“Shit!”
“What? Are you okay, Tasha?” He sounded slightly alarmed at her panicked tone.
“Fine, but it would appear that you may not have bought me anything.” She turned to the assistant. “Excuse me, can I use a different card to pay, please?”
“Sure, I can cancel this transaction if you prefer.”
Tasha nodded and watched on as the assistant ensured it was Jim’s card that was charged.
“See, you’ve got this, baby.” He laughed, realising what had happened.
“Perhaps I should leave my own card at home to avoid any further confusion or errors,” she muttered but kind of meant it because if she was never using her own card there was no point in carrying it.
“Loving that idea, baby. Have you got new shoes yet?”
She watched her new Louboutin’s being packed away. “That would be telling, but I have to go now,” she told him, smiling at his likely reaction to her purchase.
“Okay honey, but don’t forget I’m seeing Bobby this afternoon. Bye.”
Juan grabbed her hand and led her across the street to a bistro that he knew.
They sat at a corner table and chatted for a while until their lunch arrived.
“How are the wedding plans coming along?”
“Good, although Kayla is doing most of it to be honest.”
“Jim was not happy when you coerced Kayla into removing Mickie from the guest list,” Juan revealed.
“I hadn’t realised anyone else was aware of that.” Tasha was genuinely surprised by this.
“I happened to be doing the pool the day after he found out and he was letting off steam to Jon.”
“Was he indeed? What did he say?” She was intrigued, especially as Jim had revealed nothing of this, although she had been in no doubt about his annoyance on the matter.
“This is just between us, Tasha. He was saying that you had undermined him in front of Kayla and Mickie because he had assured her that she would be welcome and that you wouldn’t hold a grudge. He then said he may have a guest of yours removed without your knowledge and see how you liked it when they were a no show on the day.”
Tasha stared across at her friend and wondered if Jim had followed through with that threat, it would certainly be very Jim like. Had she underestimated his annoyance and his desire to return the favour? He had allowed her to reason what she’d done and had accepted her insistence of no Mickie quite easily by his usual standards.
“Jon was the voice of reason and said that if he thought about it rationally he would see that you’d done it for you both and he should be thankful that Mickie wouldn’t be there to bitch and spoil things.”
“But Jon is her brother-in-law so I’m surprised he’d take my side.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think he would choose to have Mickie as a friend out of choice, he’s stuck with her.”
“So, what’s the story with you two, you and Mickie?” asked a gossip hungry Tasha, with Mickie clearly in her sights.
“She’s a complete bitch. When I first started seeing Philip she was very friendly and drew me in, pretending to be my friend, but she used me for information about Jim. One day I happened to say something innocent to Jim about a question Mickie had asked me about who he was seeing and he got seriously pissed about it because he hated the fact that she was trying to get the upper hand and use it against him in order to further herrelationshipwith him.”
“What did Jim do?” Tasha was virtually on the edge of her seat imagining how mad Jim would have been.
“He went ballistic. They’d already slept together I believe, but he was mightily pissed and told her if she ever tried anything like that again she’d be gone. He was mad with me too, but merely warned me to remember that he could be a very good friend or a very, very bad enemy. She was equally as pissed with me and did everything she could to get Philip to dump me; she set me up with strange guys in strange situations, introduced Phil to loads of gorgeous guys and even tried to get me sacked by Jim from the cleaning of his pool and from the studio and when that all failed she told me that whenever I screwed up she’d be on hand to see what she called myfall from grace.”
“Shit. For the record he continued shagging her after that.” Tasha felt slightly jealous as she thought of them together, something she tried to block out as much as she could.
“I guessed as much, but Jim never flaunted it or even acknowledged it really and I never saw her at the house like a girlfriend. I think he would like to forget it.”
“Maybe. So you hate her, she hates you and me. Everyone keeps telling me to watch my back with her, but I would just like to forget her too,” admitted Tasha.
