Chapter Two
Jesse
Sue and Cam had decided on an intimate wedding, the kind of ceremony I would want if I were to get married—which seemed unlikely.
I was by no means a domestic goddess. I couldn’t cook worth a damn, and my housekeeping skills demanded a housekeeper.
If I were to get into a long-term relationship, it would have to be with a guy who didn’t mind role reversal.
I was great at fixing things around the house or building stuff from scratch.
I could handle most tools and loved taking things apart to see how they worked.
If the air conditioner did drop dead, I could probably fix it myself without Mr. Gore’s help.
Were my imaginary husband and I stranded on an island, I could build us a house and hunt well enough to keep us from starving.
The odds were my cooking would be what killed us.
As a kid, I’d rarely played with dolls, preferring to hang out with my dad and watch him work, or playing with the many bits and pieces he kept neatly stored in boxes.
His nickname, The Fixer, had led to many mafia and hitmen jokes.
All humor aside, the man had been gifted.
If I’d ever had doubts that he would’ve wished I were a boy, he’d erased those throughout the years. We had loads of fun together.
My eyes moistened. My thoughts had focused on my dad as I’d watched Sue’s father walk her down the aisle and hand her to Cam.
Her mother wiped her eyes, filled with tears of relief that her daughter had finally ‘found a man.’ Sue’s parents were nice people, but they’d been obsessed with seeing her married, so much so that they’d been ready to push her into the arms of her cheating ex.
Sue’s parents hadn’t known he’d been cheating, but even if they had, I wasn’t sure it would have taken precedence over their single-minded desire to have a son-in-law and grandbabies.
I didn’t have that problem. My dad’s heart had given out two years ago after three heart attacks, and my alcoholic mom had walked out on us when I was six. I blamed her for my dad’s illness.
As the pastor recited the wedding vows, I blinked to chase away emotions I couldn’t name.
My eyes landed on Sebastian at Cam’s side.
He looked pretty spiffy in his elegant dark suit, with a bold red boutonnière pinned to his jacket’s lapel.
It was the first time I’d seen his handsome face so serious, so different from his usual boyish humor.
Today, he was clean shaven, his hair slightly tousled, just enough to give him the bed-head look I loved and wore myself.
His gaze met mine. My face heated. I looked away, praying that my makeup hid my flushed cheeks and that my freckles weren’t standing out.
I was uncomfortable and self-conscious in the flowy pastel green dress.
The high heels were killing my feet, but the girls had assured me I looked gorgeous, so I sucked it up and complained only a little.
Sue and Cam repeated their vows. I did my best not to sniffle.
To my right, Ange had lost that battle. She was stunning in the pale blue dress that showed off her perfect figure, not a hair out of place in her classy updo.
All our dresses were from Fairchild’s, where Ange managed the Women’s Clothing department.
Next to Angela, Lily was radiant in yellow, wearing an angelic smile as she watched the newlyweds seal their bond with a kiss. A practicing psychologist, she’d booked the event in her calendar weeks ago and had canceled all of her appointments to be here for her friend.
“Fascinating,” Nikki said. “Did you know the ancient Greeks and Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits? That’s how the veil tradition started.”
Seated on my left, she looked beautiful in a fitted dress that revealed her excellent legs.
The deep mauve color and the design were perhaps a little bold for a wedding, but no one had ever accused Nikki of being in tune with social etiquette.
She was so brilliant and unapologetically smart that most people chose to ignore her shortcomings.
As a forensic scientist, she worked with the NYPD and the city morgue, identifying human remains.
She loved talking about her job, but the girls and I had done our best to train her not to get into gory details.
I was absurdly emotional watching Sue and Cam exchange their first kiss as a married couple.
They both looked stunning—Cam in his elegant black suit, and Sue in a white backless trumpet dress that flowed down her curvy body and pooled in a bubbly train at her feet.
The girls and I had helped her choose it.
Although it wasn’t practical for dancing, Sue loved it, so we’d encouraged her to buy it.
It was her wedding. She should get whatever dress she frigging wanted without regard to its cost or practicality.
Cam would probably rip it off her tonight anyway.
I clapped louder than anyone when the new Mr. and Mrs. Cameron Jones made their way out of the church, followed by the rest of us.
Sue glowed with happiness. As she met my eyes, she mouthed “Love you,” and I mouthed “Love you more,” swallowing more tears. I was going to miss the upstairs neighbor who’d become my best friend the first day she’d moved into the building, years ago.
She and I had been the founding members of the Singleville Girls, as we referred to ourselves and our group of girlfriends.
What had started as an inside joke had become a life-long friendship.
We were all very different, and while our friendship might seem unlikely, we all constantly learned something from one another and supported each other.
How would things change with Sue moving on?
We stopped for a brief photo session, then split up, getting into our designated cars for the ride to the restaurant Sue and Cam had chosen for the wedding reception.
Close to the church, it was a pretty place with lots of greenery and outside tables covered in immaculate white cloths.
There were white roses and white tulle bows everywhere.
The whole place looked matrimonial and festive.
Rich trees cast shadows all around, taming the late afternoon heat.
I had persuaded Sue to hold the wedding and the reception in the early evening.
I wished night would fall faster, but considering today was the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year, that was unlikely.
I sat at a table with Ange, Lily, and Nikki.
None of us had brought dates. We were all quite happy sitting together.
I was looking forward to a fun evening, so my jaw almost dropped when Sue came by with Sebastian and his date—a six-foot-tall redhead with tousled hair and a cleavage more perfect than Sydney Sweeney’s.
“Hi, guys.” Sue squeezed us in a quick group hug. “Hope you’re having a good time. Sebastian and his friend will be sitting with you. I tried to keep good friends close to us.”
She winked at me before she moved on to another table.
I swallowed my annoyance and forced a smile, while Sebastian helped his into the chair opposite mine.
Lily nudged me in the ribs. “Be nice,” she whispered.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Like a ventriloquist, I spoke through my teeth. “Just because he ruined our party last night? Water under the bridge.”
“Yeah, right,” Nikki mumbled from my left. “I’ll bet you want to see his dead body floating under a bridge... which isn’t actually a good place to hide a body, because—”
“Nik.” I raised a hand to stop her. “We know. We watched Bones. You made us, remember?”
“It’s a good show.” Sebastian grinned. “Any particular body you want to hide, Jesse?”
Damn it, how could he hear everything?
It was too bad he couldn’t feel the mental daggers I’d thrown at him last night.
I smiled noncommittally. “No one in particular. So, are you going to introduce us to your friend?”
“Oh, I can do it myself,” the redhead said. “I’m Candi. With an i.”
“Nice to meet you, Candi. I’m Jesse, and these are Angela, Nicole, and Lily.”
“Hi,” the girls said in unison.
Candi waved at us as if we were at a huge distance away instead of sitting at the same table. Her breasts jiggled so hard I feared a nip slip.
Lily stepped in to make polite conversation. “What do you do, Candi?”
“I’m an actress.” Candi rolled her eyes.
“Well, actually, I’m working to be one, but right now, I’m a model.
I just say I’m an actress because I read on a poster that if you want something you have to be all in, so like, if I want to be an actress one day, I tell people I’m an actress now, right?
It was so inspirational; it blew my mind! ”
“I’ll bet it did.” My smile was genuine now. “How did you and Sebastian meet?”
Candi giggled, twirling a strand of her hair.
“Oh my God, it was so random. I was at Columbia—you know, the university? I was helping a friend shoot a reel for her acting class. It was, like, this super intense scene where she had to cry in the rain, but of course it wasn’t raining, so we were using a hose, and it got everywhere. Anyway, my laptop got soaked.”
She rolled her eyes. “I was freaking out, and this gorgeous guy in a NASA hoodie walks by, sees the chaos, and offers to help. I didn’t even know he worked there! I thought he was, like, one of those overachieving grad students.”
“He puts the O in overachieving,” I muttered.
“Sorry?” Candi looked at me with round, blue eyes.
Next to her, Sebastian had pulled my imaginary daggers out of his ass and was throwing them back at me.
“Oh, nothing.” I waved a hand vaguely. “Go on, Candi. Then what happened?”
Candi smiled fondly at Sebastian’s profile. “Well, he looked at my laptop and said that he could fix it. He gave me his address and told me to bring it over, which I did. And that was it, we started dating.”
“That’s interesting.” Nikki’s tone indicated the opposite. “How long have you been together?”
“Since last month. Right, stud muffin?” Candi giggled again, pinching Sebastian’s cheek.
For the love of God, I needed a beer.
How could a guy spend his life banging the same type of woman, month after month, without ever feeling the need for intelligent conversation?
I knew some men were intimidated by smart women, but this was ridiculous.
From what I’d heard, Sebastian was a smart guy.
He’d been with Cam at MIT and worked as a computer tech or something like that for NASA.
Maybe he had enough intellectual stimulation at work to avoid it in his private life.
Servers arrived with drinks, and I gratefully reached out for one. I didn’t drink alcohol unless it was for a special occasion, but if I was going to share a table with Sebastian and Candi for the next few hours, I needed it tonight.