Page 2 of Rich Girl
“I wouldn’t want to ruin your seating chart.” Janine, who is sitting next to Emma, snorts in her glass of alcohol at hearing my words.
“What’s she gonna do?” Emma intervenes on my behalf. “Just bring a random to the wedding? You don’t do that.”
“Not a random,” Adeline agrees. “But we can find her a suitable date. Derek has a lot of friends, and…”
“I don’t want to show up with any of Derek’s friends,” I stop her before she has time to continue. “What’s the big deal if I show up alone anyway?”
“But you can’t!” Adeline sounds like she is about to have an emotional breakdown over my lack of a date for her wedding.
“Maybe I’ll bring my mother,” I shrug. I’m not sure my mother will be in town at the time, but if I beg and throw a fit, she might stay.
“Your mother?” Adeline sounds horrified at the prospect. “That would ruin everything!”
“Whatiseverything?” Janine dares to ask.
“I have the table for the bridesmaids set up in boy-girl-boy-girl formation,” she explains. “If you bring your mother, it will be boy-girl-girl.”
I just stare at her, wondering if she is serious, or if she is just messing with me.
“What if my date was a girl?”
Janine grins at the prospect. She lifts the brim of her floppy hat so she could see us better, changing positions in her chair, like she is about to watch a good show.
“What do you mean?” Adeline looks confused.
“What if I was gay?” I spell it out for her. “My date would be a girl. What would happen with your seating chart then?”
“Well…” She has a pensive look on her face, mulling things over. “I’d have to move some people around to make it work, but it would be doable.”
“So why can’t she bring her mother then?” Emma asks the obvious.
“Because!” Adeline throws her arms up in frustration. “I can’t redo the seating chart now. It’s too stressful.” Her voice is shaking by the time she’s done talking. “Do you know how manyguests we have? Almost a thousand,” she yells at us, not giving us a chance to guess a number. “Nine hundred and seventy-two people, to be exact.” She then turns and points a finger at me. “I cannot have nine hundred and seventy-one. Do you understand?”
“I do,” I say automatically.
“If you want to bring a girl, bring a girl. I don’t care if you bring an alien off Mars,” she finally says with a huff. “I just need them to be dressed appropriately for the occasion.”
There’s a brief pause during which none of us say a word. We just stare at each other.
“I thought Mars had no actual sign of life,” Emma finally chooses to speak up. “So…”
“Shut up!” Adeline points at her now.
She then takes a deep breath, trying to center herself. She brings the drink to her lips, takes the straw out and drinks it all the way to the bottom.
“Since neither one of you ever got married, you don’t understand how stressful it is when you are involved in planning a wedding.” She is speaking a lot more calmly now. “Hayden,” she addresses me. “Bring whoever you want to the wedding, just bring somebody. Anybody.A live body.” Her voice raises the more she speaks. “I don’t want an empty chair.”
“What about the boy-girl seating chart?” Janine snickers.
Adeline’s head just about swivels when she turns to look at our friend. Janine’s face becomes instantly serious, but it is obvious that it’s not easy trying not to laugh.
“Adeline, calm down.” I try to diffuse the situation. I feel a bit responsible for it since it is my potential date that’s causing all the drama. “I will figure something out, okay?”
We fall into silence. There are couples roaming around, some laughing in the pool, but it is clear that everyone has a decenthangover going on. It is still early in the day, and they all partied into the night.
One particular couple catches my eye. The man can’t keep his hands off the woman. I try to think back and wonder if Chase was ever like that with me. He’d always been extremely polite. The sex was okay, not earth shattering, but he’d make me come, so that was a good thing. But he was never the type to show affection in public like that. He wasn’t even showing affection like that in private.
I realize with a start that I have no idea why I am so broken-hearted. I guess it is caused by the sadness I am feeling at the thought of not having the future I thought I would.
