Cheap Champagne

SIX DAYS INTO HER SEVEN DAY VACATION Cece could state with absolute certainty that she was not enjoying her time in Phoenix. She had even gone so far as to say that she would absolutely never step foot in the entire state of Arizona ever again. There was a fine line between warm weather and 'melt the flesh straight off of your bones' weather and Phoenix certainly had the latter. Something that Cece just couldn't seem to get behind.

But, here she was, attempting to enjoy herself on the second last day of her vacation because her cousin had just gotten married and the wedding had been beautiful. Or at least as beautiful as it could be considering it was an outdoor wedding in maybe the hottest place on the planet outside of Satan's lair itself. The ceremony had taken place in a grassy field in what seemed to be the middle of absolutely nowhere and the bridesmaid dress she had been forced into wearing didn't do any favours with the heat; it was long, shimmering beige gold and heavily weighted down with beading. But, all this complaining could just be the near heat exhaustion talking. She was just going to thank her lucky stars that the reception was in the comfort and shade of a large tent and there were fans in every corner.

That and the open bar were really giving this trip a chance to turn itself around.

After standing in line for nearly ten minutes Cece was finally rewarded with a plastic cup filled with tequila and grapefruit juice and the pink concoction sloshed around in her cup as she grabbed the skirt of her dress, pulling it up and out of the way of her clumsy feet as she found her long since deserted table and sat down.

Of course, despite being a bridesmaid, being that she was both young and single, and adding in the factor that she had never met Christian her table was a small one in the back of the reception area, as far away from partygoer civilization as she could get. Christine, her cousin, had informed her that her now mother-in-law had done up the seating chart and according to her was a ‘raging country club bitch’ but truthfully Cece preferred sitting where she was. There was a fan right next to her.

She couldn’t have been sitting down more than ten minutes when a shadow fell over her. Which she had been planning on ignoring, at least until the person the shadow belonged to spoke, asking her with a low voice, “Mind if I sit?”

Turning her head to glance over her shoulder Cece found herself looking up at a tall, broad brunette who towered over. He had his hands tucked into the pockets of his navy dress pants, the sleeves of his white button up had been rolled up to his elbows which put a sleeve of tattoos on one arm on display. When she nodded he pulled the chair next to her out, sitting a respectable distance away from her but not so far that he was in his own little world.

When they were closer to the same height Cece took a good look at him. He had a strong jaw, with the slightest bit of dark stubble to match the dark hair on his head, kept short and neat and pushed back from his face to one side. He had dark eyes and if the bags under them were any indication to how much sleep he got she had to admit she was mildly concerned for him.

His lips stretched into a small smile and he leaned forward, resting a forearm against the table in front of them as he asked her, “So who are you here for? Bride or groom?”

“Bride, you?”

“Groom.” He told her, and she nodded her head slowly. He watched as she inspected her nails with a bored expression and he couldn’t help but ask, “That fun, huh?”

Her cheeks flushed as she dropped her hand and turned her head to glance over her shoulder at him. He shot her a perfect, white smile and it was like every part of her that was miserable before now was pushed out of the frame. Cece had always been a sucker for a guy with a good smile and this mystery boy didn’t just have a good one- he had a great smile and it was all it took for her to suddenly be interested in what was going on around her.

“It’s been a nice enough wedding but did they really have to have an outdoor wedding in the hottest place on the planet?” There was a certain rasp to her voice that had caught him off guard, and then he recognized the slightest hint of a French accent that accompanied her words.

And suddenly he was asking, “So you’re a tourist, huh?”

“Am I that transparent?” Cece asked him, quirking a brow.

“Maybe just a little.” She had, after all, tugged on the neckline of her dress from the heat several times since he had sat down next to her. After a moment of silence between them, he questioned her, “So where are you from?”

There was a glint of mischief in her eyes as she told him, “Toronto.”

His brows shot up, “You’re fucking with me.”

“I’m sorry?” He wouldn’t have believed in her shock and confusion if it wasn’t for the fact that she sounded genuinely offended by his statement.

“I live in Toronto most of the year.” He explained to her, holding his hand out and introducing himself, “I’m Auston.”

“I know.” She told him as she placed her hand in his and allowed him to shake it gently.

This time only one brow raised, “You do, huh?”

“I live in Toronto, I’d have to be blind to not know the face of the person people there think is the second coming of Christ himself,” Cece informed him with an airy, nonchalant expression and tone in her voice.

The corner of his mouth curled up into a slight smirk, “Ah… not a fan, huh?”

“Of hockey?” She questioned, and when he nodded she told him, “Listen, I like hockey as much as the next self-respecting Canadian but I’ve also never really understood the allure of what it is that’s so great about a bunch of guys getting paid a bajillion dollars to pass a puck around on ice for.”

Auston couldn’t help but joke, “I mean… a bajillion dollars is stretching it a bit.”

“It’s still a fuckton of money.” She said it so bluntly, so matter-of-factly that Auston had to let out a laugh at that.

“I guess it is, yeah.” He conceded, agreeing with her. She nodded her head in a knowing fashion and he couldn’t help it. He had to ask her, a cheeky grin on his face, “So what about me?”

There was a smirk on her features when he told him, “Can’t say I’ve given you much thought.”

“What do I have to do to change that?” He asked her curiously, quirking a brow when she turned in her seat to fully face him.

She crossed one knee over the other, rested her hands, clasped together, on her thighs and asked him, “Give me a confession.”

“A confession, huh?” She nodded her head and so he thought for a moment before he told her, “This wedding was extremely boring and I’ve never been in a room so stuffy in my life before.”

A light and airy laugh escaped her mouth and she reached out to place her hand on his forearm and Auston dragged his eyes down to where they were touching. He wasn’t sure why but he had focused on how her nails were well manicured and neatly painted with a shiny black polish but, in a world of talon-like fingernails, hers were cut short.

“Thank you, I’ve been waiting for someone to speak the truth about this shindig. I swear I fell asleep like four times during the ceremony.” When she spoke she brought his attention back to her, and as he chuckled she smiled and finally said, “I’m Cece, by the way.”

“Cece?” He questioned with an amused expression.

“Don’t ask me, ask the hippies who raised me.” She told him with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Fair enough.” He mused, asking her, “So… Cece… I have a real confession to make now.”

“Oh, can I guess?” She asked, a hopeful smile present on her face and she removed her hand from his forearm to clasp her hands together with a soft clap. And so Auston shrugged and Cece gave her first guess, “You’re married.”

“Nope.”

“Good, you’re way too young.” She informed him and when he chuckled and nodded his head in agreement with her she asked, “Kids?”

Auston shook his head.

Also too young. She thought.

“Mmm… you’re gay.” Was her final guess.

“No.” He laughed as if it were a completely ridiculous assumption.

To prove that it wasn’t she pointed out to him, “Hey, you slap other guy’s asses for a living, I was just checking.”

“I don’t- that’s not… I lied.” He stuttered as if he were actually nervous to be talking to her, which, for the record he was. He could count on one hand the number of times in his 20 years of life that he had actually been nervous to talk to a girl and he felt extremely out of his element with his flushed cheeks and a shy smile and the fumbling for words didn’t help any.

She seemed to sense that too because she grinned, “So you are gay?”

He rolled his eyes, recovering from his previous nervousness with ease, “No… I don’t actually know the groom.”

Her brow raised, “So who do you know?”

“That’s kind of the lie… no one.” Auston informed her and he couldn’t tell if she looked confused or amused as she watched him. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice to explain to her, “My friends came up with this list of things I needed to do this summer and crashing a wedding was on the list.”

She didn’t seem to care about that, though he should have figured that because her comment about falling asleep several times during the ceremony clearly showed she could think of a few places she would have rather spent her afternoon and evening than here. Instead, she smiled and asked him, “So what else is on this list?”

Fishing his phone from the pocket of his dress pants Auston pulled up his notes app and read out loud, “Crash a wedding, go on a date with a girl you don’t know, get drunk on booze that doesn’t belong to you…”

He opened his mouth to read more but whatever he had just said seemed to spark an idea in Cece because she immediately rose from her chair and grasped his free hand in hers, wrapping her fingers around his hand as much as she could, the soft pads of her fingertips pressed into his skin. She gave his hand a gentle tug until he too stood up from his chair and then she started walking and her grip on him was so good Auston had no choice but to walk with her.

And so he followed behind her, weaving around tables and groups of people as she led him toward the exit of the reception venue. It wasn’t until they were further away from all of the wedding guests and approaching a quieter section that she slowed down, and Auston ran into her. With his chest pressed against her back, he reached with his hands and grabbed onto her hips to steady them, a giggle floated up to his ears and then Cece tilted her head to look up at him and she said, “Let’s see what I can help you cross off tonight.”

His brow raised and immediately his eyes shifted to glance around them at the partygoers and any waiters or staff that might be watching when Cece reached out and grabbed something from a back table on their way to the doors marked exit, which was really just fancy fabric hanging down in front of an opening in the thick, white tent material. He followed her outside, noticing immediately the lack of warmth in his hand when she let go of him and took a few quick steps ahead of him.

Eventually, she turned around and her platform sandals kicked up dirt as she walked backward away from the reception venue, an unopened bottle of champagne in her hand. She wiggled it gently and asked him, “So does this count as booze that doesn’t belong to you?

“I was thinking more like stealing a beer or something but yeah, I guess.” He told her with a chuckle, following her around the corner and out of sight from the venue.

As Cece sat down on a rock and stretched her legs out in front of her she told him, “Oh, but see then I couldn’t help you because I have a rule about beer after four PM.”

Auston took the rock next to her when she patted it with her palm, and as she unscrewed the aluminum cap over the cork of the bottle he asked, “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“After 4 you have to become an adult.” She said.

A laugh spilled out of his mouth, “Hence the champagne.”

“Even if it’s cheap, doesn’t it make you feel infinitely classier?” Cece asked him, and his shoulders shrugged.

He pointed out to her, “You can only be so classy sitting on rocks outside of a wedding venue in Arizona drinking booze straight from the bottle. Stolen champagne or not.”

“That’s what your imagination is for silly!” Cece exclaimed, and Auston watched her flinch as she held the bottle out and pushed her thumb against the cork. Before she could pop the bottle she turned to look at him, her eyes sparkling, a soft smile on her face, and she informed him, “You see, we’re not actually in Arizona right now.”

“Oh no?”

“Nope.” The moment the word left her mouth the cork popped off the bottle of champagne with a loud bang, which made her jump next to him and a laugh floated from between her lips, which made Auston smile. He jumped out of the way when foam ran down the bottle, over her hand and onto the ground next to him, which made her laugh even louder, and suddenly she was holding the bottle out to him. He took it from her, taking a small sip as she asked him, “What’s the classiest place in the world?”

He handed her the bottle, and she took a small sip of it herself before she set it on the ground between them and slid off of the rock, leaning her back against it. Auston slid down next to her and he thought for a moment before throwing out, “Paris, I guess.”

“Okay. So right now we’re in Paris.” She tells him.

He turns his head to look at her, “We are?”

“Mhmm.” She muses softly, surprising him by reaching over and clasping her hand around his, lifting it up to point up into the sky as she told him, “See that cluster of stars over there? That’s the Eiffel Tower.”

“It is, huh?”

When she lowered their hands again Auston was surprised that she didn’t let go of his, instead, she grasped onto it, tangled their fingers together and rested their hands on her lap. He couldn’t help but note that it was slightly sticky from the champagne that had spilled out over the bottle earlier. She scooted down a little more, resting the back of her head against her rock before she whispered, “Yup. And this isn’t a dirt field outside of a wedding venue. It’s a field, and if you close your eyes we’re laying in grass and surrounded by sunflowers.”

So Auston scooted down, resting his head against the rock behind him and curiously he asked her, “Sunflowers?”

She nodded, “The only flower I don’t appear to be allergic to. This might be a fantasy but I’m still not trying to die here.”

He chuckled.

Cece let her eyes fall shut, her fingers still laced between his, and her breathing slowed as she relaxed against the earth. This was when Auston finally looked at her, really looking to pick up on her features.

She was conventionally beautiful, in every sense of the word; her round face was complimented with striking features like a petite nose, and high cheekbones with perfect, pouty pink lips. A dusting of freckles ran across her cheeks and nose, a few delving onto her forehead and her chest as well, more pronounced from the summer sun and her soft, tanned skin was warm against his and she smelled like peaches and maybe a little bit of sandalwood.

Cece’s voice broke through the silence, “So Auston… why this wedding?”

He turned his head to look up at the dark sky above them, just in case she turned to find him looking at her, and his shoulders shrugged as he spoke, his voice dulcet, “Found it in the paper, figured given the ceremony location and the venue site it would be a pretty grand affair so the chances of sneaky in unnoticed were in my favour.”

The laugh that slipped out of her mouth was breathy and louder in volume than she spoke, and the sound of it made the corners of Auston’s lips turn up into a smile. She gave his hand a squeeze and said, “Good bet.”

For the next hour they talked, they covered a wide variety of things ranging from favourite tv shows, his was The Office and hers was Billions, to their favourite genres of music, his varying between pop and rap and hers being good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll. She learned that despite the limited times he had ever actually appeared on her TV Auston did actually have a personality and he had a great laugh. He learned that what you saw was what you got with Cece; carefree and a little whimsical.

And then the clock struck midnight and it was, as Cece had pointed out, pumpkin time.

She had a cab to catch.

It was sitting at the curb a few feet down from the reception venue when they arrived, and Auston made sure to pull the door to the backseat open for her because that’s what Prince Charming would do for Cinderella. Cece got in, and she was unrolling the window before he could even shut the door behind her. Auston rested one forearm against the roof of the cab and leaned down into the cab as Cece placed her own forearms on the edge of the window and put her chin against them, peering up at him.

She gave the cab driver her hotel name and then asked if he could wait one minute before she turned back to Auston. That was when he asked her, “Can I ask again? What about me?”

“Answers hazy, ask again later.” She stated with a soft smile.

With a raised brow and a hint of amusement coming through with his words he asked her, “Magic 8 ball, huh?”

“Don’t knock the magic 8 ball. They are the most reliable form of future telling.” She insisted, shrugging her shoulders.

Cece hadn’t made any motion to sit back in the car yet so Auston didn’t move from where he leaned against it, but he knew that this was his window of opportunity so he asked her, “Can I have your number then? You know, so I can ask again later?”

Her lips curled into a smile and a laugh bubbled from her mouth as she finally sat back against the seat, reaching out of the window to pat his arm before she told him, “You know where I’m staying.”