Tess #2
It was pointless trying to guess. And my imagination was wild and overactive, and chances were I was reading far too much into one little smile.
It was raining when I got to Greenwich, which meant waiting for an Uber. By the time I got to Kendra’s parents’ thirteen-thousand-square-foot home in the suburbs, it was nearly seven.
She jumped on me the minute the butler let me in the door—yes, the Montgomerys had a real live butler.
“You’re here, you’re here, you’re here!” She threw her arms around me, seeming not to care that I was wet from rain, and she was dressed up—and not in an outfit that matched the red purse, if you asked me, but I wasn’t the fashion guru she was.
“Thank you for coming. You saved my ass. Again. What would I do without you?”
She didn’t give me time to respond before going on. “Did you bring the purse?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I maneuvered my overnight bag on my shoulder so I could dig inside. I’d thrown it in there to be sure it stayed safe since, obviously, it was important. “Here you go.”
“Ah! Thank you!” She opened the bag and rummaged in an inside pocket, pulling out a ring and placing it on her finger.
Oh. It had been about jewelry, not the bag itself. Equally as frivolous. Figured.
Before I could think more about it, she looked me over and made a fretful sort of noise.
“Are you wearing that?”
I glanced down at the not-too-casual maxi dress I’d thrown on when I’d gotten out of the shower. “...yes? Was I supposed to be wearing something different?”
She sighed—at herself, not at me. “I should have told you tonight was fancy. You can borrow something from my closet upstairs.”
She hadn’t told me there was a “tonight” that I was a part of at all. My impression had been that I was delivering a purse for whatever plans she had with her family, and I’d hide away in one of the many guest bedrooms and Netflix and chill with myself for the night.
Like, literally since I had my pocket vibrator with me and thoughts of Scott were at the forefront of my mind.
Looking around for the first time, I realized that the family plans were more than family plans.
There was a banquet table set out in the great room behind her, caterers flitting around setting it up.
Leila Montgomery, Kendra’s mother, was dressed in a cocktail dress speaking very preparing-to-be-a-hostess-like to someone wearing a chef’s hat.
And a glance out the window by the door to the circle drive showed a car sitting there with fancy-dressed people getting out of the back seat and more cars pulling up.
“Seriously? There’s a party?” I’d been to parties at the Montgomerys’ before.
They were exhausting events that tended to spiral Kendra into a tizzy, and not because her parents were elitist aristocrats but because their guests tended to be.
Very many of those guests were also potential Kendra clients.
No wonder she’d been concerned with looking just right.
“Not a party,” she assured me. “Spur-of-the-moment gathering. My parents threw something together this morning when they heard I was coming.”
It seemed the whole world dropped at the snap of Kendra’s fingers. Including me. Was she to blame for that or those around her?
Well, it wasn’t going to be my fault this time. “I’m not intruding on your party. I’m tired and ready for bed. No one will miss me if I spend the evening in the guest room.”
“That’s crazy! The buffet Mom ordered is spectacular.”
“I’ll sneak something from the kitchen.”
“Terese Turani, stop being such a recluse.” Said the woman who’d run away to introvert for the last two and a half weeks. “Be with me. I’ve missed you!”
It was that same sincere smile I’d seen in the picture with Scott.
A smile I was well familiar with, as I was with all her smiles, having known her so well for so many years now.
It was a smile that told me she meant it, that she missed me.
That she wanted me to be there. It reminded me why I did love her, despite all the resentment I had for her.
Because she was full of life and infectious energy and as much as she drained me, she also filled me back up.
“Okay. Okay.” The doorbell rang behind me. “I’d better go up and get presentable.”
She waited for me to disappear up the stairs before opening the door, thank goodness, because while I’d dressed appropriately for a quiet night with the Montgomerys, I did not look good enough for their company.
After dropping my bag off in the room that was always given to me on my visits, I headed to Kendra’s room and chose a simple black sheath dress, something both elegant enough to seem like I belonged yet plain enough that I could disappear.
It was funny that here I was wearing her clothes once again.
I shouldn’t have even bothered packing my own bag.
I was glad I’d gotten the chance to shower though.
While my hair wasn’t in any shape to leave down, it was clean and easy to throw it into a knot.
Kendra and I didn’t have quite the same shade of skin tone, so I couldn’t borrow much of her makeup, but I rummaged through her drawers anyway and found a blush that worked and used her mascara and put on some lipstick I’d brought of my own.
Almost thirty minutes later, I came back down to find the party—no way was this only a gathering—in full swing.
Granted, it wasn’t crowded like the Montgomerys’ usual events that hosted up to two hundred people, but those always extended into the yard, so even the fifty or so people I guessed were there felt crowded with everyone confined indoors.
The good news was that it was enough people that I’d be able to sneak away as soon as I made an appearance. Now to find Kendra.