CHAPTER 4

The week flew past, and Rachel spent the time shopping with her mother, and catching up with her cousin for lunch and a dress fitting. The dress was not as bad as she had imagined, a tight fitting strapless pink satin sheath, which she actually liked. Marie gave her an itinerary of the wedding day, complete with make-up and hair times, accounting for every minute from the time she woke up until they would actually be seated at the bridal table for the reception. John had called her twice, once to update her on the case they were currently working on, and once to confirm his flight arrival time on the Friday afternoon before the wedding.

The hen's night started well, Rachel was picked up reasonably early by Belinda, and driven to a restaurant where Marie and her friends were going to have dinner before heading on to a night club. Rachel knew most of the women attending the dinner, and was gratified to find that they seemed genuinely pleased to see her, all very interested in her work, and what had been happening in her life. She finally got to discuss the wedding with the other bridesmaids, her cousin Heather, and two girls she remembered very well from her days as the school nerd, Larissa and Melanie. All three had been cheerleaders, popular and beautiful, looked up to by most of the other school attendees, and all three had made Rachel's life a misery. However all three seemed happy to have her join them. She was amazed at what 10 years had done for their maturity levels.

Rachel was filled in on who was married, who was divorced, and who had children.

Everyone had a wedding or couple story to tell, and Larissa informed Rachel how she had married the most popular guy at school, the one that had caused a lot of the girls sleepless nights with his long blonde hair and wicked smile. Rachel glanced down at her plate, Larissa's husband had for a long time been the object of her own teenage fantasies, and she was sure everyone had known it.

The food was enjoyable, and Rachel relaxed, thinking about how much she had dreaded coming home, and how silly she had been. During a lull in the conversation, Heather leaned over the table and smiled at her.

"So, who is this guy that you are bringing to the wedding?" she asked, and everyone immediately stopped talking.

"A friend," she replied, taking a sip of her wine. She looked around and realized everyone was watching her. "What?' she said, "He's a friend, someone I work with."

"He must be more than a friend," said Heather. "You wouldn't bring just a friend to a family wedding, surely."

"No," said Rachel, a little more firmly. "He is just a friend."

"OK" said Heather, in a disbelieving tone "Just a friend, right."

"What's he look like?" asked Melanie, twirling her wine glass around. "is he good looking?"

"What does that matter?" replied Rachel. "Looks are in the eye of the beholder anyway."

"That's the sort of response you get when someone isn't good looking," said Larissa with a superior smirk.

"He's ok looking," replied Rachel, starting to feel like she was being backed into a corner.

"So he's ugly then," said Larissa, with a confident toss of her head.

"I didn't say that," replied Rachel, feeling a little more uncomfortable. "What do looks matter anyway? I hope we are all too mature to worry about things like that. John isn't ugly."

"So this John, what does he do?" asked Melanie. "Is he a profiler, like you?"

"John is an agent, we work as a team," said Rachel. "You will get to meet him on Saturday, you can all make up your own minds."

"So he's an agent – like the guys in Men in Black? Does he wear a suit most of the time?" asked Marie. "Does he carry a gun?"

"Well, yes he does wear suits," said Rachel, "And carry a gun. Nothing like Men in Black though."

"Short hair?" asked Larissa. "Sunglasses? Standard issue FBI robot?"

Rachel frowned. "He does have short hair," she said. "And doesn't everyone wear sunglasses outside? Anyway, enough about John, Marie, tell me more about William."

"He's a dream," replied Marie, more than happy to change the subject. "I told you how we met didn't I? You will meet him at the rehearsal tomorrow night. He can't wait to meet you; he was so impressed when I said you worked for the FBI."

"We were all impressed when we heard you got a job with them," said Larissa, slightly maliciously. "But all so shocked when you were arrested for murder."

Rachel flinched a little, the subject was still raw. "Well it has all been resolved," she said, glancing at Belinda for help.

"With a lot of help from your standard issue ugly FBI agent 'friend'," said Melanie with a smirk.

"Rachel, come with me, I need to pee again," Belinda responded immediately. "Being pregnant is so much fun sometimes."

She pushed away from the table and stood up, holding out her hand to Rachel, who took it gratefully.

"I told you they were still bitches," she muttered under her breath as they walked off. "They reminded me of vultures circling. I hope this guy of yours is able to take the heat when he comes."

Rachel gave a gurgle of laughter. "I think John will surprise them," she said. She looked around to make sure the ladies room was empty. "I can't believe it," she said to Belinda.

"Half an hour in the company of those three, and I'm hiding in the toilets again. Talk about feeling like I'm back at school."