Page 24 of Little Gray Dress

“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—”

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