Page 44 of When Fate Breaks
“Okayslooowdown, tiger. Take a breath,” Leah cuts off my tumultuous ramble, patting my back.
I do as she says, feeling the blood rush back to my face. “Sorry. I guess I did have some things to say about the situation after all.”
“Uh huh. I’m glad I got through to you when I did. I think you may have exploded if you were left to your own devices for another day.”
“Sorry,” I repeat, pushing my hair out of my face.
“Stop apologizing, Annie. It’s okay to feel confused and freaked out. This is a very…confusing and freaky situation.” When I just groan in response, Leah continues. “Look, you’re not an idiot. You’re a human. And this is a very human reaction to what’s happening in your human life. Yes, you invited Blake to come, but, if you’re somehow forgetting, heagreedto come. So, chances are, maybe he also didn’t hate the idea of seeing an old friend, just like you.”
I turn to look at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, obviously. I mean…why else would he agree to fly across the country and spend weeks fixing up some rickety old greenhouse?” Her gaze flicks to and from my face, her expression unreadable. I swear I see her lip twitch, but I choose to ignore it.
“Right. Yeah, of course.” I swallow hard.
“So he has, what, another week or so until he finishes?”
“Just about.”
“And then he’ll be done.”
“Right,” I confirm.
“And then he’ll leave.”
“Yes,” I mutter.
“And then everything will be good?”
Something strange suddenly burns at the back of my eyes. I blink hard, pushing the feeling away. “Yep.”
“Well, there you go. No big deal,” Leah says.
“None at all,” I say firmly, I think convincing myself as much as I’m convincing Leah.
“In the meantime, however, you might want to see a doctor about that constant projectile vomit urge. I think that may be the one thing I can’t help you out on.”
I chuckle as Leah brings the truck to a stop, turning into the parking lot of the dress store she’s been trying to drag me to for weeks. I see a blur of pink pulling in behind us and wince. “Crap. I forgot to tell you.”
“What?” Leah asks, her head twisting to follow my gaze. “Oh,hell.”
“Lori Beth may have asked…or insisted…that she join us.”
Leah and I both watch as the bubblegum pink Cadillac parks next to us in the parking lot. After a quick reapplication of her bright lipstick in the exact shade of pink as her car, Remy’s most notorious, and only, aunt pops open her door and steps out into the gravel parking lot with impressive ease for someone wearing nearly five-inch stiletto heels. She fluffs up her bleached to a crisp and teased to high heaven hair in her rear view mirror before she catches sight of me and Leah. We both instantly and robotically plaster on the fakest of smiles, waving at her.
“I’m back to wanting to trade you in. That still not an option?” Leah whisper-shouts out of the corner of her mouth as we both open our doors.
“It’s funny that you think I had any say in this matter– Oh, hi, Miss Lori Beth! It’s so nice to see you.”
Lori Beth smiles as much as her standoffish personality and tightly stretched skin allow. “Yes, it is, isn’t it?” she affirms, side-stepping my hug and extending her hand to me like a queen would to a peasant. I accept it, shaking it awkwardly as I try to ignore Leah’s gaze burning a hole in my back.
Aunt Lori Beth is an enigma I’m not sure I can even explain. She is somehow one of the coldest and most isolated people I’ve ever known while also being the most insistently present and involved. Although she always seems like she'd rather poke needles in her eyes than have to socialize or participate in anything, she manages to show up without fail to every gathering in town, always coming dressed to the nines and entering the room as if every establishment or event exists for her and her alone.
I am 99% sure that the only person Lori Beth has ever shown or felt any true human emotion towards is her oldest nephew, which just so happens to be my fiancé. So, when I became a figure in Remy’s life, I simultaneously became a figure in Lori Beth’s life.
Yay for me.
Since the moment Remy and I got engaged, she has been sending me passive aggressive text messages on a daily basis, attempting to involve herself in the wedding planning process, and, because I barely want to be a part of the process myself, I have done absolutely nothing in satisfying her needs. Leah and I making this appointment to shop for my dress for the wedding shower was the first and only solid wedding related plan I have actually nailed down, so it was safe to say Lori Beth had given herself an invitation to come within the very second she caught wind of it. I’m still not even sure if the woman likes me, yet she wants to watch me try on dresses for hours.
