I love Philadelphia. I honestly didn’t think I would, but I had so much fun. When we got there on Friday we went to a bar attached to its own craft beer brewery. Brady and Chris, being the frat boys they are, could not pass up a good craft beer. It’s a place Chris spends a lot of time and  he knew a lot of the workers plus gave us a ton of tidbits that made it obvious that he’s done the brewery tour more than once. It was cute.

“They have these really good pizza grilled cheeses, Reese. You’ll love them,” Carly informed me. It sounded right up my alley so I ordered that along with a citrus beer.

“So how’s the wedding planning?” I asked, while we waited for our food. Brady and Chris were next to us carrying on with their bromance.

“It’s going surprisingly well. My mom has been a huge help. Oh! Let me show you which bridesmaid dress we decided on,” Carly replied. She had sent out an email with all the dress options to all of us and asked our opinions. I wanted to go with a long, strapless blush pink option with an attached beaded belt. It was the most expensive so no one else chose it.

Of course, the girls chose the $160 blush high neck option. Carly also showed me her wedding dress options, all of which were super sparkly vintage inspired gowns with intricate back detailing and sleeves. Totally not my style, but they were all beautiful. Carly couldn’t decide on one so she’s still looking. In case you’re wondering, I want a strapless mermaid gown with a ridiculously long train and no lace anywhere. I hate lace.

After the bar, we headed back to Carly and Chris’ place. Brady and I had gotten a hotel, but it was still fairly early so we decided to continue hanging out. Their apartment is so cute. Super updated and trendy with the historical charm it was built with. They got a cat named Olive, who is actually so cute and I’m not even a fan of cats.

We played some drinking game that involved pennies, I can’t even remember the details because we all got so drunk so fast. I think it was pretty fun though.

I woke up to the cat walking all over me. We’d passed out and Brady and I were snuggled on the couch.

“You guys!” Carly called out, in a really unnecessarily high pitched voice. “Get up. We are taking you to the best brunch in America!”

I just looked at her.

“They do tequila sunrise mimosas,” she added.

“Okay, I’m getting up,” I said.

In total it took us about three hours for all four of us to get ready in their one bathroom. Then we trekked a few blocks in the cold to the restaurant. I complained the whole time that we should have called an Uber and Carly said, “Gosh, Reese, have you always been this much of a complainer?”

I gave her a dirty look because that’s rude and she smiled innocently. I know she was kidding, but usually Carly would never make snide comments like that. But whatever.

When we sat down I immediately started grilling Chris about what he wanted his groomsmen (Brady) to wear for the wedding.

He shrugged. “I dunno. I was thinking everyone could just wear their own suit.”

I gasped. “No way! Carly is going to be standing up there in a freaking beaded gown and y’all are gonna be wearing your work suits?” I made a face.

Brady and Chris laughed.

“Does it really matter what the guys wear? A black suit is a black suit,” Carly said.

“But don’t you want everyone to be uniform? Think of the pictures!” I said.

She shrugged. “We are going for a more rustic theme anyway.”

I gave Brady a look that told him that our wedding party is going to dress exactly how we want. I’m not sorry.

So Carly started going on about her rustic inspired wedding, all the mason jars and wooden pallets and burlap she planned on using. I almost asked if she was renting out a barn for it too. It sounds like my Pinterest nightmare. Not my style at all.

That night we went to a party at a beautiful townhouse on the river. It was hosted by some girl named Lena, who apparently Chris knew from work. She was super, super pasty white with white blonde hair and wore a white lacy bra top and a white maxi skirt. She looked fucking creepy. Her townhouse was bomb though. It had that historic firehouse look complete with exposed brick and the spiral staircase. She had it decorated almost like an Anthropologie store with candles everywhere, plants hanging from the ceiling and a ton of mix matched furniture. I was totally into it.

When Lena let us in, she squealed with excitement then air kissed Chris on both cheeks.

“These are my friends, Brady and Reese. And you know Carly,” Chris introduced us.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Come in,” Lena said.

I looked at Carly as we walked in and she shrugged.

“Help yourself to the bar,” Lena instructed, pointing to a bar with a ton of various liquor bottles out and colorful mugs stacked up.

“Cool, open bar,” Chris said so we walked over there and made drinks.

At this point there were only a handful of people at the party, probably four little cliques of people so Lena left us to go entertain another group.

“I think I’m going to cut my hair,” I announced. “Maybe like a blunt bob.”

“Reese, no!” Carly gasped. “Not before the wedding. What if I want you to wear an updo?”

“It’s fine. It’s rustic,” I replied.

Carly rolled her eyes at me and mumbled something and I sipped my drink. I wasn’t even completely serious about chopping my hair off, but jeez. The guys can wear whatever humdrum suit they have in the back of their closet and I can’t cut my hair? Rude.

A few minutes later, Lena came up behind Chris and wrapped her arms around his torso. “I’m so glad you’re here!” she exclaimed.

Chris turned, but didn’t push her off. I glanced at Carly, who was looking down at her drink.

“So!” I said. “Lena, you and Chris work together?”

“No!” she laughed. “His company works with my company. I’m a dancer.”

“Oh! What kind of dancer?” I asked, barely able to keep a straight face. This broad was a stripper.

“Ballet,” she said as it was obvious. Although after she mentioned it, I did notice her rigid ballet posture. “I work in the city.”

We all looked at her and she added, “New York City.”

“Nice. Like Black Swan?” I said.

I heard Brady chuckle next to me.

“Black Swan…cute. No, it’s nothing like that,” Lena said. “Honestly, it’s not really like a job. Ballet is what I live and love and it just so happens to pay my bills.” She gestured around her apartment. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t get Dance Moms out of my head even though she was an (tiny) adult.

“So what exactly does your company do with ballet?” I asked Chris.

“We deal with all of the scheduling. They have a certain budget and our systems guarantee that they stay within that budget,” Chris explained.

“Oh,” I said, not following. “So are you the liaison, Lena? How did you and Chris become friends?”

Lena, who still had one of her little white sickly hands on Chris’ side, glanced up at him then back at me. “I don’t know. What’s with the interrogation?” She kind of laughed.

“What interrogation? I asked you like two questions.”

Lena looked down her nose at me and rolled her eyes then turned to leave.

“Bye, White Swan,” I said, not even loud enough for her to hear.

“Reese, stop,” Brady said.

“I hate her,” I told the group. “What a bitch. Chris, you can find better friends.”

“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about me being friends with her anymore now,” he laughed nervously.

“Reese, you are so immature sometimes. Like, I can’t even deal right now,” Carly said.

“What did I do?” I exclaimed.

Brady grabbed me, shushing me again.

Carly turned to Chris and said something, probably apologizing for my behavior even though I think I was doing her a favor. Someone has to stand up for their relationship.

Needless to say, we left soon after that. Lena didn’t dare come back near us so Chris went to find her to say goodbye then we all walked (in the cold) to a bar for food. Carly and I were totally back on, ordering mozzarella sticks and screaming when the techno remix of “Rude” came on.

We ran to the bathroom to have a heart to heart, just like old times.

“You didn’t care when that girl had her hands all over your fiancé?” I couldn’t help asking.

Carly shook her head. “No. I’ve met her before. She’s like a hippie. She doesn’t mean any harm.”

“Yeah, but still. It was kind of inappropriate, don’t you think? Like, hands off,” I said.

“I don’t know. Who cares. Everything isn’t a huge deal, Reese. You’re so impulsive. You can’t let things get to you.”

“I’m just really protective of my man. I think it’s weird when people aren’t.”

“Yeah, well. I don’t have a reason to be.” She held up her left hand and flashed her ring.

Which I guess is a valid point.

“I have something to tell you, but you have to promise not to say anything or make it a big deal,” Carly said next.

“What? Tell me!” I exclaimed.

“It isn’t even that big of a deal, chill,” she shushed me.

“Then tell me now,” I said.

“Okay. Chris told me that Brady asked him how he knew he was ready to propose to me.”

“Yeah? And what did Chris say?”

“Chris told him that he just knew. We both knew we wanted to spend our lives together and pretty much spoke it into existence.”

“So what now? Is Brady going to propose to me, do you think?”

Carly shrugged and shook her head, confusing me. “Chris said he asked and Brady kind of freaked out and said no. So I guess not?”

I pouted.

“You can’t bring it up to Brady though, okay? He just got freaked out and didn’t know what to say.”

“He should have said yes!”

“Me and Kendra were talking and we think Brady is afraid of you because you’re so unpredictable. I mean, it’s fun and all, but he can’t do unpredictable. He’s too type A.”

I scoffed. “He needs unpredictability in his life. Without me, his life would be boring and routine. He even told me that!”

I can understand where Carly and Kendra are coming from, but I think opposites attract just like a lot of y’all have said. Can you imagine if Brady dated a girl like him? How tragic.

So anyway, Philly was great and I already want to go back. I think I just really miss Carly and even Chris and how much fun the four of us used to have together.