Chapter 39 #2
Even though she recognized that sweet voice, Jamie was still surprised to look up and see Adele coming to the waiting area with two bags hanging from her arms. “What are you doing here?” It was the middle of a weekday afternoon.
Shouldn’t she be up to some business? Or was she planning a hostile corporate takeover of The Ruby Peacock?
Great fashion for everyone involved. Thompson-Coleman would be the best-dressed enterprise in America.
Adele sat one chair away from Jamie, nestling her bags beneath her. “You want the truth? I’m here for my best woman’s fitting.”
“Huh?”
The other woman pointed to the seamstress hustling in and out of the back room.
“That lady there is responsible for making me look good on your wedding day. Normally, I pick out something nice for a wedding, but in this case…” Adele tilted her head with a cool complexion.
“I have to make sure I match Etta and the others in her party.”
I had already forgotten about that. Adele being Etta’s best woman, that is. “I see. Is it nice? Not that you never look anything but nice…”
“Oh, thank you. That’s kind of you.” Adele crossed two long, smooth legs, the pale yet healthy white of her skin positively glowing in the lights.
“I’ve always tried to be fashionable. In my position, you either dress for success…
or you go beyond. I like to think going beyond has done wonders for me. ”
“Well, you certainly have the body for it… I mean…” Jamie clapped her mouth shut. Wasn’t she wonderful at saying the most inappropriate shit?
“I’ve been blessed in many ways. So have you.”
“Dunno what you could mean by that…”
“Oh, come on. You’re a gorgeous girl. You’re also wicked sharp. You must be to put up with a woman like Etta.”
A woman you ultimately couldn’t put up with?
Jamie kept her eyes focused on her feet, toes peeking out of her Gucci sandals.
Etta paid for these. Adele, on the other hand, paid for her designer wear and couture looks with her own money.
“You’re telling me.” Jamie tried to bite her lip, but the anger bubbling back up exploded.
“Did you know that she was going to spring a prenup negotiation on me?”
Adele dropped the lipstick she held. “What?”
“She randomly took me to her lawyer’s on Sunday. I got the trophy wife prenup special.”
“No!”
“Yes. I’m not kidding. I know we had to do a prenup, but… no warning. Her lawyer made the worst accusations against me and my intentions.”
“With no warning? Sheesh. I’m sorry. That’s so weird she would forget to tell you.
” Nevertheless, Adele snorted. “She probably needed Amanda to tell her, and she dropped the ball. I swear, if she doesn’t tell Etta to take a piss, she ends up wondering why her stomach is cramped at five in the afternoon.
” When Adele saw the look on Jamie’s face, she explained, “I’m joking, of course, but she relies far too much on her.
Her mind had been addled with everything going on so far this year. ”
Jamie would believe it, but she wasn’t sympathetic. “I am so embarrassed and angry with her right now. Do me a favor and go back to the office and smack her on the head. Tell her she knows why.”
Adele laughed. The strange thing? Jamie had never really heard her laugh before.
Oh, she heard the carefully timed giggles, the sighs of humor, and the smirks that were audible to sensitive ears.
Those were in social situations, however.
Adele was a lot like Monique in that she could carefully control her responses to get the best outcome possible.
Jamie wasn’t like that at all. Too impulsive. Too brash for her own good.
When Adele was caught off guard and naturally laughed, she sounded like…
well, she sort of sounded like a braying horse.
Not a loud one, but Jamie jerked back, wide-eyed to hear Adele sound so abrasive and completely unladylike.
I suppose she really is that composed and dignified on purpose.
Then again, Adele didn’t come from a wealthy family, either.
She had to teach herself most of the manners that seemed to come so easily to her.
“That’s rich,” she muttered. “I want to smack her head for something or other at least once a day. Would be nice to do it on someone else’s behalf for once.”
Jamie couldn’t help but smile. “You don’t really think she did that on purpose, do you?” Not that Jamie was convinced she had. On the contrary. Knowing Etta, she really did need her assistant to tell her to piss every couple of hours in case she forgot. I want to hear her say it.
“I would be shocked if she had. That woman loves you so much it’s almost disgusting.” Adele’s mouth twisted after that last word fell from it. “Er, I mean…”
“No, I know what you mean.” Adele would know all about that. “She just texted me asking me to meet her tonight… I haven’t talked to her much since Sunday. Guess I should let her make amends, huh?”
“I’m assuming you still want to marry her.” Adele pulled a wipe from her bag and cleaned her hands. Her sharp nails sliced right through the wet paper.
“I guess I do.” Jamie pursed her lips, hands shoving beneath her thighs as she closed her eyes to the lights shining above them.
“You know, I don’t care about the money.
Not really. If for some obscene reason we had to get a divorce, I wouldn’t expect her to give me anything but respect and courtesy.
” How many women got that? “I’m just getting tired of being portrayed as some gold-digging slut who doesn’t know what she’s about or what it means to be like her future wife.
I’m not using her for her money. I really do love her. ”
The wipe slowed its assault on Adele’s hands. “I know you do. For what it’s worth, I think you’re the perfect wife for a woman like her.”
“You do?”
“I wouldn’t bullshit about that.” Adele tossed her wad of now dirty paper in the nearest wastebasket. “If I thought you were nothing but a ‘gold-digging slut’ trying to milk Etta for everything for all she was worth, you would know… and I wouldn’t be happy.”
“I can’t say I would want you against me. You seem frightening.”
“Do I? I suppose that’s good news for me…” Adele’s pearly white teeth flashed in Jamie’s direction. “But don’t be afraid of me. I have nothing against you, Jamie. Sometimes I worry for you… no, forgive me. I shouldn’t say such things.”
Jamie wasn’t going to press for more info, but those were words that ended up lodged in the back of her mind to mull over later. “I’m getting married in a few weeks.” That still didn’t seem like reality. “And I still don’t have a wedding dress.”
Adele had to do a double-take. “Still? You need to get on that!”
“I haven’t found anything that resonates with me. At this rate, I’ll have to get whatever’s off the rack… or take up my mother’s offer to wear her burlap sack.” Unfortunately, that was a real conversation Luna brought up one day.
“Everything else is still coming together, right?”
“Not really. Yes and no. I don’t have a maid of honor, because I can’t choose between my two friends. Never mind I’m supposed to have another person picked out because heaven forbid I don’t have at least three people standing up there with me.”
“How do you think I ended up in this position? Etta doesn’t have any damned friends who aren’t women she’s slept with.”
She said it so snottily that Jamie choked. Don’t remind me.
“Isn’t there anyone else you could ask?”
“I’m not that close with many women. The other few I’ve asked, like you, can’t for whatever reason. Like already being the best woman, or too pregnant.”
Adele shook her head, still devoid of any stray hairs from her perfect bun. “Who said it had to be a woman? Think about it. Etta’s got a man in her party. Why can’t you have a man? Wouldn’t that even things out better than all women on your side?”
Jamie mulled that over for about ten seconds before leaping off her chair and grabbing her bag.
“Jamie?”
“I’ve gotta go. Don’t forget to smack Etta for me!”
Since Jamie didn’t have an appointment, no one was put out when she jetted out of the boutique and hopped into her car. The engine couldn’t start fast enough. Not when she had a damn mission to complete before the end of the workday!
The car horn honked repeatedly, rousing the mechanics and assistants inside the garage.
Seena was the first one to look up, bedecked in oily overalls with her curly brown hair up in a messy bun that would make Adele’s prim and proper look scream.
When Seena realized it was Jamie pulling into the middle of the parking lot, she smacked her brother on the arm – and Tosh smacked his head against the hood of the car he worked on.
“Let me guess,” Seena said, hands on hips as Jamie stumbled out of her Corvette. “You killed the bitch and think you’re hiding out here. Okay, Tosh, go get the shovel.”
“Seena!” Jamie wasn’t wasting any time. Even the stench of motor oil and burning rubber couldn’t hold her back as she entered the dark, drafty garage with her hands clasping before her. “You! You’ve gotta be my maid of honor!”
“So, you finally realized that I am the superior friend? Let’s bury the bleeding bitch.”
Jamie was on the verge of shaking her before Tosh came over. “Tosh! You gotta be my bridesman!”
“Say what now?” Though tall, Tosh was not exactly the kind of man who towered over Jamie. It was probably that infamous slouch of his. “You’re nuts, right? There’s no such thing as a bridesman.”
“No, you don’t get it. Etta’s having her ex-girlfriend be her best man-woman and so I can totally use a man in my bridal party! It’s perfect! You’re my other best friend, and I need a third!”
“She’s doing what? That’s messed up.”
“Come on, you’ve gotta do it for me!”
“I don’t have to wear a dress, do I?”
His sister, who was a good head shorter than him, grabbed the front of his overalls. “Our friend has been killing herself planning this fucking wedding, and what were you gonna do? Sit around and drink free booze?”
“What else do you do at a wedding?”
“While I gotta do maid of honor bullshit at some fancy billionaire’s wedding? I don’t think so. You’re going down with me. I don’t care if she puts you in a tutu, bro, you’re doing it, and you’re smiling for the bridal photos.”
How could Tosh say no to that? Two women coming down on him for doing what they perceived to be the bare minimum? He didn’t stand a chance.
“Do I get to wear a fancy suit and keep it? I ain’t gotta pay for it though, right?”
“I’m paying for all the bridal party dresses.” It may not have been customary, but Jamie had to use expensive dresses, and her party was made up of poor people. It was only right she pay for their dresses – or suits, in Tosh’s case. “You ever wear Armani before? Because I bet you a million bucks…”
“Chump change for you now.”
“…That the bridegroom party is going to be decked out in Armani. So, you could match those bigwigs.”
“I guess, man…”
“You guess? You guess?” Seena jabbed a single finger in her brother’s chest. “If you don’t say yes right now, I’m telling Mom.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Oh, I would, and she will make your life hell for turning this down.” Seena turned to Jamie.
“You’ve never met her, but she loves weddings.
Like, she is shitting herself over me being in your bridal party because my grandmother is all over those society pages looking at the dresses and shit.
To see both of us in a photo on Page 6? That is going on the wall. ”
“Hell, no, not the wall…”
“Please, Tosh,” Jamie begged, looking one of her oldest friends in the eyes. “Help me out here.”
It took about five more minutes of coaxing and begging before Tosh finally gave in. Once he did? Jamie felt the first great amount of relief she had in a long while. I still don’t have a dress, though. One thing at a time!