[23]

Alcohol really sucked.

I regretted drinking last night, and now, I was beginning to hate champagne.

It was the painful throbbing of my head combined with the light seeping in through my eyelids that woke me up that morning. It felt like a coal mine was inside my skull, and there were multiple workers in there. Mining. Striking my skull.

With gritted teeth and shut eyelids, I sat up, wondering exactly how much I'd drunk the night before. And, of course, there was the lingering "how much damage did I cause" question that sat in my brain.

Even though I didn't really remember everything from last night, I did remember Parker. The bar, our kiss...

Our kiss!

Parker!

On instinct, I snapped my attention to the side of the bed where he was supposed to be. The sheets were ruffled, but he wasn't there.

My heart throbbed alongside my head, matching beats. I could feel a headache brewing.

Different theories of why he wasn't in bed flew across my mind, the majority of them equalling that night from five years ago. He'd left. Again.

I felt moisture gather in my eyes, the severity of my headache heightening. Realization dawned on me like a whack in the face with a baseball bat.

Parker was gone!

The next thing I did was question myself: why wasn't he here? Where was he? Did I do something last night?

Before my mind could drive me crazy, the door to my room opened to a crack. And Parker peeked in. I blinked, watching him intently, feeling my heart rate slow to its normality.

He grinned and opened the door fully to reveal the tray he was carrying-a glass of water, a pack of Advil, and a covered bowl. I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering if he was real or not and why that bowl was covered.

After he set the tray down on the bedside table, my gaze following him all the way, he turned to me with a blinding smile.

"Morning."

My brain was still trying to register the fact that he was here, now. That he hadn't left like I'd expected him to. So instead of watching his smiley face turn to a concerned frown, I faced the tray. This time, I noticed something else on it; A bunch of croissants.

I felt my lips twitch as I quickly faced Parker again. By now, he had a partly panicked and partly concerned expression. He sat down on the bed and tugged me over to him. And the next thing I knew, I was in an embrace. His embrace.

He didn't leave.

I guess a part of me hadn't fully recovered from the effects of that night and what came after. I had a feeling that part wasn't ever going to recover.

"Is everything okay?" I could feel his chest rumble as he spoke, the heat his body gave out. The beat of his heart. I let myself relax into him, my hands coming up to wrap themselves around him. My gaze went up to his, and I put on the widest smile I could offer through the elephant stampede in my head.

"Everything's okay now."

He studied me for a moment longer, green eyes staring into mine. A slight pout graced his lips. "You thought I'd left, didn't you?"

I nodded first, then sighed, resting the side of my head against his chest. "But I'm happy you didn't."

"Leaving you five years ago was a mistake, Camsy," he said, holding me closer. "I'm not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice, especially not now that I've got you."

I smiled to myself. "I've got you too."

"And I'm not going anywhere without you."

I looked back up at him, reaching up to kiss his cheek. Feeling my heart flutter in the process and my cheeks flush. He smiled down at me before closing the distance between us with a brief kiss. But in those few moments, I realized that I was falling for Parker. Sure, I knew I felt an attraction for him before, but now it was like I'd stamped it. Like I'd finally crossed the line and couldn't give two shits about what was going to happen next. Because I was with him.

I also realized that I hadn't brushed yet, and I probably reeked of overnight champagne. That was the reason why I was the one to break our kiss and slap a hand over my mouth, muttering,

"Morning breath."

Parker chuckled, planting a soft kiss on the back of the hand covering my mouth. My heart jumped. He proceeded to let go of me and walk towards the tray.

"I bought croissants," he announced proudly, sending me a dashing grin. "Actually, I got Mida to order them," he explained with a chuckle. "She was a little mad, though, threatened to kill you for not having a piece of her wedding cake." Typical.

"But, after I practically made an oath to bring you downstairs within the next one hour, she agreed and ordered them. She's nicer than she's willing to admit." He shrugged.

Mida was nice. But she could also get crazy. Killing me for a piece of cake?

"Oh! Your mom also sent this bowl of soup."

The first word that registered in my brain was 'mom.' So I gasped, "You met my mom?" But then, I discovered I had bigger problems. My face took up a look of disgust as the next exclamation came. "She made me soup?"

"It doesn't taste that bad-"

"She made you eat from it?" I shook my head when he picked up the bowl and approached me carefully. I watched the bowl in horrification. "Don't dare bring that disastrous thing closer to me!"

He brought it close to me. Even had the nerve to sit next to me and stir the thing with a spoon.

"I'll make you a deal, you eat this, and you get a kiss from me," he offered, pleading with me with his eyes.

"And you said you've got me," I huffed.

"I do. But if you don't eat this, your mum won't trust me enough to give us her blessings when we get married. You don't want that to happen, do you?"

I opened my mouth to protest but got slapped with a discovery. Parker just mentioned us getting married. And he'd used "when," not "if." In the end, I was gaping at him like a fish.

He smiled. "Good. Now open wide."

Downstairs was a busy place-of course, it was. The most anticipated part of the entire wedding was here-oh! The sarcasm.

Clean up time!

Maybe it was just me, but the idea of cleaning literally dulled my mood.

Even through the shouting and throwing stuff around and detachment of decorations, I felt calm. I had a feeling it had everything to do with the fact that Parker was walking beside me. So even though thousands of dollars were practically being thrown away, I retained my cool. Though I wasn't sure how long this "cool" was going to last.

We reached the base of the stairs, halting in our tracks. I scanned my surroundings. The curtain girl was pulling down all the curtains she'd set up, one at a time. Heaps of flowers, strings, and ribbons lay everywhere. In one corner, a man was plucking the candles off their stands and tucking them into his pockets...

Weird.

"This place is a mess," Parker breathed beside me, putting his hands into his pockets. His tee shirt rode up as he did, forming a mass of fabric next to his waist. He looked a little bit tired with his frazzled hair and scattered eyebrows. I wanted to reach up and correct the look. But then there was this perfection in him, right now. I just couldn't put a finger on it.

Before I could think of a reply, I heard someone shout my name. And just as I turned my head in the direction of the madness, I saw Mida running towards me at full speed. Bizarre thing?

She was in heels.

I was too dazzled at the view of a newly married lady running towards me with a piece of cake in her hand to notice when she closed in on me. The next thing I knew, cake was being shoved into my mouth, and I was stumbling back. Parker steadied me luckily.

My eyes went wide, but I couldn't rain some curses on her due to my cake problem. However, I could glare holes into her grinning face as I chewed. The cake actually tasted nice.

Shawn showed up beside her, a surprised expression on his face. "Mida! I didn't think you were actually going to shove the cake down her throat!"

The spawn smiled too sweetly. "I just wanted her to have a taste of my wedding cake."

"Well, she sure has had a taste," Parker mumbled, turning to me, brows pulling together. "I'm so sorry, Cam. You're not choking silently, are you?"

With an annoyed expression, I swallowed. "No," I said, now glaring at Mida again. "I'm not."

She waved her hand in the air dismissively. "Sorry, not sorry."

I advanced toward her with a wave of brewing anger. Parker and Shawn jumped to stop me. "Why you-"

"Camsy!"

The four of us froze-me with a hand in the air. Simultaneously, we turned to my parents, who were coming toward us. Simone and Marcus walked behind them. We quickly adjusted our positions, feigning composure.

From the corner of my eye, I sent Mida a final glare. But in the depths of my mind, I was fretting.

Parker was about to officially meet my parents.