It turned out the alcohol was faster than her father’s temper. Pam’s husband Adam was also with them, serving both older men more tequila shots. Amelia mouthed a silent thanks to him as she walked closer.

“Can you imagine any girl being better than my Amelia?” her father asked.

Mr. Holloway shook his head. “My son’s an idiot.”

He looked up and saw Julian. “Not you, you’re the smart one. The other one is an idiot.”

“Dad, I think you’ve had enough. Let’s get you back to your room,” Julian said.

Amelia had to agree. Getting them drunk enough for them to no longer fight was a good idea, but she had no desire to send either of the men to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. She walked over to her dad and helped him off the bar stool.

“Let’s get you to bed, Dad,” she said. Day drinking was not a normal thing for them, but for today, it was excusable.

“This is why you should’ve agreed to this,” Mr. Holloway said, slurring his words as he thumped Julian on the back. “You wouldn’t have fucked this up.”

He turned towards Amelia and placed his hand on her shoulder. “You’re such a sweet girl, Amelia.”

She wasn’t really sweet. She was only sweet to the people she considered her own, and for a second, she wished she could still consider Mr. and Mrs. Holloway as her people. They would’ve been her family, and they had been nice to her. They were supportive of her career and her choices, and Mrs. Holloway was one of the sweetest women she ever met. It was strange how such normal and sweet people had produced such unusual sons, both in their own way. Michael was nice but detached, and Julian was aloof to the point of rudeness.

“Could you please take your father back to his room?” Amelia asked.

Julian nodded, but instead made a call. “Just wait for a minute. I’ll have dad’s secretary drive our parents back home. I think everyone will calm down once they’re at home.”

It reminded her of her own staff, and all the things she had to do. She called the wedding planner. There was a lot to be done.

“Hi Rachel,” she said. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry, Amelia,” Rachel said. Her concern sounded genuine. She’d been with Amelia more than Michael had been during the previous months. The call was silent for a few uncomfortable seconds.

“Thank you,” Amelia said, because she didn’t know what else to say. “Could you make sure everyone working at the wedding knows that it’s off? Also, arrange for the food to be donated somewhere, if possible. Let me know if there’s anything you need from me.”

“Okay, I can do that. Just call me if you need anything else, okay?”

They had sunk a lot of money into the wedding, although it was the least of her worries. It was too late to get any of the money back, but it would be nice if at least the food didn’t go to waste.

“I will. Thank you,” she said. Rachel’s sympathy wasn’t so unbearable. She was tempted to ask if the wedding planner had experienced something similar before. Rachel had worked on hundreds of weddings. The divorce rate was fifty percent, so surely at least some weddings fell apart before the altar.

Julian tapped her on the shoulder. Their fathers were gone from the bar, and he had a drink in his hand. It was a glass of white wine, her usual drink of choice. It was too weak for her at the moment. She made her way to the bar.

“Vodka tonic, please,” she said to the bartender. “Make it strong.”

She liked the burn down her throat. She turned to Julian. “Wine’s not gonna cut it today.”

Neither would just one drink. She hated drinking during the day, but it wasn’t exactly a normal day. She motioned for another of the same drink and downed it in one go. The alcohol hit her at the fourth drink, and the buzz was enough to dull the awareness of everything going on around her.

She just wanted to go to her room and sleep. She could let Pam handle everything else for the day, hand over the phone and just pretend for a few hours that nothing was wrong.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Can I take you back to your room?” Julian asked.

It was ridiculous. She was perfectly capable of walking a few steps and finding an elevator. As she took her first step though, she realized her confidence was unfounded. The room swayed, and she took Julian’s arm to steady herself.

“Thank you,” she whispered. She hadn’t had alcohol in months, and her previous tolerance was gone. Michael didn’t like alcohol, and so she’d weaned herself off of her occasional glasses of wine. She was trying her best to please him and his family. She thought compromising would make things work between them and their families. She could give up a few of the things she liked in exchange for a good marriage.

She’d been so stupid.

Half of marriages ended in divorce, the majority of them between people who had loved each other, and she’d thought she could cultivate that kind of affection. Maybe that’s why so many marriages failed. Because people were overly confident idiots, just like her.

“Did you have any idea?” she murmured. Julian didn’t look as surprised as the rest of the family. In fact, he looked like he was almost expecting Micahel’s disappearance.

“I tried to talk him out of it,” he answered. “I thought I did. I told him it was a stupid decision when he got the message from Kate. It was just a few texts, too. She didn’t even call him. I told him she’s gonna dump him again once she gets tired of him.”

“Will she?” Amelia asked. There was hope in her voice, but not because she ever wanted Michael. It just felt wrong, for him to knock her entire life out of balance and go riding off into the sunset. She hoped Kate dumped him when he least expected it, and ripped his heart out.

“Definitely. Kate has brief moments of clarity where she realizes she should spend life with someone with a stable income, their own house, savings, et cetera. But they’re always brief, she always gets bored of Michael, and she dumps him to go on her next big adventure. Idiot doesn’t realize he’s just being used as a pit stop before she races off.”

“Slow down,” she said. “Too many words.”

“Yes, she’ll definitely dump him.”

“That’s so good,” she drawled. “Remind me to send her a bottle of wine when she does.”

They made it to her, and she dug around in her pocket for her key card. When she finally got it out, she rushed into her room and towards the bed in one motion. If she were sober, it would have been one smooth motion, but in reality it was more of a stumble.

“Thank you,” she said, slipping off her shoes. She would just take a nap for a few hours. Julian knew where she was if anyone really needed her. “Could you let Pam know I’m in my room, if you see her?”

Sleep was hard to escape, and she tucked herself into bed quickly. The window blinds were open, and it was still mid-afternoon, but none of that mattered. Julian was still in the room, but she was too disoriented to see him out.

Amelia woke up to the setting sun, and Julian sitting at the desk in her room. She was startled and sat up.

“Julian?”

He handed her a glass of water and she took it. She could ask him questions and tell him to leave once her throat didn’t feel like sandpaper. After a few more glasses of water, she got out of bed.

“Why are you still here?” she asked. “And what time is it?”

“I wasn’t sure if you fell asleep or passed out, and I didn’t think it was safe to leave you alone. And it’s eight o’clock.”

Her reception would have been in full swing if all things went well.

“The wedding planner called earlier. She managed to get the food delivered to a local homeless shelter. Everything else has been taken care of as well,” Julian said.

“Thanks,” she said. Everything was undone now, in a way. She would wake up in the morning and be able to get back to her normal–

The honeymoon. The next evening, she was supposed to be flying across the Atlantic and spending two weeks in Santorini. The entire itinerary was planned around them being honeymooners. It wasn’t somewhere she could go alone.

Pam.

Pam couldn’t say no to a free vacation. If not her, she could invite one of her friends. It would be nice to get away from people who knew her for a bit as well. The talk would die down, and she’d come back ready to deal with everything relaxed and refreshed.

“Pam’s in the hospital, by the way,” Julian said.

“What?!”

“She’s doing fine now and everything’s alright, but you should call her,” Julian said. He handed her her phone and left the room. “I’ll see you later.”

Pam was always the most recent of her phone calls, and she answered on the fourth ring.

“Pam, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes,” Pam answered. “I… wanted to tell you this after the wedding. I’m pregnant, Ames.”

A smile came to Amelia’s face, unbidden. She chuckled. “Thanks for telling me, Pam. Is everything okay with the baby?”

It was the one good thing she’d heard all day. Pam and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for years, and they’d started taking fertility treatments.

“Everything’s fine,” Pam sighed. “The stress just got to me, and I started feeling dizzy. It’s been a crappy first trimester. Baby’s fine, though.”

“Okay, which hospital are you at?”

“I’m at East Presbyterian. Come over in the morning. The doctors recommended I stay overnight anyway, and it’s outside visiting hours.”

“Yeah, for sure, in the morning.”

In the morning. And so her first and most preferred choice for coming on her honeymoon was out.