Page 98 of Best Kept Vows

“Hold it, young lady. You can’t accuse me of that,” Coco squeaked.

We all heard a flush and fell silent.

Two more women came in, and they went about their business, and a woman sat down in the lounge area to check her phone.

Aurora strolled back in and took her time washing her hands. “You know, Lia, it’s incredible being here with all these amazing women, isn’t it?”

“Yes?” I said hesitantly.

I wasn’t sure what Aurora was up to, but it wassomething. She was a soft-spoken woman, but she was also Savannah’s royalty-in-waiting, Betsy’s daughter-in-law, and one of the sharpest women I knew.

“When I came to my first salon, I was worried how I’d be received.” Aurora turned and leaned against the counter. “Here I was, from the wrong side of the tracks, not even remotely Savannah society. And let’s not forget”—she dropped her voice—“notwhite, yeah?”

Dolly and Coco’s ears went red.

Aurora had heard Coco, and they knew this did not bode well for their chances to be invited toanythingthat had to do with Betsy Rhodes, which was a slap in your face in Savannah.

Also, if Aurora told her mother-in-law about the comment made by Coco, Betsy, who was known to hold a grudge until a meteor decimated the planet, would make sure Dolly and Coco werepersona non gratain Savannah.

“But they accepted you?” Ada asked, feigning innocence.

Aurora shrugged with nonchalance. “Most did. But some…well, we don’t have to talk about them because Betsy made sure I didn’t have to see themanywhereI went…with or without her.”

Talk about a not-so-subtle threat.

Aurora turned to look at herself in the mirror, but her eyes were on Dolly’s as she checked her face and removed a smudge of lipstick under her lip.

“You know, Dolly, if you were nice to Lia, she could getyou an invitation to the nextle salon. Betsy is in love with her. Do you know”—she now turned to face them—“Betsy was so impressed with Lia’s speech during her graduation that she got her a job interview with Nina Davenport?”

Dolly swallowed and then cleared her throat. “I…may have heard….”

Any second now, she’d be clutching her pearls…or rather her diamonds.

“Well, we better be heading back.” I looked at my watch for no good reason. “We don’t want to miss the next speakers.”

Dolly and Coco looked at me expectantly. After all, Aurora had pretty much said I could invite them. I thought about it. I wasn’t a petty person, but I was also not going to be a doormat. These two didn’t have a place in a progressive salon where women were talking about how to become better stewards of society and have more agency. They also didn’t deserve it because they wanted theprestigeof talking about having attended such a gathering without appreciating or contributing to it.

And, let’s face it, these two had been class-A bitches to me.

“Be seeing you, Dolly, Coco.” I sashayed out of the amazing ladies’ room, Aurora and Ada behind me.

And just like that, I leftthembehind—in their self-made misery, marinating in their bitterness.

That evening, when I told Sebastian about what happened, he said, amused, “No wonder women spend somuch time in the ladies’ room. I swear to God, you could find a way to cure hunger and bring about world peace from in there.”

CHAPTER 32

Sebastian

Istayed at the apartment for a few nights at first, then a week, and then a whole month, after which I simply moved in.

My clothes hung beside Lia’s, and we shared the master bathroom. I set up my laptop in the guest room.

I’d basically handed the house over to the real estate company we hired to sell it, telling the maid service and the gardener to continue taking care of it until it was sold.

It didn’t take long.

Eight weeks after we put the house on the market, we had excited buyers who gave us the asking price. Since we’d lived in the house for nearly twenty years and didn’t owe any money on it, we made a very good profit, one that, if invested wisely, would allow us to live well, even if neither of us worked a day again.