CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Nadine
I was so excited. I couldn’t believe it. Reynolds felt the same way about me I did about him. Could this be real? It felt like Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts wants the whole fairy tale, and she actually gets it.
We would be together. In public. In West Bay. No more hiding. I could be seen with him. I hugged myself. I felt so happy. Happier than I ever thought it was possible to be. I skipped through my day, feeling lighter than air.
I met Madeline for lunch and told her what was going on.
I had decided to try to pick out the dress on my own for the inaugural ball, and I was proud of myself.
I’d gone to one of the upscale boutiques she’d taken me to a while ago and gotten the help of one saleslady.
I held my breath as I showed Madeline the dress and the shoes.
“Oh, Nadine, that dress is perfect!” she hugged me and even cried a little. “So, he told you that he’s taking you to the Mayor’s Ball?” she asked.
I was grinning like a fool. “Yes! And he said that he’s tired of hiding me, he doesn’t want things to be over between us, and that he loves me.”
“Oh, sweetie, that is so wonderful.” I noticed a flicker of doubt run across her face. “It’s just… well, I remember how you felt when he stood up onstage with Whitney Master’s hand in his while he waited for the voting results to come in. And how he kissed her when he was declared the winner.”
I frowned. “That was in early November,” I protested.
“I don’t think he’s seen her more than once or twice a week since then.
And there’s nothing real between them, anyway.
” I flipped my napkin back on the table since we’d finished eating.
I tried to catch the waitress’ eye to let her know we were ready for the check.
Madeline was unusually quiet, and I glanced at her.
Her face was frozen, and she looked upset.
“What?” I asked.
“Nadine. He’s been with her so much lately, and all the pictures…
it all looks like a genuine relationship to me.
He was with her for the Christmas charity ball.
Didn’t you see the pictures? Jacie Jankins did a whole segment on West Bay Today about how cute they were together. ” Madeline looked concerned.
“No, I didn’t see the pictures,” I said, trying to stay calm. A sense of unease was washing over me. “He and I agreed that it didn’t do me any good to look at social media or the news sites.”
Madeline’s face hardened. “I don’t know, Nadine.
That sounds pretty self-serving for him, don’t you think?
If you aren’t looking on those sites, then you don’t know for sure what he’s doing.
And he’s well aware of that.” She typed in her phone, found what she was looking for, and turned the screen to me.
I bit my lip. There was a picture of Reynolds looking incredibly handsome on the steps of the West Bay Downtown Country Club.
He had Whitney on his arm and his parents off to the side.
All four were beaming into the camera. The headline read, “Mayor Taylor and longtime girlfriend Whitney Masters spend Christmas together.” I studied his face.
He looked happy as he smiled down at Whitney.
He’d told me he loved me, that he wanted to be with me, and then he’d looked so comfortable with her that same day.
The bubbly feelings of happiness that had been inside me all day popped. I felt deflated. I thought of the beautiful, deep maroon ballgown I’d just bought to attend the Mayor’s Ball.
“Show me the other pictures,” I whispered.
Madeline frowned. “Are you sure?”
I nodded.
“Well, there’s this,” Madeline said, scrolling through her phone.
She found what she was looking for and handed it to me.
I stared at it like it was a snake before taking it from her.
It was a picture of Reynolds laughing as he helped Jacie Janks at the New Year’s Eve ball drop in the town square.
He was holding hands with Whitney, who smiled up at him as if he was the most wonderful human on the planet.
“He looks so happy with her.” Then he’d spent the next day with me, telling me I was who he wanted to be with. Which one of us was he lying to?
Madeline didn’t answer. Instead, she squeezed my hand. “I really don’t want to show you this now, but I don’t think I’d be a good friend if I didn’t.”
I frowned. Was there more?
Madeline typed something in her phone and then held up another picture.
It was Reynolds at his swearing in ceremony just a couple of days ago.
Whitney and his parents were at the lectern with him.
They were all smiling, and it didn’t look like it was just because cameras were on them, either.
The four of them looked like a family. They looked right together.
I fought back a wave of nausea. Reynolds was never planning to be with me.
Just like Mark hadn’t been. They’d both used me the same way.
For sex. All while setting themselves up to have proper relationships with a very different type of woman than I’d ever be.
No matter how many etiquette lessons I took, or how much better my grammar became, I’d never be a Jessica Huber or a Whitney Masters.
I was always going to be Nadine Walker, a former stripper who grew up in a single-wide.
I was an idiot. I looked off into the distance. Everyone had been right. I never should have caught feelings for this guy. He was way out of my league. And he was just another lying bastard.
“I need to go,” I said to Madeline.
She looked sick. “I hate that it was me that broke this to you…”
I stood up and gave her a hug. “I’d much rather it be you than some asshole who would make me feel stupid.”
“I could be wrong, Nadine. Reynolds might be telling you the truth. It’s just…” her voice trailed off.
“Their relationship doesn’t look fake,” I finished for her.
“No. It doesn’t, sweetie. It really doesn’t.”
I nodded. I was finding it hard to swallow around the lump in my throat.
He looked so happy with Whitney. He’d told me he could barely stand her.
The pictures told me something very different, though.
What else had he lied about? Had he been having sex with her this whole time? Oh, God. I felt sick.
“Are you okay?
“I’m fine.”
She gave me a look.
“Okay. I’m fine-ish. But I think I need to be alone right now.”
She snorted. “Well, there’s no way in hell I’m letting that happen.”
“I guess I need to take this dress back.”
“Absolutely not.” Madeline stood up and pulled herself up to her full height.
She was at least three inches taller than me without shoes on, and in her heels she was over six feet tall.
“Let’s go. I didn’t want to say this, but I hate the shoes you picked out for that gorgeous dress. Let’s go get you a better pair.”
“But I’m not going to the ball…”
She held up a hand. “Okay, listen to me right now. I feel like Cinderella’s potty-mouthed fairy godmother saying this, but you are fucking going to that ball.
You’re going to have a date, look stunning, and sit at the same damn table as Reynolds, do you hear me?
He doesn’t get to treat you like this and get away with it.
” She picked up her phone to make a call.
“Who are you calling?”
“Carmen. I’m going to make sure she gets the rest of your things out of the condo and moved into your new house. You’re never going back there.”
Hmm. That might be a good idea.
She must’ve seen the light in my eyes, because she nodded and stepped away to make the call.
***
I left Madeline outside still talking to Carmen on her phone as I walked back into the boutique.
The store seemed mainly empty. There were a few women shopping with employees helping them, but I didn’t see the woman who’d helped me earlier. I walked around a bit waiting for someone to help me and feeling awkward.
I didn’t realize I was near the gown fitting and alteration room until the sound of voices filtered through my subconscious and hit me hard.
“What about his side piece? What’s she going to be doing while you’re at the ball with him?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”
The door was open a few inches, and I peeked inside.
I knew who it was, though, even if I’d only heard her voice a few times.
Whitney Masters stood up on a platform while a seamstress pinned up the hem of a stunning gown.
The bodice was light green and beaded while the full skirt was gauzy and dotted with crystals.
It was perfect. She was perfect with her platinum blonde hair, pretty face, and thin, model’s figure, she looked like a woman every politician would dream of having on his arm. Hell, every man. She was gorgeous.
“But does she know that he’s going with you?” her friend asked. She was flipping through a magazine and looked a little bored.
“I don’t think so,” Whitney said as she stood perfectly still so as not to get stuck with a pin.
I wished I was the seamstress. I’d make sure a couple of those pins got her.
“In fact,” she continued with a sigh as she stared at herself in the mirror, “I think she’s under the impression that he’s going to stay with her.
That he’s going to want her to be his girlfriend.
” She snorted as her friend laughed. “As if that would ever happen. He’s ashamed of her.
He told me she’s pretty to look at but once she opens her mouth, it’s clear she came straight out of a trailer park. ”
I had to fight to hold back a gasp. Reynolds talked about me with her? He told her he was ashamed of me? Now I knew who he’d been lying to. It had been me all along.
The friend shook her head. “How could she even think he’d date her? She must be deluded.”
“Insane,” Whitney nodded, still staring at herself. “I mean, who would pick her instead of me? It’s sad. They’re from such different worlds they might as well be from different planets.”
“Oh, Miss Walker,” a loud voice said behind me.
“I didn’t see you there. Is there a problem with your dress?
Did your friend talk you into the other pair of shoes after you showed her the pair you bought?
” she asked knowingly. I had known deep down Madeline would not like those shoes.
That seemed like forever ago that I’d laughed and talked to the saleslady about it.
I turned, my face red with embarrassment, but not before I’d seen Whitney and her friend realize who I was.
“No… nothing’s wrong with the dress,” I said. “I, um, decided I’d get that other pair of shoes, too, and decide which one looks best with the dress later. I like both pairs,” I finished lamely.
The salesclerk looked between Whitney and me and frowned. “No problem, I’ll ring you up right over here.”
As she walked me to the cash register, I heard Whitney and her friend laughing.
“She doesn’t know,” Whitney cackled. “She actually bought a dress.”
“I feel a little sorry for her,” her friend said, but her laughter sort of took the sentiment right out of what she’d said.
“That’ll be three hundred dollars, Ms. Walker,” the sales associate said quietly. I knew she’d heard everything.
I handed her the card Reynolds had given me to use. I knew it would be the last time I ever used it. “Here,” I whispered.
As she took the card, her hand lingered on mine and gave it a squeeze.
“Don’t worry about those two,” she said quietly.
“They’re straight bitches. You’re sweet, hon.
If he doesn’t pick you over her, he’s an idiot.
” She smiled at my shocked face when I looked up at her. “And your dress is prettier, too.”
I stood up straighter. “It is, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Hers looks a little too senior prom-ish. Yours is more elegant. More refined.”
I grinned. That might be the first time anyone had ever said that about me.
Madeline and Lonnie Maitland had helped turn me into a different version of myself.
“Thank you,” I said sincerely. “I’ll be back to shop here, and I’m always requesting you to help me.
” I winked at her as I picked up my bag. “Y’all get commission, right?”
“Yes, ma’am, we do,” she smiled.
I nodded. “Then I’ll see you soon.”
I held my head high as I left the boutique and went back out to Madeline. I didn’t tell her about seeing Whitney inside the shop, because I could feel tears threatening. If I talked about it, I’d cry. And I had too much to get done.
Thank goodness for Carmen. I couldn’t have handled going back to the condo. She took care of everything. All I’d had to do was unpack a few boxes once I’d walked through the doors of my new house. Everything else was done. The furniture was set up. My clothes were even hanging in my closet.
It wasn’t until later—much later—as I sat in my house all alone that I let myself break down. Reynolds had turned out to be just like Mark. He’d never intended to take me to the inaugural ball or have an actual relationship with me, just like Mark had never planned on marrying me.
Despite everything Reynolds had said to me, I was still his dirty little secret. He was still fucking ashamed of me. There was no way he’d ever really thought we could work as a couple. If so, he never would have let me think he was taking me to the ball when he never intended to do so.
But why? Why did he have to lie? It didn’t make sense.
I just didn’t understand what he was getting out of it.
An extra month with me? Did he think the sex was that good?
I mean, it was, but still. He didn’t have to go to such extremes.
Telling me he loved me? Asking me to the Mayor’s Ball?
Telling me he wanted to be a real couple? None of that had been necessary.
In fact, it seemed downright cruel. I wouldn’t have ever thought that of him, but I was apparently a shitty judge of character.
Tears tracked down my cheeks, but I didn’t bother to brush them away. I just let them roll down my face and soon my neck was wet. That’s a really weird and gross feeling, so I stood up and walked into my new bathroom to clean up.
I glanced in the mirror. I barely recognized the woman looking back at me. She looked so sad, so alone.
My head was spinning. How could I have gone from sky-high excitement to this awful feeling of sadness so quickly?