I grasped Micah’s mother’s forearms. She was hiding on the edge of the dance floor, acting like she didn’t want to dance, but I could see her toes tapping from across the room.
“Don’t get all shy on me. I know there’s a wild woman in you,” I said to the slight terror on her face. “You didn’t make a son as fine as yours by being all innocent and demure.”
“Sue!” Micah cried over his mother’s giggling. “Can you not? I was conceived by immaculate conception, and I will not be told otherwise.”
Marsha Spencer only laughed louder. “Well, I was known to get a little naughty back in my day.” She winked at me. “Truth is, Micah gets it from me.”
“Yeah, he does.” I put my hands on my hips, jutting them this way and that. “Now show everyone the real meaning of the phrase birthing hips.”
Chortling like a schoolgirl, Mama Spencer gotdown—wining, wiggling, and twerking to put everyone to shame.
That was until Micah promptly grabbed and led her away. “Time to rest, Mother. You’re drunk and my wife is clearly a terrible influence on you.”
“Terrible or not, she’s fun,” I heard Marsha say. “Was she always like this? Why have I never seen this side of...?”
I didn’t let the loss of my dance partner stop me—not when I had no shortage of them. The nineteen-thousand-dollar bottles of wine were flowing, our bellies were full of delicious food, and the bass was thumping. Everyone was either on the dance floor, or hooking up in shadowy corners. I wasn’t about to be the wet blanket sitting around when my flat ass needed shaking.
“Wow. You’re having fun.”
Three women came up on me so fast, I almost tripped over my heels bouncing to a stop.
Naturally, they were all wearing elegant white gowns, but that wasn’t the matching that concerned me. For some reason, they were all looking at me with identical nasty smirks.
“Uh, do I kn—?” I cut the question off at the knees—Courtney’s words ringing in my head. Very likely, the real Sue did know these women, soasking that question would be the stupidest thing I could do. “Is something wrong?” I asked instead.
The woman in the middle flattened her grin into a thinner, blander smile. She had long, bronze hair and a little button nose. “What could be wrong, Sue Bear? It looks like you’re doing very well for yourself. Seems like just yesterday the four of us were hanging out outside Hamilton Hall, watching the guys playing football on the south field. You said then that you’d bag the richest and handsomest of the bunch”—she looked around—“and you did.”
“Uh... huh,” I drew out.Old college friends from New York. This is bad.“It’s true, I have been very lucky in love. Three amazing, smart, talented men are in love with me, and we’re raising a beautiful little girl. I’ve got nothing to complain about.”Good. Just keep it generic. Don’t offer any details.
Her grin widened. “I bet.”
“Good for you,” the woman on her right agreed. She was just as glamorous, but she opted for a short red pixie cut and purple contacts that made me wonder if she copied the eye color after her first meeting with Sue. Our naturally purple eyes were always our most talked about, and envied, feature.
“But, you know, it’s funny,” Pixie continued. “I’m on the Columbia alumni committee. I’m sure your lovely husbands told you that the CAC has a little fundraiser coming up, but the weird thing is,” she said, sharing a look with her friends, “you weren’t on any of the alumna contact lists. In fact, Sue, you’re not in the database at all.”
“Weird, right?” breezed the woman on the left. Her ivory gown matched her shockingly white hair. Why a young woman would choose to dye her hair all white, I didn’t know, but I did know it strangely suited her. “Because you graduated from Columbia too, Sue? Didn’t you?”
Oh. They’re those kinds of friends.
“Nope,” I dropped. “I actually graduated from Columbia-Southern Community College. Still in the city, but definitely not Ivy League.”
Their smirks melted away.
“I only hung around Columbia to chill with my besties”—I wiggled my fingers at them—“and sell the lie. A bit pathetic, for sure, but when you’reyoung, you think appearances are everything.” I beamed at them. “Thank goodness we’re above all of that now. Right, ladies?”
Button Nose’s jaw worked. She clearly wasn’t expecting me to come right out with it. “Well, yeah, of course we are,” she snapped. “We don’t have to worry about our appearance, especially since we’ve never been a customer of SueNaturals.”
“Oh my gods, thank goodness,” I cried, laughing my butt off. “Can you imagine telling people that you smeared bird shit all over your face? Super embarrassing.”
“Wehave nothing to be embarrassed about,” Pixie shrieked. “We’re not the ones who got caught selling the stuff. We heard you lost everything in the lawsuit— Sorry, make thatlawsuitsplural.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I got my just desserts for sure. What a stupid, awful thing to do that was. I don’t even know what I was thinking, except that I let my obsession with becoming a super-successful girlboss get the best of me.
“But what matters to me now is my family and my friends, and remembering to never take advantage of either of them.” I lurched forward, making Button Nose squeak when I grasped her hands. “I was deeply pathetic and insecure back in college, but you guys didn’t care. Despite the fact that you likely saw right through me, you were amazing friends then, and you’re amazing friends now—coming here tonight to support and celebrate me even after all my legal trouble. Thank you, girls,” I gushed. “I literally could not survive without you.”
Button Nose, Pixie, and the Chic Ghost exchanged another look—this one shocked with a tinge of baffled.
“I... uh...” Button Nose started. “We... uh... I mean, of course we did know the whole time that you were pretending,” she blustered, nose hitting the air. “We just didn’t say anything because we wanted you to trust us enough to tell us yourself, Sue.”
