Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Skylar would have happily slept all day, anything to forget how s.hitty she felt. But the pounding headache induced by too much alcohol didn't want to let her, and apparently neither did Ian. He slightly shook her and waited for her to slowly open her eyes. Why did it have to be so painful?

She groaned as she took in her boyfriend's features, not that it was a bad sight, but she wasn't in the mood to look at anything. "What?"

"You need to get up," Ian explained. Skylar turned and buried her head in the pillow deciding to ignore Ian. Nope. That was not going to happen.

Ian sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. "Skylar, get up. You do remember that today is your sister's wedding, right? And you're a bridesmaid."

Right. That was happening.

Groggily, she sat up, her hair covering her face. She knew that she probably looked like the Grudge, but honestly, she couldn't care any less at the moment. "Who decides to have a bachelorette party the night before the damn wedding?" she whined.

Ian shrugged. "Several women do."

Skylar fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. How was she going to get through the wedding feeling as terrible as she did? No. How was Heather going to get through her own wedding after having partying so much last night? Did anyone not think going out last night would be a bad idea. "I feel like s.hit," she said.

Ian graciously motioned towards the food waiting for her and, bless his soul, pain killers. "Take two pills and then eat." He helped her sit back up and handed her a glass of water and the pills. "Honestly, Skylar, I didn't think I'd ever see you like this."

She gulped down the pills and said, "I really hoped you'd never see me like this." How much had she had to drink last night? She really didn't remember much. "I don't even know how I got here."

Now Ian laughed. "You don't?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't remember much besides the fact that everyone was having a bit too much fun."

"Well," he began, "you called me when you didn't start to feel better."

She tried to recall but couldn't. "I did?"

"Yes, so I picked you up." He laughed more thinking back to the night before. "You were very drunk."

"Yeah, I'm sure I was."

"You know you're very open with your thoughts when you're drunk," he said amused. "You have no filter."

That's when she got worried. "What exactly did I say?"

"Oh, you know, you were just very open about the fact that you wanted to have s.ex. Very loud about it, too. Several people heard. You also said that you wanted me inside of-"

"Oh my gosh, stop!" she pleaded.

"It's okay," he promised her. "It was quite entertaining."

She felt so embarrassed. Why would she say that? How could she not realize how inappropriate she was being? And in public! She was never getting drunk again, that much she promised herself. And poor Ian, she had technically been se.xually harassing him in public. She felt so ashamed. "I hate myself," she muttered, then reached out to get the food Ian had ordered for her.

He kissed her temple and said, "Well, don't. I love you."

Ian was already dressed for the big day, looking every bit the professional he was. He really did look great in a suit, it was something that she should have been used to seeing him but apparently she wasn't.

When she was done, Ian helped her by starting the shower for her while she undressed. Gosh, she felt so needy at the moment. But Ian didn't seem to mind at all. And when his eyes started to roam over her naked body she didn't feel so s.hitty anymore. With a smile, she gave him a playful wink and stepped into the shower.

"I'm very tempted to get in the shower with you," he said as she slid the glass shut.

The water felt so good, but it would be even better with him in there with her. "Come join me then."

"I can't," he said. "We won't make it to the wedding if I do. I'll be in the room getting some work done."

Skylar spent a few minutes just standing under the hot water letting it awaken her completely. When she decided she was awake enough she scrubbed her body and washed her hair, the smell of flowers of engulfing her. She never wanted to get out. But eventually she had to.

Wrapped in a towel she stepped into the bedroom where Ian was engulfed in his work. He looked up at her and pointed to the box at the foot of the bed. "Your sister Grace sent someone to drop this off," he explained.

Right. She'd left her dress at Heather's house. After the way Grace had partied last night, she was surprised her sister was even able to get up. She decided to do her makeup first, deciding to do a little more with herself this time. Contouring wasn't her forte but somehow she managed to make it look good. When she thought her makeup was good enough she slipped on the dress and paired it with nude heels. She didn't do much to her hair except tease it into flowing waves.

"You look beautiful, my love," Ian said as he closed his laptop.

She smiled. "I try."

Ian got up to wrap his arms around her waist and leaned down to place a kiss at the tip of her nose. "You don't need to, you know."

The wedding would be held at The Langham, a luxury hotel in the downtown area. It had a capacity of 25o people, and Heather had made sure it was packed. After all her husband-to-be had a lot of family and she had a lot of family and friends. In fact, she'd had to cut down the list because she'd gone over the limit, it was very disappointing to her.

There were already several people there by the time Skylar and Ian arrived. Family members of Skylar didn't try to tone down their staring, no one had known that she was with someone. Her parents would surely be surprised.

Grace quickly approached them dressed in a similar bridesmaid dress. She quickly hugged Skylar and then pulled back to look at Ian. "Look at you, I never thought I'd see you again!" she exclaimed.

Ian offered her a polite smile. "It's good to see you, Grace."

Grace grinned. "It's good to see you, too. Now go sit down, Ian." To Skylar, "And you come with me."

Skylar followed Grace to where Heather and the other bridesmaids were. And, yes, her parents. Heather looked absolutely stunning in her dress with a plunging neckline, highlighted by delicate beading. Her hair was up in an elegant style. She was every bit the beautiful bride and Skylar felt so happy for her sister.

"Skylar," her mother spoke. "You made it."

Her mother was a serious woman with a no-nonsense attitude. They'd never really had such a close relationship. Same thing with her father.

She nodded. "Yeah, I said I would."

"And guess who she brought with her," Grace said excitedly.

"Ian!" Heather exclaimed.

Her father raised an eyebrow. "Ian? As in Ian Rinaldi?"

Great. She didn't want to have that conversation. "Yes, he's really great," she explained.

Mr. Grant wasn't amused. "We'll see about that."

Awkward.

Soon the ceremony began and all that awkwardness was put aside. It was Heather's time to shine, and Luis. He was a tall and handsome guy, really, with black hair and olive skin. When he spoke his vows, he spoke with an accent. Judging from the look of some women, it was a very attractive accent.

They said their vows and their "I Do's" and soon enough they were kissing in front of everyone. And everyone was clapping and cheering. Grace, who was standing next to her, was sniffling and trying to wipe away tears before they could smudge her makeup.

"They're so cute!" she said sniffling.

Skylar laughed. "You're very emotional today."

Grace nodded. "Yeah. I'm getting divorced and all, but at least someone else is happy!"

Oh. That had not been expected. Like at all.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," Skylar began.

"Oh, forget it, this is Heather's moment."

Everyone was celebrating the newlyweds. Skylar said hello to some of her family members and introduced Ian to them. But finally she decided to just sit down at a table with Ian and Kyle, whom had been charming enough to Heather to get an invite.

"You know, it's a shame Heather got married," Kyle said. "I could have made her happier."

Skylar snorted. "Shut up, you idiot."

"I'm just saying," he said defensively.

"Either way, there's a lot of single ladies here," she pointed out.

Kyle grinned. "I know. I'm so getting laid tonight."

Ian frowned. "Is that really all you care about?"

He scoffed. "Like you don't?"

"Actually, no," Ian said. "I cared about more than just getting laid. You need to get to know someone, go out on dates, and then see where you go from there."

"Like my bedroom?"

Ian groaned. "You know what, you make your own decisions, Kyle. No advice from me."

Kyle looked offended. "All I'm saying is that either way I approach a girl, I'm gonna end up sleeping with them. It doesn't matter if it's a random hook-up or a serious relationship. You and Skylar ended up getting it on either way, did you not?"

"I'm not talking about this," Ian said.

"No. Answer me."

"Kyle, be quiet," Skylar said, nudging him playfully.

"Skylar, I want an answer."

"You know the answer!"

Kyle smirked. "I thought so."

Ian decided to ignore Kyle and turned to Skylar. "How are you feeling?"

"My head still hurts," she said.

"Hmm, make sure you don't drink so much tonight," he said teasingly.

Skylar pouted. "I wasn't planning to."

After a while Skylar's parents decided to speak to her and Ian. It was awkward to say the least.

"Has this been going on since she was 16?" her father asked.

"No!" both Skylar and Ian exclaimed at the same time. "We started dating after she started classes at Stanford," Ian continued.

"I hear that you have a daughter," Mrs. Grant added.

"Yes, I do have a daughter, her name is Emily," Ian said. "But her mother and I are obviously not together."

"Do you plan on marrying my daughter?" Mr. Grant asked.

Wow. Skylar was mortified.

"Uh, eventually, yes," Ian said.

Oh.

They'd never discussed marriage. Not that Skylar had anything against marriage, it was just that...it was too soon to be thinking about it. They had just started dating after all. Marriage was a really serious matter.

"Eventually?" her father asked.

"Yes, once we've been together for a longer time. We don't want to rush into anything." Ian was frustrated. He was under a lot of pressure with her parents.

"We don't," Skylar agreed, taking over. "I'm still in school, I need to focus on that. And after I graduate I have to focus on my career. Uh, marriage is not something that I'm focusing on right now."

Finally her parents decided that their interrogation was over and left them alone. They both let out a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry about them," Skylar said. "They're really...something, alright."

Ian squeezed her hand and said, "It's fine. Your parents just want to make sure my intentions are sincere."

Yeah. Right. Skylar highly doubted that. They'd never really shown much interest in her life, why start now? She didn't need anyone to worry about her relationship, especially not them. It wasn't like she needed their approval to be with Ian.

She decided to laugh it off. "I'm sorry that they put you under pressure. I can't believe they brought up marriage."

"Yes," he agreed, but looked serious. "Is that...is that something that you want?"

Skylar raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to get married?"

"Yes." She'd never really thought much about it. Currently she was just happy that she was with Ian, but she'd never wondered about their future. "Hmm. Well, yeah. I guess I do. It's something that I've always wanted." That was true. When she was little she would spend hours daydreaming about marrying the perfect guy and how their wedding would be. Once she realized the world wasn't as perfect as she thought it was, those dreams were locked away. "But lets not talk about this right now."

"I agree," he said. "Maybe when it wasn't brought up in an awkward situation."

"Agreed."

They decided to go join everyone else, but as soon as Skylar started approaching the center of the festivities, she stopped in dead in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" Ian asked worriedly.

No, it couldn't be.

"Skylar, what is it?"

He was sitting at one of the tables speaking avidly Leandra. He must have felt Skylar's gaze on him because he looked up and met her eyes, a grin forming on his lips.

"Gregg," she whispered.

Dun dun dun!