Chapter 26
If Jamie was hopeless at croquet, then she was half decent at badminton. Which didn’t say much, because being one of the best players at her high school was like saying she was one of the best deep-sea divers as well.
She performed decently at the downtown sports center when she went the next day. It helped that she had Gwenyth on her side, who was apparently a sporty girl who loved nothing more than pummeling her opponents into the ground.
Too bad the women on the other side of the net were out for blood.
“Two to seven!” Eve called, slamming the birdie across the net. Gwenyth dove and volleyed it back, her grunt of total annihilation echoing in the room as the birdie went straight for Kathleen’s head on the other side of the net.
“Fuck!” Kathleen spiked her racket on the ground, right next to the birdie she missed.
Jamie stayed close to the net but didn’t say anything.
Kathleen had been near-rabid through the whole match, growling, baring her teeth, looking like a fucking lunatic every time she served or smacked the birdie back to Jamie and Gwenyth.
“What is wrong with me today?” True. She wasn’t hitting many volleys.
She was more likely to run out of bounds or completely miss the birdie until it was hitting her in the face.
Eve went to her, wrapping a supportive arm around her friend’s shoulder and taking her to the corner for a pep talk. The two of them were tall enough to peer over the net, but they huddled, the one hissing at the other as Jamie was pretty sure she heard some tears.
“Wow,” Gwenyth said. “Someone is PMSing.”
Jamie wouldn’t speculate. “Damn,” she muttered. “Rich girls are competitive, huh?”
“You really have no idea.” Gwenyth twirled her racket in her hand. “Especially those two. Got a lot to prove. Pressure sucks.”
The two blondes came back to the game, and the birdie was tossed over the net for Jamie to serve. When she smacked it over the net, she dove to hit, since Eve did a bang-up job smacking it before it was barely on her side.
The longest volley in the sports club’s history commenced. Gwenyth hit, Eve hit, Jamie hit, Kathleen hit. That poor white birdie was abused to near-death as four women raced around the court with their rackets halfway up in the air.
“Get it!” Eve shouted, the birdie going over her head.
“Mine!” Sure enough, Kathleen whacked it with such strength that it flew over the net.
Right into Jamie’s face.
“Ow!” This was worse than Kathleen taking it in the forehead. That was a bop compared to this. Jamie staggered around the court before finally sinking to her knees, since that’s when the pain exploded against her nose. Blood flowed down her face.
“Aw, fuck.” Eve ducked beneath the net with Kathleen following. “Look what you did. Fell the one brunette in the bunch. Isn’t that some sort of discrimination?”
“Er,” Kathleen said. “Sorry.”
Gwenyth saw the blood and instantly backed away, citing how ill even a nosebleed made her feel. Jamie, meanwhile, gasped with her hand over her mouth, bracing against the waves of pain that kept overtaking her face.
“It ain’t broken, is it?” Eve knelt in front of Jamie and pried her hand away. “Ew! Well, I don’t think it’s broken. Just a bit busted.”
“Thanks,” Jamie said through the pain.
“Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Eve helped Jamie stand up, brushing off some dirt from her sports top and leading her to the ladies’ locker rooms. “No, no, I got this. Besides, Ms. Jamie and I need to have a little chat, anyway.”
There wasn’t another soul there that weekday afternoon. Jamie dropped onto the nearest bench while Eve pulled a complimentary first aid kit from a nearby bin.
“Nasty, but don’t worry. It looks messy. Painful. Don’t think it’s broken, though. Yikes.”
“Don’t say that,” Jamie said with a whiny voice.
Her nose hurt with her hand on it, but it hurt even more when she moved her hand away.
She didn’t know what that meant. I’ve never broken my nose before.
Granted, she was pretty sure it wasn’t broken now…
just mad. Still, Jamie couldn’t exactly say that she was used to abusing her nose.
“Hold still.” Cotton touched Jamie’s face.
Whenever Eve moved it away, it became covered in more blood.
Jamie’s blood. Ho, boy. “Let me get this cleaned up and see what we’re dealing with.
Tch. I played soccer in high school and undergrad.
You think I don’t know broken noses? Or how to take care of them? ”
“I didn’t say anything…”
“Blood everywhere in soccer,” Eve continued to mutter as she dabbed Jamie’s face.
“Skinned knees… bruised tail bones. Nobody gets out of it without a scar or two. See?” She pulled her leg up and pointed to a white line on one of her long limbs.
“Sophomore year of high school. Some bitch shoved me so hard my father nearly sued the pants off her father.”
Jamie didn’t speak. How the hell do I respond to that? She didn’t know anything about anyone suing anyone else anywhere.
“Sheesh, Kathleen sure fucked you in the face.” Eve laughed as she put some alcohol on a piece of gauze. “You’d think she was out to get you.”
There went Jamie’s gut. “What’s going on with her?
She’s always so angry… lately.” To be fair, Kathleen always looked angry.
Or unamused. Or bewildered that someone was talking to her.
Did she realize she had a permanent bitch face?
Or was she so rich and privileged that nobody stood a chance with her attitude?
How did she get such a laid-back partner?
Are they into stone-cold women? Probably.
Kathleen was a known Domme – well, switch, Jamie supposed.
She didn’t really keep up with the sexual identities of her fiancée’s fellow rich people.
“She’s not angry,” Eve said brusquely. The alcohol stung against Jamie’s skin, but she braved it, sucking in her breath as opposed to squealing like a pig. “She’s stressed out.”
“Oh. Why?” Anything was better than thinking about the dull ache on Jamie’s face.
Yet when Eve leveled a hard gaze at her, Jamie regretted asking anything.
“Not that it’s any business of yours,” she began, tossing the bloody tissues into the trash, “but she’s running herself ragged with this charity she’s trying to start up.
Nobody will help her since they’re all busy with their bullshit, or so they say.
I mean, I’m not much better, right? I barely have time to come to the gym and work out. ”
Jamie nodded. “Try planning a wedding.”
“Yeah, well, thanks to you I’m going to a wedding every month the first half of this year, and I hate weddings, so yours better be fucking brilliant.”
“I’m trying.”
“Good.” Eve sat back and admired her handiwork. “Your nose isn’t broken. It might bleed a little, but it’s not broken. Gonna hurt like hell for a few days, though. Oh, well, if anyone asks, tell them I smacked you. People expect me to be too gruff for my own good.”
“I guess.” Jamie was still hung up on the other thing. “Are you sure she’s not mad at me? I always feel like she resents my presence.”
“Dearie, she resents everyone’s presence. Even mine.”
“Really?”
“Sure looks it. You get used to it, though. She always has heavy shit on her mind. Leave her alone and she’ll leave you alone. Like a cougar. I think.”
“It’s… well, at the engagement party… her partner…”
“Her girlfriend is a dumbass and they get their jollies off making each other jealous. Except neither of them gets jealous.”
“They were…”
“That? She doesn’t care about that. Trust me. Kathleen’s probably forgotten already.”
“Really?”
Eve straddled the bench Jamie sat on and looked her in the eye. Whoa. She has a heavy glare. Speaking of bitch faces… “Unless she tells you – and me – otherwise, Kathleen doesn’t have anything against you. You gave her that damned cat, for fuck’s sake.”
“That’s true.”
“Honestly, she likes you more than most of the other women in our circles. She doesn’t hang out with a lot of people.
It’s mostly me, her girlfriend, and their parents.
She’s overworked and jaded. If you’ve never been invited to one of her parties, it’s because she doesn’t host any.
If she does, then I haven’t been invited either… and I would crash that shit, anyway.”
Jamie wanted to snort, but her nose hurt too much. “Good to know. Thanks. I guess I worry too much about keeping people happy.”
Eve held her gaze for more than a few seconds but didn’t say anything.
What was she thinking? That it was hopeless for Jamie, who came from fucked up stock?
Or that rich women worried about the same things?
What perspective did a woman like Eve Warner even have?
I know she’s not popular with most of the rich snobs either, but they kiss her ass when she’s around because of her family.
Jamie didn’t have that buffer. Eve, for all the “faults” that made snobs hate her, was still a type of royalty that left her untouchable.
And undateable, if Jamie were to believe certain rumors.
“She’s also kinda pissed that some woman who just moved here might take her title of richest girl around.”
“You mean Adele Thompson?”
“Who else?” Eve shrugged. “It’s irrational, but Kathleen’s worth a billion fucking dollars. Adele’s merger with your fiancée’s company has made her filthier in Richtown. Speaking of her, though, are you going to her office anytime soon?”
“I had planned on going after this.” She had menus to show Etta. “Why?”
Eve looked around the locker room, as if there were anyone else there. She then pulled a piece of folded paper from one of her pockets and put it in Jamie’s hand. “You’ve got to give this to Natasha. I’ll owe you.”
“What!”