Chapter Seven
Present Day
West Hills, Portland, Oregon
The Bridal Shower
“What happened last night?” Lily asks. She, Hannah, Josh, and Evan are all sitting around the dining table with me the next morning, coffee in hand.
I guess now is as good a time as any to spill all the secrets I’ve held back about the last day Jack and I were together. As I rattled it all off to Liam last night I felt bad that I was telling it to a stranger before I told even my own brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law.
“There are some things you guys don’t know.” I glance at everyone except Lily and Josh, who already know too much. “Greta and I have a bit of a history.”
“How?” Evan asks.
“Remember when I worked for Mayfair Home?”
“Oh yeah… I forgot about that. You quit right after you and Jack got engaged, right?”
“Not exactly.” I purse my lips together. I hate it when I lie and then get caught and need to explain it later. Right now, I honestly feel like I’m twelve years old. “I didn’t quit, I got fired.”
“How did you get fired?” Hanna’s voice is high-pitched and unbelieving. I can’t blame her; I’m not the girl who normally gets fired, and even she knows it.
“Greta. She was supposed to be the face of a commercial we were shooting, but she got wasted, took a liking to Jack, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I was accused of being jealous, not keeping a close enough eye on her, not keeping her sober, and being irresponsible. So her dad fired me.”
“WHAT?” Evan and Hannah say in unison.
“Oh my God, Ems.” Hannah stares at me. “I’m so sorry. If I’d had any idea at all about this, I never would have asked her to be a bridesmaid.”
“Oh God. She’s a bridesmaid?” I didn’t know this detail because I only stayed here for a few minutes with her last night. I just assumed she was here for the barbecue because Jack is in the wedding party. I expected Evan to have him as a groomsman; they’ve been best friends for years. I couldn’t possibly expect him to dump Jack just because of what happened between him and me.
“Yes, I mean she’s engaged to my brother so I felt like I should include her. I’d kick her out but it’s too late for that.” She shrugs her shoulders apologetically.
“No, you don’t have to do that.”
“We need to find you a date for this wedding. Someone better than asshole Jack,” Lily says enthusiastically. I watch her mouth the word sorry to Hannah, probably for calling Jack an asshole.
“Right. How’s that going to—” I stop mid-sentence and remember meeting Liam last night. I know he mentioned that he’s been recently heartbroken, but maybe him hearing my Greta story last night made him feel sorry enough for me that he would help a girl out. It’s not like I’m asking him to get married, or even go on a real date. I just need backup proof that I’m well over Jack.
“What?” Lily asks me, knowing, as best friends do, that I’ve got an idea.
“I actually met a man last night.”
“My God.” Evan shakes his head as if I’m the most pathetic person he knows. I’m not sure why, but he’s always felt the need to protect me from even myself, and this headshake is the same reaction he had right before he gave Ezra Mitchell a black eye when he heard him talking about taking my virginity when we were seventeen.
“Not like that.” I glare at Evan as a warning to stay away and let me deal with me for once. “We just talked. He owns a bar up the street. He agreed that my entire situation this week is more than rough, so maybe he’d help me out?”
“Do you have his number?” Lily asks.
“No, but I know where he works.”
“Well you don’t have time to go there this morning. We have my bridal shower in an hour.” Hannah smiles through clenched teeth. She knew I was hoping they would have had this bridal shower before I got here. Mingling with my ex-fiancée’s mother is not something I’m looking forward too.
“I’ll go afterwards. I’m sorry if this whole thing is becoming weird,” I say, even though I don’t think it’s entirely my fault.
“Don’t apologize, I only wish I’d known all this earlier.” Hannah frowns, obviously upset that she isn’t in on all of my secrets. But it’s not like I intentionally kept all this from her. Until yesterday, I didn’t even know Greta was back in the frame.
“I’m sorry. I was humiliated.” I sigh deeply, knowing I should tell the rest of my secret to Hannah right now before she finds out on her own and hates me forever. “There might be something else between Greta and me…”
“There’s more?”
“Yeah, it gets worse. I could have lived with the Christmas party thing. But…” I pause, trying to find a delicate way to say this next part. How do you tell someone their cheating brother was in cahoots with Greta the bitch the entire time? “The day I caught Jack… you know. With Lily’s advice, I went over later that day to talk to him but, it didn’t go as I planned.”
“How did it go?” Evan asks, more interested in the story than I expected him to be. He’s never been one to be interested in every detail of my drama, but right now, he’s all ears.
“When the elevator doors opened, I heard Jack’s voice so I peered around the corner before leaving the elevator, you know, so he wouldn’t see me, and I saw…” I have to stop and take a breath to keep myself from becoming emotional. It happens every time I relive this part of the story. “I saw Greta at our front door telling him she heard he was newly single. And then… he invited her in.”
“WHAT?! He did? What happened next?” Hannah’s voice is high and whiney, almost like she’s having a hard time believing her perfect May could do something this brazen.
“I dunno. I never spoke to him again. But now they're engaged. So what does that tell you?”
“I am so sorry, Ems.” Evan reaches across the table and pats my hand. “I had no idea. I can kick his ass if you want?”
“No, you can’t, because no one is going to mention this. He chose her even before we broke up, so, no matter how much any of this appears to bother me, he gets to keep her. He’s obviously not the Jack I once knew.”
“I promise to keep a fair distance between you and Greta at the bridal shower.” A thin apologetic smile spreads across Hannah’s face before she stands from the table. “I hate to cut this short but we have to get ready. Is there anything else we should know?”
“That’s it.” Thank God that’s it. “I’ll try and not let my emotions get the best of me the next couple of days.”
It won’t be easy, and I definitely can’t make any promises, but for Hannah’s sake I’ll at least try and do my best and not over-think the situation. No matter how much my heart hurts over all this, Hannah and Evan deserve a stress-free wedding.
“Emi!” Amelia greets me before even her own daughter when we walk through the door. “My dear girl, how I’ve missed you!” She surprises me by pulling me in for a hug. I kind of figured after I bailed on the huge wedding she was planning that she’d be more irritation, and less missed me. “You look…” She looks me over for a minute, probably trying to find another, less obvious, word for fat. “Fabulous.”
I’ve noticed in life that when people tell you you look ‘fabulous’ you really don’t. You look just slightly less great than they expected, and ‘fabulous’ rolls off the tongue so quickly and easily in a tense situation.
“Can you believe that we finally get to be family?”
“Well… Not me, but Evan.”
“That includes you. Who’d have ever thought that instead of you and Jack, we’d end up with Hannah and Evan getting married.” She smiles sweetly before putting her arm around my shoulder and walking me into her lavish living room. “Still such a shame about you and Jack, though.” She leans closer to me. “The boy was heartbroken for ages. Even now, I sometimes wonder.”
“What?” I force my face to not look stunned at what she just said. She still sometimes wonders if Jack is brokenhearted over me? But he’s engaged!
“Hannah mentioned you ran away from us for some type of internship? How did that go, dear?”
“Internship?”
“Emi, I just remembered something I need to talk to you about, urgently.” Hannah grabs my arm and pulls me away from Amelia and Lily, dragging me across the room and into the pantry. A pantry that’s bigger than my bedroom. “Shit,” Hannah hisses. It’s unlike her to use my favorite curse word.
“What is it?”
“There is something I forgot about. Please don’t hate me.”
“Spit it out.” I should have known I wasn’t the only one with secrets.
“When you and Jack broke up, he didn’t want to tell Mother what actually happened. So we— He told her that you had an amazing opportunity with an ad agency in New York for an internship.”
“WHAT?” I squeak, in a weird high-pitched voice. “Why would he tell her that?” Having said that, I’m not entirely sure why I’m surprised by this. Jack did refuse to admit any wrongdoing even when he was caught red-handed. Why would I think his family would know the truth?
“He thought he could win you back, Ems. He didn’t want to break Mom's heart by telling her why you actually broke up.”
“So instead of telling the truth he lied to her and made our break-up my fault?”
“Well, no… He said you two just grew apart and amicably broke up. She’s not mad at you. She’s more frustrated with Jack. I don’t know, actually. Things have been weird whenever you’re mentioned.” Hannah bites her freshly-manicured nails nervously.
“Hannah…” Her name leaves my lips tinged with irritation. I can’t be completely mad at her. It’s not like she made it up. She just went along with it. Plus, she did kind of just forgive me earlier when I told her a secret she knew nothing about. If I don’t just let this go, guess who will be the bigger bitch here? “Whatever, it’s fine,” I sigh through clenched teeth, annoyed at having to lie some more. “What do I need to say?”
“Just go with my story, at least until after the wedding, and then I’ll tell her truth. I promise.”
“Fine.” I scan the pantry and see a basket full of sample-sized bottles of liquor and shove four of them into my bag. Hannah’s eyes grow wide and she pinches her lips into a disapproving, judgmental pucker. “What? I’ve earned these. Go mingle…”
She rolls her eyes with a half-smile before giving me a hug, a quick one because she knows I hate hugs. “Thank You.” When she disappears through the door I grab two more bottles of vodka out of the basket and down them as quickly as possible so no one thinks I’m a total drunk. Because I’m not, normally. I just need a bit of encouragement to face these people, and now I need the creative part of my brain to kick in quickly so I can lie on demand.
“Emi?” I hear Lily calling me like we’re in the middle of a game of hide and seek. I click open the door and watch Lily spin around to face me. “What are you doing?”
“Hiding.” I reluctantly leave the pantry and peek around the corner at the room full of plastic, made-up, glittering rich women. Hannah, they each squeal one by one as they greet the bride-to-be.
“Well stop it. You look more than crazy.” Lily grabs two glasses of champagne off a tray sitting near her on the counter. Lucky for me she has no idea I’ve just downed two shots of vodka and have four more waiting on deck in my bag. Getting drunk is going to be way easier than I expected. “Drink this and let’s go out there and try to blend in. And no more acting like a loon, pull it together.”
“Is Greta here?”
“Yes, and if you don’t get out here she’ll look much, much saner than you. Which is probably hard to do when she’s nearly certifiably mental.”
“All right.” I down the champagne, set the empty glass on the counter and grab another off the tray. “Let’s go do some lying.”
“Wait, what? Why are we lying?”
“Hannah and Jack didn’t want to tell Amelia what really happened when we broke up, so they told her I took an internship in New York and that we just grew apart.” I force down the champagne in my hand and exchange it for another.
“That’s uh… wow. OK then, let’s go lie.”
“You’re on board?” I ask her, surprised she’s going to help me after she’s been so up my ass about being half-cracked.
“Well... not really. But this week can’t get any weirder, so why the hell not?”
“Great!” I say.
We join the buzzing room of ladies and I’m suddenly a little afraid of what exactly might be said. I feel like I should have a notepad to keep track of my lies, just in case I need to follow up with them later in the week.
“Just smile and nod, and maybe they won’t even approach—”
“Emi! I was wondering where you ran off to in the middle of our conversation. Now come say hello to everyone.” Amelia guides Lily and me over to the group of women on the patio.
I glance around at the faces of Jack’s aunts, family friends, and a few strangers. Obviously, the few family members Evan and I have didn’t get an invitation to the bridal shower. I’m a little jealous. Front and center is Greta. Her fake, forced smile blends right in with the rest of them.
“Have you met May, Jack’s new uh, fiancée?” An almost malicious smile hangs at the corners of Amelia’s lips as she introduces us. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was up to something. Amelia doesn’t play games though. If she wants you to know something, she’ll just say it. I’m sure the alcohol is deafening the rational part of my brain already and really I’ve got nothing to worry about.
“I’ve heard so much about you.” My attention moves from Amelia’s underlying motives to Greta who squeezes both my hands like we’re deemed to be new best friends. She’s lying through her teeth and if I really wanted to out her right now I could. Except I’m not sure anyone would believe me over her.
“Emi was once…” Amelia practically stumbles over her words a bit. She looks tongue-tied on how to introduce me to the woman she thinks has never met me. Which is completely out of character for Amelia. I’ve never, ever seen her nervous. “Emi was once engaged to Jack. So, you have that in common.” She pats my back and suddenly shouts hello at a woman who’s just entered the room, leaving Greta and me together.
“This must be so hard for you, to have to watch the love of your life having moved on.”
“Jack is hardly the love of my life.” I down the champagne I’m still holding in one take. They are going down easier and easier, which isn’t good. “You can have him. In fact, I hope you two are very happy together. You’re made for each other: both cheaters, both over the top, and both sad pathetic liars.”
“I’ll have you know Jack has never cheated on me. He doesn’t need to, look at me.” She waves her hands down her body. How arrogant can someone be? “But, I warned you I was more his type than you. I guess you should have listened and saved yourself some heartache.” She smiles with a lift of her shoulders. “I really should get back.”
“Yes, you should, maybe you could tell everyone how you’re wearing a second-hand ring after cheating with your fiancé while he was still engaged to someone else? You’ll fit right in with everyone here, just like the Stepford wife that you’ll be.”
A sound comes out of her mouth that is anything but pleasant. She quickly stomps her foot and turns away from me, sidling up to some rich old broad I’ve never seen before.
“At least you haven’t had to lie yet,” Lily laughs beside me and motions to a free seating area. “Let’s sit, away from the action. Maybe it will keep us out of trouble.”
A clapping comes from the far side of the room. Amelia is gathering everyone’s attention.
“Today we celebrate my lovely daughter, Hannah. She insisted I don’t embarrass her, so I’ll do my best. Let’s play a quick introduction game. We’ll go around the room and point to someone and say how we know them. Obviously, we will start with my Hannah. I know her because I’m her mother Amelia and I suffered many hours of labor bringing her into this world.” Her laugh fills the room as she points at Hannah.
The game goes on and on, and Lily introduces herself as my best friend which throws the introduction game to me. “I’m Emi Harrison, I know Hannah through her brother Jack.” Hannah’s eyes widen for a second, worried about what might come out of my mouth. “I know Greta, or as you all seem to call her, May, from my job with her father Aron Mayfair. Greta and I worked together on a project once, didn’t we?” I point at Greta who looks momentarily horrified before spitting out an uncomfortable laugh and moving the game along, ignoring the question and avoiding the prying eyes surrounding us.
I should have got hold of Morgan and asked for the video proof of what a nut-job Greta really is. That certainly would have thrown a wrench into her snide remarks aimed at me.
“Oh no!” I whisper to Lily, barely able to turn my head without the entire room spinning around me. Things are taking a sudden turn for the worse. I knew I shouldn’t have drunk so much so quickly on an empty stomach. “I’m gonna be sick.” I lean into Lily, who grabs my arm.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“Too far.” I run to the patio, her at my heels. I try to make it at least past the decorative fountain, but I don’t. The heaving sound coming from within makes even me jump. I don’t have to turn around to know the whole room is watching me defile this very expensive water feature.
“She’ll be fine. I’m so sorry.” Lily is standing in front of me trying to apologize my way out of this embarrassment. She glances at me, her face scrunched up in horror. “This is not good, Ems,” she mumbles under her breath. All I can do is nod as I go for another round into the once crystal-clear water of the fountain.
“Oh my.” Amelia bolts to action and runs to my side. “Let’s get you lying down. Help me get her to the guest room.”
With Amelia on one side and Lily on the other, they drag me through the crowd of women and to a small guest bedroom on the first floor of their house.
“Grab her some Tylenol, Marion.” Amelia barks an order at the woman dressed all in black in the doorway. Before I can object I’m sipping water with Tylenol and have a cold rag being held against the back of my neck. “Was it something you ate?” Amelia asks, sitting by my side and attempting to nurse me back to health. Or in this case, an earlier, more sober version of me.
“No, no. Probably it was something I drank.” I will not tell her how much something I drank. That part isn’t important.
“Of course, she’s drunk.” A voice echoes from the doorway. Greta glares at me. “What a way to ruin the party.”
“Greta, go gossip somewhere else,” Lily snaps at her before closing the door in her face.
“Are you drunk?” Amelia asks, looking almost more concerned than angry.
“No, not really. I just had a lot of champagne on an empty stomach, that’s all. I’m so sorry. I feel a lot better, though.” That’s mostly a lie. The room is still spinning, but I don’t feel nauseous any longer. That poor fountain.
“Emi.” Amelia’s motherly voice fills the room. “I know that this is a trying week for you and for Jack. But I would hope we could set all this aside and focus on Hannah and your brother Evan and make this as perfect as possible.” She takes my hand in hers. “I love you like my own daughter, Emi, and while I don’t know the exact truth over what happened between you and my son, I do know that he is still heartbroken over it to this day.”
“But he’s engaged to Greta,” I say, wondering what she meant by ‘exact truth’.
“Greta was there when Jack needed someone, but let’s face it, his heart is still with you. So, please use compassion when dealing with this tricky and emotional situation that we have ahead of us.” Her hand patting my own tells me her speech is done, and she suddenly stands and walks towards the door. “Stay in here if you like, but I do hope you’ll rejoin the party soon.” The door clicks closed and Lily and I are left alone.
“Whoa. She is a tad intimidating, isn’t she?” Lily says.
“What do you think she meant by that?”
“That Jack is still in love with you. Which is what we all thought anyway.”
“I don’t mean that, I mean when she said ‘the exact truth’. I don’t think she believes Hannah and Jack’s internship story. She knows something, though.” I let myself sink into the feathered pillow behind me.
“What she knows is that you and Jack have some unfinished feelings for one another. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it.” Lily sits down where Amelia was a few moments ago. “I think it’s time for you to make a decision about this. Either you’re over Jack and you stop doing all of this…” she motions at my current drunken state, “or you tell him how you feel and go from there.”
“I don’t know how I feel, though.” I close my eyes. Maybe if the room stops circling me I’ll be able to figure out how I feel. “I want to be over him.”
“Good. After the party then, we’ll stop by and see your new friend. Nothing helps you move on better than a rebound guy. What was his name?”
“Liam,” I say, wondering if a rebound guy is really the right move to prove I’m over Jack.
The party lasts a couple more hours. Thankfully I’m able to avoid any more episodes and I am somehow able to steer clear of Greta and any family members of Jack’s who ask too many questions about my supposed internship and failed almost-wedding.
Hannah gets everything she could possibly need as an almost-married woman, and for the last hour I’ve watched Evan and Josh load it all up into two trucks as I’ve sat on the step of the front porch.
“Listen,” I say to Lily who’s helping Josh tie down the last of the boxes in the truck. “I think I should go make a fool of myself to this guy on my own.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Because it’s weird, and I’ve already looked like a ditz in front of him once. Not to mention that it’s probably a totally bad idea that he’ll laugh at. And let’s face it, this week alone I’ve had enough humiliation to last me a lifetime.”
She sighs heavy and glances at Josh. “Fine, I’ll drop you off there. But promise me you’ll come home immediately after, and that you won’t do anything completely stupid.”
“What stupid thing could I do?” I ask.
“Vomit in the elaborate landscaped waterfall in the middle of a party, maybe?” Josh laughs at me.
“Ask a random man to be your date to my wedding to prove you’re over Jack?” Evan adds to Josh’s suggestion.
“You guys aren’t funny.” I would add to my defense, but come on, I’ve got none.
“We should start a list of Emi’s not-intentional screw-ups this week,” Evan says, avoiding direct eye contact. Clearly, he’s not impressed with my behavior.
“I prefer that we don’t,” I say, knowing full well that writing it down isn’t necessary. They’ll be telling this story from memory for years to come.
When I walk into the bar it’s as dark as it was the other day, but this time I notice it’s because there are no windows except the porthole in the door. It truly is a dive bar, but I imagine having no windows makes it easier to hide from the problems you’re trying to drown.
“She’s back!” Bald Bartender yells, and I see Liam pop out of a doorway behind the bar.
“She certainly is. What brings you back? More troubles with the ex?” He winks at me and walks around the counter to where I’m standing.
“Yes, and no. Actually…” I fidget with my bracelets and bite my lip so hard I can taste the blood trickle into my mouth. “I… um…” I try to stop the bleeding in my lip without him noticing. “I wanted to ask a favor of you.”
“A favor? We’re already at that point in our relationship?” He laughs and motions to the table near the back of the bar.
I’m nervous, like the-nausea-is-starting-to-come-back nervous. I take a couple of deep breaths, hopefully unnoticeable, and sit at the table. Liam flips a chair around and straddles it leaning against the back. “What kind of favor are we talking here? Do you need another loan? Or maybe a hit man?”
“No, no, none of that, yet.”
His smile brings the dimples through his stubbled face.
“It’s actually kind of pathetic. I just… uh…” I take another breath and stare at the gold candle holder in front of me. The candle in it is dusty and melted down to the metal wick bottom. Come on, Em, just say it already, it’s not like it’s going to get any less weird. “I was wondering if you would come to the wedding with me as my date?”
There, my whole pathetic self, laid out on the table to a man I only just met yesterday.
Liam leans back for a minute, his lips pursed and his eyes clouded with confusion. “You want me to be your date, to your brother’s wedding? The one where your ex will be?”
“Yes. I know it’s ridicul—”
He cuts me off mid-sentence. “I’ll do it.”
“You will?”
“Sure, you’re beautiful, sweet, desperate, and you never know when I myself might need a favor in return.”
“As long as your favor doesn’t put me in jail, I’m in.”
“I’ll try to save that one until you know me a bit better then.” He runs his hand through his hair before leaning against the chair-back in front of him again. “Just one question: are we making him jealous so he’ll dump the new girl and beg you to come back, or just going for heartbreak that he’s lost you all together?”
“Why do I feel like you’ve done this before?” I ask him with a nervous laugh. “I think the later one, at least for now.”
“Perfect…” He pulls a black leather wallet from his back jeans pocket and pulls out a business card, sliding it across the table at me. “This is me, my number, email, everything you need to get me the details of this wedding date.”
“OK.”
“Is it black tie?”
“No.” For a guy, he pays attention to the details most men miss.
“I’ll be there.” He stands from his chair and puts his wallet back in his pocket. “And Emi?”
“Yeah?” I clutch my purse, still nervous even though he’s agreed to do this.
“When this wedding is over, he’ll know just how crazy he was to do what he did. Sound good?”
I nod with a hesitant smile. This could go great, I could achieve whatever it is I think I’m looking to achieve, or it could become a disaster. “Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” With a nod of his head he stands up, walks round behind the bar, and disappears through the door.