Page 51 of Little Gray Dress

“I told you,” Liam says, planting a kiss on my cheek.

I can’t help but scan the room to see if Jack saw it. How dare he believe anything other than what we’re presenting? How could he even know I didn’t meet Liam until a couple days ago? There is no way he’s telling the truth.

“You told her what?” Josh asks.

“That she’d be the most beautiful girl in the room.” Both Lily’s and Josh’s eyebrows rise in confusion.

“That’s too sweet.” I force a pinched smile in their direction to gloat about me being the prettiest. “It’s not true, but it’s sweet.” It might not be completely true but that doesn’t mean I have to ignore it.

“I think it’s true,” Liam says to me, but his attention is on Lily and Josh’s disbelief.

“Thank you. How was Greta?”

“She’s an odd one, that’s for sure. She kept asking what I thought of your hair. And your spray tan.”

“Why should she care about those?”

“I don’t know, but she made sure to tell me what a morning you’d had, how everything had gone wrong for you, and that you’re always this unlucky. She advised me to run as far from you as possible.” He laughs when he says it. I, however, can almost feel the steam rising from my head. How dare she try and control the situation through my date!

Wait… Did she…?

“You don’t think—” I start to ask Lily, who is nodding her head.

“It makes sense, considering nothing went wrong with any of the other girls.” She inhales through her nose, her nostrils flaring. “I can’t believe we didn’t see this before!”

“She sabotaged me?! For what?” I say it far too loud, causing people near us to turn in our direction.

Right then she and Jack walk into the room. Without a further thought I start marching towards them until I feel a hand pull me to a stop.

“Emi, I don’t think this is a great idea.” Liam tries to stop me but I pull away from him and stomp my way to them.

“YOU BITCH!” I spit at her in a quiet hiss but I can’t seem to keep it very quiet. “You did this.” I point to my hair and Greta starts to back away from me, putting Jack in between us as a human shield.

“What’s going on?” Jack asks, looking back and forth between Greta and me.

“She hates me… For what, though? You know she tried to make me look like a complete fool today?”

“Come on…” Jack glances at a trembling Greta. “She would never…” His face drops in disbelief when she doesn’t offer any explanation or denial.

“Ask her… Ask her about my hair, or my spray tan…”

“PLEASE WELCOME, OUR STAR COUPLE… MR AND MRS… EVAN AND HANNAH HARRISON.” The DJ interrupts us and we all stop to glance at the doors that Evan and Hannah are running through, hand in hand.

“Emi, let’s not do this here.” Lily and Liam are now at my side, trying to convince me to walk away from Jack and Greta. But I can’t.

“Not until she admits it.”

“Girls… What is going on?” Amelia approaches us, glancing back and forth between us. “I’m not sure what’s happening, but let’s move it outside the reception.” She corrals all of us out into the hallway, Greta keeping Jack between us as a buffer. “Now what is the problem?”

“Tell them, Greta.”

“There is no problem, Mrs Cabot.” Greta shrugs her shoulders with a nervous laugh, probably trying to convince herself that she hasn’t been caught.

“How did you even get in my room to change the shampoo?”

I wait for her to answer, but she just rolls her eyes.

“Or the spray tan, how did you set that up? The hairdresser who fried off my hair, was that planned or was that just a lucky coincidence?”

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