Emily and River meet in Miami, where they have the time of their lives, but it isn't meant to be: the next morning, Emily leaves for San Francisco, leaving both their hearts broken. They don't think they'll ever see each other again.
Emily goes back...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
He hadn't talked to Emily since he'd advised her to see Jason, so he didn't know what had happened after she'd agreed to do that. In the meantime, he had been working, serving the guests with endless alcoholic drinks or little snacks before the big moment. Everyone else seemed excited about the big moment, but he was too nervous about the future to want to think about it. There was no way to predict what would happen, and he had no clue what was going on in Jason's suite in the little tower of the castle.
He also didn't know the guy but hoped he wouldn't be mad at River. Would Jason even know it was him? If he'd paid attention to his nameplate, he might see the connection, but River hoped he hadn't.
Someone tapped two times on an empty glass to gain the attention of everyone sitting in the lounge area just as River was putting two more glasses down. "I'd like everyone's attention," a female's voice said, and River saw it was Brooke, Emily's mother. "The ceremony is about to start. Could everyone gather in the ballroom and notify the people who are not here? We'll start at one sharp."
This announcement seemed to get everyone even more excited; faces were smiling, people were standing up and chatter filled the room as everyone began to make their way out.
But it got River scared. Just five minutes until the ballroom was filled with guests and the ceremony began - the ceremony of unifying Emily and Jason forever. In that relationship was no place for River.
And where was Emily? She still was nowhere to be found, but he expected to get some answers before the big moment. Had she found a way to talk it out with Jason? He wished the wedding would be canceled, but didn't know whether it was possible.
"Do you think we're allowed to watch the ceremony too?" Mason, River's colleague, asked him when no one else could hear.
River shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know," he said. "I hope we are, maybe we can sneak in the back." He wasn't curious about the ceremony because he wanted to see Emily marry someone else; he needed to know if there was a solution to the situation and if there was any way of preventing the marriage from happening.
He decided for himself that, even if someone else told him not to, he'd go see the ceremony. He just had to, there was no other option but to go. Whatever was about to happen, it would be interesting and he was standing in the middle of it; no one had the right to deny him to go.
He washed his hands behind the bar and struck his clothes clean. It still felt like he should make a good impression, even if there was no one to leave an impression on. Emily's parents probably didn't like him already and he doubted whether he could change anything about it. Jason wouldn't care what River looked like; Jason always looked better, maybe because he was British, maybe because he was the groom, but more likely because he was Jason.
Jason frickin' King. Must he be so perfect?
It didn't make it any easier for Emily to make a choice between the two of them, River figured. Although he suspected she actually liked him, Jason could offer her a future and much more than he ever could. And she was already walking down the aisle towards him, something he wasn't ready to do for her yet—and he doubted whether she was ready for marrying him too.
