My phone is buried in the bottom of the largest bag I have and I'm focusing on Divya's wedding preparation. Sitting in her room watching a seamstress take in the off-the-rack dress she bought is not riveting, though. Normally I would take out my phone but I just can't be that close to a mistake right now.

"So, is anyone else being invited to your elopement?" I attempt to occupy myself by asking Divya questions but she doesn't bite.

"You have any more exes I need to be aware of?" I can hear her smirk without seeing it. But I know as well as she does that's not what I'm talking about.

"Divya, you know I meant your parents. I thought they were finally coming around to the idea of you marrying Raj and I feel like not inviting them might just... I don't know."

"Drive a wedge?" She sighs, inadvertently poking herself with one of the many pins. "Ouch!"

"Yeah, I guess drive a wedge. I know they want their only daughter to get married. Don't you think they'd want to be here?"

"I know they'd want to be here. And Raj wants them here. He wants me to call them, Bianca, and I want to call them. I want to pick up the phone but every time I do, I can't dial their number. I can't do it."

I understand that better than I wish I did. "Do you want me to call them?"

A thousand thoughts cross her delicate face, but she doesn't move.

"I could call them. If it would help."

More silence fills the room, pressing me down into the couch.

"I don't know anymore, B. I know you want to help but I think it's probably better coming from me. Thanks for offering." The seamstress picks this moment to demand Divya take the dress off.

"Offer still stands." I pick at the array of fake flowers laid before me, trying to find some that work well in a bouquet. Divya struggles to get out of the dress in the other room so I raise my voice to call out, "I'll do yours if you do mine."

"You still haven't called your husband?" Divya asks as she reenters the room, flopping down on the couch beside me and opening a book containing table cloth designs. Apparently her elopement coordinator — which, until yesterday I didn't know was a thing — has a few more choices for her to make before the big day this weekend.

"How is your tablecloth pattern going to make things more 'magical' or 'intimate'?" I ask her, drawing a deep red polish across my nails. "Will paisley vs. plaid really make that big of a difference?"

"Nice pivot, Bianca. You know, a week ago you were much better at this bridesmaid thing," she laughs. "Don't you know you're just supposed to go along with what I say?"

She's right. "Sorry, Divya. I don't know what's gotten into me."

Carla chooses that moment to walk into the room. I hear her before I see her. "It's what hasn't gotten into her, Divs."

"You know what?" I spin around to see her smirking with her hands in the air.

"Sorry, officer. Bad joke. I'll see myself out."

"You're on notice, Carla. One more bad joke and we'll settle this outside."

"You'll settle what outside? I could take you with one arm tied behind my back."

"It's a matter of honour."

Divya and Carla shoot each other knowing looks and I know it's about me.

"Can we stop looking at each other about me and just come out and say whatever it is?"

"It's nothing," Carla sings as she slides onto the couch beside me.

"We're just a little worried about you," Divya adds. "I mean, you've been so unlike yourself lately we just want to make sure you're okay, you know?"

"I'm fine." If there's anyone in the room who doesn't know I'm lying, I'll eat my shirt.

"You don't have to pretend for me," Divya says. "I can uninvite him in a minute, you know. They're both gone from wedding festivities."

"He's your fiance's best friend," I reason. "It's not fair of me to say Tyrone can't come just because I used to love him. I'll figure something out."

Lorena choses that moment to crash through the door with a room service cart. "What are we figuring out? If it's a math problem I am NOT helping."

"Bianca's just figuring out—"

"I'm just figuring out how to handle Tyrone being at Divya's wedding this weekend."

"Maybe you could find someone hot to show up with. Who do we know that's hotter than Emiko?"

"Carla!" Divya covers her mouth in horror. "Bianca's married, remember? We can't bring someone we know into this!"

"She could just go with her husband, then," Lorena reasons. "He's hot."

"I also haven't seen him since I married him," I point out, setting the lid onto the nail polish and blowing on my nails.

"You could always find someone we don't know," Divya says finally. "I mean, you could find someone just to be your date and not to date you. I mean..."

"You mean she could pick up a guy just to be her wedding date knowing she'll dump him right after? Isn't that mean?"

"Not if he knows!"

The argument about the ethics of bringing a date to the wedding while I was legally married and how removed from the situation a guy would have to be in order to be an appropriate choice carries on while I use my wrists to pick up a croissant and shove it into my mouth.

I might be legally married, but I don't know him. "I could just hire someone," I blurt out once my mouth has cleared of croissant.

"Hire someone," Carla muses, rolling the words around in her mouth like she's tasting a fine wine. "We are in Vegas. It's not LA or New York, but they do have actors and the like here, right? Might not be a bad idea."

"Are we just going to casually forget that she had a rock the size of Texas on her finger when she met Tyrone in the store? He's not going to forget that."

"She's right." Divya pulls herself up off the floor and stands to full height. "We aren't looking for a hot guy to be your date. We're looking for an amazing guy to be your husband. That job's a little harder."

Thank you, Divya. Very kind assessment.

I can't help the sigh that escapes me as I sink into the couch. "No, she's right. It's either hire someone or go solo."

"Or find Enrique somehow," Lorena reasons. I hate that she does this.

"How am I going to do that?" Resisting the urge to put my hands on my hips takes more energy than launching a rocket would.

"You could always text him back."

"Carla!" Divya chastises. "I thought we agreed to let her deal with this on her own time."

"That was before she wanted a hot guy to be her date. I mean, Enrique did marry her so he can't hate her that much and then he reached out. Maybe he wants to make a go of it. It's kinda romantic when you think about it."

Lorena takes the opportunity to pick up a sofa cushion and bash it across the back of Carla's head.

To be honest, none of these options seem very good at all. But showing up alone while Emiko's on Tyrone's arm is definitely out of the question. I've made enough drunken mistakes for a lifetime.

♤ ♥ ♤

Thinking to yourself, 'wow, this story is just not spooky enough?' I have a solution! My friend SmokeAndOranges has the novella for you. Even if you aren't thinking that, go give it a look. During the day. 😆

Farah knows things are amiss when the zeppelin Ariomma finds another airship wrecked and abandoned in the middle of the sky. Towing it to safety promises rewards, but it's not long before the crew's luck takes a turn for the worse. Farah's crewmates start to disappear one by one. With mutiny brewing on all sides, she must distinguish allies from enemies in order to save herself and her brother as whatever emptied the first ship turns its attention on the Ariomma instead.