Page 11

Bailey

The devil must be in New Orleans because I’ve never acted on impulse like I did with Charlie on Friday. I was thankful that Andi had big plans for us Saturday and I didn’t have to see him. I think we both needed a break after I practically shoved my tongue down his throat.

Blessed Bridal Boutique boasts enough white lace and silk to cover the entire city. They welcome our party with open arms and, to Andi’s dismay, Sarah, Tom’s mother, has already arrived. She looks like she could work here, in a matching white pantsuit without a speck of lint on it. It’s elegant and classy, putting my butt cheek baring shorts and strappy top to shame. Her sleek brown hair is tied up into an elegant French twist, not a single hair out of place.

“Oh!” she gushes, taking both my hands and pecking both my cheeks with her lips. “Bailey. It’s been so long. You look . . .” She pulls me back to inspect me, her eyes lingering on the pink of my toenail polish. “Splendid. How is your mother?”

“Psychotic,” I answer, before I can stop myself. Andi’s eyes go wide with fear and my heart stammers in my chest for a moment before Kendra laughs, allowing everyone else to play it off.

Jesus, Bailey. Get your shit together.

We try on dresses and I actively hold myself back from talking, so that I don’t say something to set Sarah off. Tom’s such a nice guy that it’s hard to believe his mother is the Wicked Witch of the South. She bosses the entire store around, even doing so to other customers. Fortunately for her, everyone else that’s not in our party seems to love her.

I get it. She’s sophisticated, like my mother, and just as beautiful, with enough money to buy every dress in the store.

Luckily, she doesn’t bother me much since my comment about my mother. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Andi. I bite my tongue when she tells Andi she’s not paying for this wedding, so her opinion isn’t needed. I even manage to bite my tongue when she tells Andi that she would like to design the seating chart because Andi doesn’t know who can sit by whom.

But I don’t, however, bite my tongue when she starts talking about Andi not being good enough for her son.

It started out with a snide remark about a few extra pounds Andi has put on since Tom met her. It ended when Andi went to the dressing room crying .

“I just don’t understand why you need something so form fitting,” Sarah muses when Andi comes out in her dress. It’s beautiful, handcrafted with a lace bodice and a mermaid bottom in silk. It’s molded perfectly to all her curves and the stark white pops against her tanned skin.

“She’s beautiful,” I quip, pulling back from hugging Andi. Andi tugs at my hand, so I offer my best fake smile to Sarah.

She doesn’t even notice.

“I just think that maybe we need to try a fasting diet. At least until we can get those hips smaller.”

“I think the dress fits her perfectly,” Kendra chimes, smiling at Andi.

Ella, the worker helping us, looks between us like she’s gearing up to hold one of us back. Probably me, if I’m being honest.

“This doesn’t concern you, Kendra. Charles and I are paying for this wedding.” Kendra looks taken aback and tears well in Andi’s eyes.

“Her opinion matters. She’s her stepmother,” I quip, my voice low, but throbbing with anger.

“Nonsense,” Sarah says with a wave of her hand. “Now, Andi. If you want to make my son happy, you’re going to have to go down a size or two.”

“Your son hasn’t said anything about my weight.”

“Everyone can do better, dear. If you want to be better than Cecilia, you’ll have to try a little harder.”

Fucking Cecilia. She’s just like Priscilla. A pest.

“Why bring Cecilia into this? They haven’t been together for two years,” Andi snaps, a tear running down her cheek.

Sarah lets out a sigh like she can’t stomach the thought of being in the same room with us anymore.

“The point I am trying to make, Andrea, is that you are not good enough for my son in your current state. He deserves someone worthy of him. You are too busy. You do everything for him a wife would do. How could he ever respect you with morals like that?”

Andi’s bottom lip wobbles and before I can cut in, she hurries to the back of the shop and into the dressing room. Kendra stares between Sarah and I, like she can’t decide what whether she wants to go for Andi or jump on Sarah.

“Kendra,” I murmur, standing from the couch. “Can you go check on Andi, please?”

She nods once, giving me a look before disappearing down the hall where Andi had gone, leaving just Sarah and I standing in the small area dedicated to Andi trying on her dress. Ella follows after her, checking back over her shoulder as she does.

“My, she’s going to have to toughen up.” She turns to me, holding out a flute of champagne. “You understand, don’t you, Bailey? With your mother and her husband. A woman married to a man in a position of power needs to be at her very best. It’s what I had to do with Seamus.”

“Did you know there are rumors about you, Sarah?”

She almost chokes on her champagne.

“Poor folk make up rumors everyday about the rich. It’s what they do.” She waves her a hand at me, but her face pales.

I chuckle and step forward, lowering my voice until only the two of us can hear. “My stepfather is one of the best lawyers in California. People from all over the country pay him a lot of money to win big cases for them. Don’t think I can’t get the case against you over Tom’s father’s disappearance reopened.”

“Excuse me?” she snaps, taken aback.

“Isn’t it suspicious that you worked as a waitress up until you met him? You got pregnant with Tom and he died a year later, making you a very rich woman. Not to mention how healthy he was and you ordering them not to complete an autopsy.”

“What are you getting at?” she grits, lowering her voice.

“I’m telling you to leave Andi alone if you enjoy your life as it is. If she sheds another tear, I will make sure my stepfather goes for the full penalty of the law.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.” I take a step back from her, needing some space from her perfume. “Oh, and her name’s Andi.”

Sarah eyes me, setting her champagne glass down, the pink lipstick mark on the brim catching my eye.

“What does you mother think, you shacking up with Andi’s brother?” She scoffs. “You didn’t think anyone would notice the tension between you two?”

“What my mother thinks is irrelevant. Marcus owes me a favor. Wouldn’t it piss you off if I got you locked up for free?”

“Bailey? ”

I look over Sarah’s shoulder to see Andi standing in the doorway that leads back to the dressing rooms. She’s still in her dress, but most of her makeup is gone. Cried off.

“I think it’s time for you to leave, Sarah.”

Sarah looks back at Andi and Kendra, then at me. Silently, she grabs her overly expensive Louis Vuitton bag, purses her lips, and struts toward the door.

“Bitch,” she murmurs as she passes.

“Cunt.”

“I can’t believe you said that to her!” Andi exclaims with a laugh. After Kendra calmed her down, she came back from the dressing room to find a missing Sarah. I explained what happened and I don’t know that I’ve seen Andi that happy in a long time.

The rest of the appointment had gone well. Andi’s dress fit perfectly, despite what Mommy Dearest had to say, and we were even able to bring it home. It’s currently hung in the hallway closet of my rented house, next to mine, to avoid Tom seeing it at home.

Kendra went to do whatever Kendras do in their spare time and Andi and I came back to the house to make the centerpieces for her tables. Faux white flowers, wrapped with twine and centered in mason jars with small twinkling lights. Thirty of them.

“I just can’t stand that she said that to you. Who does she think she is?” I huff, tying a piece of twine too tight and having to start over. “I don’t understand how anyone that cruel can raise a man as nice as Tom.”

“Kind of like how people so nice raised a girl as horrible as Priscilla.”

That piques my curiosity. “Why do you say that?”

“Well,” Andi shrugs. “For starters, Priscilla is manipulative. She can play Charlie like a fiddle and he lets her because she’s familiar to him.”

“You mentioned he did time in jail because of her?”

I know I’m being nosy, but I’ve been dying to know just what kind of girl could land Charlie Coulter in jail. He’s made it perfectly clear: he has sex — not relationships. The man is a walking one-night stand.

Andi narrows her eyes at the flowers of mine she’s rearranging. I told you I’m not good at décor.

“She cheated with some rich kid. Charlie caught them, obviously, because it was in his bed. He beat his ass and spent a weekend in jail. He never told me who it was.”

In his bed. Been there, suffered through that. My mouth fills with saliva, a familiar nausea boiling in my stomach.

I clear my throat. “And did anything else come of it?”

Andi shakes her head. “The guy dropped the charges because Dad threatened to sue everyone for trespassing. We were at Mom’s funeral when it happened.” She tosses the flowers back in her lap. “What goes through your head to make you do something like that to someone you supposedly love?”

While we were at his mom’s funeral. The funeral he already blames himself for. My eyes burn, my heart aching for Charlie.

As big of an asshole as he is, no one should have to endure that. Even Drew didn’t do something like that.

“What’s worse, is she keeps coming around, playing with him.”

“Yeah, I know,” I grumble. “Remember?”

“I mean, she’s trying to get back together with him. I can feel it and I don’t like it.”

It feels like acid is burning my tongue. I completely agree with Andi and as much as it pains me to say it, I’m a minuscule, tiny, microscopic bit jealous. Just a little. It’s not that I like Charlie — I’ve never met a man who pisses me off more — he’s just the first male interaction I’ve had in months. Nothing will come of it, but if Charlie’s going to go off the market, I would rather it be with a nice girl.

I think.

Until then, Priscilla can get her own.

“What does your dad say?”

She rolls her eyes, placing the twentieth jar to the side.

“He doesn’t know what to think. He doesn’t like her, but he can’t really tell Charlie what to do.”

“He can banish her.”

Andi laughs. I hadn’t realized my idea was that outlandish.

“I’ve tried. He won’t do it.”

“Well, shit,” I mumble, stabbing flowers into a vase.

“Charlie just needs a good girl to show him how great he is. I mean, he will help anyone. He cares, even if he doesn’t show it. I know he did some shitty things he didn’t want to in order to take care of Mom. Priscilla just makes him feel worthless.”

“How so?”

“Well, I’ve been told she’s the reason he blames himself for mom’s death. If I ever hear her say that, I’ll kick her ass.”

I want to laugh because the thought of Andi beating someone up is funny to me, but I actually think she would for Charlie. She would do anything for her family. She was ready to fight Drew when he cheated on me. I can only imagine what she would do if she heard Priscilla say those nasty things about Charlie.

“Let’s change the subject,” Andi says, untangling a string of lights. “Tell me again how you told Sarah you would sue her if she didn’t leave me alone.”

I snicker, but deep down, I worry I may have caused more problems.

After we finished all thirty jars and ten extras, Andi and I loaded them into the spare room for safe keeping. I had to practically swear in front of a court of law that I would protect them with my life.

Sunday, Andi had a big paper to finish, so she wasn’t around. I didn’t mind. It gave me the opportunity to work on my book, something I’ve been neglecting in the days that I work at the restaurant .

I write most of the day, reaching well over what I ever thought was possible and yet, I’m still unsure if what I have is even publishing worthy. My grandma would buy it, just because she’s sweet. Probably Mason, Savannah, Cora, and Andi. Mom would buy it just to yell at me for the smut. The odds of this becoming anything aren’t in my favor, but I press on, well into the night.

By the time two in the morning rolls around, I’ve rewritten half the book. I settle on a place holder name for sexy-unnamed-heartthrob, choosing Heath, until I can find something better for him.

I had this great idea that the two characters could meet and just instantly be drawn to each other. I’ve since thought it would read so much better if they absolutely loathed each other until one night they spontaneously make-out in a courtyard behind a busy restaurant.

I’m still awake when I hear Charlie come home next door and I debate turning my lights off and pretending to be asleep, but that would be letting the enemy win. Or whatever he is now.

A kiss doesn’t guarantee he’s not still an asshole. Plus, I kissed him, not the other way around. I can’t even explain the thoughts in my head leading up to that moment. It was like I had two tiny Baileys on my shoulders: one an angel, telling me to be nice and do the right thing by walking away, the other was a little devil, telling me to fuck his brains out. You can see which one won that argument.

But he’d kissed me back . . . that’s the part I’m struggling to wrap my head around. I’ve never experienced such a toe-curling, passion-infused kiss in my life — even with Drew.

Before I fall asleep, I google if hate kissing is a thing, but it just takes me to a bunch of Cosmopolitan articles about hate fucking — something I don’t plan on partaking in anytime soon.