'Part of me wants to, so badly,' I told my friend. 'But I don't want to let Tracey down, or give Fi-Fi, Miller, or his new … strumpet, the chance to see that they've got to me.'
'So how are you going to handle this?' she asked with a worried expression.
'With plenty of glasses of champagne,' I stated firmly. I swiped two off the tray as a timely waiter passed. I handed her one and knocked the other back immediately.
'I've got a feeling I'm going to regret encouraging this plan, but here, have mine as well, you look like you need it,' Georgie said, as she swapped my empty glass for her full one. 'Just promise me if I manage to corner him, I can slap him and give him a piece of my mind.'
'As long as I'm not embarrassing myself for the third wedding in a row, I have no objections to you doing whatever you like,' I replied. I gulped back a third glass of champagne and pulled a face as the bubbles tickled my nose and made my head feel slightly tingly already. 'Do I … '
'You look gorgeous, and from the looks he's trying to sneakily cast your way, he still thinks the same, too,' she said softly. I smiled at her, she always knew what I was thinking. I was completely torn. Part of me was curious and wanted to turn around and see him, to check out my replacement, while part of me was devastated and wasn't sure I'd survive it. 'Right, if we're doing this, I'm going to need some liquid courage to handle you drunk. Let's do it in style, two at a time,' she announced.
She grabbed another two glasses of champagne off a second waiter for herself as I set the three empty glasses on his tray, then reached for two more full ones for me. Who needed a floral bouquet? A glass in each hand was a much better accessory.
Quite how I managed to avoid seeing Miller or his strumpet, as that was what I was going to call her because I already hated her with a passion, I wasn't sure. But we were called to take our places and I still hadn't seen them. I was on the far right of the top table, and when I saw Fi-Fi had taken her place at the chair next to mine, I stalled, admiring the five-tier wedding cake that my friend Jess of Yummy Cakes by Jess had made. It was incredible. Some of the lace effect detailing, which seemed to flow down the sides, was so intricate. I took my place and swallowed hard as I finally did a scan of the room. He wasn't hard to spot, even sitting down didn't take away from how tall he was or that mop of dirty-blond hair that I knew so well. My fingers flexed, wanting to run through it and pull the strands on the nape of his neck. His focus was on strumpet as they talked, and it took all of my courage to drag my eyes from his side profile to look at her.
'Stunning, isn't she?' Fi-Fi announced gleefully. I reluctantly nodded as I studied her, wondering why I had the feeling that I knew her, that I recognised her face from somewhere. She wasn't the glamorous type I'd been imagining, cut from the Fi-Fi style of trying too hard. Instead she was cool and edgy. She had one of those haircuts that only certain girls could get away with, shaved on one side with jagged long layers on the other, and it had been dyed such a light blonde, it was almost white, with various bright shades of turquoise, green, purple, and pink dip-dyed tips. Her face was classically beautiful, in perfect symmetry, and she had a pair of rich hazel eyes that suddenly met mine. I gritted my teeth as she had the audacity to smile at me, then she said something to Miller. He looked up at me, holding my gaze for a fraction of a second before he turned back to her and nodded. 'Seems like they're talking about you, Abbie. Not like she has to be scared of the competition, is it?' Fi gloated.
'Oh shut up, Fi-Fi!' I bit, turning to give her a glare. 'Do you know how pathetic it is that you're so miserable in your own life, you have to try and bring everyone else down?'
'You shut up!' she shot back.
'No, you shut up, or I might be forced to do something else that I won't regret,' I warned.
'It was you! I knew it,' she said, her tone full of venom.
'Owww, what the hell was that?' I exclaimed, as she pinched my thigh really hard under the tablecloth. She smirked, so I pinched her back and made her squeak, then she replied with a hard punch to my leg. I glared at her and grabbed my side fork off the table, then jabbed her in the side with it, and all hell broke loose.
'Bitch!' she yelped as she shot out of her seat, clutching her newly pronged ribs. She grabbed her glass of champagne off the table and before I had a chance to react, the cold liquid was flying across the air between us and splattering all over my face as a collective 'Oh' rose up from the guests. Without thinking, I stood up and slapped her across the face as hard as I could, her returning slap resonating in the now virtually silent ballroom.
'Harpie,' I bit back as I shoved her, my cheek and palm smarting. She stumbled, and Julia grabbed her before she landed on her lap and pushed her back upright.
'I hate you, Abbie Carter,' she shrieked, shoving me so hard, I staggered and fell backwards onto the corner of the cake table. I heard the gasp of horror from everyone in the room right as I saw the top tier of the cake flying through the air, smacking straight into a gloating Fi-Fi's stunned face.
'Crap,' I moaned as the table collapsed, taking me down to the floor with it, and the remaining four tiers of cake smashed down on top of me to the chorus of shocked 'Ahhhs' and the distraught scream of poor Tracey. I didn't have time to recover from the shock of the fall, or being smothered in icing, marzipan, sponge, and lemon ganache filling, before Fi-Fi was launching herself at me like some kind of WWF wrestling champion. She landed on me with a thud, her eyes barely visible through her cake facial, and started screaming at me while she pulled my hair. Well, that did it, I was not going down without a fight, so I grabbed hers and pulled it back, and all of a sudden we were rolling around on the floor, lashing out with our hands and feet, not to mention a few obscenities that flew from her mouth.
I gasped for air as someone hauled her off me, and I wiped some of the cake away from my eyes to see her struggling in Miller's arms. He'd got her around the waist, and her legs were kicking and her arms flailing as she screamed at him to let her go.
'Are you ok, Abbie?' he demanded, flashing me a concerned look. How dare he! How dare he ask if I was alright when he knew I wouldn't be, with him flaunting his new girlfriend in my face, publicly humiliating me. What he'd done was worse than what psychotic Fi-Fi had. Georgie ran over and stretched out her hand to me, helping me up as I shot him a cold look. I straightened my shoulders, the eyes of three hundred guests on me in my green taffeta, white icing, and lemon cream outfit, then flicked my hair over my shoulders, dollops of cake shooting off.
'I'm just peachy, thank you, Miller. So I guess it didn't take long to get over me either, huh?' I enquired, throwing back the words he'd used on me when Heath had answered my door.
'Get over you?' he replied, a look of panic crossing his face while Fi-Fi continued to writhe in his arms, trying to get back to her cat fight with me. 'Wait, Abbie, it's not what you think. Quinn's – '
'I don't want to know,' I responded firmly, putting one of my sticky palms up in front of me. 'Fi-Fi, you ever do anything like this to me again, and ruin someone else's wedding, I will call Dave and let him know what a money-digging, cheating, lying, despicable little … cow, you really are. Tracey, I don't know how to apologise for what we've just done. Please bill me for the cost of the cake, which is absolutely delicious by the way,' I nodded as I licked a smear of cream from the corner of my mouth. 'But I think it's best I leave now, with what's left of my dignity.'
'Mess with my best friend again, and I mess with you,' Georgie growled, pointing a finger at both Fi-Fi and a shocked Miller. She grabbed my hand and pushed her way through the people who'd crowded around to see what was happening as I blinked back some tears, not least from the citrus cream that was smearing my vision and stinging like hell. 'Come on, let's get you cleaned up first, then we're going home.'
I couldn't say anything. It was taking everything I had to try and hold it together right now. All of the pain and humiliation had built up inside of me, and that had been the final straw. I felt like I was about to break and I wasn't sure any amount of glue was ever going to put me back together again. Georgie hurried me down the marble corridor as other hotel guests gasped and pointed at me, just making me feel even worse. She swung open the heavy door to the ladies' room as I heard Miller's distinctive accent calling my name. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows, but I shook my head. I couldn't. I just couldn't face him right now. So she led me inside, letting the door swing shut behind me, cutting him off as he pleaded with me to talk to him.
'Oh, Abbie,' she sighed as she sat me down and turned to the marble countertop to grab some rolled-up facecloths and fill a sink with hot water. I just stared at the floor-to-ceiling mirror opposite me as she gently started to wipe my face, cleaning all evidence of the cake and my make-up away, then tried to get as much as she could off my hair and dress, followed by my neck, chest, shoulders, arms, and hands. 'Walk away,' I heard her warn as the noise of heels on the floor echoed when someone entered the ladies' room.
My eyes drifted over, expecting to see Fi-Fi coming to finish what she started, or maybe even a distraught Tracey to haul me over the coals. Who I didn't expect to see, or want to see, was the strumpet, whose name I didn't even remember. Especially not when she was dressed in some fancy hip designer outfit, looking amazing and smelling like a Parisian parfumerie, and I was in a cake-stained dress, make-up free, with damp lemon-scented hair.