I'm so sorry about the long wait on this chapter. I'm hoping I'll be able to update this more often now. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 7

Jay and Amy Reso's House, Manhattan, New York

The other guests had started to arrive at about seven. Maria had been at her friend's house since four. Amy had taken a little longer than she anticipated perfecting the Princess Leia hairstyle but she had done a great job in the end. Maria felt great and was determined that nothing was going to ruin her evening. Amy had decided to be a flapper girl to fit her husband's gangster outfit.

Mickie and Chris arrived a little after the others, Mickie had come as Lara Croft and Chris was dressed as Indiana Jones. Maria walked over to her two friends and greeted them with a smile, "Hey guys."

Mickie returned the smile, "Wow, Maria. You look great."

"Why thank you, Mickie. You look pretty awesome yourself. You too Chris."

The blond man grinned, "Thanks, Maria or should I say thanks, Leia."

Maria playfully rolled her eyes at him, "I'm going to get a drink, do you guys want anything?"

Chris held out the beer bottle he was holding in his hand in front of him, "I'm good thanks."

"Me too," Mickie replied.

The wedding planner shrugged, "I'm just going to get something for myself then. I'll be back."

Chris smiled at her as she walked away. As Maria approached the make shift bar area in the dinning room, she spotted somebody dressed in a Darth Vader costume causing a smile to grace her lips. Darth Vader was always one of her favourite characters from the Star Wars universe. A minute later, Vader was forgotten when Maria spotted another former client, Karen Angle. She seemed to Maria to be dressed as Sandy from Grease, complete with blonde wig. The only problem was the man she was currently standing next to, who was holding her hand and dressed as Danny from Grease, wasn't the groom Maria remembered.

"Oh my god, Maria Kanellis, is that you?" Karen called out.

Maria turned her head to make eye contact with the other woman, "Hi, Karen."

Karen rushed forward and hugged Maria tightly, "I haven't seen you in years."

Maria hugged her back, "It's been a while, Karen."

Karen pulled back, "Let me introduce you to somebody. Maria? This is my boyfriend, Allen Jones."

Maria turned her attention to the man and stuck out her hand, "Hi, Allen; nice to meet you."

Allen shook her hand, "Please call me A.J; everybody does."

The redhead smiled, "Okay, A.J."

"Maria was my wedding planner when I got married to Kurt," Karen explained almost unnecessarily to her boyfriend.

A.J nodded his head slightly, "Right … Your name sounds familiar, did you plan Amy and Jay's wedding too?"

"Yeah, did you come to the wedding?"

"No, I didn't know Jay then. We've been working together for the past year or so, on the magazine."

Maria smiled," Oh awesome, I love the magazine. You guys do such an amazing job with it."

"You're a gamer?" A.J asked, seemingly surprised by Maria's words.

"When I get time, which isn't very often these days but I have a subscription to the magazine." She paused for a moment as realisation hit her, "Wait a minute, A.J … You're A.J Styles?"

A.J grinned, "Guilty as charged."

Maria smiled widely, "I love your game reviews. Oh man, some of them have me in tears from laughing so hard."

"Really? I'm glad you like them."

"I do," Maria confirmed before turning her attention back to Karen, "Dare I ask what happened between you and Kurt?"

The older woman frowned, "He cheated on me with his secretary, Christy."

Maria's jaw dropped, "That skank from the wedding?"

"That's the one," Karen replied bitterly.

Maria patted Karen on the arm, "I'm sorry to hear about that. I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

"Something like that. I'm over it now though. Mainly thanks to A.J."

"I'm awesome," A.J joked.

Maria laughed, "And modest too. Do either of you guys want a drink? I was just about to get one when I ran into you."

"We're good but I can get you something if you'd like?" the dark haired man offered.

"That's very sweet of you; I'll take a diet coke, please."

"Coming right up." He smiled at Karen, "I'll be right back."

"I love your costume, by the way," Karen commented. "Your hair looks great like that."

"Thanks, although I can't take credit for it. Amy spent forever on it, this afternoon," Maria admitted.

A.J returned and handed Maria a bottle of diet coke, "Here ya go."

Maria smiled, "Thank you … If you'll excuse me, I just need to go find my friends, they're probably wondering what happened to me. We'll catch up later on though, okay?"

"Sure, have fun." Karen replied.

"I'll try." The wedding planner turned and walked back in the direction of the main living room to look for Mickie and Chris; only when she got there, neither was in sight. Maria frowned slightly as she realised that she'd been ditched. "Great … Where did everybody go?"

"They went outside," a deep voice replied from behind her.

Maria turned around and jumped slightly when she can face to face with Darth Vader or in reality a person dressed in a Darth Vader costume that she'd seen earlier, "Hi."

The two made small talk for a good ten minutes before Mickie and Chris returned from the garden. Maria pouted at her best friend, "I can't believe you ditched me."

Mickie frowned, "We didn't ditch you. Trish and Adam were outside fooling around in their costumes. It was amusing."

"It was," Chris agreed.

"Whatever, Darth has been keeping me company," Maria replied.

"No, you should not be hanging around with Darth Vader."

The redhead frowned, "Why not?"

"You don't know who's under that mask, Maria. It could be anyone," Mickie pointed out.

Maria laughed, "I'm sure he's not an axe murderer or anything like that so I'm sure I was perfectly safe."

"If you insist."

"I do."

"Would you like to dance?" Darth asked Maria suddenly.

"Sure,"

Mickie raised an eyebrow, "Where are you going?"

"To dance, of course."

"With him?"

Maria laughed, "Yeah, why not?"

"Because that's … Darth Vader. Leia shouldn't be dancing with Darth Vader. It's just so wrong," the brunette reasoned.

The redhead waved off her friends concerns, "Whatever." She followed Darth over to where other people were dancing.

Chris waited until the wedding planner was out of earshot before he spoke, "She has no idea that's Jeff does she?"

Mickie smirked, "Nope."

"You gonna tell her?"

"Nope."

The blond man grinned, "I knew there was a reason why I'm marrying you."

Mickie winked at him, "You better believe it."