Page 24 of Take Me
But we’re friends, so I ask, “What do we have in common besides the fact that we’re both fabulous?”
Hazel laughs, which she doesn’t do often.“We both play our cards close to the vest.We don’t let on when we like someone until it becomes utterly, painfully, embarrassingly obvious.”
“That sounds…” Awful?Miserable?Embarrassing?“Accurate.”
“Exactly.So I get why you wouldn’t want anyone to know about you and Mason.”
“You’re not upset?”
“Not at all.”
“This is why I love you.”I turn to the mirror, admiring my fancy borrowed outfit.“And Ireallylike this top.”I turn to the side and admire how the creamy crochet flows into a triangle that points at my crotch.“Aren’t tube tops kinda hoochie?”
“It’s not a tube top.”Hazel sighs.“It’s a cotton and suede luxury bandana top from Miu Miu, which is made by Prada.”
“I recognized ‘cotton’ and ‘suede.’The rest of that went over my head.”
With the patience of Job, Hazel gets up and comes over to floof up my outfit.The skirt skims my knees like a slinky-soft dream, and it looks like a dark blue bandana.We’re going for a scarf theme, I guess.
I already asked what it’s made of, and Hazel said, “silk.”After she dressed me, I ran to the bathroom to pee.While I was there, I Googled the label and nearly dropped my phone in the toilet.The skirt’s made by ETRO and cost four-thousand dollars.
“I can’t wear this.”I tried to take it off when I got back to my room, but Hazel wouldn’t hear of it.
“Why on earth not?”She wrapped a snappy jean jacket over my shoulders.“It’s perfect for a barn wedding.”
“If you’re the freakin’ Queen of England, maybe.”Christ, I’ve owned cars that cost less than this.
“The Queen of England wouldn’t be caught dead attending a wedding at a wildlife sanctuary.Quit fussing and put on the boots.”
I obeyed and politely refrained from asking if those cost more than my house.The jacket seems like something I might have found at a thrift store, but I knew enough to guess it probably came from Paris and was sewn with the gossamer hair of a dozen denim-clad angels.
Have I mentioned Hazel has lots of nice clothes?
“Thanks again for looking in on my dad while I’m gone,” I say as I survey myself in the mirror.
“I’m happy to.”
“I wish you were going to the wedding.”
“Same.”She looks a little wistful.“Leave it to the board of trustees to schedule a meeting on a wedding weekend.”
“To be fair, we’ve got so many weddings lately that it would be tough to find a weekend without one.”
“True.”She still looks bummed.It’s gotta be tough running her father’s zillion-dollar business alone.
“I’ll sneak you an extra-big piece of wedding cake.”
“Deal.”Hazel smiles.“I’ll split it with your dad.”
She’s so damn kind.It was her idea to check on my father a few times this weekend.He’s perfectly independent, considering he’s spent more than two decades in a wheelchair.
But thanks to his previous life as a construction contractor, my father has trouble resisting the urge to tinker with the house.He’s got a cool, all-terrain track wheelchair he uses to get around job sites and navigate our wooded acre at the south end of the lake.The oldest section of our house was built in 1963, so there’s plenty to fix, and even more ways to wind up in trouble.
“I told him we can play chess and eat Cheetos,” Hazel says.“He seemed to like that.”
“Is that why he had me grab three different flavors at the grocery store?”
“I don’t even like Cheetos.”
