Never a Bride-12/?
Author: BlueSuede
Title: Never a Bride
Rating: NC17
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings/Characters: primarily Chloe/Oliver
Summary: When a newspaper prints a false engagement announcement for Oliver Queen and Chloe Sullivan, and all their friends are thrilled, Chloe and Oliver decide to stage a fake engagement and breakup to prove to their friends how wrong they are for one another. Because, they will break up, won't they?
Warnings: completely Alternate Universe; also, sexual content and occasional language
banner by
dandiandi22
Author's Note: I'm trying guys, I swear. I realize it's been at least a year since I updated this story. Apparently I have to be a tortured soul in order to write fanfic. Who knew?
Love you guys! (Thanks for the messages and the birthday wishes back in January!)
First Chapter
Previous (Chapter 11)
Next (Chapter 13)
-12-
Chloe shivered and rolled over in bed, her head pulsing a little uncomfortably. It was cold, but his body moved behind her and draped an arm across her stomach, and she sank back into his warmth.
Wait. What?
Her eyes flew open in a panic and she gasped when she saw an actual arm wrapped around her. "Oh my God!" she cried out, scrambling from the bed and practically tumbling onto the floor. Her head spun and she clutched the night stand as she stared at the naked upper torso of Oliver Queen.
Oliver groaned and rubbed his hands over his face as Chloe desperately started searching her suitcase until she discovered several brown paper bags in the front zipper pocket. She yanked one out and started inhaling and exhaling into it.
"Are you hyperventelating? Seriously?" Oliver asked, his head turned to look at her from the pillow.
"What are you doing in the bed?" she demanded as Oliver pushed himself into a sitting position.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't remember?"
"No! What happened? We didn't…oh God, say we didn't."
He smirked at her. He looked a little worse for wear, but he evidently wasn't exceptionally hungover. "Didn't what?" he asked, looking far more amused than he should.
She opened and closed her mouth twice before she began breathing into the paper bag again.
Oliver chuckled. "Relax. Think. You weren't that drunk. You should still remember."
Chloe attempted to calm down while straining her memory to the night before, coming home from the club, Oliver half carrying her, she was so tipsy from the tequila. The air conditioning was broken-stuck on the highest setting-and the room was freezing.
"Coming back to you?" he asked, clearly enjoying himself.
She breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I can't believe you were complaining about being cold like such a baby!" she accused.
"Me!" he said incredulously. "Are you kidding? You were the one stubbornly shivering away, determined not to admit you were cold. I did you a favor."
Chloe grunted. "You have no self-control."
He laughed outright. "On the contrary, I think I have an exceptional amount of self control, considering I even slept on top of the sheet for you." He lifted the lopsided comforter on the bed to show her. "Now admit it," he said, lying back and folding his hands behind his head, as if to put his physique on display for her, "best night's sleep you ever had, wasn't it?"
Chloe was eyeing his well defined abs skeptically, and only clucked her tongue. "Just keep your hands to yourself in the future," she snipped, heading into the bathroom. She needed some water to cure her dehydration. And then coffee. Lots of coffee. Enough coffee to forget about those abs.
Oliver chuckled to himself over her obvious discomfort before picking up the phone to order some room service, including a large pot of coffee. She was going to need it.
The weekend was going by at a whirlwind pace, with the wedding rehearsal blending into the rehearsal dinner seamlessly. The bachelor and bachelorette parties were organized to "avoid any contact" with one another, at the stipulation of Dinah and Lois, who were making sure that everyone had the best time possible. When Chloe stumbled back into the room that night, the air conditioning unit still hadn't been fixed, but she was too drunk to notice. Oliver crashed through the door a little while later and found her sprawled out on the bed, wearing a tutu and a lopsided rhinestone tiara nested in her hair. She lifted her head slightly to look at him. "Women are crazy," she said with a mild slur.
Oliver, though drunk, was not as far gone as Chloe, and he was perfectly aware that the room felt like a small ice continent. "What the hell?" he demanded clumsily, toeing off his shoes. "It's freezing in here."
Chloe, who had goosebumps, shook her head. "Ohhh no. I'm not falling for that again. You might be a human furnace, but you will just have to hand over the blankets, bub, because this lady is maintaining her honor." She rolled onto her stomach and gave him what was meant to be a stern look, wagging her finger at him.
"I'm calling the manager of the hotel," Oliver sighed, trying to focus his eyesight long enough to figure out where the phone was. Between exhaustion and a lot of booze, he was starting to see double.
"No!" Chloe panicked. "No more managers!" She tried to get off the bed to stop him, but only succeeded in making it to her hands and knees at the edge of the mattress before wobbling dangerously.
"Whoa," Oliver said, holding her steady as best as he could and pushing her back down. "Okay, okay. No more managers. What did they do to you?"
"Every time the manager of the bar came out, they gave us another round of shots free. And every time I tried to say no, Lois said yes for me," she finished feebly, flopping back down into the pillows. "And when she wasn't saying yes for me, Dinah was. Or Katherine was. Women. Are. Crazy. So much dancing on bars," she added with a moan, throwing her arm across her eyes in agony.
It was a sign of how drunk Oliver was that he was more concerned with figuring out the alarm clock than with picturing Chloe dancing on a bar top. They had to get up in the morning, he reminded himself. It was absolutely vital that they be awake in time to prep for the wedding. Though Oliver wasn't in the wedding party himself, he knew Chloe had to be up at a bright and shiny hour to aid Katherine. After some frustration, he gave up, and ignoring Chloe's confused protests, picked up the phone to request a wake up call.
It was after he hung up that something interesting happened. In retrospect, he blamed it on the childish tutu and tiara she was wearing. He wasn't entirely sure what was causing his rapidly changing sentiments regarding Chloe, though clearly alcohol was aiding the problem. Last night his only thoughts had been how to seduce her. And tonight…after the bachelor party, well, his male urges were certainly making themselves known, to put it delicately. He wanted it badly, and she was the easiest target, but when he glanced down at her on the bed, his next thoughts weren't how to get in her pants. They were about how small and innocent she looked, like she needed protection. He had a wild urge to crawl up next to her and shield her from the cold. Instead, he took the tiara off her head and set on the nightstand. Then he grabbed her hands and pulled her forward off the bed until she was standing. Chloe was staring at him with a confused expression as he hooked his thumbs in the tutu and sank to his knees, slowly pulling the garment down to her feet. Her breath stuck slightly while his thumbs grazed the side of her legs, from hip to ankle. She held herself steady on the bed as he helped her lift first one foot, then the other out of the tutu. He stood again, and, facing her, he leaned closer, but only to reach behind her and pull down the covers for her. Then he threw her arm around his neck and smoothly hooked one arm under her legs, lifting her into the bed. There was a brief moment where he leaned over her, steadying himself long enough to remember what he was going to do next, but her eyes were distracting him, both Chloe and Oliver breathing heavily as they looked at each other, until he grabbed the covers in his hands and pulled them up over her.
He shook himself as he straightened up and fumbled toward the thermostat, finally giving up and shutting the whole thing off. And then he dragged himself over to the sofa, collapsing exhaustedly on top of it, his liquor-addled brain sinking into sleep almost instantly upon hitting the pillows.
"So I heard you were dancing on bar tops last night," Oliver said cheekily over his scrambled eggs the next morning.
Chloe looked up at him, and he didn't need to see past the dark sunglasses she was wearing to know she was shooting him daggers with her eyes. She'd already been sick twice since waking up that morning, and had been looking quite peaky until about ten minutes ago when a proper breakfast and lots of water started to take their effect on her. "I hate you."
"Darling!" Oliver gasped, clutching his wounded heart. "Don't let the others hear you! They'll think our relationship is in trouble!"
Fortunately, before Chloe could hit him, Barbara appeared, sporting a look of anxiety. "Katherine's having a meltdown. We need you. Morning, Oliver," she added, snagging a bite of Chloe's toast and jam.
"Good morning," Oliver said cheerily.
Chloe moaned miserably. "Why me?"
"Because you're the sensible one. Would you take Lois or Dinah's advice when you're in a panic?" Barbara joked.
"Aren't you sensible, too?" she asked Barbara.
Barbara lifted a shoulder lightly and let it fall. "I'm young and inexperienced, and therefore not to be trusted. Courtney's young and foolish, so same rules apply." She smiled. "Come on, we'll go talk Katherine down and then I'll help you get dressed."
Chloe sighed. She shoveled the last couple of bites of eggs down and drained her water. Feeling a little better now, she told Oliver she'd see him later and left with Barbara.
They found Katherine in her room, in a robe, crying on the edge of the bed.
"I can't do it! It's no use, Chloe!"
Diana, Lois, Courtney, and Dinah were all standing in various corners of the room. Apparently they'd been in the process of helping Katherine with her hair and had been banished.
Forgetting completely that she was supposed to be hungover and miserable, Chloe rushed to Katherine's aid. Katherine was now hiccup-ing hopelessly and Chloe took her hands and squeezed them encouragingly. "It's okay, Katherine. No one's going to make you do anything. Now what's wrong."
"I just…I woke up this morning and I looked at my dress and it was just…wrong. It's completely wrong. And then I thought, my God! I scheduled a DJ for the reception. I should have had live music! And then I realized the whole wedding is just wrong! I mean, silver?! What was I thinking, Chloe? No one looks good in silver! None of you guys look good in silver-except Diana, but she looks good in everything-"
The girls all chuckled nervously.
"-and the whole thing is too modern! My mother was right! I should have made it traditional! We should be in a church with roses and freaking violins and what the hell was I thinking? I can't get married! This is forever we're talking about! And I mean what the hell does he want with me? He's like this perfect guy and I'm always a mess!"
"Katherine, Katherine," Chloe stopped her, squeezing her hands again. "Slow down. First of all, you are exquisite. You're timeless. You have a completely beautiful wedding planned and I happen to know because I helped plan it and your mother didn't. And you know what else? You have the love of a man named Victor, a man who, while you were talking to your family last night said, 'I can't believe she picked me. I can't believe I'm marrying the most incredible woman I've ever met.' And that tells me that this marriage of yours is not only going to work, it's gonna last forever."
There was complete silence as Katherine and Chloe stared at each other, friendship and support gushing between them. And then finally the silence broke as Katherine laughed through her tears, "Did you just steal the speech from The Wedding Planner?"
Chloe laughed back. "Actually I paraphrased. Did it work?"
Katherine just chuckled as she nodded her head, then took a deep, shaky breath. "It's a good speech."
"And it totally applies," Chloe told her bracingly.
The tension in the room was quickly diminishing now that Katherine was smiling. "You're right. I'm being crazy. This is ridiculous."
"Good, because I'm not gonna lie, Katherine. I'm totally hung over from last night and I really need to go take an antacid if you want me to be chipper for this evening."
Katherine laughed again and Diana approached. "Can I finish doing your hair now?" Chloe could tell Diana was doing her best not to eye the clock, but time was definitely ticking away.
"Yes, thanks, Di," Katherine said shakily, sniffing a little but clearly pulling herself back together.
The rest of the girls left to start getting dressed themselves, and Chloe chuckled when she heard Lois mutter to Dinah, "I knew she picked silver because none of you looks good in it."
She reached her own hotel room and was fishing in her bag through various little baggies neatly labeled 'Aspirin,' 'Tylenol,' 'Pepto Bismol,' etc.
"Edward," she muttered, emptying the little plastic bag of Tums, "you are my hero."
By the time the wedding had actually rolled around, Chloe was feeling much more herself. I'll be glad to see the back of this wedding, Chloe thought, indulging a brief moment of selfishness. All this taking off work, partying late, being hung over…enough is enough. She was missing her structured life, and the stress of the wedding combined with the constant discomfort of being around Oliver was wearing her down.
She was just thinking how glad she'd be when the drive home was over and she could get some space from Oliver when she realized she wasn't going home. She was going to Oliver's place. Edward and Mia would have overseen the moving crew through delivering her things. She wondered briefly how Oliver felt about having his home invaded by her and her belongings. She frowned. He's been dealing with all of this way better than me so far. Then again maybe all his teasing and mocking is how he vents frustration.
Tired of dwelling on how much Oliver loved making her uncomfortable, Chloe attempted to turn her thoughts to pleasanter matters like Katherine's magnificently edgy taste. The wedding was being held in the hotel's ballroom, with splendid, modern chandeliers dropping from the ceiling (undoubtedly the reason Katherine had selected the venue), and it had been done over in a wash of silver. Everything was gleaming silver with smooth, clean lines, right down to Katherine's shimmering tiara and bouquet of silver and crystal broaches. But she had managed to turn a theme her mother had feared would be cold and tacky into something elegant and utterly unique.
Unlike Dinah and Arthur's casual beach wedding, Kat and Vic's was in a ballroom for a reason. The men were wearing tuxes with silver vests and ties (except Victor's, which was stark white), and the women were draped in floor length silver charmeuse, their matching dresses a one-shoulder strap with an elegant scarf draped down their bare backs.
But no one, Chloe thought, as she lined up outside the hall beside Clark, looked quite as extraordinary as Katherine. She wore a princess-style ball gown, dripping with shimmering crystals at the hem. From the floor up, the crystals dispersed and gave way to the clean white chiffon of the skirt. Her bodice was crystal-free-which made the gleaming broach-bouquet that much more pronounced. The neckline was smooth and level with her off-the-shoulder sleeves. It was modern and timeless at the same time.
Thinking how strikingly the white of the gown set off Katherine's dark beauty, Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat. Another friend down, she thought before she could stop herself. First Dinah and now Kat. And it would continue until all of her loved ones had been picked off one by one. Tears formed in her eyes.
"Here," Clark whispered kindly. He was holding out a clean white handkerchief.
Chloe accepted the handkerchief gratefully and dabbed her eyes before her silly emotions could ruin her makeup. "How did you know?"
Clark grinned. "Oliver said you might need it."
She was taken aback but didn't have time to say anything else as the wedding planner signaled them for quiet so they could open the doors. Each couple walked down the lengthy aisle at the appropriate time, and Clark gave her hand a quick squeeze when she delicately placed it on his proffered arm. They stepped lightly toward the front of the room where the minister stood, and Chloe saw Oliver watching her from the end of one of the rows. He spotted the handkerchief in her hands and smiled in a satisfied way. She would have dropped the handkerchief on the spot just to punish him for his smugness if she weren't certain she was going to need it again.
Damn weddings, she thought bitterly.
Everyone in the congregation had given little admiring sighs when Chloe and Clark walked down the aisle behind Diana, the maid-of-honor, and Aaron, the co-coach of the Metropolis University football team and Victor's best man. The junior bridesmaids, Barbara and Courtney followed behind them, accompanied by their escorts Dick and Victor's cousin Michael respectively. But when Katherine walked down the aisle, not a single person didn't catch his breath.
Although she remained quite self-conscious, Chloe wasn't the only person to get emotional during the wedding. Barbara had tears rolling down her cheeks, and Katherine's mother was crying openly during the entire ceremony. Victor had tears in his eyes. And the one time Chloe stole a look at Oliver, she swore she saw him loosen his tie slightly, as though his throat felt constricted.
"Aren't you going up there?" Oliver's lips were in her ear and Chloe jumped. He'd snuck up on her. The DJ had just called for all the unmarried women to go up for the bouquet toss.
"Oh no," she said seriously. "Fool me once…."
Oliver laughed, handing her a cocktail and sitting down beside her. "I don't blame you. Not after what happened last time. So how are you holding up? Did mine eyes deceive me or was the ice queen thawing during that service?" he elbowed her.
Chloe's eyes were on Katherine, who was waving the bouquet over her head and winking at her maid-of-honor. "I'm fine. You?"
"Doing all right. I think the hard part is over. We still need to figure out how long we're going to keep this going."
Chloe stomach flipped as she thought of their imminent break-up. They still hadn't come up with a good reason for it. Although they discussed the possibility of their work conflicts meaning they "didn't have enough time for one another," which Chloe thought was quite believable as she was known for putting her job before her relationships and Oliver was notorious for missing important occasions because work pulled him around the globe. The timing was the trick, though. How soon was too soon? And how late was pushing things too far? There was plenty of time to figure it out, though.
"Let's don't worry about it right now," Chloe sighed. "I just want to enjoy the end of this wedding and get back to Star City and return to whatever's left of my everyday life."
"I'll drink to that," Oliver grinned, clinking glasses with hers and taking a long sip.
Courtney was now clutching the bouquet in her hands grinning at everyone.
"Ten bucks says no one tries to shove a garter up her leg," Chloe said, evidently disgruntled.
Oliver laughed. "We'll see."
She was right. Although Dick was required to dance with Courtney in a slow dance, which eventually included the bride and groom themselves and was then extended to "All the happy couples out there." Bart cut in to dance with Courtney, freeing up Dick to dance with Barbara. Chloe sighed. "I think that's our cue."
Oliver followed her gaze. Lois was slowly revolving on the dance floor with Clark, but her own romantic bliss was not enough to stop her from beckoning to Chloe over her fiance's shoulder. Oliver chuckled. "Naturally." He stood up and offered Chloe his hand.
Looking at it, Chloe's mind flashed back to dancing with Oliver in the club, and how overwhelmingly sensual it had been. What with all the innuendo lately, waking up in bed with him and being caught in a state of undress…Chloe's hormones had been raging all weekend. Oliver was presenting himself as an unfortunate target for her long-stifled sexual desires. Reluctantly, she put her hand in his and received a small jolt from the contact, somehow much more intimate after everything they'd been through together now.
On the dance floor he pulled her surprisingly close, wrapping a tight arm around her waist and lacing fingers with her. When she raised an eyebrow, he brought his lips to her ear again. She shivered. She wished he would stop doing that. "Just putting on a good show," he whispered.
Well two can play at that game, Chloe thought, and she leaned her head against his chest, closing what little space was left between them.
Oliver swallowed uncomfortably. She was good at this.
Previous (Chapter 11)
Next (Chapter 13)
ETA: Is this font too small for you guys to read? I'm trying to fix it but the visual editor has changed since I was here a year ago (she said guiltily, not making eye contact with anyone in the room).
Title: Never a Bride
Rating: NC17
Genre: Romance/Humor
Pairings/Characters: primarily Chloe/Oliver
Summary: When a newspaper prints a false engagement announcement for Oliver Queen and Chloe Sullivan, and all their friends are thrilled, Chloe and Oliver decide to stage a fake engagement and breakup to prove to their friends how wrong they are for one another. Because, they will break up, won't they?
Warnings: completely Alternate Universe; also, sexual content and occasional language
banner by
dandiandi22
Author's Note: I'm trying guys, I swear. I realize it's been at least a year since I updated this story. Apparently I have to be a tortured soul in order to write fanfic. Who knew?
Love you guys! (Thanks for the messages and the birthday wishes back in January!)
First Chapter
Previous (Chapter 11)
Next (Chapter 13)
-12-
Chloe shivered and rolled over in bed, her head pulsing a little uncomfortably. It was cold, but his body moved behind her and draped an arm across her stomach, and she sank back into his warmth.
Wait. What?
Her eyes flew open in a panic and she gasped when she saw an actual arm wrapped around her. "Oh my God!" she cried out, scrambling from the bed and practically tumbling onto the floor. Her head spun and she clutched the night stand as she stared at the naked upper torso of Oliver Queen.
Oliver groaned and rubbed his hands over his face as Chloe desperately started searching her suitcase until she discovered several brown paper bags in the front zipper pocket. She yanked one out and started inhaling and exhaling into it.
"Are you hyperventelating? Seriously?" Oliver asked, his head turned to look at her from the pillow.
"What are you doing in the bed?" she demanded as Oliver pushed himself into a sitting position.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't remember?"
"No! What happened? We didn't…oh God, say we didn't."
He smirked at her. He looked a little worse for wear, but he evidently wasn't exceptionally hungover. "Didn't what?" he asked, looking far more amused than he should.
She opened and closed her mouth twice before she began breathing into the paper bag again.
Oliver chuckled. "Relax. Think. You weren't that drunk. You should still remember."
Chloe attempted to calm down while straining her memory to the night before, coming home from the club, Oliver half carrying her, she was so tipsy from the tequila. The air conditioning was broken-stuck on the highest setting-and the room was freezing.
"Coming back to you?" he asked, clearly enjoying himself.
She breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I can't believe you were complaining about being cold like such a baby!" she accused.
"Me!" he said incredulously. "Are you kidding? You were the one stubbornly shivering away, determined not to admit you were cold. I did you a favor."
Chloe grunted. "You have no self-control."
He laughed outright. "On the contrary, I think I have an exceptional amount of self control, considering I even slept on top of the sheet for you." He lifted the lopsided comforter on the bed to show her. "Now admit it," he said, lying back and folding his hands behind his head, as if to put his physique on display for her, "best night's sleep you ever had, wasn't it?"
Chloe was eyeing his well defined abs skeptically, and only clucked her tongue. "Just keep your hands to yourself in the future," she snipped, heading into the bathroom. She needed some water to cure her dehydration. And then coffee. Lots of coffee. Enough coffee to forget about those abs.
Oliver chuckled to himself over her obvious discomfort before picking up the phone to order some room service, including a large pot of coffee. She was going to need it.
The weekend was going by at a whirlwind pace, with the wedding rehearsal blending into the rehearsal dinner seamlessly. The bachelor and bachelorette parties were organized to "avoid any contact" with one another, at the stipulation of Dinah and Lois, who were making sure that everyone had the best time possible. When Chloe stumbled back into the room that night, the air conditioning unit still hadn't been fixed, but she was too drunk to notice. Oliver crashed through the door a little while later and found her sprawled out on the bed, wearing a tutu and a lopsided rhinestone tiara nested in her hair. She lifted her head slightly to look at him. "Women are crazy," she said with a mild slur.
Oliver, though drunk, was not as far gone as Chloe, and he was perfectly aware that the room felt like a small ice continent. "What the hell?" he demanded clumsily, toeing off his shoes. "It's freezing in here."
Chloe, who had goosebumps, shook her head. "Ohhh no. I'm not falling for that again. You might be a human furnace, but you will just have to hand over the blankets, bub, because this lady is maintaining her honor." She rolled onto her stomach and gave him what was meant to be a stern look, wagging her finger at him.
"I'm calling the manager of the hotel," Oliver sighed, trying to focus his eyesight long enough to figure out where the phone was. Between exhaustion and a lot of booze, he was starting to see double.
"No!" Chloe panicked. "No more managers!" She tried to get off the bed to stop him, but only succeeded in making it to her hands and knees at the edge of the mattress before wobbling dangerously.
"Whoa," Oliver said, holding her steady as best as he could and pushing her back down. "Okay, okay. No more managers. What did they do to you?"
"Every time the manager of the bar came out, they gave us another round of shots free. And every time I tried to say no, Lois said yes for me," she finished feebly, flopping back down into the pillows. "And when she wasn't saying yes for me, Dinah was. Or Katherine was. Women. Are. Crazy. So much dancing on bars," she added with a moan, throwing her arm across her eyes in agony.
It was a sign of how drunk Oliver was that he was more concerned with figuring out the alarm clock than with picturing Chloe dancing on a bar top. They had to get up in the morning, he reminded himself. It was absolutely vital that they be awake in time to prep for the wedding. Though Oliver wasn't in the wedding party himself, he knew Chloe had to be up at a bright and shiny hour to aid Katherine. After some frustration, he gave up, and ignoring Chloe's confused protests, picked up the phone to request a wake up call.
It was after he hung up that something interesting happened. In retrospect, he blamed it on the childish tutu and tiara she was wearing. He wasn't entirely sure what was causing his rapidly changing sentiments regarding Chloe, though clearly alcohol was aiding the problem. Last night his only thoughts had been how to seduce her. And tonight…after the bachelor party, well, his male urges were certainly making themselves known, to put it delicately. He wanted it badly, and she was the easiest target, but when he glanced down at her on the bed, his next thoughts weren't how to get in her pants. They were about how small and innocent she looked, like she needed protection. He had a wild urge to crawl up next to her and shield her from the cold. Instead, he took the tiara off her head and set on the nightstand. Then he grabbed her hands and pulled her forward off the bed until she was standing. Chloe was staring at him with a confused expression as he hooked his thumbs in the tutu and sank to his knees, slowly pulling the garment down to her feet. Her breath stuck slightly while his thumbs grazed the side of her legs, from hip to ankle. She held herself steady on the bed as he helped her lift first one foot, then the other out of the tutu. He stood again, and, facing her, he leaned closer, but only to reach behind her and pull down the covers for her. Then he threw her arm around his neck and smoothly hooked one arm under her legs, lifting her into the bed. There was a brief moment where he leaned over her, steadying himself long enough to remember what he was going to do next, but her eyes were distracting him, both Chloe and Oliver breathing heavily as they looked at each other, until he grabbed the covers in his hands and pulled them up over her.
He shook himself as he straightened up and fumbled toward the thermostat, finally giving up and shutting the whole thing off. And then he dragged himself over to the sofa, collapsing exhaustedly on top of it, his liquor-addled brain sinking into sleep almost instantly upon hitting the pillows.
"So I heard you were dancing on bar tops last night," Oliver said cheekily over his scrambled eggs the next morning.
Chloe looked up at him, and he didn't need to see past the dark sunglasses she was wearing to know she was shooting him daggers with her eyes. She'd already been sick twice since waking up that morning, and had been looking quite peaky until about ten minutes ago when a proper breakfast and lots of water started to take their effect on her. "I hate you."
"Darling!" Oliver gasped, clutching his wounded heart. "Don't let the others hear you! They'll think our relationship is in trouble!"
Fortunately, before Chloe could hit him, Barbara appeared, sporting a look of anxiety. "Katherine's having a meltdown. We need you. Morning, Oliver," she added, snagging a bite of Chloe's toast and jam.
"Good morning," Oliver said cheerily.
Chloe moaned miserably. "Why me?"
"Because you're the sensible one. Would you take Lois or Dinah's advice when you're in a panic?" Barbara joked.
"Aren't you sensible, too?" she asked Barbara.
Barbara lifted a shoulder lightly and let it fall. "I'm young and inexperienced, and therefore not to be trusted. Courtney's young and foolish, so same rules apply." She smiled. "Come on, we'll go talk Katherine down and then I'll help you get dressed."
Chloe sighed. She shoveled the last couple of bites of eggs down and drained her water. Feeling a little better now, she told Oliver she'd see him later and left with Barbara.
They found Katherine in her room, in a robe, crying on the edge of the bed.
"I can't do it! It's no use, Chloe!"
Diana, Lois, Courtney, and Dinah were all standing in various corners of the room. Apparently they'd been in the process of helping Katherine with her hair and had been banished.
Forgetting completely that she was supposed to be hungover and miserable, Chloe rushed to Katherine's aid. Katherine was now hiccup-ing hopelessly and Chloe took her hands and squeezed them encouragingly. "It's okay, Katherine. No one's going to make you do anything. Now what's wrong."
"I just…I woke up this morning and I looked at my dress and it was just…wrong. It's completely wrong. And then I thought, my God! I scheduled a DJ for the reception. I should have had live music! And then I realized the whole wedding is just wrong! I mean, silver?! What was I thinking, Chloe? No one looks good in silver! None of you guys look good in silver-except Diana, but she looks good in everything-"
The girls all chuckled nervously.
"-and the whole thing is too modern! My mother was right! I should have made it traditional! We should be in a church with roses and freaking violins and what the hell was I thinking? I can't get married! This is forever we're talking about! And I mean what the hell does he want with me? He's like this perfect guy and I'm always a mess!"
"Katherine, Katherine," Chloe stopped her, squeezing her hands again. "Slow down. First of all, you are exquisite. You're timeless. You have a completely beautiful wedding planned and I happen to know because I helped plan it and your mother didn't. And you know what else? You have the love of a man named Victor, a man who, while you were talking to your family last night said, 'I can't believe she picked me. I can't believe I'm marrying the most incredible woman I've ever met.' And that tells me that this marriage of yours is not only going to work, it's gonna last forever."
There was complete silence as Katherine and Chloe stared at each other, friendship and support gushing between them. And then finally the silence broke as Katherine laughed through her tears, "Did you just steal the speech from The Wedding Planner?"
Chloe laughed back. "Actually I paraphrased. Did it work?"
Katherine just chuckled as she nodded her head, then took a deep, shaky breath. "It's a good speech."
"And it totally applies," Chloe told her bracingly.
The tension in the room was quickly diminishing now that Katherine was smiling. "You're right. I'm being crazy. This is ridiculous."
"Good, because I'm not gonna lie, Katherine. I'm totally hung over from last night and I really need to go take an antacid if you want me to be chipper for this evening."
Katherine laughed again and Diana approached. "Can I finish doing your hair now?" Chloe could tell Diana was doing her best not to eye the clock, but time was definitely ticking away.
"Yes, thanks, Di," Katherine said shakily, sniffing a little but clearly pulling herself back together.
The rest of the girls left to start getting dressed themselves, and Chloe chuckled when she heard Lois mutter to Dinah, "I knew she picked silver because none of you looks good in it."
She reached her own hotel room and was fishing in her bag through various little baggies neatly labeled 'Aspirin,' 'Tylenol,' 'Pepto Bismol,' etc.
"Edward," she muttered, emptying the little plastic bag of Tums, "you are my hero."
By the time the wedding had actually rolled around, Chloe was feeling much more herself. I'll be glad to see the back of this wedding, Chloe thought, indulging a brief moment of selfishness. All this taking off work, partying late, being hung over…enough is enough. She was missing her structured life, and the stress of the wedding combined with the constant discomfort of being around Oliver was wearing her down.
She was just thinking how glad she'd be when the drive home was over and she could get some space from Oliver when she realized she wasn't going home. She was going to Oliver's place. Edward and Mia would have overseen the moving crew through delivering her things. She wondered briefly how Oliver felt about having his home invaded by her and her belongings. She frowned. He's been dealing with all of this way better than me so far. Then again maybe all his teasing and mocking is how he vents frustration.
Tired of dwelling on how much Oliver loved making her uncomfortable, Chloe attempted to turn her thoughts to pleasanter matters like Katherine's magnificently edgy taste. The wedding was being held in the hotel's ballroom, with splendid, modern chandeliers dropping from the ceiling (undoubtedly the reason Katherine had selected the venue), and it had been done over in a wash of silver. Everything was gleaming silver with smooth, clean lines, right down to Katherine's shimmering tiara and bouquet of silver and crystal broaches. But she had managed to turn a theme her mother had feared would be cold and tacky into something elegant and utterly unique.
Unlike Dinah and Arthur's casual beach wedding, Kat and Vic's was in a ballroom for a reason. The men were wearing tuxes with silver vests and ties (except Victor's, which was stark white), and the women were draped in floor length silver charmeuse, their matching dresses a one-shoulder strap with an elegant scarf draped down their bare backs.
But no one, Chloe thought, as she lined up outside the hall beside Clark, looked quite as extraordinary as Katherine. She wore a princess-style ball gown, dripping with shimmering crystals at the hem. From the floor up, the crystals dispersed and gave way to the clean white chiffon of the skirt. Her bodice was crystal-free-which made the gleaming broach-bouquet that much more pronounced. The neckline was smooth and level with her off-the-shoulder sleeves. It was modern and timeless at the same time.
Thinking how strikingly the white of the gown set off Katherine's dark beauty, Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat. Another friend down, she thought before she could stop herself. First Dinah and now Kat. And it would continue until all of her loved ones had been picked off one by one. Tears formed in her eyes.
"Here," Clark whispered kindly. He was holding out a clean white handkerchief.
Chloe accepted the handkerchief gratefully and dabbed her eyes before her silly emotions could ruin her makeup. "How did you know?"
Clark grinned. "Oliver said you might need it."
She was taken aback but didn't have time to say anything else as the wedding planner signaled them for quiet so they could open the doors. Each couple walked down the lengthy aisle at the appropriate time, and Clark gave her hand a quick squeeze when she delicately placed it on his proffered arm. They stepped lightly toward the front of the room where the minister stood, and Chloe saw Oliver watching her from the end of one of the rows. He spotted the handkerchief in her hands and smiled in a satisfied way. She would have dropped the handkerchief on the spot just to punish him for his smugness if she weren't certain she was going to need it again.
Damn weddings, she thought bitterly.
Everyone in the congregation had given little admiring sighs when Chloe and Clark walked down the aisle behind Diana, the maid-of-honor, and Aaron, the co-coach of the Metropolis University football team and Victor's best man. The junior bridesmaids, Barbara and Courtney followed behind them, accompanied by their escorts Dick and Victor's cousin Michael respectively. But when Katherine walked down the aisle, not a single person didn't catch his breath.
Although she remained quite self-conscious, Chloe wasn't the only person to get emotional during the wedding. Barbara had tears rolling down her cheeks, and Katherine's mother was crying openly during the entire ceremony. Victor had tears in his eyes. And the one time Chloe stole a look at Oliver, she swore she saw him loosen his tie slightly, as though his throat felt constricted.
"Aren't you going up there?" Oliver's lips were in her ear and Chloe jumped. He'd snuck up on her. The DJ had just called for all the unmarried women to go up for the bouquet toss.
"Oh no," she said seriously. "Fool me once…."
Oliver laughed, handing her a cocktail and sitting down beside her. "I don't blame you. Not after what happened last time. So how are you holding up? Did mine eyes deceive me or was the ice queen thawing during that service?" he elbowed her.
Chloe's eyes were on Katherine, who was waving the bouquet over her head and winking at her maid-of-honor. "I'm fine. You?"
"Doing all right. I think the hard part is over. We still need to figure out how long we're going to keep this going."
Chloe stomach flipped as she thought of their imminent break-up. They still hadn't come up with a good reason for it. Although they discussed the possibility of their work conflicts meaning they "didn't have enough time for one another," which Chloe thought was quite believable as she was known for putting her job before her relationships and Oliver was notorious for missing important occasions because work pulled him around the globe. The timing was the trick, though. How soon was too soon? And how late was pushing things too far? There was plenty of time to figure it out, though.
"Let's don't worry about it right now," Chloe sighed. "I just want to enjoy the end of this wedding and get back to Star City and return to whatever's left of my everyday life."
"I'll drink to that," Oliver grinned, clinking glasses with hers and taking a long sip.
Courtney was now clutching the bouquet in her hands grinning at everyone.
"Ten bucks says no one tries to shove a garter up her leg," Chloe said, evidently disgruntled.
Oliver laughed. "We'll see."
She was right. Although Dick was required to dance with Courtney in a slow dance, which eventually included the bride and groom themselves and was then extended to "All the happy couples out there." Bart cut in to dance with Courtney, freeing up Dick to dance with Barbara. Chloe sighed. "I think that's our cue."
Oliver followed her gaze. Lois was slowly revolving on the dance floor with Clark, but her own romantic bliss was not enough to stop her from beckoning to Chloe over her fiance's shoulder. Oliver chuckled. "Naturally." He stood up and offered Chloe his hand.
Looking at it, Chloe's mind flashed back to dancing with Oliver in the club, and how overwhelmingly sensual it had been. What with all the innuendo lately, waking up in bed with him and being caught in a state of undress…Chloe's hormones had been raging all weekend. Oliver was presenting himself as an unfortunate target for her long-stifled sexual desires. Reluctantly, she put her hand in his and received a small jolt from the contact, somehow much more intimate after everything they'd been through together now.
On the dance floor he pulled her surprisingly close, wrapping a tight arm around her waist and lacing fingers with her. When she raised an eyebrow, he brought his lips to her ear again. She shivered. She wished he would stop doing that. "Just putting on a good show," he whispered.
Well two can play at that game, Chloe thought, and she leaned her head against his chest, closing what little space was left between them.
Oliver swallowed uncomfortably. She was good at this.
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Next (Chapter 13)
ETA: Is this font too small for you guys to read? I'm trying to fix it but the visual editor has changed since I was here a year ago (she said guiltily, not making eye contact with anyone in the room).