Free Super Series (Book 4): Supervised by Princess Jones

It’s where we met.”
    “Oh, saying your vows in nature is so poetic. It’s like Mother Earth is at your wedding,” said Cheyenne.
    “You’ll need a permit from the parks department,” warned Gloria. “Don’t worry. I know a guy.”
    “But how many people can you fit there?” Bridget gasped.
    Mellie shrugged. “We were thinking 60 to 75 people tops, including everyone’s plus-ones.”
    Some of this stuff was flying right over my head. “What’s a plus one?” I asked.
    “A date,” Bridget explained. “Like, I’m bringing my boyfriend.”
    “I’m bringing my boyfriend, too,” said Cheyenne.
    “Me, too,” added Gloria.
    And then they all just looked at me. It took a minute to realize they were all waiting for me to volunteer who I was bringing to the wedding. I guess this is what Mellie meant by bonding. But I couldn’t predict what was going to happen in the fall. I couldn’t even predict what was going to happen next week. “Me? I’m going solo. More cake for me.” They all looked at me with pity.
    “Or maybe we could fix you up with one of groomsmen,” Bridget offered.
    “Or not.” I poured myself another glass of wine as the girls started throwing around dates for the bridal shower and the bachelorette’s night.
    Mellie got up and moved toward the kitchen. “Cheyenne, let’s start putting out the food.” As she walked past me, she whispered “Slow down.”
    Easy for her to say . This was her show. I was just an innocent bystander here to all of this. While Cheyenne and Mellie started putting out plates and dishes, Bridget pulled out some swatches. “As we all know, or should know, yellow is Mellie’s favorite color. She has decided to do shades of yellow in the bridesmaids’ dresses. Each one of us can pick our shade and then we’ll order the dresses. As the Maid of Honor, I’ll choose first.” She raised a finger to her dimpled chin and thought for a moment. “Buttercup! I really thought I was going to go with Sunshine but Buttercup is calling me!”
    I didn’t know if a color had ever called me. I didn’t know whether to be jealous or embarrassed for her. I chose to just top off my wine.
    By now, Mellie and Cheyenne had finished bringing all of the food over and were serving. Mellie took away my wine glass and pushed a plate of beige finger foods at me. “Eat. You have to finish this before I’ll let you have more wine.” I took a bite of something and practically choked on its tastelessness. It needed salt, bacon, and cheese. I was basically eating cardboard.
    Meanwhile, Bridget was pushing the swatches over to Gloria, who took a few seconds before she decided on Honey. And Cheyenne chose a color called Dandelion, which she explained was also the color of her aura, according to her psychic.
    Finally, it was my turn. Honestly, all of the colors looked the same to me. I could have picked any of them. So I decided to just browse the names until I found that spoke to me. It only took a minute but I found it. I handed the swatch back to Bridget, who sat there with an expectant look on her face and a pen and pad to write down my choice. “I think I’ll go with Nacho Cheese. For some reason, it’s all I can think about right now.”

*****
    “Did you call Mom on me?”
    By the time I left Mellie’s, I’d spent four hours drinking wine and nodding emphatically as Bridget told us what Mellie’s wedding was going to be like. I’d eaten the nutritional equivalent of cardboard and been attacked by Bridget with a tape measure for my dress measurements. I needed pizza. Stat!
    As I set my sights on the pizza place, my phone rang. It was Ella, which was funny because all of that wedding talk that night made me think of her outburst the other day. I thought maybe she was calling to tell me that she was engaged and pregnant. Instead she was calling to yell at me for telling Mom about her nervous breakdown. “Come on, Ella. What did you expect me to do?”
    Ella sighed through the