2. Engagement party

Larissa Maynard

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I held my breath as Alesia zipped up my dress. It was way tighter than it needed to be but I had to go down in two minutes so there was no time to change it. Even if there was, my future mother-in-law wouldn’t want me to change the dress. She had picked it herself and she also paid for it, as an engagement gift.

I was certain she knew it was a size too small because she was unnecessarily obsessed with my size. As though I wasn’t thin enough, she wanted me to lose more weight. I’d be damned before putting my wedding dress in her hands.

Finally exhaling when it was all done, I turned around to smile at Alesia. “Thank you.”

Her eyes ran across my body as though looking for something out of place. I was putting on a red strapless dress with a white beaded necklace and matching earrings. My hair was in a complicated updo that had been done by the hair stylist and my makeup was done perfectly by a professional. I was more than ready to face the millions of guests already in the hall.

She returned the smile when she didn’t have anything else to complain about. “You need a smile to complete the look.”

Most people said I had a resting bitch face and it was true. If I was walking alone on the road, I never looked approachable and I couldn’t help it.

I forced out a chuckle. I was not into the idea of throwing an engagement party, but my parents thought otherwise. I was certain my wedding ceremony would be just as huge and I didn’t want that. I wanted a small wedding with family and close friends, nothing more.

My parents were making a big deal out of this. It was just a marriage for fuck’s sake.

“Try to pretend you’re happy to be here.” She smiled sarcastically before she left the room.

My smile dropped immediately after she left. I didn’t like Alesia that much. She never did anything bad to me but she always made it seem like her brother was doing me a favor by getting married to me. If anything, it was the opposite. Getting married to Alexander would do his business a lot of good but I never thought about rubbing it in his face.

As she left, the door opened again and my brother poked his head through. A real smile finally spread across my face.

“I always knew you’d get married before me, but I didn’t expect it anymore after…” he trailed off, not daring to mention his name.

I didn’t even want to think about him. It had been five years since I last saw him but I could remember the details of his face vividly. I hated the fact that my thoughts still strayed to him sometimes, but I had moved on from him. I am a fully grown adult now. I had a boyfriend, now a fiancé, and a soon-to-be husband. I was doing just fine without him.

“It’s his loss anyway.” Luke walked toward me. “He missed out big time.”

He did. He really did.

“Shall we?”

I nodded and put my hand through my brother’s own as he led me out the door. I didn’t get to see my brother a lot as he was always away on business trips. He was only thirty but he was already a workaholic just like my father.

Since they were making a big deal about our engagement, it was supposed to be my father bringing me down to meet my fiancé as though we were already the bride and groom, but I strongly opposed it. If anyone was going to bring me down to meet anyone, it was going to be my brother. He was literally my best friend.

I didn’t have many friends and I even had less friends who genuinely gave a shit about me. I’d learned the hard way that we were all alone in this world, especially when we were involved in the business world, but my brother was always there for me.

I took a deep breath as we descended the stairs that led us to the hall where the guests were already waiting. Alexander was waiting at the foot of the stairs where Luke handed me to him.

Alex placed a kiss on my cheek before putting his hand around my waist. I clung onto his arm as we stepped into the hall, bringing all the focus to us.

“And here, we have our future bride and groom,” the MC announced and some kind of stage light shone on us. It made me uncomfortable but I tried to ignore it, putting on my best smile for show. “We are gathered here to celebrate the union of Alexander Theodore and Larissa Maynard.” The man laughed after that sentence like anything was funny. “My bad, that sounded like it was their wedding.”

The crowd laughed – I still didn’t get what was so funny – as they all looked at us.

Noticing I was uncomfortable with all the stares, Alexander leaned in. “Are you okay?”

I realized my smile had dropped and I quickly put it back in place. “I’m fine.” If I said I wasn’t, he was not going to do anything about it anyway. There was no point in telling him the truth.

I zoned out on the MC as he went on about irrelevant things. I was only brought back to reality when we had to make a toast. Alexander and I went on the makeshift stage and after Alex gave some kind of opening speech, I smiled accordingly, staying beside him because apparently, that was my role.

Since I was not going to be saying anything, I had no reason to go up there with him but the planners of this party had different ideas from mine. They said it’d show our strength as a couple as though we could fight off enemies by opening our mouths to give a few speeches.

Fuck, I was so done with this party and it hadn’t even properly started.