Chapter Two
Walking towards the ballrooms at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, Kate Beckett paused to examine her reflection. Smoothing down the navy-colored skirt of her sleeveless gown with a high neck that plunged to a V in the back, Kate shook her head. It was not every day she wore a dress that cost nearly a thousand dollars, but then again it was not every day she attended a wedding at one of the most prestigious hotels in the city. Leave it to Martha Rodgers to procure such a venue on short notice (though the fact that the wedding was on a Monday night did help significantly, Kate imagined). After tucking an escaped strand of hair back behind her ear, Kate continued on her way towards the ballroom.
Ever since he'd acquired the elite rectangle of plastic years earlier, Castle had never been shy about offering his Black Card around at every presented opportunity. Many of their friends leapt at the chance to partake in several hundred dollar bottles of champagne and first class tickets to Las Vegas. Back in the earlier years of their friendship, Kate felt a certain amount of guilt when Castle paid for things she could have easily purchased herself. She believed that just because he had money did not mean she needed to take advantage of him. After all, she was not friends with him solely because of his wealth. When she accepted something elaborate from him she always felt a certain amount of guilt and thus did so only on rare occasion.
Somewhere around the sixth year of their friendship, however, those guilty feelings began to expire. She never took advantage and often requested they receive separate checks when dining together, but when he invited her to an event—such as his mother's wedding—and offered to buy her a dress without being prompted or hinted at to do so? Well, she wasn't going to feel guilty about that.
"Yo Kate—wait up!"
Kate turned her head to see a familiar, well-dressed trio approaching and her face relaxed into a smile. The group encompassed her closest circle of friends: Kevin Ryan, his wife Jenny, and Javier Esposito, who preferred to attend events stag ever since his divorce the prior year.
"Don't you guys clean up well?" Kate greeted all three of them with cheek kisses.
When discussing their plans for the event, Castle had not specifically mentioned who would be in attendance at the wedding. He merely told her the date, time and location, stating she would need to meet him there because, as son of the bride, he had wedding duties and thus needed to arrive at the venue extra early. Though she suspected they might be attending, Kate was certainly glad to see her friends. At least she would have someone to sit with while Castle preformed his usher duties.
"Your dress is beautiful, Kate," Jenny said.
Kate smiled and thanked her before adding, "Apparently I wasn't allowed to wear something I already owned—Martha's rules."
"Well now you have something to wear until the next wedding," Esposito observed.
Kate smacked his shoulder with the back of her hand. "Don't say that! They're not even married yet."
Esposito shrugged. "You know I love the woman—she's like a second mother to me—but let's be honest: Martha Rodgers is not very good at marriage. I give this one eighteen months—tops. Wanna make it interesting?" He questioned, wiggling his eyebrows enticingly at his friends.
Kevin considered this. "Alright, but I bet Castle wants in on it too. Let's go find him!"
Kate merely sighed and shook her head as they hurried off leaving the women trailing behind. She wasn't sure what was sadder: the fact that they were betting on the duration of the impending nuptials or the fact that she wasn't even surprised they were doing it. She had, after all, known the boys equally as long as she'd known her date for that evening.
The unlikely bond between the three men and woman began a decade earlier while they attended college in the city. She, a junior, studied at Colombia while the boys, all seniors, attended NYU. One evening during a party in the Colombia dorms, the NYU boys crashed. During an attempt to drunkenly hook up with her roommate at the time, Castle had mistakenly crawled into Kate's bed. Startled awake by a strange man's hands groping her, Kate had responded by spraying him in the face with mace, an act that sent him screaming from the room. Days later, she bumped into him again, that time with his two cronies, and, somewhat inexplicably, the quartet had been friends ever since.
Over the years, not much had changed. They graduated, got jobs, and blossomed into adulthood, but their friendship remained. They still went to Mets games together or watched them as a group on Castle's big screen. They spent summer weekends at the writer's house in the Hamptons, grilling out and drinking beer on the beach. Kevin and Javier found wives. Castle's notoriety as a writer grew. Yet somehow, things between the four of them remained steady and it was one of the things Kate was most grateful for.
Arriving at the entrance to the ballroom, Kate spotted the trio of boys whispering to each other and fought the urge to roll her eyes. Just as they were shaking hands, presumably having agreed upon terms to their bet, she stepped up beside them and cleared her throat. The three of them jumped as they always did when "Mom" caught them and scattered apart in the blink of an eye. The only remaining member of the group—a tuxedo wearing, guilty looking writer—beamed at her.
"Kate," he began in his smoothest tone. "You look stunning."
She ignored the compliment and merely folded her arms over her chest, biting her bottom lip as she shook her head. "Betting on your mother's wedding…" She didn't bother to mask the judgmental nature of her tone, knowing full well he'd take it in stride.
As predicted, he shrugged and opened his arms palms facing her as if to say, "Well, you know me." And know him she did. Honestly, it would have been odd if the evening didn't end in some sort of wager.
"You do look beautiful," he said after dropping his hands to his sides.
A gentle smile crossed her face and she dropped her eye line. "Well, you don't look so bad yourself." She had seen him in a tuxedo many times, of course, but never tired of it.
"Hey you know me—I'm no stranger to one of these penguin suits."
A breathy chuckle escaped her lips before a smirk crossed her face as she looked at him. "Yeah, but I'm not used to seeing you in one without at least one blonde, large-breasted accessory."
Keeping up with her teasing, he widened his eyes and patted down the pockets of his jacket and then his pants as though he'd suddenly remembered losing his phone or keys. "I thought something was missing!"
"Ha-ha." She returned dryly. She knew full well that Castle's tuxedo accessory as of late had been a brunette Columbia literature professor and not a bottle blonde with an augmented chest. For a regular night on the town the blonde was preferred, but not for special events—that went against his rules.
Continuing the joke, Castle said, "Yeah, but think of it this way—you already know the answer to the 'will he take me home with him' question."
She laughed genuinely that time for the notion was preposterous. "Yeah—a big fat 'no!'"
He merely shrugged. "Offer's always there, Kate."
"And yet." She pretended to be deep in thought, skimming her index finger over her chin. "Somehow…I think I'll be able to resist." Ten years of friendship and the concept of being another notch on his bedpost had no more appeal then than it had a decade earlier.
He waggled a finger at her. "One day, Kate; one day…."
With that, she rolled her eyes, hiked up her skirt, and climbed the stairs leading into the ballroom.
Two hours later after a short-and-sweet ceremony, a cocktail hour featuring a loud argument between the groom's eldest and youngest son's, and a sinfully delicious dinner, Kate sat alone at a round table of eight sipping wine and casually observing the dancefloor. Javier had left in search of single women under fifty to hit on. Kevin and Jenny had hit the dance floor and asked her to join, but she didn't feel up to "busting a move" quite yet; she needed more wine for that.
She didn't mind sitting alone, truly. She enjoyed people watching, particularly when alcohol and DJs were involved (or, in this case, a surprisingly decent wedding band). Sitting back and watching wedding receptions seemed so common as of late it was practically a hobby.
Attending wedding after wedding after bridal shower after wedding seemed to be a simple factor of her age. At twenty-nine over half her friends and coworkers were married, a large percentage of the rest engaged. She didn't mind being one of the few not only not engaged, but not in a serious relationship either. She had chosen a career over relationships and, as she had obtained her doctorate the year earlier, did not regret the decision one bit. She didn't even mind attending most of the weddings alone (though, did occasionally drag Castle along as her plus-one just so she had someone to talk to.) Still, part of her wondered when her turn might come.
Just as she watched Ryan and Jenny perform a particularly skillful move on the dance floor, a hand descended in front of her face, palm up, fingers together. "M'lady."
Kate gazed up skeptically at her alleged date for the evening. She had yet to speak more than three words to him since their conversation before the ceremony. "And here I thought you ditched me."
"Never." He beamed at her. "Care to dance?"
She sighed and swallowed the last of her wine. "If I must."
"Of course you must!" Castle grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the center of the floor just as—mercifully—a slower song began to play.
"So where have you been?"
"Everywhere," he sighed. "Both of Chet's boys left after their rumble by the cheese platter-"
"Yeah what was that about anyway?" Kate questioned. Unfortunately she had been in the ladies' room when the brawl occurred and had to hear about it second hand from Jenny.
"Not entirely certain to be honest. I know those two historically have not gotten along, so I think it was just a continuation of a preexisting dispute," he explained. Kate nodded and then he continued. "Anyway, with them gone I had to make sure things at the reception were going smoothly but now that they're prepping the cake to cut my duties are pretty much over."
"You're such a good son," Kate said, patting his cheek patronizingly.
He rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, I'm…something."
They continued to sway for the remainder of the song, but when it ended Kate walked back towards their table. He protested, saying that as his date she was required to give him no less than three dances. After shooting him an annoyed look, she agreed to dance later, but wanted some place quiet to tell him something before she forgot. "It's actually…kind of exciting," she confessed with a laugh.
He raised his eyebrows with intrigue. "Do tell!"
"Did I tell you how I applied to teach that summer course and I wasn't sure if I would get accepted?"
Castle turned his eyes towards the ceiling and thought for a moment. "This sounds vaguely familiar, yes."
She beamed at him. "Well, I got it!"
"Oh Kate that's amazing! Congrats!" He pulled her in and kissed her cheek.
She laughed and squeezed his arm in return. "Thanks! Six weeks in England—I can't believe it! I know I've been there before but-"
"Hang on." Castle interrupted when the key location in her sentence processed in his brain. "England?"
She twisted her lips to the side, giving him her classic "I knew you weren't listening" expression. "The summer course is at Oxford—I told you that."
He shook his head slowly. "No…" He definitely would have remembered if she said she was leaving the country.
"Well, it is. I leave almost right after the semester is over so I really need to-"
"Six weeks…six weeks…" He interrupted again as his brain processed this new information. "But…you'll miss all that time out in the Hamptons!"
She laughed gently. "Castle, the summer is longer than six weeks."
"But you'll miss my big Fourth of July bash!"
At the whine in his tone, Kate folded her arms over her chest. Yes, Castle's Fourth of July bash was a decade-long tradition, and it was a shame she had to miss it, but the opportunity far outweighed that one event. To have a summer at Oxford on her CV…well, that would open up greater opportunities for her professionally, and that was exactly what she was looking for. She only hoped her friend could see that. "This is something I really want to do, Rick," she said. Using his first name was a rarity, but she did so in an attempt to drive home the point; it worked.
Castle's face fell into one of sincerity and he brought his hands up to rest on her shoulders. "I know; of course it is. I'm sorry. This is a great opportunity for you." He forced a smile, but when her expression mirrored his he felt a twinge of sadness shoot directly through his heart.
Six weeks without Kate? Six weeks without Sunday brunch and coffee breaks and reading together in white wooden chairs on the deck at his beach house? So much for looking forward to the start of summer… "I'm just going to miss you; that's all."
Her head tilted to the side as she looked at him. This was the Richard Castle she was going to miss. Not the playboy idiot with a blonde on each arm. Not the overgrown child who placed bets on the duration of his mother's marriage. Not the crazy writer who called her at all hours of the night to see if a snippet of dialog made sense in a scene. No—the kind, caring devoted friend; that was the man she would miss. "I'll miss you too, Castle, but really six weeks is going to fly by."
He nodded, grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards the dance floor. "You're right, it will…but because you're leaving I get your piece of cake tonight."
"No way!" She retorted. Was he insane? Wedding cake was the best part of weddings!
"Half your piece, then."
She sighed, knowing he'd just steal it if she didn't agree. "Fine—but I get to pick what half!"
A/N: wow! over 110 followers after just 1 chapter! Thanks guys!
Just one to address something I saw in the comments - The question was raised as to how Castle could possibly not know about his best friend being engaged/dating someone. I agree-totally valid question-but as I'm sticking closely to the movie plot in that instance...you'll have to wait and see :)