Queen of Babble Gets Hitched by Meg Cabot Page B

but to the bride’s as well. This was in an attempt to trick demons from taking the bride’s soul prior to her wedding night. Any woman who’d protected three brides from evil spirits was considered too impure to marry herself, having absorbed too much black magic. This is where the expression “three times a bridesmaid, never a bride” comes from.
    So they weren’t making it up about the three times a bridesmaid thing! And you just thought they were talking about your aunt Judy.
    Tip to Avoid a Wedding Day Disaster
    You love your friends because of their unique personalities. Well, their bodies are unique too. So don’t squeeze your bridesmaids into identical gowns. They’ll hate it, and if you’re really their friend, you should hate that they hate it. Choose a shade that will flatter all of them, and let them each choose a dress in that color that they like, one that they’ll really wear again.
    So what if they won’t all look exactly the same? It’s them you love, not their look, right?
    LIZZIE NICHOLS DESIGNS ™

• Chapter 6 •
Two such as you with such a master speed cannot be parted nor be swept away from one another once you are agreed that life is only life forevermore together wing to wing and oar to oar.
    Robert Frost (1874–1963), American poet
    Luke has promised to come over and make me a nice dinner because of the day I’ve had—though Madame Henri calls just after five to let me know that her husband has gotten through his surgery with flying colors—but the truth is, all I want to do is take a hot bath, read a fashion magazine, and go to bed.
    Only how can I tell this to Luke, who went to the market and picked up two sirloins and marinated them (his post-baccalaureate premed classes don’t start up again until after Martin Luther King Day), especially for me?
    So when he calls just before six with an apologetic note in his voice and says, “Listen,” it’s all I can do to keep from clicking my heels together with joy. He’s canceling! Alleluia! And hello, this month’s Vogue.
    “There’s a Michigan game on tonight,” he says. “And Chaz really wants me to watch it with him. You know how he is about the Wolverines. And the truth is… he seemed kind of depressed on the phone when he called to tell me about it.”
    “Chaz is depressed?” This is news to me. He hadn’t seemed a bit depressed when he’d had his hand down my bra. Not that I add this last part out loud, of course.
    “Well, I mean, it’s only natural he’d be a little down, you know,” Luke says. “We’re getting married, and his girlfriend left him… for another woman. I really thought he’d have someone else by now—I’ve never seen him go without a date for this long.”
    “Shari only broke up with him at Thanksgiving,” I point out dryly. I notice there’s a new red splotch on the inside of my elbow where the old one, which has faded away, was. So it wasn’t a mosquito bite. What could they be? Maybe an allergy to the detergent I’m using? But I haven’t switched detergents lately.
    “For Chaz, a month and a half is a real dry spell,” Luke says. “Now his best friend is marrying the cutest girl in the world… No wonder he’s depressed.”
    “Then you should absolutely stay home and watch basketball with him,” I say. I’m already fantasizing about the Chinese food I’m going to order in. Moo shu chicken with hoisin sauce. Maybe I’ll even eat it in the bathtub.
    “Well, that’s the thing,” Luke says. “The game’s only on satellite. We’ll be watching it at O’Riordan’s Sports Bar, which is around the corner from your place, on Lexington. So I thought, if you wanted to stop by later… ”
    “Gosh, honey,” I say sweetly. “There’s nothing I can imagine wanting to do more than sit around with you and your depressed guy friend watching sports.”
    “We’ll be ordering chicken wings,” Luke says in an effort to tempt me.
    “That is so hard to resist… ”
    “Come