Chapter 10
She accepted the video call and smiled into the camera. “Hey, Maddy. Oh, and Candice, hi. I didn’t expect to see you two today.”
Something was up, but she couldn’t tell if it was because her aunt was anxious about the wedding or if there was some other underlying cause.
“Hi,” Candice said, smiling only briefly before turning her attention to whatever other device was more interesting.
“Hello, dear,” Maddy said. “I apologize for the barrage of texts—apparently, this is my new version of thinking out loud.”
Natalie shook her head. “Not to worry, I know I’ve done it to you before.”
“Mmmhmm,” Candice vocalized, imparting a lot more attitude than one might expect from such a usually polite girl.
She raised an eyebrow into the camera, taking advantage of the teenager’s distraction. Maddy made a face that Natalie couldn’t quite decode.
“So, what’s the question then?” She decided whatever it was would come out in due time. “I only saw about half of the pictures before I got distracted.”
The screen was suddenly filled with the snaps and screenshots from Maddy’s phone.
Taking it all in at once, Natalie could clearly see that the love-heart-shaped stuff Candice had mentioned was evident.
Even she had to admit that she agreed with Candice’s choice to vote no on nearly all of them.
However, if a love-heart-shaped wedding was what her aunt wanted, that was what she would get.
“Wow, that’s cute,” Natalie said, wishing she had chosen almost any other adjective.
“Cute…” Maddy repeated. “Yes, that’s almost how Candice put it.”
Candice glanced at her camera and saw the screen filled with the frilly images. “Well, look, if you wanted an empty agreement, you shouldn’t have asked me. I will always—and I mean always—side with fashion and my own judgment in matters of taste.”
If she wanted that to help at all, she probably should have tried to sound at least a little bit less conceited.
Maddy barely concealed the irritation on her face. “Yes, well, I suppose that’s true. Another point is that if you want my help with your Christmas dance dress, you’d better find a nicer way to express that.”
The teenager looked momentarily shocked but soon turned it around and scoffed. “Fine, I’ll just order it online.”
Maddy and Natalie exchanged a glance. This really wasn’t like Candice at all.
“Really? You—of all people—would risk getting scammed or supporting unethical working conditions in some overseas sweatshop so you can continue to be rude to me?” Maddy asked calmly.
As she spoke, Maddy shot Natalie a look, leaving Natalie fairly certain this call wasn’t about frilly doilies and love-heart-shaped donuts. She watched as Candice seemed to shrink into herself, refusing to look at the camera.
“I mean…no. I’m not being rude…just direct.” With sheepish eyes, Candice looked up from her other device and into the camera. She didn’t look upset, but she did seem uncomfortable.
“I think you know that’s not true,” Maddy said gently.
Allowing the girl to sit in silence was, admittedly, the best way to get her to reveal whatever she had going on—but it certainly made Natalie anxious. Her stomach churned as she watched Candice squirm in her seat.
“I’m sorry, Ms. C,” she said finally. “I don’t know why everything is so annoying right now.”
Natalie watched her aunt expertly nod but stay quiet, prompting the teenager to continue—if nothing else, to put an end to the awkward silence.
“Annoying maybe isn’t the right word,” she continued. “Stressful? Maybe? I don’t know. I don’t know where my head’s at these days. It’s all really complicated right now.”
Candice behaved more maturely than half the people Natalie knew, whether they were her age or twenty years older, which made it easy to forget that Candice was still a teenager.
She had a teenager’s brain, teenage problems, and a teenage perspective on dealing with those problems. Natalie half-expected the next words out of her mouth to be, “You just don’t get me,” or something else suited for an after-school special from fifteen years ago.
“We’ve noticed you seem stressed,” Maddy said. “How are you dealing with it?”
She isn’t dealing with it. Isn’t that what she just said?
Candice shrugged. “Trying to hang out with friends more, chill, shopping…”
“Yes,” Maddy said. “That’s something I’ve noticed as well. You’ve been shopping a lot. Now, I don’t know as much as you do about these current brands, but from what I can see, you’ve been buying quite a few high-end items.”
The teenager’s face darkened to a deep pink, and she suddenly looked nervous. “It’s not that I’m buying them. They’re sponsorships for the channel. It’s been doing really well and—”
“But I haven’t seen you in any of the things I’m talking about,” Maddy said.
Candice rolled her eyes. “Like what, even?”
“The red cardigan you panicked about,” Natalie said. “Remember when I borrowed it, not knowing it was yours? Well, I looked it up, and it cost more than the rest of my outfit put together—including the jewelry.”
“I didn’t like it, so I didn’t do the post,” Candice said quickly. “I don’t even know what the big deal is. It’s not any of your business.”
“You didn’t like the thousand-dollar cardigan Balmain sent you, so you just…kept it but didn’t post about it?”
Candice tripped over her words as she spoke.
“It’s not that, and it wasn’t them exactly. It’s more like an endorsement thing, and it’s beautiful. Obviously. But that doesn’t mean my audience is a good fit for it.”
“Or the seven-hundred-dollar sunglasses, I’m guessing?”
“They weren’t seven hundred,” Candice said smugly. “I got them on sale for thirty percent off.” The call went silent as Candice realized that probably wasn’t the argument-ending zinger she thought it was.
“So five-hundred-dollar sunglasses, then,” Natalie said, watching Candice’s face go redder as she spoke.
Maddy cleared her throat. “Candice, we aren’t angry or upset with you, just worried. You don’t usually spend money like this, and you certainly don’t hide it from your mom.”
“You told my mom? What, like I’m a little kid?” Candice exclaimed, her voice strangling. “That is so freaking uncool. Oh my God! I earn more than my parents ever have, and the second I want to spend even a tiny bit, everyone goes and tattles on me to my mom. That’s—I can’t believe you!”
Even before the tears began to fall about halfway through the sentence, Natalie had seen them building. Whatever Maddy had been aiming for on this call—Natalie was willing to bet that this wasn’t it.
Candice disconnected from the call before either of them could speak, leaving them staring at each other.
“Did you ask her mom?” Natalie asked.
Maddy rolled her eyes. “No, I didn’t need to. She was so careful about putting her sunglasses in her bag and not letting me come around to give her the cardigan back. I just assumed.”
“Well, regardless, I don’t think that went as well as it could have,” Natalie said with a halfhearted smile. “We do actually need her on the team.”
“I know,” Maddy said. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Good. Now, did you actually want to talk wedding plans?”
Maddy shook her head. “Oh, no, dear. I only sent all that to see if she would act normally about it. You should know me better than that.”