The Cherished Wife by Chweety

them a reassuring smile. "Peter's my brother. You've probably heard of him, right? He's tight with Charles and the gang."

"I'm Jennifer. I'm guessing we haven't met before, so let me introduce myself!" Jennifer said cheerfully, taking a seat next to Noelle after handing her a glass of wine. Though she was chatting with Noelle, her gaze drifted over to where Charles and his friends were, offering "Ah! Nice to meet you, Ms. Lennon!" Noelle replied with a warm smile, nodding. She felt more at ease and raised her glass to clink with Jennifer's.

Ever the easygoing one, Jennifer lifted her glass to meet Noelle's. "Hey, drop the 'Ms. Lennon', will you? It's way too stiff. Just Jennifer is fine-that's what everyone calls me."

"Sure thing, Jennifer!" Noelle agreed with a nod. "Then you can call me Noelle. That's what my friends call me!"

"Got it!" Jennifer, always one to get straight to the point, chatted with Noelle for a bit and then noticed something different about her than the usual crowd. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how do you know Charles?"

Jennifer was not trying to snoop around-it was just that even though they were not super close, her brother Peter was tight with Charles, which meant she was pretty friendly with Charles too. Whenever they bumped into each other, she would always shout a friendly "Hey, Charles!" She thought she had the scoop on most things Charles, but his wedding? That was news to her.

look and figured out she was puzzled about the whole marriage

Noelle said, "Charles and I go way back, and we've actually been hitched for quite some time. We just skipped the big party and didn't make a fuss about it, so not a lot of folks are in the loop. How we got together? Well, that's a tale for another time. Let's just say fate threw us together, and Charles has been my hero

grin, Noelle added, "Only the crew here today knows about us being married,

want to keep it on the down-low, that's cool. These days, it's all about marrying who you want, and it's nobody else's business as long as it's

my take

a big deal for families, and there

guys had gathered into two groups and

took the head seat at

drifted to Charles

and their eyes locked.

en