5. Valentina
5
VALENTINA
“ W ho’s ready for another mimosa?” Olivia Goldsmith held up a pitcher of orange juice, which was sitting on ice, along with a pair of champagne bottles and, beside it, an assortment of treats, savory and sweet. The sight of the sumptuous spread laid out on the table at the Goldsmith flagship store made my mouth water. Ari had given us free rein to go through their bridal collection and pull any pieces we liked.
“Rose, honey? Do you need more ginger ale?” Rose shook her head while a pair of stylists attached clips to the back of a stunning but simple ivory gown. The gown’s empire waist and full skirt flattered her slightly fuller figure. Her preference had been a form-fitting mermaid silhouette, but she didn’t want even the slightest baby bump to appear larger in a tight dress.
Aria opened the dressing room curtain and stepped out, wearing a peach chiffon dress with the hem skimming the floor. “I like the little capelet,” she announced, playing with the transparent layer of chiffon skimming her shoulders and chest. “It’ll help me cover these flabby arms.”
“Shut up.” Sienna laughed. “There’s not an ounce of flab on you, girl.” She twirled in front of a mirror, wearing a silk, navy strapless tea-length whose hem fell below her knee.
“I like them both so much.” Rose sighed, looking from Sienna to Aria in the mirror while Olivia and Lourde fussed like the mothers they were, tearing up almost as much as the hormonal bride-to-be. “How am I supposed to choose? And when are you going to try something on?” she demanded, finding me in the mirror.
“Hello? My twin is right here. And we are the same size. Whatever looks good on her will look good on me.” A bridesmaid’s dress was the least of my worries.
“It is so refreshing to see a bride worried about how her bridesmaids feel in their dresses,” Sienna pointed out as she poured herself another mimosa.
“Right?” Aria giggled on her way back to her dressing room, where another pair of dresses waited to be tried on. “Remember Penelope Schwartz’s wedding? Those poor girls looked like they were on their way to a costume party where the theme was tacky .”
“I’m pretty sure she’s been the worst since the day she was born,” I agreed, only half listening while typing an email to a florist I was determined to work with on this. There would be more than one as I had a big vision in mind, and there would be no way to pull it off in such a short amount of time without extra hands and resources.
“The marriage only lasted, what? A year?” Rose sounded sincerely sad, even a little emotional. “Nobody imagines their marriage will only last a year when they’re trying on their dresses, you know?”
Sienna had gotten her cue, appearing at Rose’s side, holding out a pack of tissues. “Those damn hormones,” she murmured as Rose pulled a tissue from the pack and dabbed at her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled before laughing shakily. “I can’t get a hold of myself.”
“It must be pretty bad if you’re tearing up over Penelope, of all people.” I stood beside her once the stylists stepped back and smiled at her reflection. “What do you think? How do you feel in this?”
“I feel like a bride,” she whispered, smiling through the tears that still sparkled in her eyes. “I can’t shake the feeling I should pinch myself.”
“Look out, everybody.” Aria flung the curtain open again, this time wearing a tight-fitting pink dress that barely reached her knees and fit her like a glove.
Rose whistled in appreciation. “You look hot, but you’re not allowed to look better than the bride.”
“Honey, nobody will be able to take their eyes off you,” Aria promised, tugging the hemline self-consciously before yanking the bodice up to cover more of her boobs. “I couldn’t wear this. I’d be fidgeting the whole day.”
“Miles would like it,” I teased. It was fun to watch her blush, and it only deepened when she glanced toward the older women hovering nearby. Their relationship was still new enough, and the memory of her hating him was still fresh enough that I could enjoy giving her shit over falling for somebody she was determined to hate when they first met. Considering they were now on the verge of moving into his new penthouse together, that attitude hadn’t lasted very long.
It occurred to me as the moms gathered close and praised Rose that I was the only single girl left in the group. Not that I was in any hurry to settle down. It would take someone with a lot of patience to handle a girlfriend whose job meant she spent most of her time at clubs, bars, and parties she promoted. It meant constantly being surrounded by men, with most of them drunk or on their way there by the time we crossed paths. It was a recipe for tension, and who wanted to deal with that?
“I think this is the one.” Rose stared back at her reflection and wore a shy little smile as she turned away from the mirror, arms spread. The sweetheart neckline and thin straps showed off her creamy decolletage and toned shoulders to perfection, and her peaches and cream complexion glowed against the ivory silk. But that probably had something to do with the pregnancy. She had that special glow going on no matter what she wore.
“You’re radiant, darling,” Olivia whispered, her throat clogged with emotion while Aunt Lourde hugged her, also crying.
It was a lot easier getting out of the gown than it was getting her into it. Pretty soon, she was sitting on a sofa, sipping flat ginger ale while we discussed our choice of bridesmaid dresses.
“You really should try the peach one on,” Lourde urged, holding it out to me now that Aria had taken it off. “I want to see it on you.” Rose nodded her agreement, and I didn’t want to make the bride unhappy. I took the dress and ducked into one of the dressing rooms, closing the curtain before taking off my jacket and the sundress underneath it.
“You said something about a cake tasting next weekend,” Aria said, and I assumed she was talking to Rose. “Are you going to have time for that? Do you need one of us to go in your place since you’re so busy at the store?”
“Valentina is already on it,” Rose announced. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the smile in her voice. “We owe Evan so much for riding his team like he is, getting everything in place.”
The sound of his name tightened my nipples. That was all it took, just hearing his name mentioned in a casual conversation. Goose bumps rose over my arms and shoulders, but that could easily have been the air conditioning vent over my head. Sure. Air conditioning. A likely story.
“Is he giving you shit?” Sienna called out to me.
No, he gave me his dick. I grinned. Right. That announcement would go well. “No,” I replied as I stepped into a puddle of peach chiffon and slid it up over my body. “Honestly, he’s been great. He doesn’t keep me waiting for a response to questions, he’s proactive in coming up with solutions to problems. He knows his stuff.”
“Coming from you, that’s a huge compliment,” Rose declared. “I don’t think I trust anybody’s judgment the way I trust yours.”
If she only knew how shitty my judgment had been lately. Still, it had been two weeks since I slept with Evan, and the world hadn’t come tumbling down. He was behaving himself, keeping it professional in our emails and brief phone calls. I had the sense there was as much riding on this for him as there was for me. He wanted to do a good job for his best friend. I might still have wrestled with mixed feelings toward him, but I wouldn’t let him cloud my opinion.
There was a chance we could move on from this with no repercussions or complications. I needed to believe that, or else I had opened myself up to a world of bullshit there was no time to deal with.
“You know,” Aria said, her voice closer, as if she were standing just on the other side of the curtain. “If you need any help at all, I’m here. I don’t think Mom would miss me at the foundation if I told her I was helping you with the wedding planning and stuff.”
Something in her voice made me pause before pushing back the curtain. It was only a matter of time before she started worrying about me. I was amazed she had waited this long before saying anything. On the surface, her offer came across as one sister trying to help another, but I knew better.
I pulled back my shoulders and forced a smile. “I’ll let you know if I need your help,” I told her, brushing past her on my way to the three-way mirror. “I really, really do like this,” I announced, checking myself out from all angles. “It’s so pretty. Do you still want those flowered combs for our hair?” I asked Rose.
“Yes, for sure. I want everything to look romantic and soft and lush.” Her voice had a dreamy sound to it, and I knew she would shit a brick when she saw what I had in mind for the ballroom. It was sort of a surprise, something I had seen done at an event in Virginia and wanted to recreate.
“Really,” Rose continued as she stood, looking and sounding stronger than before. “We could try for the rest of our lives, and we would never be able to thank you and Evan enough for all the extra time you’re putting into this. It means everything.” She gave me a hug before I reached the dressing room to change into my clothes.
“No tears,” I murmured, chuckling when she sniffled. “We got you. Everything is going to be incredible. All you have to do is look gorgeous, which you do every day anyway.”
“Are you so nice to all of your clients?”
“Only the ones I love.” I gave her a wink before disappearing behind the curtain and releasing a soft sigh .
It wasn’t easy keeping up appearances. Not that the wedding was a problem. Aside from the planning being so damn hectic, it couldn’t have gone better. I normally had to poke and prod vendors on a rush job like this, but Evan was on top of everything. I typically hated being cc’d on emails but actually enjoyed witnessing the way he interacted with members of his staff. He was firm but fair. He didn’t threaten or force the way shitty leaders tended to do. I was seeing a new side of him, and it was… nice.
“I better run. As much as I want to hang out with you girls all day…” Sienna was gathering her things when I opened the curtain, the peach dress hanging over my arm. “I have a lunch meeting in twenty.”
“Another client in trouble?” Aria guessed.
“I swear, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry sometimes. No matter how I tell people to behave themselves, they do whatever the hell they want.” Sienna shrugged, smirking before she went to her mom for a quick hug. “Then again, would I have a job otherwise? I guess I can’t really complain.”
We made plans for dress fittings in a couple of weeks before she scurried off, followed by Lourde and Olivia. “I’m going to head over to the apartment with Mom,” Rose announced. “Dad will be happy to know we found dresses today. He’s so stressed, you would think it was his wedding all over again.”
“He wants everything to be perfect. Tell him it will,” I reminded her before she left the dressing area.
That meant Aria and I were on our own. “Want to grab some lunch?” she asked, lingering in the doorway leading out to the showroom.
“I wish I could, but I have to check in at the office,” I told her .
“On a Saturday?” She sighed.
“I’ve been too distracted by this project to pay attention to everything else we have going on, and Bianca’s going to wring my neck if I don’t answer some questions she has.”
“A quick coffee?” she offered.
I narrowed my eyes at my sister, concerned. “Are you all right? Do you need to talk? I have all the time in the world if you do.” Work could wait.
“Oh, no!” She shook her head hard, laughing softly. “No, everything’s great. Like, really great. It’s…” She trailed off, biting her lip. “It’s you I want to talk about. I want to make sure you’re okay.”
I knew it was too good to be true—to have a day where everyone would focus anywhere but on me. “Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, scrolling through a couple of new emails that had come in while I was trying on my dress.
“Could you put the phone down for a second and actually look at me? I’m standing right here in front of you.”
Lowering the phone, I sighed. “I’m just fine,” I insisted, although it took considerable effort to keep from sounding as annoyed as I felt. “A little overwhelmed with all this work, but things are going better than I expected.”
“That’s not answering my question, and you know it. Did you forget who you’re talking to?” she whispered when I rolled my eyes. “This is me. I want to know about you, my sister. Not the girl planning this wedding. Are you all right with all of this?”
I didn’t have time to be coy, and my patience was alarmingly thin. Rather than pretend I didn’t know what she meant, I shrugged. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to say you aren’t as stricken and devastated as you looked at the engagement party. It’s okay to hurt,” she assured me, but I couldn’t help but scoff and roll my eyes. “ But when you pretend you aren’t hurting, that’s when problems start.”
“I know that!” I replied. It wasn’t easy not to flip her off and storm out. “I honestly don’t know why you’re so worried. It came as a shock. It set me off after I’d already had a few drinks. It’s over.”
Her teeth sank into her lip. “You know why. I’m only concerned about you.”
“And I appreciate that, but you don’t need to be. I’m okay.”
“So I was imagining things when you looked like you were going to burst into tears?”
“Can we not talk about that? That was two damn weeks ago,” I hissed out. “And it’s over now. Yeah, it sort of surprised me in a bad way, but I’m over it. Let me be over it.” It wasn’t until I said it out loud that I understood how much I needed to move on. To put it behind me again. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life crying over something that happened so long ago. There was no way to change it, like there was no way to go back and slap the shit out of Evan for letting me down.
That still wasn’t enough for her. She opened her mouth, but I held up a hand, scowling. “You promised me we would never talk about it. Remember? Not ever. It’s over.”
“You honestly believe that? We are not kids anymore,” she reminded me. “That’s the kind of thing a kid says and actually believes. This is real life. We can’t run away from the things that hurt.”
“Thank you very much for your advice.” This was getting to be too much. I had to leave before I said something I couldn’t take back. Not all of us were lucky enough to find the perfect person. “I really have to go, or else Bianca’s head is going to explode, and I don’t feel like having to clean that up.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, making my escape before she could try to stop me.
“We couldn’t have done this without you.” Hunt Kennedy, the owner of Club Urge, raised his glass to me, his leg brushing mine when he angled his body toward me on his barstool. The club was packed on a Saturday night, only a little more than a month after it opened. There had been a dozen obstacles in my way, including the complete irresponsibility of the man now toasting me, but I had made it work despite him.
From then on, I would not trust a client to get their permits arranged in time for opening. Lesson learned.
I laughed off the compliment, holding my glass high. “You must know what you’re doing because you’re packing them in.” Somebody bumped me from behind and almost made me spill my martini, but I recovered quickly and laughed it off.
“You’re pretty fucking cool,” he announced, narrowing his steely eyes. He was hot in a dangerous, you-might-wake-up-to-find-your-wallet-missing sort of way. “Nothing throws you off, does it? You’re, like, made of ice.”
It was what I wanted people to believe. The truth was different, but people weren’t interested in the truth. That had always been my experience anyway. The illusion was much more interesting. Safer too. “You have to be when you do this kind of work,” I told him.
Lowering his brow, he growled out, “I bet I could get you to melt.”
That was surprising. There had never been anything flirtatious between us, but then we had been working on promoting the club’s opening. That was over now, and it seemed like he took it as a green light to try his luck. I could feel his lustful gaze crawling over me, and while I wasn’t turned off, it didn’t get me excited either. I may as well have been dead below the waist.
Get it together. He’s hot. He’s available. And he’s eye fucking you at this very moment. Yes, and I could have used a good, hard fuck after two weeks of longing for what had exploded between Evan and me. Two frustrated weeks full of dirty dreams and an overworked vibrator. I was just as frustrated as ever. He could be a lot of fun, and he might have made it possible for me to put Evan behind me and move on.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t imagine it. Maybe I didn’t want to. “You know,” I said before downing the rest of my martini. “I wouldn’t be any good tonight. It’s been an extremely long week, and I’m exhausted. But thanks for the offer,” I added when he scowled.
“Yeah, sure. Have fun tonight.” Just like that, he was gone, probably in search of a willing pussy after being turned down.
I was in trouble. I had to get past this. Otherwise, I’d never get laid again.
But nothing compared. Sad, but true. One regrettable night had erased all the work I’d done to get Evan out of my system. The men who’d come after him during my twenties paled in comparison. They might as well have never existed.
It would be better for me to go home rather than drink myself into oblivion in yet another dark, loud club where everyone was having fun except for me. I could curse myself for free in my apartment and wish like hell there was a way to erase the past.