Glancing up, I saw a Barbie with platinum-blonde hair, wearing a hot-pink miniskirt, a shiny gold off-the-shoulder top, and pink-and-gold cowboy boots, pointing toward the center of the room.Beside her were two other women, who were dressed much more casual, carrying what looked like massive bags of inflated balloons.
“We only have an hour,” she told the other women.
“Yes, ma’am.We can get it done in thirty minutes,” the older lady told her.
“Excellent.But I want it impressive.I have the pink roses coming.They’ll be here shortly,” the blonde, who I assumed must be Saylor, said.
Then she swung her gaze over to us, and a big smile spread across her face.
“All right, ladies, let’s deck this place out!”she said, clapping her hands.“I can’t wait to see what all Halo bought.”She made her way over to the boxes we had opened.
“Elsie, this is Saylor,” Noa said.“Saylor, Elsie.”
Saylor held out a hand with long almond-shaped nails that were also pink with some shiny rhinestones decorating them.“You’re as gorgeous as Gathe claimed,” she said.“It’s nice to meet you.”
A large diamond ring added to all the glitter on her hand as it rested just above a band lined in its own diamonds.Whoever Saylor was, she was married.To which of the guys though?
I shook her hand, and then she let go and began to pull things from the box between us.
“I was worried about Halo’s taste, but she did good!”Saylor exclaimed.“Aren’t these adorable?!You can use these on the balloon arch too,” she told the women who had started putting together poles that apparently were going to become an arch.
Saylor picked the box up and carried it over to them.It contained shimmery pink and pearl hearts of different sizes.
“The more pink, the better,” she added.“Add in the gold like I said, but pink is our primary.”
Seemed she’d dressed to match the color scheme.This one was high maintenance, but I liked her energy.
Another set of footsteps that were heavier drew our attention to the doorway, and an attractive man appeared, carrying several white shopping bags.
His gaze went directly to Saylor.“Where do you want them, baby?”he asked her.While his wavy, dark brown hair was long enough that he had it in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, he seemed more clean-cut than the other men around here.There wasn’t a darkness behind his green eyes as he looked at Saylor as if she had, in fact, hung the moon and he worshipped at her altar.
“Kitchen, please,” she replied in a sultry voice.
He nodded his head once, then headed that way.
“Oh, I’m preoccupied with all this.Elsie, this is my husband, Jude.Jude, this is Elsie.The houseguest I told you about.”
He gave me a brief, friendly smile.“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Uh, you too.”
He continued on then, and Saylor spun around to beam at us like a kid in a candy store.
“Time to get to work.”
And we did.Directed by Saylor and her eye for decorating.Neither Noa nor I made any suggestions.We were happy to do whatever she said.Which seemed to make her all the happier about things.She liked to be in charge.And again, that made me wonder who Jude was and why no one had mentioned him before.Or maybe they had.When they’d gone over who everyone was, I hadn’t exactly been in the mental state to care.
Eleven
Forge
How the fuck had Saylor pulled this off?It had to have been her.No one else could do this.
“Oh my God!”Winslet said as she climbed out of the passenger side of Oz’s truck.Her hands were covering her mouth.
Oz walked around and took her hand to lead her up the front stairs.Normally, we all parked in the garage, but when you pulled up and the house was decked out in pink shit, you knew to stop here.If we didn’t go through the front doors, Saylor would lose her mind.
But seriously, who the hell had told her about this?She had to have known before we did to have all the pink stuff on hand.There were pink balloons, roses, anIt’s a Girlhand-painted banner that looked like an artist had done it.This had not been thrown together in an hour.
