Unexpected Wedding by Carla Rossi

you do last night?”
    She stopped. Everyone was usually too busy to catch up on what they did on their nights off. “Uh... I went to a festival in the next county. Not much to do in the great metropolis around camp, you know. What about you?”
    Sam wouldn’t look her in the eye. He merely smiled and tried to un-crumple his note. “I did laundry.”
    “Oh. OK. I’ll see you out there.”
    As she left the front porch of the office, two more guys swept past her and paused with airheaded grins. “Did you have a good night off?”
    “Yes. How about yourself?”
    “Great,” one of them answered and they rushed on past.
    Two of her friends at an information table seemed a little too enthused to see her as she walked past.
    “Hi Gia,” they said in creepy unison and then added an equally creepy wave.
    She stopped cold. “What’s going on?”
    Deborah picked up a stack of papers to use as a fan while her very own rookie looked away and pretended to read a camp roster. Upside down. “Nothing. Why? Is something going on?”
    They snickered behind her as she headed toward the gate. If Rebekah had been out here blabbing about her date, well, she didn’t know what she would do. A breach of trust like that would make it hard to keep her professional composure let alone continue their friendship.
    Up ahead, Rebekah seemed to be frantically trying to fold something and shove it in her back pocket.
    Gia smiled at the waiting children and signaled for Rebekah to step back.
    “What’s going on here?” she asked with an unconvincing, upbeat lilt in her voice.
    “Nothing, why?”
    “Everyone is looking and laughing at me. Is my shirt on backward or something?”
    “Nothing’s wrong.” Rebekah clapped along as the greeter group started a rhythmic chant about the books of the Bible and encouraged the kids to join in.
    “What is that paper you are trying to hide?”
    “What paper?”
    “This paper,” Gia said and plucked it from her back pocket.
    Rebekah pushed her back further. “Now listen, Gia. This is not a big deal. I took it from Chris S. who said Chris W. gave it to him and there’s just the one copy. It’s been around camp, but no one means any harm with it. They’re messing with you, but it’ll stop once they open the gates...”
    But all of Rebekah’s rambling trailed off into one horror-filled gong of noise in her head and she unfolded the piece of newspaper that appeared to be the whole front page.
    “That shifty, low-life shutterbug,” she whispered as the air left lungs.
    “It’s not so bad,” Rebekah said as if from far away. “It’s really kinda cute.”
    Gia steadied her trembling hands. “It’s a violation.”
    She glanced at the kids who seemed oblivious to her terror. She skimmed the words. Something about the festival and its great success, something about the crowds, the fireworks, the food. There were several pictures of the festivities, but the one that caught her eye was the series of three connected shots of her and Rocky that ran along the side like a photo-booth filmstrip of their date. One was their posed picture, one was of them rolling through the intersection with huge smiles—and one was of that kiss.
    “Put it away,” Rebekah urged. “We’ll deal with it later.”
    The crowd at the gate continued to grow.
    Rebekah patted her on the back. “Take a breath, Gia. You need to breathe. I’ll get some water.”
    “No.” She buried the clipping in her pocket. “I’m fine, but cover for me a minute. I’m going to run to the bathroom.”
    “Sure.”
    Gia pasted on her best fake smile and acknowledged her co-workers’ great big secret as she rushed past. “Nice one, guys. Now you know what I do on Saturday nights.” She took a deep, sweeping bow before she dove into the bathroom and collapsed on the creaky wooden bench.
    She leaned her head back against the wall and pressed her palms into her forehead. Her heart rate steadied as she closed her eyes and tried to