Page 14 of The Wedding

The mood shifted. Monique’s employees sat on the other side of Jamie, and they immediately began whispering and opening up their coin purses. One of them, a strawberry blond named June, looked quite smug. “You all better start coughing up,” she hissed. “I’m gonna be a rich woman in five minutes.”

Monique absorbed the tension like the professional she was. Helen took her hand and gazed into her visage. Etta draped her arm along the back of Jamie’s chair and leaned in. “This should be good,” she muttered into Jamie’s ear.

“While everyone is already gathered here to celebrate our marriage, they might as well be happy about something else.” Monique sucked in her breath, causing a tiny ripple of feedback through the mic. “I’m sorry. But I’m not sorry about this. Helen, I’m pregnant.”

Gasps took over the room. June smacked the woman next to her and demanded payment. Monique’s mother fanned herself while the Warner crew attempted to maintain carefully donned propriety – except for Eve, who downed the rest of her champagne after learning she was about tobecome an aunt.

Etta shot hot breath onto Jamie’s shoulder. “I thought that was the case.”

Sorry, I’m still in shock.Monique? Pregnant? Well, that explained a few things. No drinking. Clothes not fitting. Crying on the phone and getting randomly angry at Helen, of all people. “I have so many questions,” Jamie blurted. “Who’s the father?”

Etta ignored that. “At least that’s a mystery confirmed.”

“She told you?”

“No, but she told me that more than this wedding was changing her life.”

“She told me that too.” Jamie watched as Helen pulled her bride into her lap and embraced Monique.Is it tacky to announce you’re pregnant at your wedding?Jamie supposed the rich could get away with it.I wonder if she was trying…Hadn’t she quipped about using a donorbeforethe wedding? Had Helen even known her bride had gone ahead with the plan? That was the only way this made sense. Monique was gay… and monogamous!My head hurts.

“This changes a few things.” That was the last Etta spoke of the matter.

The reception continued with murmurs, photos, and dancing as the live band and singer finally got into the groove. Jamie left her shoes at the table when Etta asked her to slow dance, and she wasn’t the only barefooted woman swaying to the music. She was, however, the only woman who wasn’t Monique who danced with a woman like Etta Coleman.

Jamie could have fallen asleep against her shoulder by their final dance, Etta’s arms wrapped around her and chin resting atop her head.This is the most intimate we’ve been in a long time.Something coiled in Jamie’s body. It was probably all that champagne.

“I love you.” Etta’s fingers brushed through Jamie’s hair. “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy.”

“To be fair, I’ve been busy too.” Jamie inhaled Etta’s new favorite perfume. “Although I’ve been busy with this silly wedding business. You’ve been busy with important… business.”

“Is that what it is? Feels like babysitting a bunch of suits and struggling to keep my investors and shareholders happy.” She pulled away at the end of the song. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to sit…”

Etta halted, gaze traveling over Jamie’s head and to the dance floor. When she turned, Jamie caught a well-to-do woman in a beige sheath dress looking back at Etta.

“Adele…” she said softly before the woman pulled away from the dancefloor. “No… can’t be…”

“Etta?”

She snapped out of her trance and returned to the banquet table. Jamie followed, not sure what was going on.

The wedding wound down. The few reporters allowed had a field day from both the festivities and Monique’s surprise announcement. Jamie heard the headlines ready to run on the next edition.“New Mrs. Warner Announces Coming of Newer Baby Warner.” “Extra-marital Or Extra-Adorable?”Jamie had one more duty to perform, and that was helping Monique get to the main foyer of the manor, where guests gathered to watch the tossing of the bouquet.

A hundred single women huddled at the bottom of the stairs. They were all too well brought up to fight over the bouquet –, quite a few, including Eve and Kathleen, made a mad exodus so that thing wouldn’t come anywhere near them – but the expectation on their faces said that, whether they had lovers or not, they better be married by next year.

Jamie pushed into the front of the crowd. Not because she expected anything, but because she feared Monique standing onthosestairs inthoseshoes.

She definitely did not expect a bouquet of roses to land right inher arms.

Women around her tsked and walked away, pretending that they didn’t care. Jamie stood, shocked, looking between the bouquet and Monique’s hopeful demeanor a few steps above her.

“Just toss it right into her hands, why don’t you?” Charlotte muttered beside Jamie. “Like throwing a bone to her ex-girlfriend…”

A photographer jumped in and flashed a bulb in Jamie’s face. Blinded, she stepped back, right into Charlotte.

“Give it three months at the most,” Monique quipped on her way by Jamie. “You’re welcome. Farewell!” She was off to a limousine with Helen, ready to hop a private plane to Europe for their honeymoon.

There wasn’t much to wait for after that. Once the wedding was over, Etta swept in to collect her girlfriend and usher her to their own limo so they could start the long drive home.

“I can finally relax,” Jamie said, slipping out of her shoes again. Etta rolled up all the windows, including the divider between them and the driver. “I’m so glad that’s over.” She wouldn’t dare bring up the bouquet. “Will be even more glad to get home.”