Chapter 44 Rosie
ROSIE
“Holy shit,” I muttered when we were led to the gymnasium, the theme was a garden party.
There were vibrant—although fake—floral decorations everywhere, with petals on tables and vines hanging from the ceiling with those soft fairy lights.
The deep green color splashed everywhere was gorgeous and understated, but the vibrant colors of the flowers and lights made everything work.
“This is amazing,” Megan said.
“I should hope so!” Orla called out. “We’ve been waiting for you.” She tugged me by my hand.
“We?”
“Yes, we, and your date.” Her eyes twinkled at me, and she brought me over to the table where all the ladies were sitting. I’d already lost Megan and Carol on the way over, but a quick look around, and I saw Megan with Lake and Carol with a guy—from the app, I presumed.
“You all look marvelous,” I said as I approached the table.
Orla was wearing a deep-brown pantsuit that worked, her dark hair up in a twist. Evelyn was in a rainbow-colored maxi-dress and flip-flops, with those sparkle feathers woven into her hair.
Meredith was in a sharp pencil skirt and white satin blouse.
Maggie wore a perfectly light-blue two-piece ensemble.
Jeanie outdid us all in what honestly looked like a— “Jeanie, is—is that your wedding dress?”
“Of course it is! I could not get something so extravagant on short notice. This is what I had.”
“And I’m sure you had absolutely nothing else in your closet.” Evelyn mocked her with fake wide eyes of horror.
“I’ve worn my other dresses multiple times, but only this one once. It was the most logical answer,” she stated matter-of-factly, and went digging through her purse for something.
“You better keep whatever you have in there to yourself,” Maggie told her.
“Lip balm?” she asked innocently. Everyone else chuckled, and I noticed they were all wearing beautiful corsages.
“Are your husbands here?” I asked Maggie and Jeanie.
“Why on earth would they come here?”
I tapped my wrist instead of answering.
“Oh, these! Our date got them for us,” Jeanie said. “They are indeed beautiful.” She started to admire it now that I’d pointed it out.
“Date?” I questioned.
“He’s here somewhere. Wes!” she beckoned, and rather loudly.
Wesley is here. I gulped. He had run out of book club like his ass was on fire the week before, and I’d been too enraptured with my own feelings about everything and my own date—who wasn’t Wesley—that I had forgotten to check, to ask.
My cheeks burned with what had already started to sink in. I never asked. I never checked in. I just…started to disappear. What kind of friend or person does that make me? If Wesley did that to me, would I even want to give him a chance?
No.
I felt sick, and my date was there—with Wesley.
My date was not Wesley, and I wanted it to be.
“Rosie! Meet Jackson! Your date for this evening.” Orla appeared, and with her was a very, very attractive guy. His hair was pitch-black, he had dark eyes, and I saw the tattoos hiding under the collar of his suit and jacket. Crap on a cracker.
He was gorgeous, and my only thought was, that’s nice.
“Rosie, it’s lovely to meet you. I’ve heard great things.”
“All lies,” I said, deadpan, but Orla and the ladies gave me faces of unhappiness at my response.
“She kids! She’s a kidder.” Orla jumped right in to try to save the day. It was not his fault that I’d realized what I wanted. Not his fault that I was ready to choose Wesley. It wouldn’t be nice or fair to him to be less than pleasant.
“Look, a corsage! For Rosie!” Orla shoved a plastic box at Jackson, who gave her a briefly puzzled look before he recovered in time.
“May I?” he asked.
“Sure.” I held out my left wrist for him to slip it on. “It matches perfectly. How did you know?” The cream color of the roses complimented the color blue of my dress, and that same color adorned the ribbon and garnish.
Jackson gave me a blank look before looking at Orla, but gave me a half grin. “I had no idea about the corsage. I actually found out exactly when you did.” Charming.
“If you didn’t then…Never mind,” I whispered to myself. Wesley. I still hadn’t seen him, but he was the shared date of the book club, apparently, and he had gotten those for everyone… so he must have been there.
It was like my thoughts brought him to life when I saw him out of the corner of my eye, talking to Megan and Lake. He was in black dress pants, a white button-down with the sleeves rolled up, a few buttons undone at the top of it, and—Jesus Christ—suspenders.
Megan was right. I did drool after him, and I was pretty sure I was about to have to wipe some off my lip.
“Well, Rosie, I never thought I would be thirty-two years old and at prom. What do you say we get a drink and get to know each other?” Jackson offered me his arm, and I took it, even though my eyes stayed firmly glued on Wesley.
Like he could feel me staring, he stopped talking to Lake, and his eyes met mine.
His jaw clenched. I could see that from there.
I almost started to walk toward him instead…
“So, tell me about yourself. What is it you do for a living?” Jackson asked as he pulled me toward the makeshift bar off to the side. I gave myself an internal shake and scolded myself for being rude. I had barely uttered two words to him. I gave him a rather embarrassed smile.
“I’m an accountant, and I work for myself.
It took a few years, but I have a steady base of clients, and it works for me.
It isn’t one of those jobs I love. It’s just something I am good at.
How about you? Orla told me you are a teacher?
” I left out the part about the whiteboard, and I probably know entirely too much about him.
“I am. Eleventh grade. It sucks sometimes, but I do love it. It’s a job I do well at some days, and fail at others.
It really just depends.” Like I said. Charming, nice.
And as much as I should have wanted to be there and in the conversation with him, I wasn’t.
My head and my heart were across the room.
Wesley had his back turned to me and was talking to someone. I couldn’t exactly make out who it was.
How the tables have turned.
“Rosie?” Jackson said, and I realized he must have continued talking while I was thinking about the turn of events.
“I’m sorry. I don’t—uh, know where my mind has gone.”
“I’m going to say somewhere between the hours of five and six.” What? My face must have shown my puzzlement because he just chuckled and tilted his head to where Wesley was.
“You’ve been subtly trying not to look over there this entire evening.”
I felt my face flush at his words. Thankfully, I was saved by the bell, because we were next in line to order our drinks. We ordered quickly while I tried to get myself together, and made our way over to an empty table.
“I’m sorry. I’m usually not this distracted.” I tried to make my excuse, but he just waved it away like it was not a big deal.
“You don’t owe me anything, Rosie. Really. If anything, I get to tell my students I went to prom on Monday, and maybe that’ll be something they find ironic instead of the usual teenage things I really have no business knowing about. But since I have ears, well…”
I couldn’t contain the giggle that burst out of me because yeah, if Jackson was anything like the teenagers he taught, he was in trouble, and I understood his failing comment more.
“You have a nice laugh,” he said. I gave him a genuine smile, but I felt nothing, except maybe mild annoyance that I agreed to the date at all.
“Thank you.” My tone was polite yet aloof, and I knew he could sense it as well.
“What do you say we get a dance in?”
I tried to tell my face to smile, and I thought I pulled it off, but he gave me a look that said even my faking it wasn’t cutting it. I followed him to the dance floor, where they were playing some random tango beat.
Jackson was ever the gentleman when he halfway bowed and offered me his hand to start our dance.
I tried to focus on him as he wrapped his arms around my waist, and I put mine on his shoulders.
He pulled me in a little closer, and I had to tell myself it would not be cool if I pulled back.
The song was slow, but had an off beat, so he started to move me around the floor.
And I had ample and multiple views of the room.
I saw Wesley sitting at the table with everyone. He was engaging in conversation, but his eyes followed me. His arm rested behind Jeanie’s chair, and I was suddenly jealous. I was used to being envious of girls when it came to Wesley, but not like that. I almost snarled in their direction.
Jackson and I moved around a little bit, and I was closer to where they all sat. I saw the tension all over Wesley; his back was ramrod straight, his knuckles were white on the back of the chair, and I swore I saw his jaw clenching and unclenching.
“Mind telling me who that is?” Jackson’s voice broke out around me, and I completely forgot we were dancing together.
“Who?”
“The guy you’ve been staring at all night.”
“I haven’t…” I started to deny it, but really, what was the point? “His name is Wesley.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I thought he was going to rip me limb from limb when Orla introduced me to you earlier.”
“Is that so?”
“Yup. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s still considering it.
” He continued to twirl me around, and I continued to pretend I wasn’t watching Wesley.
After another two dances and barely any talking—which I was honestly happy about—Jackson spoke again.
“Normally, I’m all for putting up a little fight when it’s called for, but…
I think I’m going to take off.” I frowned at his words, but I couldn’t help the bubble of relief I felt.
“I’m sorry I was an awful date. I-I shouldn’t have agreed to this.” We exited the dance floor and made our way to the table, where our drinks were.