Page 7 of The Wedding

Etta looked into her eyes as they climaxed, one after the other. Jamie whimpered. She was submissive, but not conquered. Loved, but not put on a fabricated pedestal. That was all that mattered. Just the two of them. In love. Connecting as two lovers often did.

“That was pretty damn fantastic.” Etta pulled back the covers. “I need to sleep.”

Jamie wanted to crawl in and huddle in her arms, but she had to go to the bathroom to decompress first.Women.More likeEtta.She loved to come in hard and fast for their quickies. If Jamie was lucky, she got a few tender kisses before Etta knocked herself out.

Keeping her eye on Etta as she fell asleep, Jamie went into the bathroom.She almost looked cute.If a powerful businesswoman slightly over thirty could lookcute.Jamie figured she had the right to think her girlfriend was cute.I wonder what she looked like as a child.She saw so few pictures of Etta’s childhood. Mostly because there weren’t any.She would’ve either been the most adorable, chubby-cheeked girl or a holy monster.Jamie decided on the former.

What would our kids look like?That was a strange thing to think as she lingered in the bathroom. Yet she thought it anyway becauseJamie waffled back and forth on whether she wanted kids.Not right now. Definitely not right now.First, she wanted to be married. Monique was doing it the right way. She had talked about wanting to have a child someday.“It’s best course to be married first, naturally,”she had said.“Yet that doesn’t stop an unmarried woman from thinking about it, especially if she’s in love with the future co-parent. And it’s a good idea to get a jump on the whole donor business now in case it takes a while to, you know, take.”

Jamie looked back at Etta. She had one arm cast over her face to block out the light still on by the bed. Jamie did her best not to disturb her when she finally curled up against Etta’s chest.Our kids would look good.She went to sleep that night not thinking about the impossibility of their mixed genes and instead of how, in some perfect world, any kid she had would somehow look exactly like Etta.

Chapter 3

Jamie was the only one on the plane who didn’t complain about a lack of Wi-Fi. Even Monique, who was usually the most considerate person in the room, griped that she would have liked to keep an eye on a party at her Manoir that weekend.

It’s not a long flight…Two, three hours if they hit a headwind. Otherwise, these privileged women could do without for a few hours. Wasn’t it good enough they were in a luxurious private plane with plush leather seating… for everyone? Even Etta’s plane she kept on hand at the local airport wasn’t as nice as this. Jamie was content to draw her legs up in her beige leather recliner and watch the American landscape pass by thousands of feet below.

According to everyone else flying with them, however, this was simply the worst thing to ever happen. How much was Eve paying for this flight? Couldn’t she have secured one with working internet?

“Stop blaming me,” she finally snapped. “Sheesh, you all are too connected to your girlfriends.” Eve glanced at Kathleen sitting next to her. “Especially you. Calm down. You’ll see Ira again and can tell them all that nasty stuff in person.”

Kathleen shoved her phone in her pocket. “Ever since you got Lasik, I can’t trust anything around you.”

“Honey, I’ve been reading your dirty texts for years now. I never needed Lasik for that.”

“Anyway, it’s not what you think. She’s giving me the hardest time about going to a bachelorette party in Miami. Did you know that I am in danger of seeing another woman’s vagina?”

“We can only be so blessed,” Monique said from her chair, eyes half-closed as she fell asleep for the third time that hour. “I mean…”

“Bride’s getting cold feet.” Eve took off her white blazer, revealing a blue blouse dotted with tiny, hand-beaded fringes that matched her white trousers. “Five-thousand bucks says my sister-in-law never becomes my sister-in-law because she ran off with Carmen in Miami.”

“Who’s Carmen?” Jamie asked.

The five other women on the plane looked at her as if she had just asked what the capital of Africa was. “Carmen is the chick who is stealing Monique away from us because she’s not a one-woman girl, no matter how much she says she is.” Eve poured herself some iced water before sitting down again.

“That’s your sister you’re talking about,” Kathleen reminded her.

“I know. Gross.”

One of the other women, a young strawberry blonde named Gwenyth, woke up from her mile-high doze. “How many women?”

“Now this is what I’m talking about,” said the woman next to her. Charlotte had hair darker than Jamie’s, and that was a feat. She also had the fakest tits in the cabin, which she prominently displayed in her purple dress. “Pussy talk.”

“None of that stuffy business-like at the shower.” Eve glanced at Jamie. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay… I know what you mean…” Jamie laughed, uneasily.I hope I know what she means. Okay, she had to stop laughing. Things were getting weird on the airplane again.Jamie was considered Monique’s closest friend there, yet she felt so out of place with this bunch that she was liable to open a window and jump out without a parachute.I am so dramatic sometimes.She couldn’t help it. She had a stomachache – and a headache – all week. It was probably ovulation being a bitch, as it sometimes was, but Jamie was tired of taking medicine for it. She wanted to enjoy a bachelorette party in Miami. Not throw up all over it after one drink.I don’t think I have the flu…She had no other symptoms, not even a slight fever.I should go to the doctor, though. When would she have time? There was a wedding in a week!

“Tell your girlfriend that you’re sleeping with no less than three ripping, big-chested women who are as smooth as a baby’s bottom.” Eve pointed to the phone in Kathleen’s pocket. “Do it on Zoom. I want to see her face.”

“I will do no such thing… and it’s no fewer than. Really, and you’re in grad school?”

“Nobody said businesspeople got good grammar. That’s for you grant writers.”

Ain’t that the truth?Jamie spent an inordinate amount of time correcting Etta’s grammar. The woman wasn’t ignorant of the language she spoke, but it was clear some things were missing from her English education growing up in some of the worst public schools in the state.Yet she got into Yale. It took all kinds in the world.

“How are you doing?” Jamie asked Monique while everyone fell into the most inappropriate conversations they could muster. “You’ve looked a bit gray this whole flight.”

“Oh… I’m not the best with flying, particularly if there is any turbulence.” Monique fingered the rim of her empty glass. “Would you mind getting me some water? I’m afraid I’m too nauseous to get up.”