XI. GRACE—CHAPTER ELEVEN

          The dial tone was the first thing she heard before it ended suddenly and there was a shuffle, a groggy voice coming on the other end. "Hello?"

          Grace smiled when she heard it. She hadn't heard his morning voice before. "Good morning, sunshine."

          "Gracie, it's like—four in the morning. Why are you awake?"

          Grace thought momentarily. She hadn't realized it was so early (or would it be considered late?). Actually, she hadn't realized it was early at all. "I'm sorry. I forgot you would be sleeping. I can call back later?"

          "No, no, I'm awake now. What's up?" She could hear the shuffling of his sheets as he sat up straighter in bed, and she suddenly felt bad for waking him up. He had work, and she didn't even think about it beforehand.

          Grace frowned, fumbling with the blanket across her lap. "I couldn't sleep—call it stress."

          There was barely a second of a pause before he replied. "What's got you so stressed?"

          "I think it's the wedding," she mumbled. "I'm the maid of honor, and there's three weeks until the wedding and I've had three different people cancel and I don't know what to do. I can't tell Danny, and I certainly can't tell Wren. It'll just stress them out even more than they already are and—I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hear any of this."

          Sebastian chuckled, and she could imagine him running his hand along jaw as he did so. She smiled at the thought. "No, it's okay. I don't want you to be stressed."

          Grace pursed her lips as he said that, thinking that putting her stressful thoughts on him would only stress him out in the end rather than help her. "It's fine, Seb, really. There's nothing I can do other than try to sleep and find more people tomorrow. Thanks, though, seriously."

          There was a pause on the other end, and Grace wondered if he had fallen back asleep or if he was just thinking about what to say. "Are you sure?"

          Grace nodded. "Yeah. You should go back to sleep. You have work tomorrow."

          Sebastian chuckled. "I'm not tired anymore. Besides, I'm supposed to get up in...twenty-two minutes anyways, and I already made my coffee, so..."

          "I'm sorry," she said again, and he laughed. "Fifteen days, though, right? And I can wake you up in person instead of on the phone?"

           "Fifteen days."

          The two smiled on opposite ends of the line, and they talked and talked about whatever came to mind until he had to leave for work.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: idk how I feel about this. but hey, stacie right?