Hyacinth glared at her. “You do that. Tell them I sent you and watch them quake at the sound of an American’s name. I would greatly enjoy it.”
Jamie was not asked to speak for the duration of lunch. Neither was Adele’s date, who was silent and merely there to be Adele’s +1, regardless of what they did in their personal time. Oh, he took some notes here and there. Covertly, beneath the table. Jamie wondered if she should as well, but didn’t want to look uncouth.
She employed everything Adele taught her. Proper eating etiquette, posture, endless silence, and always projecting a pleasant aura when she could put her mind to it.This is going to be the end of me.Jamie spent so much time focusing on her behavior that she could barely focus on what was going on at this prestigious meeting. Adele did most of the talking, but Etta would occasionally answer a question regarding the company’s financials. She did not talk down to Hyacinth – not that it was in her nature to talk down to women in a business setting – nor did she assume Hyacinth could not understand the terms and figures thrown at her. Hyacinth would continue to eat and drink, one ear open while she barked at her staff and looked at Adele as if she were trouble.
Jamie survived lunch. They were given a second type of wine for dessert. Hyacinth explained that it also came from France since her European tastes were a lot like Etta’s – when she held a country dear in her heart, it stayed there forever. Only a matter of time until Etta started hoarding Italian wines. Well, more so than she did already.
“So, about this wedding of yours,” Hyacinth finally said in Jamie’s direction. She didn’t doubt that it was directed at the both of them, but it was Jamie she glared at. “How long have you two been dating, exactly?”
Etta answered on their behalf, giving a figure that started from their first date instead of when they were official. “We had planned on having the wedding next June, butthe papers…”
“Yes, the papers botch everything. How unfortunate.” Hyacinth continued to stare at Jamie, gesturing for a waiter to refill her guest’s wineglass. “And how are those wedding plans coming along? I may be able to rouse myself to go if it’s not too far away from here.”
Jamie froze, tongue trapped against her throat. “Ah…”
“Everything is coming together,” Etta said.
“That’s wonderful. I’d like to hear that from her, if you don’t mind. Or can your fiancée not speak? I swear I heard her formulate words earlier.”
For probably one of the first times in her life, Etta flinched, her cheeks pinking and brow perspiring.Lord.Jamie took a deep breath and spoke through a smile. “As Etta says, madam, things are coming along. We will be hosting the wedding at the estate. A garden wedding.”
“Garden, you say?” That piqued her interest. Jamie had forgotten about the cross-breeding flowers. “Intriguing.”
“Oh, yes. Etta has one of the most beautiful flower gardens I’ve ever seen.” Jamie quickly corrected herself, as Adele was about to mouth something ridiculous at her. “Until today, that is. I daresay that your flowers out front don’t compare to anything else in the world.”
“Those things? I save the best ones for out back. Do go on.”
“Well, there’s…”
Slow motion had never been so torturous. Yet that’s exactly what happened when Jamie extended her hand to finger the stem of her wineglass. Not that she should have. It was a nervous tic. A habit. Something for her hands to do while she tried to speak coherently and with the confidence of someone like Adele.
Yet her hand didn’t quite wrap around the stem. Instead, her fingers missed entirely and knocked right into the full glass.
Wine spilled all over the handstitched lace of the tablecloth. From France. An heirloom from Hyacinth Winston’s mother. Spilled it right out and covered half the white lace in a deep, toxic red.
More than one person leaped up from the table, gasping in absolute horror. Hyacinth was not one of them. She merely spared Jamie a look that said,Look what you did.
Chapter 30
Jamie couldn’t get out of bed Tuesday. The shock and mortification over what she had done at the Winston Estate had her in a haze. Like she was on drugs, and not the fun kind her parents brazenly lit up when they thought nobody was looking.
By the end of Sunday, however, she had heard the full extent of the damage she caused. Hyacinth gave Thompson-Coleman some money, but it was only a quarter of what had initially been discussed. Etta had been billed for the extensive care necessary to salvage the family heirloom.Twenty-two thousand dollars. For a wine stain removal. Apparently, it was done by hand, too.
Adele made an emergency trip to Seattle, where an old business acquaintance still owed her a sizable sum of money. It was her hope that she could collect and supplement what they lost from Hyacinth, but there were no promises. If they didn’t have the money by the start of June, they were in trouble regarding some enterprise they wanted to expand. Jamie stopped listening at that point. She was too sick over what she had done and ruined for her fiancée.
Etta kept telling her that it wasn’t her fault. “She was looking for anyreason to not give us money. I don’t want her money anyway.” That’s what she said Sunday, after Jamie had to collapse on the bed and never get up again. Her shame weighed heavily upon her. And the sour looks Adele kept giving her! “Please don’t hold yourself responsible. The money to fix her tablecloth doesn’t mean anything to me. The odds of you seeing her again are negligible.”
Yeah, right.
By Monday, word had spread. Jamie made the grievous mistake of going downtown to consult with Jenny on wedding matters. Everywhere she went, people whispered.“Did you hear what Jamie Joy did to Hyacinth Winston’s priceless tablecloth?”People laughed when she walked by. Others expressed their concern that she had ruined her fiancée’s business prospects for at least a year. “That’s what she gets marrying a used mare like her. If Etta has any sense, she’ll cut her a nice check and send her on her way. Do you think she has a thing for brunettes? Because I volunteer to be the next future Mrs. Coleman. I hear she’s wild in bed, too.”
Jamie was in tears by the time she returned home Monday night. She hid it from her staff and parents, all of whom were in the guest house anyway – apparently, Beatrice had gotten over her reservations regarding the hippie nudists and now entertained them in the evenings. Although she requested they wear some underwear before sitting on her couch. Last Jamie heard, they were drinking beer and playing Taboo. She could almost hear their uproarious laughter.
Etta told her she was overreacting. She had already moved on from the incident. After all, hadn’t Jamie embarrassed her in worse ways before? But Jamie could never live this down. She was no longer the no-name assistant her boss sometimes boned on the side. She was Etta Coleman’s fiancée. There was no room for mistakes anymore. Yet it seemed the harder Jamie tried, the worse she made their collective situation. Etta offered to “make her feel better,” as her hand got friskier, but Jamie turned herdown for the first time in a long while. She wanted to sleep forever.
So on Tuesday morning, she decided to not get up. Fuck getting up.
“You all right?” Etta asked, buttoning up her shirt as she readied for work. “You sick?”
