After All(8)

The wedding planner isn't dicking around either and soon we're all ushered around the building to the grassy area at the back of the club overlooking the docks, the sparkling waves of English Bay and the towering North Shore Mountains in the distance. My own sailboat is moored below which is the reason why Will and Jackie were able to have the wedding here. Lord knows someone oughta take advantage of that perk.

It's not long until I'm paired up with the Asian bridesmaid who introduces herself to me as Tiffany. She's cute, young, and smells like champagne. From the way her face is going red, I can't tell if she's embarrassed or just has a low tolerance for booze, though the more she talks to me, the more I realize she probably doesn't embarrass over anything.

"Wait a minute," I say, pulling away from Tiffany and addressing Will as he stands beside the minister. "Who is walking Alyssa down the aisle if Ted is walking Jackie down the aisle?"

"This is what you get for missing rehearsal dinner," Tiffany says, yanking at my sleeve. "You're walking us both down the aisle."

"Lucky me," I tell her, looking around for Alyssa. "So where's the hot blonde?"

"Did you just call her a hot blonde?" Tiffany asks. 

"I might have."

"Well hot blonde went to the washroom. Do you have a name for me?"

Tiffany is staring up at me with warm, slightly tipsy eyes. I play this carefully.

"Hot non-blonde."

"You Hollywood types are all the same," she says with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh, you have experience with Hollywood types?"

She gives me a pointed look. "I'm a receptionist for a movie studio. D'uh."

"But you deal with VFX and animation. Those aren't Hollywood types. Those are stoners and nerds."

She sighs. "Don't pop my bubble. Pretending those nerds are Hollywood royalty is the only thing that gets me into the office most days. That and the donuts."

"Places, places," the wedding planner calls out, trying to do this thing with her voice so it's a yell and also a whisper. It just sounds like she has laryngitis. She frantically waves at me and Tiffany to come join her behind the rows of seats, some guests still filtering in.

As we approach, she also manages to snag Alyssa as she comes back from the washroom.

"Remember your cues," the wedding planner says to us, her eyes lingering sternly on me for a moment too long before she jets off somewhere.

"What are the cues?" I purposely ask Alyssa, trying to get her to say something.

But Tiffany pipes up. "Follow our lead. That's what you get for skipping."

"Skipping?" I repeat, looking at her. "This isn't high school, non-blonde. I was working."

At that Alyssa makes a scoffing noise that eerily reminds me of the noises Madison makes when she's unimpressed. AKA when she's not in the bedroom.

That puts a bad taste in my mouth.

Of course the bad taste goes away when I start imagining what other noises Alyssa might make. You know. In the bedroom.

I stare at her openly and she holds my eye contact for just a second. Just long enough to see that her eyes are a very clear blue. "Something in your throat?" I ask her.

She just frowns at me. She's a tough nut to crack.

"Anyway," Tiffany says loudly. "We're supposed to wait for the cue and then we walk down the aisle. You in the middle, us on either side. Like this." Tiffany sticks her arm around mine and then grins up at me. "You know I love your new show," she says.

She sounds completely sincere. "Thank you," I tell her.

"Alyssa and I were just discussing earlier that you should have a male/male scene with you and Boomerang."

This isn't the first I've heard this. Lots of Boomerang fansites ship the hero and the villain together. What does interest me is that Alyssa was roped into this conversation.

I give Alyssa a smirk. "Oh really? You were discussing me? You know, I don't think we've actually met. Maybe I should introduce myself before I give you the privilege of my arm."

I can tell she's trying not to roll her eyes. "Will introduced you already."

"Are you always this prickly?"

Her frown deepens.

"Like a cactus," Tiffany says.

Then the music starts up. The slow romantic strains of a piano playing … the theme song to Jurassic Park?

"Interesting," I comment.

"It was Ty's choice, Jackie's son," Alyssa says, keeping her eyes forward to where Will is standing by the minister at the end of the aisle.

"Ah, she speaks," I remark.

Her eyes flash to mine. "I just spoke to you two seconds ago."

"Uh," Tiffany says, looking between the both of us. "Have you guys met before or something because there's enough animosity and unresolved sexual tension to fill a million episodes of Moonlighting."