Getting by (A Knight's Tale) Read Online Free Page A

corner of the restaurant and to avoid any PDAs in front of the entire clientele. The five foot one explosive dynamite ignited with affection and made sure everyone around her listened to her conversations. Lovely, but at times when she talked about losing her virginity, catching her parents having sex, or similar topics, it wasn’t fun. The tables weren’t big enough to hide me until the said establishment we visited closed for the day and had emptied.
    Cade and Gaby arrived on time, the petite curvaceous brunette walked hand in hand with the more than six foot tall teddy bear. He was a mix between Winnie the Pooh and the Pillsbury man; black hair, the color of a raven, and deep brown eyes. They had been together for almost a year, a match made between Gavin—Gaby’s brother—and Cade’s cousin.
    A left hand, no, correction, a ring finger was positioned in front of my face flashing a four carat emerald cut diamond on a platinum setting. “He proposed.” She clapped excitedly and threw her arms around me. Thankfully I was ready for those out of the blue hugs, and sharing her joy, I hugged back. He took her on a carriage around Central Park, and during the ride, Cade told her she was the love of his life. Unfortunately, while on the ride he couldn’t go down on his knee and do it the old fashion way, but she forgave him because he gave her a big enough ring. I didn’t think much of it and smiled while nodding.
    “Maid of honor?” Gabs words were a low punch that hit me directly in the gut and I couldn’t recover. What kind of person would I be if I turned down such a privilege? Not even my bitchy self—Gaby trapped me. “I chose you over my cousins, so you can’t say no.”
    She chose me over her cousins, not reassuring. Sixty percent of the world’s population had some blood connection to her. Her mother was half Venezuelan, a quarter German and something else, while her father was also another sort of mix. Hence, picking a maid of honor among her family would become a hassle that no one, not even Gaby Clement, wanted to take on.
    “You need to make your hotel reservations soon.” Gaby jumped on her horse and began to write down what I needed to do. The swanky hotel located a few minutes from her parents in Menlo Park, California, had reserved a hundred rooms for the wedding. “Everyone is coming from all over the world to our event.”
    Gaby wasn’t kidding. Family from Venezuela, Germany, Ireland and other places she named, more than I could remember, were coming. What grabbed my attention was that, like Gaby, Cade had family on the other side of the Atlantic. “Wouldn’t it be more convenient for everyone if you have the wedding here, in the Big Apple?”
    Her shoulders stiffened, and she lightly shook her head. Fine, at least I hadn’t brought to her attention that three months to prepare a wedding was rushing it. “Or Vegas, that’s a fun place. You can bolt and make it fast,” I said, to lighten up her mood.
    “I’d elope tomorrow, Em.” She smiled dreamily while wiggling her fingers to show the sparkly finger to the world. I wanted to puke, my life didn’t have a Cade, nor did I expect anyone to sweep me off my feet anytime soon. With hostility on my part, I was in a bitter state of mind. “But, have you met Mom?”
    Indeed, I had met her while my mom carried me inside her womb, and swore to that day that that woman was the one who made me dislike big gatherings and made me scared of crowds. They had been sharing the same fence for five years before Gaby and I appeared into this world. As I said, Gaby’s family was multicultural with a capital M. As next door neighbors we got to participate and watch one too many parties. A bullet in her heart would be less painful than her only daughter eloping. Instead, they had an entire week of activities to celebrate Gaby’s wedding. Joy.
    “You met only half of them,” she told me, while writing the colors of the wedding—black and peach—plus