The Wedding Planner

“Do you, Niall, take Isla to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do.”

“Will you love, respect, and honor her throughout your years together?”

“I will.”

“Do you promise to love and to cherish her, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

“And do you, Isla, take Niall to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“Isla?”

“Isla?”

“Hello? Earth to Isla.”

“I do, I do,” I murmured.

“What? Come on. Wake up.”

I jumped up faster than shit off a shovel at this sudden interruption of my dream, instantly meeting eyes with Jade the second mine opened. She was standing right over me, and fuck, for a moment I thought she’d heard me exchanging imaginary vows with her husband-to-be in my sleep and was going to stab the shit out of me.

“Jade? What are you doing here? It’s eight in the morning.”

“You have a bit of drool on the side of your mouth,” I sat up on the couch where I’d fallen asleep, rubbing tiredly at the aforementioned drool at the corner of my mouth. When I was confident I’d gotten it all I looked back up at Jade, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“How did you even get in here?”

“Your door was unlocked.”

“And you decided to just walk in?”

“Well, I knocked first but you didn’t answer,” my eyes widened slightly as she made room on the couch beside me, motioning to the coffee table in front of us. My eyes fell on the single flower that was on it—beside the gallon of ice cream I’d polished off in my sleep last night. “I decided on the full gold, of course. Niall insisted on the tips only but so what, right? I’ve dreamed about this day since I was a little girl. It’s always been gold flowers.”

“Right,” I murmured, “Girl power.”

“Do you like it? Be honest.”

“I need some coffee before I talk about this any further.”

“Coffee’s already made, courtesy of moi.”

I stood up from the couch in a state of disbelief and wandered into my kitchen before pouring myself a cup of coffee. I leaned against the doorway, watching Jade in all of her glory as I sipped at my mug. She’d already had all of her makeup done for the day and I wondered when she had arrived back in Los Angeles. I hadn’t even planned on brushing my teeth for another few hours. “Since you’ve made yourself at home—you want to move in and split the bills fifty-fifty as well?”

“Oh, uh—no,” Jade snorted, shaking her head, “Not my style.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking around the interior of my little townhouse.

“It’s just a little drab, don’t you think? Black everywhere.”

“I like my home and my soul like I like my coffee,” I said, “Black.”

“You’re such a grump sometimes, Isla. You’re lucky I love you,” Jade laughed, continuing to admire her gold flower as if under some trance. I wondered briefly if the toilet she shit in was gold as well. I knew Niall would never go for that in any of his houses, but couldn’t say the same for hers. I made a mental note to ask him at a later date. “Oh, that reminds me. I meant to tell you a few days ago. I know someone you might actually get along with.”

“Come again?” I asked, busy recovering from nearly choking on my coffee.

“Lucky Blue Smith.”

“Is that, like, a cigarette brand?”

“You’ve never heard of Lucky Blue Smith?” Jade asked, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. “He’s the new “it” guy. He’s walked runways for Fendi, Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Versace, Balmain. Done advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Moncler…”

“Not ringing any bells,” I said.

“He’s appeared in editorials for Vogue, GQ, Elle, Marie Claire, V, LOVE. He’s been on the covers of French and Spanish Vogue, GQ, V, and Harper’s Bazaar.” I shook my head once more and Jade buried her head in her hands. “Oh my God, Isla. You’re so out of touch with what’s happening in the world. You’ve seriously never heard of him?”

I snorted at her response, shaking my head at her so quickly that I myself thought it would fly off of my shoulders. “First of all, I don’t date. I prefer to stay behind the scenes, hence me working as a wedding planner. Second of all, if I were to date somebody, I wouldn’t date somebody who called himself Lucky Blue Smith.”

“All of his friends call him Blue.”

“Even better. From this day forth, just call me Magenta.”

“You haven’t even met him so you can’t form a proper opinion yet,” Jade said, standing up to walk over to me. “You’d like him a lot. You guys are both sarcastic assholes. You even sort of… dress the same,” I glanced down at the oversized button-up and leggings I had been wearing. I opened my mouth to protest that my attire was entirely fine when she continued talking. “We’re all going out for a few drinks tonight. You need to come.”

“No. I don’t think so.”

“I already told Blue you were coming. He’s excited.”

“Then you ought to tell Blue never mind because—”

“Just meet him. If you don’t like him I won’t bring it up again.”

“I don’t have anything to wear,” I said, placing my hands on my hips.

“I have to go. Be ready by eight. Blue will be here then.”

“I’m fully capable of driving myself—” I tried, but the door had already closed.



“Stupid,” I murmured to myself as I walked Bram through the park. The little Golden Retriever was prancing around, doing puppy things and exploring a teeny, microscopic piece of the world while I walked at the other end of his red leash, brooding. You know, even though it had been six whole hours since Jade stopped by to tell me she was setting me up with her model friend Indigo League. Whatever the hell his name was. It was completely and entirely logical in my head. I liked to dwell.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I bickered with myself, not caring if anyone overheard me and thought I was clinically insane as they walked by, “My name is Jade. I’m six feet tall and sexy and tan. I know the perfect guy for you and you’re going to meet him tonight despite the fact that I didn’t give you at least twenty-four hours notice. Oh, by the way, nice button-up shirt, peasant. My tank top alone cost six million dollars. Well, sorry, sweetheart, but not everyone can afford to not shop at Old Navy. Bitch.”

“Isla?” I stopped in my tracks at the sound of his voice. Perhaps a little too fast, because I fell right to the ground and cut my knee. “Whoa. You okay, Isla?” I looked up at Niall who had stepped onto Bram’s leash to prevent him from running off and was watching me with concern. Of course. Los Angeles was how fucking big and I still couldn’t get away from this guy. There were girls all around the world who would kill just to catch a glimpse of him in person and here I was, plagued by his existence. Their dreams were my reality.

And, for the record, it was nothing like Hollywood portrays it, really. I thought falling in front of the love of your life was supposed to be romantic. You would trip in front of him but he would catch you just before you hit the ground, wrapping his big, strong arms around your waist. Maybe then you’d even share a passionate kiss before running off into the sunset and pumping out four babies together. Nope, not in Isla’s world.

“Isla,” Niall’s hand waved in front of my face, “You alright?”

“I’m fine. Yup. ‘Tis but a scratch,” I motioned to my bloodied knee.

“No, I meant—you walked by me mumbling about peasants and Old Navy.”

“Oh, yeah,” I waved my hand, “I’m good. Just the usual.”

“Are you up to something?” Niall asked, extending his hand to me. Before I had a chance to either accept it or reject it he took my hand and hoisted me up to my feet, continuing to watch me with concern. “Are you okay to walk all the way home? I can drive you—”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just in a daze. It’s stupid, really.”

“What is it?” Niall asked. I quirked an eyebrow. Did he not know?

“Jade came by earlier saying she knew a guy that was good for me—”

“Who?” Niall asked quickly, seemingly taken aback.

“One of her model friends. Seafoam or something. I don’t know—”

“Oh, no. Blue? Not Blue. Are you joking?”

“Why would I joke about that?”

“What the hell do you and Blue have in common?”

“Look, I already know that I’m not up to par with him—”

“Of course you are up to par—”

“Like Jade says, I just wear stupid baggy button-ups,”

“There’s nothing wrong with stupid baggy button-ups. I happen to like them.”

“Mine, or…” Niall’s eyes widened slightly and he shrugged.

“Well, anyone’s button-ups, really. Yours. Mine. That guy’s,” he gestured over in the distance and my eyes followed, conveniently landing on a man in a salmon colored button-up shirt, “But Blue, huh? Wow.” I glanced down at my feet and shrugged.

“She said that we’re perfect for each other since we’re both sarcastic assholes.”

“That’s like saying—” Niall stopped his sentence before he could finish.

“She’s making me come out for drinks tonight with everyone.”

“Is she? Lovely,” I frowned at his reaction, unsure of what to say.

“I could fake sick, couldn’t I? Drink a little hydrogen peroxide?”

“No, Isla. Don’t do that.”

“Not enough to kill me. Just enough to throw up.”

“No, no. You, uh… you should come. Yeah. Come and meet Blue. Jade has that woman’s intuition thing or whatever so maybe she’s onto something. You two could end up falling in love and getting married and having a bunch of little babies. You plan fairytale weddings for everyone else. About time it’s your turn, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know about that—”

“I need to finish my run though, so I’ll see you tonight, yeah?” Niall handed me Bram’s leash back and popped his ear buds back in, not bothering to give me a proper goodbye as he patted the side of my arm and took off. The pit in my stomach convinced me that that had been enough walking in the park for the day and I headed home with Bram in tow.



I glared down at the red crossover bodycon dress, wondering if the pint of chocolate ice cream I’d demolished a few hours prior would affect my ability to squeeze into it. Felt like it would. I rolled my eyes at myself before yanking my sweats off. I weighed one hundred and two pounds. I was fit. I was cute. I could pull this dress off—maybe even better than Jade herself could.

I turned to look at myself in the mirror and groaned. I felt so out of place in this dress. Christ, I might as well have had a giant tumor on the top of my head that was telling me to take over the world. It was short and tight. I didn’t look bad in it. My bum was perky and my tits were perfect for it. I had a nice, flat belly and nice legs. But it wasn’t me.

I knew that Jade would be upset if I tossed it to the side for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt so I kept it on and paired it with the best, and only, dress shoes that I had—a pair of four inch nude pumps. I curled my hair and for once actually put some effort into doing my makeup, checking in every single mirror in the house to make sure my face matched the rest of me once I was done.

Then the doorbell rang.

I placed a band-aid over the cut on my knee and rushed to the door, shrinking down a few sizes once I opened it and saw the sight before me. “You must be Isla,” Blue smiled. God, he was so tall. Why was he so tall?

“Blue,” I nodded. “I mean, you must be… Blue.”

“You look nice. Jade mentioned you did some modeling, but she didn’t mention how beautiful you were,” I raised my eyebrows at his words, cursing Jade’s name for getting me into this situation. I’d kill her if I could.

“Um, thank you,” I said, watching him for a moment more before taking a step back in and inviting him inside. “I just need to grab my bag. Make yourself at home.” I bolted up the stairs as calmly as possible and collected the nude clutch I’d found awhile prior. With one more short pep talk in the mirror I descended the stairs to see Blue on my couch, already having acquainted himself with Bram… who didn’t seem too excited.

“I see you’ve met Bram. He’s a ladies man and a mans man.”

“He goes both ways, then?”

“Depends on the day, really.”

“I know the feeling,” Blue said. My eyes flared slightly at his words and I wondered if he was joking. He didn’t clarify, and his face gave no indication that he was. “Are you all set to go?” I nodded and followed him outside, making sure to lock my house before getting into his car.

“So, how do you know Jade and Niall?”

“It doesn’t seem like Jade told you much about me.”

“Just the modeling bit. Who have you done work for?”

“Er—Marshalls?” I spoke, more questioningly than anything else and when Blue glanced at me out of the corner of his eye I thought harder. “I’ve done some… catalog work for Macy’s, too. It’s more of a side thing, really. I plan weddings. Niall is a childhood friend of mine. We’re close so he asked me if I would plan their wedding.”

“You’re a wedding planner?”

“In the flesh,” I nodded.

“What made you get into that?”

“Actually, it was my second choice. I have a degree in photography but there wasn’t much money in that. At least, not in what I was doing, so I made the switch to planning. To be honest, I don’t really like it much,” I paused, quirking an eyebrow, “I don’t really like it at all. That must sound weird.”

“A little bit,” Blue nodded.

I pursed my lips. “What made you get into modeling?”

“Well, I was scouted when I was ten and signed to Next Management when I was twelve. Grew up in Spanish Fork, Utah, but when I was signed my family and I moved to Los Angeles where we were all homeschooled. My siblings and I were photographed by Hedi Slimane for Vogue Homme Japan, and that generated a lot of attention…”

God, what a boring childhood that must have been. Mine mostly consisted of running away from Niall as he chased me around with a booger on his index finger. “Oh. That sounds… daunting. So, what is this place, anyway?”

“One of Jade’s favorite spots. I’ve never been here.”