The Wedding Planner

“I just want them painted gold. Just use, like, normal spray paint.”

“The only issue with that is the florist says normal spray paint will burn the hydrangeas, and I don’t think you want burnt hydrangeas on your wedding day,” I said, trying hard not to whip my cell phone against the wall of the establishment, “She also highly recommends that you spray paint just the tips of the flowers as opposed to the entire bouquet.”

“That florist obviously doesn’t have the slightest idea what she is talking about,” Jade scoffed, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes as I switched my cell phone to my other ear, offering the florist before me a tight smile as she continued. “God, this is such bullshit. I don’t have the time for incompetence right now. I’m in the middle of a shoot in Milan, so you need to figure this out.” Click.

I inhaled a breath as I tucked my phone into my back pocket and met eyes with the florist once more. “Well, that accomplished nothing. How about this—I’ll pay for some samples. Two flowers. One entirely painted and just the tips on the other. She can make her decision once she’s back from Milan and if she likes neither then she can bite me.”



“Come on, Bram, just back off,” I murmured, shooing my beggar of a dog out of the kitchen as I finished preparing tonight’s dinner: a snow peas and carrot salad. I had just taken my first bite when I heard a knock on the front door of my townhouse. Bram went off the hinges, as was natural, doing that adorable little puppy bark of his. I couldn’t blame him. Who the hell in their right mind was coming by at this hour?

“One second,” I called, licking some stray salad dressing off of my lip as I rushed over to the door. I pulled it open and smiled in greeting, surprised to see Niall standing on the other side. I motioned for him to come inside, wondering why he hadn’t called or sent a text that he would be popping in. Bram bombarded him, nothing out of the ordinary there, forcing his puppy love upon the poor Irishman who simply couldn’t say no. My stomach did flips as Niall happily knelt onto his knees and rubbed Bram’s belly, cooing to him and telling him he was a good boy, as if Bram didn’t already know that.

“Nice to see you, too,” I quipped, causing him to stand back up.

“Can’t help myself. I’m a sucker for Bram,” Niall said, laughing as the puppy tried desperately to jump up his legs. All of our obedience training went right out the door when his best friend came by. “Oh,” Niall exclaimed lightly, grabbing the brown paper bag I hadn’t seen him place on the nightstand beside my door, “I come bearing gifts.”

“Ah, a soup bone. Your absolute fave, Bram.”

Bram happily accepted his present before carrying it to his bed beside the entertainment center so nobody else could get their paws on it. “I brought this for you, too,” Niall added, and my eyebrows went up as he pulled a bottle of wine from the bag. “Just a small gift for helping us with the wedding. I know she can be difficult sometimes…”

“Ah. Well, dealing with Jade calls for vodka, but this will suffice.”

“I wish I had one of my own. A pupper, I mean,” I smiled at his words, nodding knowingly. He had expressed his desire to adopt a dog when we picked Bram out together, but Jade hated dogs and flatly refused to let him have one. Another mark against her in my book, personally. Who the hell hated dogs?

“Good thing Bram’s your surrogate puppy. He’s always liked you better than me anyway,” I said, taking the soup bone wrapper and the bottle of wine from Niall’s hand as he sat on the couch. Bram came over to climb back into his lap, gnawing away happily on his new treat.

“It’s a male thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Right. That must be it,” I nodded with a laugh, watching the exchange for a few moments before speaking up again. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit? Not that I’m not happy to see you… but it’s eight o’clock at night.”

“A man isn’t allowed to come visit his best friend?”

“Hey,” I said, putting my hands up. “Door’s always open.”

“Jade sent me over for some flowers,” Niall shrugged.

“Oh, right. The flowers. They’re in the refrigerator,” I explained to him. I don’t know why I had bothered refrigerating them as they had probably already been ruined from the spray paint, but I digress. It was what Princess Jade wanted.

Bram let out a groan when Niall stood up from the couch and walked into my kitchen to open the refrigerator. I heard him laugh out loud once the door shut. “She requested gold flowers? Is this a joke? Oh, God…”

“Well, those are just samples,” I said, “Jade wanted the entire bouquet spray painted but the florist recommended just the edges. She was unsure and opted for samples. Well, she said she didn’t have time for incompetence and told me to figure it out, so I opted for samples. You two decide.”

“Which one do you like better?”

“Me?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. Niall offered me a lopsided smirk.

“You are the wedding planner. You know best.”

“Oh. Well, it’s really a matter of personal preference. There is no right or wrong way to go. I—well, if it were my wedding, which it isn’t, I wouldn’t have spray painted the flowers at all. Natural is best. I think it’s tacky. Don’t tell her I said that,” I groaned as Niall smiled, “I guess, if I had to choose one, it would be the one with the painted tips.”

“The lesser of two evils,” he nodded.

“Exactly,” I said. “Want some dinner?”

“Depends. What did you make?”

“A snow peas and carrot salad.”

“Sounds awful. Since when do you eat that crap?”

“I’m on a diet,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

“A diet? Isla, you’re tiny. You’re underweight, if anything.”

“Yeah, well…”

“I’m in the mood for some tacos if you care to join me.”

“My cheat day was yesterday,” I frowned, trying to resist the temptation.

“Cheat day? This is ridiculous. Get in the car.”

“No, Niall—”

“In the car. We’re going to Yo! Taco. And no more dieting for you.”



“Have you written any songs yet?” I asked from my living room floor, sipping my wine. Niall sat hunched over on my couch, still working on the taco twelve pack he’d unabashedly ordered. He shrugged and swallowed his bite before speaking.

“Just one so far, yeah,” Niall nodded, “Still working out the kinks.”

“Details,” I said, finishing my last taco.

“You know I don’t like to share too much.”

“It’s me,” I said, rolling my eyes, “Will you play it for me?”

“And let you be the first to hear it?”

“Naturally,” I nodded eagerly.

“I only have a few verses done. It isn’t even finished.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll go grab Mia.”

“Mia? Oh, my heart,” Niall said, smiling in remembrance of his old acoustic guitar that he had passed down to me way back when once he’d gotten a new one. Of course, I didn’t have the slightest idea how to play the thing, despite many nights of him trying to teach me, but I decided to hold onto it for him instead of him tossing it out—just in case.

“Here,” I spoke breathlessly upon reentering the living room, holding out the guitar to him. He glared at me lightly before taking the guitar and downing the rest of his wine in one sip. I rolled my eyes at him before refilling it. “I’ve only heard you sing a thousand and one times.”

“Still makes me nervous,” he said, clearing his throat.

“You perform in sold-out stadiums for a living.”

“And it isn’t nearly as nerve-wracking,” he said, positioning his fingers on the guitar strings. “And besides, I did that with One Direction. One Direction hasn’t performed together in over a year.” I shushed him, stopping him quickly when he began to strum. “What are you doing? Why did you stop me?”

“Introduce yourself to the audience,” I said, motioning between Bram and me.

“Right. I’m Niall Horan, and this song is called… well, it doesn’t have a name yet,” I smiled as he began to strum the strings, gears spinning in his head as he tried to work out the kinks. “When was the last time you gave this thing a good tuning?”

“I don’t even know what that means,” I said.

“You poor thing. Has she treated you badly?” Niall cooed to Mia.

“Just play already!” I laughed.

“Alright, alright,” he said, clearing his throat. “Waking up to kiss you and nobody’s there, the smell of your perfume still stuck in the air—it’s hard. Yesterday I thought I saw your shadow running ‘round. It’s funny how things never change in this old town.”

I smiled when Niall closed his eyes, fully immersing himself in his song. “If the whole world was watching, I’d still dance with you. Drive highways and byways to be there with you. Over and over the only truth, everything comes back to you.”

He paused a beat and I held my breath, wanting badly to hear more of the song but knowing full well who it was written for. “You still make me nervous when you walk in the room. Them butterflies—they come alive when I’m next to you. Over and over the only truth, everything comes back to you.”

He stopped singing and set the guitar down against the couch, watching me expectantly. “That’s all I have right now. There’s going to be a bit more to it but it’s still sort of in the rough draft phase. What do you think about it so far? Worth keeping it? Should I scrap it?”

“I—I think everyone will love it, Ni,” I said, my voice trembling slightly.

“You’re doing that thing,” Niall said, “You’re getting all choked up.”

“I am not,” I said, trying to hold back the tears welling in my eyes.

“You are. Why are you crying?”

“I just think that it’s romantic, that’s all,” I shrugged pathetically, racking my brain for an excuse, “The songs you write for her. It’s… I don’t know. It’s sweet that she’s your muse, I guess.” And it was true—it was romantic, as much as it killed me to admit it. He loved her enough that she was his muse, and I needed to be a good best friend and get a fucking grip on myself.

Niall’s expression fell briefly before he smiled. “Oh. Yeah.”

“I’m a big stupid sap,” I mumbled, “Not that you don’t already know that.”

“I do. I also know that you’ve had copious amounts of wine.”

“And tacos,” I added, standing up from the floor and picking up Mia.

“And tacos,” Niall reaffirmed, nodding. “I just got an idea.”

“Come again?”

“Nothing. For my song.”

“What?”

“I won’t tell you, and I won’t play it for you. You’ll have to wait until it drops.”

“Aha—okay,” I laughed lightly, watching in bewilderment as Niall stood up from my couch and pulled his jacket on. “Where are you going? Niall, it’s nearly two in the morning and you’ve had a bit to drink. Maybe you should crash here.”

“Would love to, Isla, but I’ve got to get writing.”

“Can’t you write here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I can’t risk you reading it.”

“What are you—”

“G’night, I,” he said, heading towards the door.

“Niall! The flowers,” I said, rushing into the kitchen and grabbing Jade’s flowers.

“Right. The flowers. Thanks for getting them today. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he said, and I nodded perhaps a bit too eagerly before he kissed the top of my head. “You be good for your mother, Bram, or I won’t bring you any more soup bones.”

Bram pawed at his snout as if to bury his head. I said goodbye to Niall and shut the door after him, standing pathetically in that same spot against the door until I finally pulled myself together enough to move to the couch. It was still warm from where he had been sitting and I frowned, pushing aside the wrappers he’d neglected to throw out and reaching for the remote. The remainder of my night consisted of watching Friends reruns, occasionally scolding Bram for bringing his bone onto the couch, and ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach. Why couldn’t I have a Ross and Rachel relationship with Niall?