only five days. How hard can it be? We can survive this, right?”
“I don’t see why not,” Jude said. He held out his hand. “Shake on it?”
I nodded, reached out my own, and we shook.
There was a coffee shop in town about five minutes away from where each of us lived, so it seemed like a good place to get to know each other. We made plans for noon, but I showed up at 11:55, and he at 12:05. This annoyed me immediately, because if there was one thing I hated, it was tardiness.
I had no idea what he looked like, but when he walked in, something like a sixth sense just informed me That’s him. He was wearing black Ray Bans and had messy dark hair, like he’d just rolled out of bed. But the thing I noticed most of all was the black ring jutting out of his lower lip. I myself had my nose pierced, but a lip ring? I wasn’t sure I could deal with that.
Something about his overall attitude bothered me, the way he walked towards the table with a certain arrogance, like he was doing me a service by being here. Which he technically was. But I didn’t want to think about that.
“Hey,” he said, stopping at the table..
“Hey.”
“Are you Michaela? Michaela Collins?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Jude Kelly.” He extended his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too. Wanna, um, sit?”
“Sure. Let me just go buy a coffee.” I nodded, and he got in line. I watched him flirt with the barista for a bit before he ordered a regular coffee with milk, no sugar. Then he came back and slid across from me. “So . . .”
“So,” I agreed. “Where do we begin?”
“I guess the fact that we’re going to a wedding together,” he said with a shrug.
“Good idea,” I said. “And thanks for offering, by the way.”
He shrugged again. “Yeah, well. Leanne said you were desperate.”
I furrowed my eyebrows, a little annoyed. “I wasn’t that desperate.”
Jude snorted. “Okay.”
“I wasn’t!”
“I said ‘okay’, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but it was clearly sarcastic.”
“All right, whatever,” Jude said. “So, what? You want me to show up and be the cute boyfriend so your family approves?”
“My family?” I said, confused. Then, “Wait . . . Leanne didn’t tell you whose wedding this is?”
“No . . .” he said, now equally confused. “Why . . . whose is it?”
“It’s, um, kind of my ex-boyfriend’s,” I said slowly.
He looked at me for a long moment before he shook his head. “Oh no. No way. No fucking way.”
“Jude, come on.”
“There is no way I’m pretending to be your boyfriend at your ex-boyfriend’s wedding! And why you were even invited in the first place?”
“First of all, you don’t have to be my boyfriend, just my date,” I said, exasperated. “And second . . . we were all friends in college, okay? Believe me, I don’t wanna go either.”
“So, what. we just show up, he sees you with me and leaves his fiancee for you? Is that what this is?” he practically shouted.
“No! And would you keep your voice down?” I demanded, even more irritated than before. “I just need to . . . not look pathetic, I guess. I’m not trying to win him back; I just want to show him I’m over him.”
“But you’re not.”
“That’s not the point, Jesus.”
“It’s Jude, actually.”
“Oh my God,” I covered my face with my hands. “You know what? Forget it. Forget it. I’ll go alone.” As soon as I said that, I regretted it. Showing up alone to Marcus’s wedding would only confirm everyone’s suspicions that yes, I was still hung up on him.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be so sensitive. I said I’d go, didn’t I?” Jude asked. “It’s just a wedding. How hard can it be?”
Jude and I spent the next hour going over basic information about each other. I learned his birthday, his middle name, the college he went to, his major, his hobbies, his pets, and his family, and he learned mine. He also didn’t know any of my friends besides Leanne, so I made sure to show him pictures and fill him in about all the others.
Finally, he stood and stretched. “Well, this was fun and all . . . but I’ve got a date. I’ll text you sometime.”
“You’re going on a date?” I demanded.
“Yeah . . . why?” He raised his eyebrows at me. “I’m your fake date, remember? Just because you can’t get one doesn’t mean I can’t either.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot. “You’re an asshole.”
“So I’ve been told,” he said cheerfully. “See you later.”
I left the coffee shop feeling even less confident than I was before. I had no doubt that Jude would accompany me, since he’d said he’d always wanted to travel to Mexico, but would he be a believable date?
“How was it?” Leanne asked when I came home. “Did you guys hit it off?”
I shrugged. “It was okay. He seems okay.”
When it became clear I wasn’t going to give out any more information, Leanne scoffed. “I’m seeing Jude at work tomorrow, I can just get the details from him,” she threatened.
“Go right ahead,” I said carelessly. I had a feeling as to how Jude would describe me: controlling, bossy, uptight. Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Leanne left a while later to go to her yoga class while I stayed home to brood. I was lying on my bed reading a book when my phone rang. To my surprise, it was Hana. For an awful moment, I considered not answering, but then shook myself out of it.
“Hello?”
She was crying, which startled me even more. “Michaela?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, Michaela ‒” She couldn’t even finish her sentence.
“Hana? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”
“No, no, everything’s ruined and now I’ll never be able to get married, and ‒”
“Hana,” I interrupted. “Tell me what happened.”
Tearfully, she began to explain. “Two of my dearest cousins, Priya and Lily, were in a car accident yesterday.”
“Oh,” I said slowly. “That’s terrible. Are they okay?”
“Yes, thankfully, but they’ll have to be in the hospital for a ‒ a while, and the doctor said they won’t be able to travel for at least a month.” She started to cry again.
I was still having trouble understanding. “Hana, I’m sorry, but I still don’t get it.”
“They were two of my bridesmaids, and now they won’t be able to come, and now the ratio of bridesmaids to groomsmen is off, but we can’t just postpone because it’s in Mexico and everyone already booked their flights and oh, it’s just a mess!” Hana wailed.
“Okay,” I said, now slightly annoyed. “So, what does that have to do with me?”
“Will you and Leanne take their spots as my bridesmaids? Please?”
I felt my mouth drop open. “You want me?”
“Yes, you and Leanne. Marcus and I discussed it and he agrees. You’re both our close friends and we don’t think there’s anyone better to replace Priya and Lily. We’ll pay for you to fly out early for the rehearsal and the dinner, and we can get the dresses refitted, and it would just be an amazing help if you agreed.”
I swallowed. The irony of being Hana’s bridesmaid was definitely not lost on me. On one hand, I really didn’t want to do it. But as much as I hated to admit it, Hana and Marcus were my friends, and they needed me. Plus, everything was being paid for, right? What was the harm? It was Mexico. for God’s sake, and now I had the opportunity to be there for five days instead of three.
“All right,” I said finally. “I’ll tell Leanne; she’ll be thrilled.”
Hana squealed. “Thank you so much, Michaela! You’re a lifesaver, you truly are. I’ll call you later in the week and you and Leanne can come and get the dresses fitted. In the meantime, let me email you the travel information. Is it just you, Leanne, and Oliver coming? Or are you bringing someone?”
I hesitated. Would Jude be okay with coming down a little earlier? Then I realized: who cared? He was doing it under my terms. He was my date. He was coming whether he wanted to or not. “Yes, I’m bringing someone,” I answered.
Her response was a second delayed. “Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much, Michaela, and thank Leanne too. It means so much to me, really.”
“Of course, Hana,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll see you later.” I hung up with her before debating my next move. I would have to inform Jude, of course, but how? And what would his reaction be? I settled on sending him a text.
Something important just came up. Can we meet again this week to talk some more?
His response came about five minutes later. I wondered if he was still on his date. What happened?
Too hard to tell through text. Are you free at all? Wednesday, same time same place?
Ok was all I got in return, but it was enough. I put my phone down with another long sigh.
Leanne returned home not long after that, and when I delivered the news, she practically screamed. “Are you serious? Hana wants us to be her bridesmaids?”
“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” I said wearily. “I figured you’d be in, so I told her we’d do it. We have to meet her sometime later this week to get the dresses refitted. She and Marcus said they’d fly us out early for the rehearsal and the dinner too.”
Leanne looked like she might explode with joy. Then she paused. “Wait, what about Jude?”
“What about him?”
“Well, he’s coming with you, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” I said testily. “I’m seeing him again on Wednesday and I’ll tell him then.”
“Do you think he’ll be fine with it?”
“Who cares? He agreed to do it, so he technically has to be.”
Leanne shrugged. “If you say so. You know how Jude can be.”
Unfortunately, I did.
✿ ✿ ✿
“So now you’re a bridesmaid at your ex-boyfriend’s wedding?” Jude said, nearly spitting out his coffee. I nodded wearily, and he looked at me for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Oh, man. You have the worst luck ever, don’t you?”
“I’m starting to think so, yes,” I said grumpily. “Anyways, so are you in or not?”
“Hell yeah, I’m in. Five days in Mexico? Sounds sick.”
“Easy for you to say,” I answered, but inside I was relieved. Part of me was afraid Jude would refuse and I’d be back at Square One. “Anyways, that’s good, because I already told Hana I was bringing someone.”
“Without asking me? How confident of you.”
“Yeah, well, I’m an optimist,” I said dryly, and he actually cracked a grin. “By the way, how was that date of yours?” I asked.
He looked confused for a second before it clicked. “It was . . . fine,” he said at last. “Just a date. You know. Oh, wait. You don’t.”
And we were back to where we started. “Very funny. Hilarious,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Just because I couldn’t get a date to this wedding doesn’t mean I’ve never been on a date before.”
He shrugged, changing the subject. “So, we’re really doing this? Going to a destination wedding in Mexico together?”
“I guess so. I mean, it’s only five days. How hard can it be? We can survive this, right?”
“I don’t see why not,” Jude said. He held out his hand. “Shake on it?”
I nodded, reached out my own, and we shook.
♠ ♠ ♠
helllllllllllllo