18. Renee
Renee
The party supply store was nestled in a three-business building between a pizza takeout place and a smoke shop. It was the only party store in town, and a tiny one at that. Renee held her breath as she entered the store and grabbed a small basket.
“Where are the tablecloths?”
The salesperson directed her to an aisle on the far side against the back wall, where she was immediately hit with a sense of overwhelm. In front of her was a wall of color. She never knew there could be so many different colored tablecloths.
She reminded herself that she and her mother had already decided on white. It would be a blank canvas for the flowers and other decorations, her mother had said.
Renee grabbed ten long, rectangular tablecloths and dropped them one by one into her basket. Feeling accomplished, she set out across the store to find the one other thing she needed. She thought the confetti would be near the tablecloths, but, of course, that would have been too easy.
She walked past the next aisle that seemed to have candles and kids’ party favors. The next small aisle had cups and plates in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Surely the store must have confetti. She had to have confetti. It was one of her aunt’s favorite things. It didn’t matter that it made a mess. It was fun and brought them joy, so every celebration had to have it.
This celebration was going to have it one way or another. Even if Renee had to make the confetti herself.
Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to, because she found a tiny section of it on the last row, tucked in between cheap costume wigs and noisemakers.
Renee stared at the selection, which was pretty large considering the small amount of space it took up.
There were packets of single-colored confetti circles and packets of multicolored confetti circles in different combinations.
Then there were packets of multicolored, shaped confetti.
There were stars, hearts, flowers, and even music notes.
Everything looked like a good choice, so how was she supposed to choose?
This was too difficult for such a simple decision.
But none of this was really simple, was it?
Her phone rang, and she quickly pulled it out of her purse to find a familiar name on the screen. Her best Baton Rouge friend.
“Hey,” she said in a loud whisper.
“Hey,” Felicia said. “How goes the party prep?”
“Preptastic,” Renee said. “Confetti is going to kill me.”
“Death by confetti, huh? Sounds plausible. That stuff’s evil.”
“Picking it is the evil part.”
“Go with your gut,” Felicia said. “How are you doing with it all? Confetti aside.”
“Not terrible. Just overwhelmed.” She quieted and smiled as a twenty-something-year-old woman passed by her, giving Renee time to ponder if she really didn’t feel terrible or if she was just saying that.
She decided the truth was somewhere in between.
“I wish you or Ben could be here. Y’all are better at this stuff. ”
“How is my best friend-in-law?”
Felicia and Ben had met lots of times times when he’d come to Baton Rouge for visits. And by visits she meant the three of them going to drag shows together. One of the many things she loved about her life back there that Oakview couldn’t provide.
“Good. He’s at a wedding in New Orleans. He’ll be back tomorrow night to rehash the weekend, though.”
“I’m jealous. Sounds like he’s going to get all the good gossip.”
“There’s no gossip.”
Renee stood against the back wall as the woman passed by again, leaving Renee with more time to examine her answer. She was right. There would be no gossip, so to speak. But surely there would be something to report. This wasn’t a complete nothing situation.
Because despite the dreaded task in her future, she was excited at the thought of seeing Jessica again. Sure, they’d decided nothing could happen between them. Not now, and not in the foreseeable future either. But she could still enjoy the woman’s company.
“I expect a full report of how tomorrow goes.”
Renee had filled her in on the situation with Jessica and all the complicated bits, including how Jessica was coming over the next day to help her go through some of her aunt’s things. She still wasn’t sure why she’d agreed to that.
Because she needed all the help she could get. That was why.
As much as she prided herself on being independent, this whole situation with the house and everything surrounding her aunt’s death made her realize just how much she needed other people in her life.
Even her mother, of all people, was stepping up to carry her own share of the load.
Renee still didn’t trust it, but she’d take whatever she could get for as long as she could get it.
“There won’t be much to tell.”
“We’ll see,” Felicia said. Renee could hear the smirk from Oakview. “Well, I’ll let you get back to your confetti-picking. I’ve got to get ready for tonight, anyway.”
“That’s right. You have another date with that guy. What’s his name? Garrett?”
“Gareth,” Felicia said. “I almost ignored his message based on the name alone.”
“Glad you didn’t?”
“So far.”
“Good. Then I expect a full report from you, too.”
“Deal,” Felicia said. “And I’ll see you at the celebration next weekend.”
“I told you, you don’t have to come. I’ll be fine.”
“If you’re truly fine, I’ll just keep Ben company.”
“He’ll love that.”
And he would. No sarcasm there. Ben loved hanging out with Felicia almost as much as Renee did. And she loved how well her two friends from her two different worlds got along.
“All right, I should go,” Felicia said. “Talk to you later, babe.”
Renee slipped her phone back into her bag and returned her full attention to the shelves in front of her.
Music notes. Definitely music notes. They’d been the first thing to draw her eye, and they were fun. Her aunt loved fun.
She took her tablecloths and confetti to the counter and paid for them all. Next up was the big box store to find frames for the display table. Then she would have to go home and find photos to print to fill those frames.
Buying all the supplies was the easy part. Going through all of her photos of her aunt? Not so much.