Plus One

We drove to the airport the next morning in tense silence. It was early, and everyone was tired and grumpy. Leanne was annoyed at me, Jude was annoyed by me, Oliver was smartly remaining out of it, and I was just angry at everyone.

We arrived and made it through check-in and security without any major problems. We had about half an hour before the plane left for Mexico, so all there was left to do was sit and wait until we’d be called to board.

To pass the time, we began to play a game of Bullshit with some cards that Oliver had brought. Normally, I enjoyed that game, but for some reason Jude had the strange ability to guess when I was bullshitting, which pissed me off, especially when I had to pick up an entire pile of cards.

To make matters worse, I couldn’t seem to figure out when he himself was bullshitting. It was a dumb thing to get mad over, yes, but I couldn’t help it.

“Three twos,” I said, gritting my teeth as I placed the cards down. Oliver and Leanne watched me. I knew they were unsure, but they seemed willing to believe me.

But Jude had a serene smile on his face. “Bullshit,” he said.

I balled my hands into fists. “I don’t want to play anymore,” I snapped.

“What, was I right?” Jude asked.

“Fuck off,” I said.

“Guys, come on, it’s just a game,” Leanne tried to play Peacemaker. Oliver merely put down his cards silently.

Jude rolled his eyes. “I’m being perfectly calm. It’s not my fault Michaela’s a sore loser.” More than anything, I wanted to punch him right in his stupid, smug face, but somehow I forced myself not to.

Fortunately, we were all called to board a few seconds later. Unfortunately, I ended up being crammed in the window seat with Jude on my other side and a stranger on the end. Leanne and Oliver were in the row next to us.

I tried to read a book during the flight, but kept getting distracted due to the loud music blaring from Jude’s headphones. The man on the other side of him was fast asleep, unbothered, but no matter what I tried to do I couldn’t block it out.

Basically, by the time we landed in Mexico, I was ready to tear his head off. We still had about three days until the wedding, and then there were two more afterwards. I didn’t know how I was going to survive.

We took a cab from the airport to the resort we’d be staying at. Leanne sat in the middle, with Oliver and I on either side of her. Jude sat in front. As I glared out the window, Leanne reached over and pinched me, hard. “Ow!” I said, looking over at her. “Are you insane?”

She was staring daggers at me. “What is your deal?”

“What’s yours? You just pinched me!”

“You’re being such a bitch,” she hissed. “How is any of this supposed to be believable if you can’t even sit next to your date without getting into a fight?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but she had a point. The last thing I needed was for everybody, including Marcus, to figure out that not only was I unable to get a date for a wedding, but I wasn’t even able to get one I actually liked. I needed to step my game up, and start doing better. “Fine,” I mumbled at last. “I’ll start trying.”

“Thank you,” Leanne said, settling back into her seat. I spent the rest of the drive staring in front of me, where I could see Jude’s reflection in the mirror outside of the car. I tried to convince myself that he wasn’t so bad, that we could get along for a few days. It wasn’t working very well.

We finally pulled up to our hotel. “Look, there they are!” Leanne squealed as she and Oliver jumped out of the car and ran to the hotel. Jude and I stayed back to pay the driver and grab the bags.

“Ready?” I asked as we walked towards the doors.

“I guess so,” he said with a heavy sigh.

We walked inside in time to see no one other than the bride herself, smack in the middle of the lobby, greeting everybody. “Leanne, Oliver!” Hana said, hugging and kissing both of them. “It is so good to see you, I’m so glad you could come. Oh, Michaela!” she said, noticing me. “And . . . who’s this?”

She was looking at Jude, who’d just come in behind me, grumbling about wanting a coffee. “Oh,” I said with false cheerfulness, “this is ‒”

Before I could finish my sentence, Marcus entered the room, looking devastatingly handsome and cool as usual. He looked around until his eyes landed on Hana, who was still in front of me, and he began to make his way over.

If anyone asked, that was my excuse for panicking. As Marcus sidled up to Hana, kissing her cheek and smiling at her, I blurted out, “This is Jude. My boyfriend.”

Leanne, who was talking with some of Hana’s friends, stopped and looked over at me, shocked. Jude’s eyes widened a little. Even Marcus and Hana’s smiles wavered. There was an unspoken question lingering above everyone’s heads: Michaela has a boyfriend? Even I was surprised.

Jude was the first to recover, thankfully. He forced a smile on his face and held out his hand. “Yeah, hi there. I’m Jude, Jude Kelly. Thanks for the invite, hope it’s okay that I’m here.” His other hand found its way around my waist, wrapping around it in what hopefully looked like a casual display of affection.

Hana blinked. “Oh. Oh, wow. It’s so nice to meet you, of course it’s okay! Thank you so much for coming. We were only told that Michaela was bringing someone, not that it’d be an actual boyfriend. Not that that’s a bad thing! We’re just surprised, is all.” She raised her eyebrows at me.

“Yeah, same here,” Jude mumbled under his breath.

Marcus finally spoke. “Good to meet you, man. I’m Marcus, and this is my fiancee Hana.” He shook hands with Jude before moving forward and awkwardly kissing me on the cheek. “Nice to see you again, Mick.”

“Yeah, you too,” I stuttered. Over Marcus’s shoulder and behind Hana’s back, Jude rolled his eyes.

I tried to slip away after that, but Hana insisted on dragging me over to meet some of her friends and family, and even after that some of my own friends made their way over to me, demanding to know when and how I’d gotten a boyfriend. Jude hovered behind me the whole time, not saying much, preferring to just smile and nod while I fumbled through my answers.

Finally, Hana handed me a key card. “Well, we’ll let you guys get settled in. Your room is on the same floor as everyone else in the wedding party. We’ll all be meeting in the lobby at five-thirty; our reservation is at six.”

“Thanks,” I said, accepting it. “See you then.” Jude silently followed me to the elevator, but as soon as we got in and the doors closed, he turned on me.

“What the fuck was that?”

“I know, I know,” I groaned.

“Then do you mind telling me why you told them I was your boyfriend? Not just a date, but your actual boyfriend? There’s a big difference there, Michaela. Huge.”

“I said I know!” I snapped. “I’m sorry, okay? I just saw Marcus and panicked.”

“Yeah, that’s an understatement,” Jude said, shaking his head. “You hate me. How are we supposed to pretend to be dating?”

“Please just go with it,” I begged. “Like you said, it’s just a few days, right?” The last thing I needed was Jude backing out and making me look like an even bigger idiot.

“Yeah, that was before you announced to the room that I was your boyfriend!” Jude exclaimed. Before we could argue any further, the elevator arrived at our floor and the doors opened. A few people I recognized were mingling about, since Marcus and Hana had rented a whole section of the floor. We both plastered smiles on our faces as we walked down the hallway, nodding and greeting people here and there, until we finally found “our” room.

When I opened the door, my jaw dropped. The room was huge, with a desk, a flat-screen TV, and a couch. The bathroom had a granite sink countertop with a shower and a jacuzzi. The huge windows led out onto a balcony that gave us a perfect view of the beach, where Hana and Marcus would be married in a few days.

The bed itself was enormous, but that was the issue: there was only one. “I’ll sleep on the couch,” Jude said, dropping his bag on the floor. “And I’ll go along with it. But this whole thing feels wrong. Like we’re lying to everybody.”

“Look,” I said with a sigh. “After this, we can just tell everyone things didn’t work out and we decided to break up. And then I’ll never bother you again. Okay? Just . . . don’t ruin this for me. Please.”

Jude shook his head, but didn’t say anything else. He looked around at the room, his mouth falling open. “Holy shit . . . how are Hana and Marcus paying for all of this?”

“Hana’s parents are pretty well-off,” I said with a shrug.

“You could say that again,” Jude nodded. “Look at the view.” He went out onto the balcony and I followed. We stood there for a while, admiring the view of the beach and listening to the waves crashing on the shore, before he said, “I’m gonna take a nap. The jetlag is already getting to me.”

“Okay,” I said softly. So I showered and unpacked while Jude slept. Then, I sat out on the balcony and read, enjoying the sun on my face. At quarter to five, Jude woke up and took a shower while I changed and put on some makeup.

Jude came out a few minutes later, wearing a nice shirt and dress pants, but he stopped short and stared at me. “What?” I said sourly, looking down at myself. “Is there a tag on my dress?” I’d just bought it a few days ago; it was a purple, floral babydoll I’d managed to get on sale for only $20. To make it look a little more classy, I’d borrowed a pair of Leanne’s white flats to wear with it.

“No,” he said finally. “You look . . . nice.”

I flushed. “Thanks.” We looked at each other until a knock on the door startled us both.

“Come on!” Leanne called. “Everyone’s waiting in the lobby!”

“Well,” Jude said. “Shall we go?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”