Chapter 30
Jamie couldn’t get out of bed Tuesday. The shock and mortification over what she had done at the Winston Estate had her in a haze. Like she was on drugs, and not the fun kind her parents brazenly lit up when they thought nobody was looking.
By the end of Sunday, however, she had heard the full extent of the damage she caused.
Hyacinth gave Thompson-Coleman some money, but it was only a quarter of what had initially been discussed.
Etta had been billed for the extensive care necessary to salvage the family heirloom.
Twenty-two thousand dollars. For a wine stain removal. Apparently, it was done by hand, too.
Adele made an emergency trip to Seattle, where an old business acquaintance still owed her a sizable sum of money.
It was her hope that she could collect and supplement what they lost from Hyacinth, but there were no promises.
If they didn’t have the money by the start of June, they were in trouble regarding some enterprise they wanted to expand.
Jamie stopped listening at that point. She was too sick over what she had done and ruined for her fiancée.
Etta kept telling her that it wasn’t her fault.
“She was looking for any reason to not give us money. I don’t want her money anyway.
” That’s what she said Sunday, after Jamie had to collapse on the bed and never get up again.
Her shame weighed heavily upon her. And the sour looks Adele kept giving her!
“Please don’t hold yourself responsible.
The money to fix her tablecloth doesn’t mean anything to me.
The odds of you seeing her again are negligible. ”
Yeah, right.
By Monday, word had spread. Jamie made the grievous mistake of going downtown to consult with Jenny on wedding matters.
Everywhere she went, people whispered. “Did you hear what Jamie Joy did to Hyacinth Winston’s priceless tablecloth?
” People laughed when she walked by. Others expressed their concern that she had ruined her fiancée’s business prospects for at least a year.
“That’s what she gets marrying a used mare like her.
If Etta has any sense, she’ll cut her a nice check and send her on her way.
Do you think she has a thing for brunettes?
Because I volunteer to be the next future Mrs. Coleman. I hear she’s wild in bed, too.”
Jamie was in tears by the time she returned home Monday night.
She hid it from her staff and parents, all of whom were in the guest house anyway – apparently, Beatrice had gotten over her reservations regarding the hippie nudists and now entertained them in the evenings.
Although she requested they wear some underwear before sitting on her couch.
Last Jamie heard, they were drinking beer and playing Taboo.
She could almost hear their uproarious laughter.
Etta told her she was overreacting. She had already moved on from the incident.
After all, hadn’t Jamie embarrassed her in worse ways before?
But Jamie could never live this down. She was no longer the no-name assistant her boss sometimes boned on the side.
She was Etta Coleman’s fiancée. There was no room for mistakes anymore.
Yet it seemed the harder Jamie tried, the worse she made their collective situation.
Etta offered to “make her feel better,” as her hand got friskier, but Jamie turned her down for the first time in a long while. She wanted to sleep forever.
So on Tuesday morning, she decided to not get up. Fuck getting up.
“You all right?” Etta asked, buttoning up her shirt as she readied for work. “You sick?”
Jamie rolled away from her, clutching her pillow in her arms. “I don’t feel good, no. Leave me alone.”
Etta bent down and kissed her before she left. “Why don’t you come down to the penthouse tonight?” she cooed. “I’ll spoil you, in all the ways you like.”
Jamie must have felt really shitty, because none of that sounded appealing.
In truth, she wanted Etta to go the hell away.
All she did was remind Jamie of what happened, how she had fucked up, and how much she didn’t deserve to have a woman like her.
She was way too forgiving. A normal woman would have chewed her out until she was in tears.
Instead, Jamie would do that in her own head.
She knew she had no business being Etta’s wife.
Until now, she had managed to ignore the feelings in the back of her head, weighing heavy in her heart.
Until now. Seeing the way Hyacinth looked at her, judging her, silently informing her that she had no place in her world…
it could have been anyone who suffered that, but it was Jamie.
If that ordeal weren’t some sort of sign that she should pack up everything she had and head to the farming commune with her parents, well, what bigger sign could there have been?
Speaking of her mother, that was the last person she wanted to see late into the morning. Nevertheless, Luna burst the door open, wielding a key she probably stole from Beatrice – because Etta always locked the door behind her, whether Jamie was in there or not.
“What’s going on in here?” she asked, sinking on the far end of the bed while Jamie groaned into a pile of pillows. “Etta told me you’re not feeling well. What is it? Cramps? I’ve got stuff for that.”
“I don’t want pot!” Jamie couldn’t believe she said that. “Sorry… I don’t feel good.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel good in the head.”
“Uh oh.” Luna scooted up the bed. Whether she was clothed or not, Jamie had no idea yet. I hope she is clothed if she’s dragging ass on my bed… “What’s going on, Jam? There ain’t nothing I’ve never seen before.”
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
Luna patted her on the back. “Etta said something about an incident on Saturday. What happened? You can tell me.”
Thanks, Etta. “It’s nothing important. Just made the social faux pas of my life at some really rich woman’s house.”
She didn’t expect her mother to understand, or to say anything other than terrible things about the rich elite. That was her bag, after all. Apparently, Luna had her mother hat on before all others, though, so she was quick to take a different route. “Start from the beginning. Let’s work this out.”
Sighing, Jamie rolled onto her back and looked at the muumuu her mother wore. Good. Clothes. Luna’s gray hair was loose on her shoulders and down her back, making her look a good ten years older than she actually was. “It’s a long story. There’s a lot going on.”
“Good thing I have all the time in the world today. Your father is meeting an old friend and I decided to stay here and hang out with you. If you’ll have your old, funky mother, that is.”
Jamie didn’t know where to begin. So she began with Etta proposing to her.
Before, Jamie hadn’t gone into any in-depth details regarding the sort of things Etta did for her.
Partly because her parents had weird opinions on things, and partly because life was easier if she never brought them up.
Jamie had no idea how her mother would take to finding out that her future daughter-in-law was a capitalistic pig of epic proportions.
Nor did she know how Luna would take to her daughter being regularly tied up, blindfolded, and fucked as if she were some rich person’s plaything.
Well, I was. For as often as Luna and Saul proclaimed that they were down with whatever in people’s personal lives, things were different when it came to their fair daughter Jamie.
Luna said it herself when she lauded her daughter for bagging a rich woman who could take care of her for the rest of her life.
Sure, Luna would have preferred Jamie making her own money, but wife of a CEO worked too.
Jamie told her many details, but went light on the kink aspect.
All she said on that front was, “We have a very healthy and imaginative sex life.” She also didn’t hold back that they met because Etta was her boss for a few months.
Whatever Luna thought of that, she didn’t mention…
although her lips suspiciously pursed and she pushed Jamie’s hair behind her ear.
As opposed to going on about her relationship, Jamie focused on the external issues at hand.
The wedding. The pressure to find people and pick out things that didn’t work for her.
Constantly embarrassing herself in front of Etta’s friends and business associates.
When Jamie talked about what happened Saturday afternoon, however, she expected her mother to express confusion as to why Jamie cared so much about what some old woman thought of her.
Instead, Luna patted her daughter’s knee and said, “I’m sorry, Jam. That sounds like a terrible day, all right.”
Jamie sat up straighter, Etta’s pillow propping her against the headboard.
“You don’t think I’m crazy or materialistic for caring about this stuff?
” That’s what her mother would have said if Jamie were still in high school.
Well, the materialistic stuff, anyway. Luna had the monopoly on crazy between the two of them.
“Honey, no. I may not personally feel bothered by such things but… I don’t live the life you do. If I were going to marry a woman like Etta, things would be very different in my life. See, I’m not willing to live a life like that. Not even for love. Did I tell you about Carlos?”
Jamie shook her head. “Do I wanna know?” Was Luna cheating?
“He was a while before I met your father. After I graduated high school, I went on that road trip with my friend Debbie. Along the way, I met a very fine young Hispanic man named Carlos. He nearly changed my life.”
“Oh?”
“I was in love with him in an instant. Real love. To this day, I can testify to that. We met in a cute little café where we talked about politics, art, culture and language… well, let’s say I learned a lot of Spanish that month.”