Page 27 of The Wedding

Another sigh. “Yes, but I’m gonna have to look into finding some volunteers to help me. Need to start making some calls to people who owe me big after I helped them.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jamie was led to the wash station and couldn’t hear anything more over the sound of rushing water all around her ears. By the time Raul was finished massaging her head and making sure every black strand was properly washed, Kathleen was also at a wash station, and nothing more about her charity came up while Jamie was there.

Maybe I should do some volunteer work.That’s what Jamie thought as she walked out of the salon and got back in the Town Car. She checked her phone for messages from Etta – nothing. She was still in meetings. Jamie thought about swinging by her office to see if she could do lunch but decided against it. Jamie didn’t want to be reminded of their current issue until it was sorted out.

She instead asked her driver to take her to a restaurant she liked near downtown. He dropped her off just in time for her to beat the lunch rush.

Jamie liked coming to these sorts of establishments for the atmosphere – the “real people” feel, where she didn’t have to watch her manners as much and where people didn’t shoot her dirty looks because they heard she was Etta Coleman’s floozy. People at this restaurant had no idea who she was and didn’t care – unless she came in wearing super designer clothing and carrying her favorite bag. Today she carried Michael Kors, and nobodycared.

Since she was dressed more for comfort than style, Jamie settled in a booth, ordered some tea and a sandwich, and pulled out a notebook she always carried in her bags.

“Volunteering,” she wrote in the top margin. Beneath it, she jotted a list of numbers.

What could she do? Well, there were schools, homeless shelters, and of course the cute fuzzy animals. Jamie circled that last one because she was an animal lover first and foremost, if her cats were considered. She liked dogs too. And bunnies! She even liked animals that weren’t considered “cute,” like reptiles and fish. She got used to them growing up with hippie parents. They went from having a cute two-bedroom house with a backyard full of chickens and pigs to spending her high school years living on the outskirts of a co-op plantation. After she graduated and went off to college? Her parents fully joined as residents.

Maybe I should call my mom… Talk to her about the whole… thing.Except Jamie rarely talked to her parents. They had so little in common! Etta hadn’t even met them yet!

Besides, Jamie didn’t want to think about any of that until after Wednesday.

After lunch, Jamie tackled retail therapy. She went to the nearest mall, a place that was a far cry from the shopping neighborhood she went to in Miami. Back when she was a poor girl working temp jobs and living in a veritable pit of Hell, this was the place she came to so she could window shop and dream of spending a hundred dollars on a dress or bag. She didn’t buy much that day, though. Nothing really caught her eye, aside from a few pieces of jewelry in a place that sold cubic zirconia and fake gold. She stood in front of the pet shelter that was there once a week and cooed at the kittens piling on top of each other – while there, she made a considerable donation that brought all the volunteers out to thank her.Let’s just say my rent used to be that much.Jamie also bought some handmade catnip toys to take home to her furry squad.

No, what killed her on that trip wasn’t the pet shelter. Nor was it fresh pretzels. Nope. What shot her right in the heart was a toyshop.

Excited kids running around, picking up train sets, dolls, puzzles, model cars, and planes, franchises that were both familiar to Jamie and new.Things sure have changed.A boy pretended to have a tea party with his baby sister while a girl rolled around with a water gun.

“Do you think they have anything appropriate here?” asked a woman behind Jamie. She saw the reflection of a heavily pregnant woman and someone who was probably her mother in the window. “I’m not familiar with this place.”

“They must have baby toys in the back. Definitely stuffed animals. Let’s go inside!”

Jamie followed them in. The mother and pregnant daughter went to the children’s books first, while Jamie meandered down the stuffed animal aisle.

She didn’t know what she was looking for. She searched the mountains of stuffed dolls and animals. Perhaps a good five minutes went by, with other parents coming and going, some children begging for this doll or that.Who knew?Jamie was lost – literally and figuratively.

Finally, her hand snatched something. She held up a stuffed white cat, sitting primly with a smile on its face and a loose tail wagging back and forth with the movements of Jamie’s hands. A marble in its head made it sound like it was purring.

Clutching it, Jamie took it up to the counter without even looking at the price tag.

“Where to?” her driver asked fifteen minutes later. Jamie stared into the toyshop bag, looking into the smiling eyes of the stuffed cat.I love cats… would my kids love cats?Or would theybe like Etta, who was completely indifferent… even if she were a cat magnet? The kind of woman who claimed to not care but was soon taking care of a hundred kittens as if it were a matter of course?

Does she want kids? Are we gonna have kids one day?Jamie stared into the bag while the driver waited for an answer.Can I even have kids if I really have reproductive cancer?

“Let’s go to Etta’s office,” she blurted. The driver pulled the car out of its parking space.I don’t know why I’m going there.The hormones were making her do it. She wanted a hug from her girlfriend while she was in town. Maybe she would suggest going to the penthouse that night so they could be alone.And cuddle. I want to cuddle her forever.Etta would probably fall asleep in two minutes, but that was okay.

The concierge on the ground floor nodded at Jamie as she walked by, one shopping bag in hand. The elevator attendant gave his greetings. Jamie didn’t even have to ask to go to the executive offices. The attendant recognized her, not only from her days of working there but from being his boss’s girlfriend.

The office was relatively quiet when she arrived. All she heard was the fountain by the elevator and the occasional ring of a telephone. Natasha sat behind her receptionist’s desk. As Jamie approached, that head of blonde glanced up, double taking before sucking in her breath.

“Hey,” Natasha greeted, her white teeth glistening. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I was in the neighborhood.” Jamie clutched her two bags. “Is Etta in?”

Natasha dropped her smile. “She is, but…”

“But?”

“She’s in a very important meeting and doesn’t want to be disturbed unless it’s an absolute emergency. Like… you’ve got your entrails dragging behind you kind of emergency.”