Page 89 of Nothing to the Wedding

Oh, brother.

Drama.There would need to be a lot of sex if they ever wanted to level this seesaw.

Anjelica wasn’t done.“If I was there, at the hotel, in there, he would’ve seen me and—she’s jealous.She knows he’d pick me over her.”

Huh, maybe this wasn’t what she’d thought it was after all.

“I’m the bad guy?”she asked Mieux, not mad or offended, just clarifying she had it straight.“I’m the bad guy.Okay.”

Shining from the screen, the woman at the center of her view was beautiful and people were interested, crowding up close, maybe trying to listen.Either Anjelica had fans or the cohort wanted to be on camera.There were usually at least a few of those folk as soon as the lens rose.Not that she could judge, she had her own damn lens, many of them, and didn’t shy from glittering in front of them.

“What do you want to do?”Mieux asked.“Security?Salad?”

“No!God, no,” she said.“That gives her words so much more weight.We ignore it.”

“Ignore it?”

“Ignored it the first time.”

“Didn’t Zairn want to say something the first time?It’s horrible.I can’t believe he would—”

“We don’t dignify it.”Their reaction would get more press than one woman making unsubstantiated claims.“Where’s Tripp?”

“At the club.”

“Tell him to keep his ass there, and to stay out of the fire.Just because there’s a beautiful woman in the mix does not mean he has to mobilize,” Roxie said, taking the tablet as Mieux retrieved her phone from a pocket.

A pocket!On a dress like that?She should be buying custom.

“He’s your friend.”

“I know he means well…” Didn’t people always?Intentions.Path.That kind of thing.“But she could be his future wife for all we know.It’s better that we don’t acknowledge it, don’t give it our airtime.”

Especially on that day of all days.

“We don’t dignify it?”

“Exactly.”

With that clarification, Mieux put the phone to her ear, going a little away to talk to Tripp.

The device grabbed her attention again.

“All these people out here…” Anjelica spoke louder, over the din of the masses.No one was shouting, as such, the noise just came with the volume of the interested community.Maybe hosting their après reception in a city club hadn’t been the best idea.“They’re here because they love him.”

“If he wanted you in there, why weren’t you invited?”someone asked off-screen.

From behind the camera?Was the speaker the one holding the lens or just some random in the crowd?

“She would never let that happen,” Anjelica said, raising her chin.“She controls him.Everything about him.”

“‘Cept where he sticks his dick if we’re to believe you.”High score to the heckler.“Which is it?”

Raising the screen, she increased the volume.“Wait…”

Did she recognize that voice?

“She manipulates him,” Anjelica continued.“He’s sweet and passionate, she takes advantage of his kind heart.”