Riley
The catering appointment went smoothly and Lily was surprisingly decisive when it came to food, which I could totally relate to. She quickly made decisions about cocktail hors d’oeuvres and main courses. And if I weren’t the person helping her plan the wedding, I might have wanted to attend. The menu sounded delicious.
Afterward, Lily’s mother invited us all out for drinks. There wasn’t a clear company policy on socializing with patrons; it was more of a ‘use your best judgment and don’t embarrass the company’ kind of implied policy. But I knew Rose and Lily were friends and she wasn’t just strictly a client. Plus, I was looking at spending the evening alone in my hotel room, so I agreed. I was, however, a little disappointed that Penelope didn’t have other pressing plans, since she agreed to go as well.
I was trying to have a good attitude about it though. Besides, Rose and Lily were both friends with her, and I liked both of them very much. And, as if I needed another reason to try and handle being around her, my mother vouched for her too. It seemed as though I was the only one who had a problem with Penelope Price.
And for a while, I was pleasantly surprised.
Lily’s mother gave me the address to a super-swanky bar in the nicest part of Paradise Valley and Richard drove me there. In fact, he’d been quietly waiting for me all day. I felt badly for him and offered to take an Uber back to the hotel to give him the rest of the evening off, but he argued that he was contracted for the entire day. I sighed and let him drive me.
Lily’s mother was given the royal treatment when we arrived at the bar and we were led directly to a table in the far corner where it was dark and private. The whole bar was elegant, all dark mahogany and candle light.
We all ordered drinks and Lily’s mom requested some light appetizers, and then we engaged in what could only be described as a regular old happy hour. Lily waxed poetic about her dress, Lily’s mom waxed nostalgic about her daughter, and, much to my surprise, Penelope was perfectly pleasant.
“So,” Lily said between sips of her sugary martini drink, “are you going to go back and try the dress on?”
“What dress?” her mother asked, friendly and curious.
“Riley found a dress she was in love with but didn’t try it on because she was ‘working.’ They said they would hold it for her though.” Lily’s eyes turned back to me. “I think you should go back. You should call your mom and have her meet you there and you can try it on.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I also feel a little bad my best friend isn’t here.”
“We can totally Skype her. Or video call her. You know you’re never going to find a dress like that again. Plus, is your mom planning on going to Portland to go dress shopping any time soon?”
I let out a laugh. “No. I wasn’t even planning on looking at dresses any time soon.”
“So this is perfect!” Lily exclaimed, practically bouncing in her seat.
“Just call her,” Penelope said encouragingly.
“What the hell,” I said with a smile and pulled my phone from my purse. I had a text, but I cleared the notification, pulled up my contact list, and hit Send on my mother’s number.
“Riley?” she answered with a question in her voice, and I couldn’t blame her. It had only been a few weeks since I saw her last and we didn’t usually talk terribly often.
“Hey, Mom. Got a minute?”
“Yeah, honey. What’s up?”
“Well, I came back to Arizona for some business today and, well….” I realized I was nervous. Nervous to ask my mother to come with me to try on a wedding dress. Sadness crashed over me because I didn’t want a strained relationship with my mom. I wanted to feel comfortable talking to her more than every few months, and I wanted to be able to tell her things and call her just because.
“Riley?” she asked again when I didn’t finish my thought.
“Sorry,” I said, taking a deep breath. I suddenly wished I hadn’t made this phone call at a table full of practical strangers. “I’m here in Paradise Valley with a bride, and today at the dress shop I found one I want to try on. So, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. Tonight. To see it.”
At first there were no sounds from the other end of the line, but eventually I heard my mother take in a gasping breath before she asked, “You want me to come with you to try on a wedding dress?” I could tell she was close to tears and, truth be told, so was I.
“I mean, I know it’s last-minute and it’s getting late on a Monday….”
“Baby?”
“Yeah?”
“When and where?”
I didn’t know if it was her calling me baby or just the sound of her voice when she assured me she’d be there to watch me put on my very first wedding dress, but something inside me snapped back into place, something that had been off for a while.
I told my mom which store and asked her to meet me there in an hour, told her I loved her, and then we disconnected.
When I looked back up at the ladies at the table, Lily and her mother were wiping tears from their eyes.
“Can I come too?” Lily asked, her voice wavering.
I shrugged and smiled. “If you want.”
“See? It all worked out. I told you your mother would want to come.” This came from Penelope. And while she wasn’t tearing up like the rest of us, she was giving me a friendly smile.
“Thanks,” I said, finding that I meant it. I was, in that moment, thankful for the push to call my mom and make the random, impromptu wedding dress event happen.
“Anytime,” she said, then stood from the table. “I’ve got to run to the ladies’ room. Excuse me.”
“I can’t believe I’m going to try on a wedding dress,” I said, finally letting the excitement come over me. I turned my gaze to Lily. “You wouldn’t mind holding the phone so my friend Hadley can watch, would you?”
“Of course not! This is so exciting!”
“It has been a rather eventful day,” her mother added, lifting her glass and taking a sip of her drink.
“Oh, Mom, I forgot to show you the new floral idea I saw on Pinterest. I think it would look great on the tables.” Lily reached for her tiny purse which was resting on the table just above her plate. Her fingers wrapped around it, but as she pulled it toward herself she knocked the dish of cocktail sauce over, spilling the red liquid all over the table and into her lap. “Shit,” she whispered. I didn’t have time to comment on it being the first unhappy word I’d ever heard her mutter, but I did spring up from my chair.
“I’ll go get some club soda from the bar.” She didn’t respond as she was busy wiping up the sauce from her lap, but I dashed to the bar and grabbed the barkeep’s attention. “Can I get a glass of club soda, please?”
“Sure thing,” the young woman replied, obviously picking up on the fact that I needed it in a hurry as she moved quickly.
“I just thought you should know what she’s been up to in your absence.”
I heard Penelope’s voice even though it was obvious from the hushed tone she was trying to keep her volume down.
“She spent the whole time with Lily in the dress shop looking for her own dress.”
My eyes shot down the bar to where I saw Penelope with her back to me and her phone to her ear.
“Riley is going back to try on a dress this evening. If you don’t believe me, text Lily and ask her what she’s doing tonight. She’s going with her.” Penelope paused and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. “Listen, you’re my best friend and I just don’t want someone taking advantage of you. You’re paying her to be here and assist Lily, not plan her own wedding.” Another pause. Rage was flowing through my veins on hot blood. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I listened as Penelope said goodbye to Rose, and then I couldn’t contain myself anymore.
“What is your problem?” I asked as I came up right behind her.
She turned around with a surprised expression but quickly cooled it to a calmer mask or indignation.
“I was just making sure my friend knew what was going on when she wasn’t here to supervise.”
“You’re full of shit, Penelope. You know what? I knew you were a bitch. From day one I knew you were out to get me, and you haven’t changed a bit since high school.”
“I wonder if Rose knows how vulgar you are toward clients.”
“You’re not a client, you’re a leech.”
“I’ll make sure Rose knows exactly what’s been happening today. How you used company time to do your own personal business, and how you’ve spoken to me.”
“You go ahead and tell Rose whatever you want. I’m done pretending as though you’re not crazy. You always have to be the center of attention.” I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at her. “You wanna know what I think is really going on here? I think you’re jealous that Lily is getting married and that Rose is a successful, strong, capable, and powerful businesswoman. I think you find yourself, for once, in a situation where you aren’t the focus, so you’re finding a way to boost yourself up while bringing other people down. Just like you did all through high school.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She tried to be firm, but I could see the way her eyes wavered and her lips trembled.
“Don’t I?” I couldn’t hold back the scoff that escaped me. “You go ahead and tell Rose whatever you want. She knows my work ethic and she trusts me to be here without her. In the end, you’ll just end up looking like the pathetic excuse for a friend that you are.”
I turned away from her, grabbed the tall glass of club soda the bartender had placed next to me, and returned to the table.
“Here you go,” I said, placing the glass on the table with more of a thump than I’d intended.
“Thank you,” she said as she dipped her linen napkin in the glass and then went to work on her skirt. She rubbed furiously, then dipped her napkin again and returned to her skirt.
“You should probably get that soaking,” her mother offered.
“I hope it isn’t ruined. This is one of my favorite skirts.”
“Okay,” Lily said exasperatedly as she set the napkin on the table. “I think I’m going to run home and change and let this soak. I’ll meet you at the dress shop, okay?”
“Sounds good. I hope the stain comes out.” I got up and kissed both Lily and her mother on the cheek, then sat once more and let out a deep breath. There had been so many times in my life where I’d thought about what I would say to Penelope Price if I had the chance. If I could let my filter down for just a minute and tell her exactly what I thought about her and the hell she’d put me through. I wanted to tell her how her treatment so many years ago had affected me even still to that day.
“Can I get you another drink?” the waitress asked as she started clearing the table.
“No, thank you. But can I get a glass of water?”
“Sure thing,” she said with a smile.
Just as she walked away, Penelope returned to the table. But instead of indignation I saw surprise on her face.
“Where did everyone else go?”
“Lily got cocktail sauce on her skirt, so she and her mom left to go soak it.”
“Oh.” She looked at me for a moment, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know where to start, but the words didn’t come. Instead, she turned and started to leave.
“Penelope,” I called out before I could think better of it. “Listen,” I started, wondering where all the anger I’d felt five minutes before had gone. Where had the years of pent-up frustration with this woman disappeared to? “Can we start over?”
Penelope’s eyebrows darted up, but she didn’t say anything in reply.
“Can we talk like grown women? Have a discussion? Face-to-face? Instead of calling bosses behind our backs or taking these feelings with us to the grave? Can we just talk it out?”
Penelope stared at me for a moment but eventually turned back to the table and took a seat.
“I’m listening,” she said haughtily.
“Okay,” I said, drawing the word out. “I’m sorry.” The words stung coming out. I never wanted to apologize to Penelope for telling her to shove it, but apparently I was. “I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I was just really upset. It seems that you’ve been out to get me for a very long time.”
Penelope rolled her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
“I guess I’ve just been harboring some ill feelings toward you since high school. Can I ask why you were always out to get me back then?”
“Out to get you?” she asked, anger clear in her voice. “I wasn’t out to get you. You thought you were better than everyone else.”
“What in the world are you talking about?” The volume of my voice had skyrocketed, so I tried to rein it in. I continued in a loud, harsh whisper. “I didn’t think I was better than anyone. I was just trying to survive being targeted every single day by mean girls who picked on me.”
“Oh please, Riley. Stop playing the victim. You’ve been doing it for far too long and it’s a tired ploy.” She rolled her eyes again and I felt the urge to reach over the table and smack her right in the forehead. I wouldn’t do that, obviously. But I could imagine it. And I did. “The minute you moved to Paradise Valley, you decided you were better than everyone and my friends and I were totally beneath you. You never came to parties, you never went to football games, and even when we invited you, you’d ignore us.”
“Ignore you? You weren’t really inviting me! You were teasing me! You never wanted me to hang out with you.” My hands were waving around on their own accord. I had absolutely no control over their gesticulations.
“Maybe toward the end of high school we weren’t serious, but that’s because you spent so much time ignoring us. When you first moved here, I tried to include you, to bring you into my circle of friends, but you had a cold shoulder from day one.”
My mouth was hanging open, but there were no more words coming from it. My mind wandered back to when I was fourteen. I remember Penelope asking me to hang out a few times when I first moved there, but I felt so out of place, so insecure, I turned her down. But I never thought I was too good to hang out with her friends. I honestly couldn’t imagine why she and her friends would want to hang out with me to begin with, so I assumed they were just messing with me.
Was it possible that years of insecurity and angst were the result of legitimate miscommunication?
“Let’s just put what happened in high school aside for a minute. Why in the world would you call Rose and tell her all those terrible things about me? I wasn’t using company time to plan my own wedding. What you saw, me admiring a dress and someone putting it on hold, was the extent of it.”
Penelope’s eyes fell to her lap where she was fiddling with something. If I didn’t know better, I would think she looked ashamed. “It’s been hard the past couple years watching so many people around me lead really incredible lives. Rose is running her own business and doing fantastically. Lily has a great job too, but now she’s getting married to a really fantastic guy. And I’m happy for them, don’t get me wrong, but it’s hard being the only person who isn’t moving forward.” She took a deep breath, her shoulders rising with the inhalation, then let it all out in a whoosh, including her words. “I guess you were right and I did want to feel better about myself by bringing someone down.”
She looked contrite, but then the mask came back down over her eyes.
“You’ve always had good things in your life and never appreciated them, Riley. Maybe I was trying to give you a little perspective.”
“What?” I cried, my face scrunching in confusion.
“Like your mother, for instance.”
At the mention of my mom my hackles immediately rose. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wasn’t about to sit there and listen to her trash-talk my mom. “What about my mother?” My eyes narrowed and my jaw clenched tight.
“You were always inconsiderate! She was working her tail off so you and your brother could go to a great school and you were always so rude to her. She worked hard every day and I always watched you mouth off to her. At least your mother cared about you! My mother was too busy going to galas or having lunch dates with her snobby, rich friends to care enough to come see me sing in the choir or watch me cheer. But your mom was there for you all the time. And for me. She was more of a mother to me than my own.”
My face pulled back in surprise at her words. Those words were the very last ones I expected to come out of her mouth.
“Wait, you were jealous of me because of my mother?”
Suddenly, Penelope wasn’t furious or bitchy—she was just sad.
“Your mom was the closest thing I had to a real mother, even to this day.” A tear streaked down her cheek. “Do you know I go to her house every Sunday for brunch? She talks about you all the time. She’s so proud of you.”
I never liked Penelope, but in that moment, hearing the sadness in her voice, I wouldn’t be human if it didn’t affect me. We didn’t get along, we weren’t friends, and I couldn’t tell you one thing about her on a deeper level, but I could understand needing someone—especially a mother figure.
“I didn’t know.” My words were whispered and I fought the urge to reach out and run a hand down Penelope’s arm in support. She was obviously fighting back tears.
“Well, all those years she spent in my house, cooking and cleaning, I saw her every day. She was always trying to convince me to befriend you in the beginning, and I tried, but after a while she stopped pressing the issue.”
“Even if you and I don’t see eye-to-eye, I’m glad my mom was there for you. I know what it feels like when you think your mother doesn’t care about you, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Suddenly, it was awkward between us. We weren’t friends, but I didn’t feel like we were enemies anymore either. We’d obviously just misunderstood each other for the last decade.
Penelope looked at her hands again, a nervous expression coming over her face. “I’ll call Rose later and explain what happened. I’ll tell her the truth.”
“I’d appreciate that.” I tried not to let the surprise I was feeling seep into my voice. Penelope had never apologized for anything before, and she’d definitely never tried to make amends. “We don’t have to be enemies, you know.”
She took in a deep breath and then exhaled in a rush. “I know. And I don’t want any more enemies. Maybe one day we can even be friends.”
“I can always use more friends.” Those were honest words. If Penelope wanted to be friends someday, I wouldn’t turn her away. But in that moment, I was satisfied with not having an archnemesis anymore.
“I’m going to go home,” she said, stepping away from the bar. “I hope you love that dress. And I hope your wedding is amazing and everything you want it to be.”
There had never been a time when I hadn’t questioned the sincerity of Penelope’s words, but in that moment, I knew she meant what she said. It was refreshing.
“Thanks,” I said with a smile I hoped showed her how I genuinely appreciated her words.
Penelope gave me one last sad smile and walked away. I watched her go and then let out a breath. What a strange half hour it had been. I could only hope that Penelope did as she said she would and called Rose to explain. And even if that happened, I still had to hope that there wasn’t any blowback on me. It couldn’t look good that there was drama happening while Rose was away. The last thing I needed was for my boss to lose confidence in my ability to do my job, regardless of the situation.
I dropped a few bills on the table for a tip, as Lily’s mom had already covered the bill, and walked out to meet Richard. Even after all the craziness of the day, I was still secretly excited to try on that dress.