“Oh my god, look at you,” she said, approaching us and shaking her head. “How the hell are you?”
I hadn’t expected her to hug me, but she did.
“Hey, Jessie. How are you?”
She’d been one of my secret friends in high school. One of the local teens that I’d hung out with to piss off Allegra. I’d found her recently on social media and saw she still lived locally and was a makeup artist, so I hired her for the wedding.
“Well, you look different. I’m loving this color.” She lifted a few strands of my hair that I’d touched up a few days ago so it was fresh.
“Thanks. Um, this is Lea. She’s my…date.” The word was hard to say, but I’d have to get used to saying it today. For all intents and purposes, she was my girlfriend for the day.
“Nice to meet you. I’m sorry, you look so familiar,” Lea said.
Jessie squinted her eyes and turned her head to the side. “You do too. Wait, do you teach Pilates in the city?”
Lea grinned. “Yes, I do! There it is.”
I didn’t like the way Jessie looked Lea over, but there was nothing I could do about that.
“Come on, I’ve got us all set up this way,” Jessie said, leading us down a long hallway. I heard very familiar yelling coming from one of the rooms and made sure to duck my head and not make eye contact with anyone that we passed.
Once we were in the room, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Here we are,” Jessie said, gesturing to her setup. I might have changed since high school, but she was almost exactly the same, with the exception of armfuls of tattoos and a few more facial piercings.
“Who’s first?” Jessie asked, holding onto the back of the chair in front of the mirror with all sorts of products meticulously laid out.
“Do Vail first. She’s more important,” Lea said, and I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t worry, I can multitask,” Jessie said, wiggling her tattooed fingers.
* * *
Jessie chattedup a storm as she put our hair in rollers and started on my makeup. I told her she didn’t have to go all out, but she was doing it anyway.
Lea was a willing conversational participant, and I could see that Jessie was flirting with her. Whether Lea was flirting back or just being nice was the question. It was infuriating, but I had to sit there while Jessie brought out my best features and turned my hair into soft waves that she then twisted and pinned back. It was an elegant look, but as if it was the end of the party and I’d danced all night. I liked it.
Stepping behind a curtain, I put on the dress that Allegra had sent me. Of course, it fit perfectly and wasn’t the kind of thing you could wear with any kind of underwear, so I didn’t put any on. When I came out, Jessie was giggling with Lea and it was really getting on my nerves. I shouldn’t have hired someone I knew. I should have picked a random stranger who wouldn’t flirt with my date right in front of me.
I cleared my throat and Lea met my eyes in the mirror. Hers went wide.
“Oh, Vail. You look…wow.” She opened and closed her mouth a few times and her cheeks went pink, and it had nothing to do with the cosmetics Jessie applied with her fingers. Shouldn’t she be using a brush? I couldn’t remember if she’d used her fingers on my face. I hadn’t been paying attention to what she’d been doing.
“Lovely,” Jessie said, winking at me and then going back to Lea.
“You look beautiful,” Lea whispered and then I was the one who was blushing. Compliments never did much for me, but Lea looking at me like that was…it was something.
Something good.
* * *
When Lea steppedout from behind the folding screen, I actually lost my breath. That had never happened to me before, but my god.
Her dress was a dark purple that was almost black, with a slit up to her thigh and a sweetheart neck with a sheer overlay that covered her a little so it wasn’t as revealing.
Jessie had lightly curled her hair and swept it up elegantly, showing off the column of her neck.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
