Chapter 12 #3
Taylor’s plan was to stay at his parents’ apartment that night after the rehearsal dinner, and leave for the wedding with them in a car Dominique was providing.
They were trying to respect his not seeing the bride the day of the wedding.
Felicity had decided to stay at her own place in Tribeca and go to her mother’s house the next morning, where she, Violet, and Dominique were getting their hair and nails done and having facials.
They would help Felicity dress at the appointed hour.
Violet and Dominique would go to the Met in one car, and Tommy would ride with the bride in another.
Marlene was going with her sons from the hotel to the Met.
It had all been carefully orchestrated, and Felicity was going to spend a quiet night at her apartment before the big day.
She didn’t expect the rehearsal dinner to go late, knowing the Whitfields.
It was starting at seven, and there would be speeches, but the young people would be eager to leave the dinner and go to their favorite bars and nightspots before the wedding.
She hoped Taylor didn’t stay out too late or get too drunk after the rehearsal dinner, but she had no control over it, and since he was staying at his parents’, she doubted that he would want to come home too late and too loud.
He’d been in a good mood all week and had been very sweet to her.
They hadn’t talked about the pregnancy since she had decided to keep the baby.
It was a sensitive subject and once it had been resolved, they didn’t need to deal with it.
Since it wasn’t obvious, it slipped his mind most of the time.
Felicity was so thin, it didn’t show at all, and with last-minute nerves, and being so busy, she had lost a few pounds.
Her wedding dress was even a little loose on her but went with the style from the 1920s.
Her bags, packed for the honeymoon, as were Taylor’s, were standing in the front hall.
They were leaving the day after the wedding.
They were going to England and Ireland, which didn’t sound romantic, but they had rented a cottage in the Cotswolds, were spending a week at a castle in Scotland, and were then going to visit friends in London.
Taylor had picked it. Ireland was one of his favorite places and it sounded like fun to Felicity too, instead of churches in Italy and museums in France.
It was a little different. She was excited about all of it now.
She was sure that the wedding her mother had put together was going to be incredible, and despite their ups and downs, she loved Taylor.
He had been much nicer lately since the art show.
She wondered at times if he was jealous of her passion for her art.
He didn’t love his job the way she did hers, and it ate up a lot of her attention.
* * *
Felicity dressed carefully for the rehearsal dinner.
She wore her hair down, which was sexier than wearing it up or back as she usually did.
The dress was a little shorter than she remembered, but it was really pretty and flattering.
Her long legs looked fabulous with the short skirt and she could wear really high heels since Taylor was so tall.
She wore diamond earrings her mother had given her when she turned thirty and they sparkled on her ears.
The dress was a little lower cut than she usually wore, but it was so well made that it looked tasteful on her, and there was nothing vulgar about her.
She took a last look in the mirror and raced out the door with a white satin Chanel jacket that toned down the dress until she got to the club and took it off.
The first person she saw when she got to the club was her father, who was just arriving too.
His date was a knockout in a tight black dress that was shorter than Felicity’s, and she had the figure to pull it off.
She had long dark hair and looked very exotic, with big diamond hoop earrings, a lot of makeup, and noticeably enhanced lips in a permanent sensual pout.
Andrew introduced her as Kimberly. Felicity would have been shocked, except that he was always with women who looked like her.
He had already bragged to Dominique that she was twenty-two, and he was seventy-six.
They were all used to it. Andrew had no sense of ridiculousness about the women he dated, and he always had fun.
He had a lot of energy for a man his age, and the young women he went out with were always impressed by how generous he was.
Felicity kissed him after she greeted Kimberly, and she saw Violet out of the corner of her eye assessing their father’s date and rolling her eyes, and Felicity had to force herself not to laugh.
Her father wasn’t particularly affectionate with her, but he wished her luck for the next day, and then she went to find Violet. She had just pointed him out to Jamie, who was impressed by his date.