Chapter 2 - First Class to Absolutely Nowhere
We moved into the hotel’s small conference room beside the ballroom.
Daniel came with me.
So did my best friend, Priya, who had been managing the wedding timeline and now looked ready to manage a hostage negotiation.
My mother attempted to follow.
Priya blocked the doorway with the serene smile she used on vendors who missed delivery windows.
“The bride needs a moment.”
“I’m her mother.”
“Then you’ll understand.”
She closed the door.
I loved her with the force of a thousand burning seating charts.
Simone answered on the first ring.
“Are you somewhere private?”
“Private enough. Please tell me nobody is flying to Greece under my name while I’m trapped in a wedding dress.”
“Your flights are intact. Your hotels are intact. Your transfer arrangements are intact.”
I sat down.
Air returned to my lungs.
Daniel placed a glass of water beside me.
“What happened?” he asked.
Simone explained that my mother had contacted her assistant several days earlier.
She claimed I wanted to transfer the trip as a surprise.
When the assistant asked for direct confirmation from me, Mom said I was overwhelmed with wedding details and that involving me would ruin the surprise.
Fortunately, our booking instructions required confirmation from either Daniel or me for significant changes.
“Your mother became quite insistent,” Simone said.
“That sounds genetically accurate.”
“Then she asked for an itinerary she could show Chloe. We sent a quotation for a separate trip, clearly labeled as a quote.”
I stared at the wall.
“She told Chloe it was booked?”
“She appears to have altered the document before forwarding it.”
Priya made a sound normally associated with malfunctioning machinery.
Simone continued.
“There were also attempts to access the reservation through an old email address you used when we planned your company retreat.”
My mother knew that password.
I had given it to her years earlier to download photographs after a family vacation.
I closed my eyes.
Daniel’s hand settled over mine.
“We’ll secure everything,” he said.
“I know.”
“And tonight doesn’t belong to this.”
I looked down at my dress.
There was a tiny pink stain near the hem.
My mother had managed to turn even smoke into something I would be expected to clean up.
After changing the passwords and adding additional booking verification, I asked Simone to email a straightforward confirmation that no tickets had been transferred.
Then I opened the conference room door.
Chloe was standing outside with her fiancé, Ben.
Mom hovered beside them.
Dad sat on a bench, holding an ice pack against his pride.
Ben looked confused.
“Audrey, can you tell me what’s happening? Chloe said you changed your mind about the trip.”
“I never offered it.”
He turned toward her.
She crossed her arms.
“Mom handled it.”
“Mom handled a quote,” I said. “Not tickets.”
Mom’s voice sharpened.
“That travel woman was extremely unhelpful.”
“She was extremely employed.”
Priya coughed into her hand.
I showed Ben the confirmation.
He read it twice.
“So there are no flights?”
“Not for you.”
“No hotels?”
“Not for you.”
Chloe’s face flushed.
“This is humiliating.”
I waited.
She appeared surprised that I hadn’t rushed to solve that for her.
Mom tried a different approach.
“Audrey, just pay for the second booking. Then everyone gets what they want.”
There it was.
The family philosophy, polished smooth from years of use.
Everyone got what they wanted.
I got the invoice.
“No.”
“You can afford it.”
“That is not an answer to the question of whether I should.”
Dad lowered the ice pack.
“Maybe this has gone far enough, Lorraine.”
She turned on him.
“You stay out of it.”
For once, he didn’t.
“It’s her wedding.”
Chloe began crying.
Ben put an arm around her, but his expression had changed.
“I thought you and Audrey discussed this,” he said quietly.
“We did.”
I stared at her.
She looked away.
“No,” I said. “We didn’t.”
Behind us, the ballroom doors opened.
Grandma appeared carrying two plates of cake.
“I’ve brought emergency supplies.”
She handed one to me.
Then she looked at my mother.
“You should go home.”
Mom blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“This is my daughter’s wedding.”
“Yes,” Grandma said. “It would have been nice if you remembered that before ordering the weather.”
My mother left twenty minutes later.
Chloe followed, dragging Ben through the lobby while insisting that stress was bad for the baby.
Dad stayed long enough to apologize.
It was vague.
It was late.
I accepted that he had said it without pretending it repaired anything.
Then Daniel and I returned to the ballroom.
Our guests stood.
I tensed.
Please, I thought. No more applause.
But nobody cheered.
They simply made space.
The band began our song again.
Daniel offered his hand.
“May I have the part of the evening we paid for?”
I took it.
We danced beneath chandeliers while the staff replaced the stained flowers.
For three minutes, I remembered I had married someone wonderful.
Then, near midnight, a notification appeared on my phone.
A payment reminder from a lender I had never heard of.
May you like
BALANCE DUE: $18,742.
The account was in my name.
