If not, I fear I’m going to go broke trying to stay in her life.
To keep her in mine.
Yes. I’m starting to think I have no choice.
Now that I’ve been with Petra, being without her is impossible.
Petra
Karen asks for an understated summer glow.
I blend a touch of cream bronzer with highlighter on her cheeks, giving her the perfect balance of warmth and luminosity. A metallic champagne eyeshadow brings out her eyes. A rose petal pink gloss on her lips later, Karen is so thrilled with her look, I’m being asked to do makeup on all the bridesmaids, too.
I lose track of time going from one woman to another, then touching up Karen. The mother of the bride gets curious about my tools, then suddenly I’m doing her makeup, too. In one sense, I’m in total heaven. In another, I’m hungry and thirsty and…missing Barry.
I’m starting to feel dizzy when I hear a firm knock on the door of the bridal suite, but I don’t glance up from the liquid eyeliner I’m applying to a girl named Robyn.
“Who is it?” sings Karen, sipping from a teacup.
“Barry.”
Karen laughs. “No men allowed in the bridal suite, Barry—”
“I’m coming in, like it or not. Petra didn’t even have breakfast.”
“Oh.” Karen sits forward, frowning at me. She points to the small buffet set up on the other side of the room. “Why haven’t you eaten anything?”
“Well…” I gesture to the table full of brushes and creams. “I’ve been busy.”
A tuxedo-clad Barry throws the door open and stomps inside carrying a covered dish in his hand, causing more than a few shrieks. He beelines straight for me where I’m applying makeup to the mother of the bride and observes my handiwork. “She looks finished. You’re going to eat.”
I’m temporarily stunned into silence, due to how handsome he looks in a tux. “Wait. But—”
“You’ve been in here forfive hours, Petra.”
“Five?”
He grunts. “I’ve been outside in the hallway, waiting for you to come out.”
“For how long?”
Instead of answering me, he turns an incredulous look on the mother of the bride, as if to say, why are you still sitting here? In response, she rises with a sniff and dashes away. Barry takes her chair in front of the vanity and pulls me onto his lap. I almost gasp at the relief that pinwheels through my stiff legs, my stomach growling loudly as he uncovers the dish. A grilled cheese and fries. I almostsob, it looks so good.
“Eat, princess.”
I’ve already bitten off the corner, falling back against Barry’s barrel chest while I chew. His arms encircle me and he massages my stiff thighs while I house the sandwich, amazed that I could be transported to heaven in under a minute, all thanks to this man. At some point, I glance in the vanity mirror and find the bridesmaids and Karen watching us with dreamy expressions on their faces, and I get a lump in my throat, making it hard to swallow.
They think we’re a real couple.
Iwantto be a real couple.
I don’t to go home tomorrow and never see Barry again.
What am I going to do?
The wedding planner breezes into the room with his clipboard, as he has been doing periodically throughout the morning. “It’s almost showtime! Everyone use the bathroom one last time and follow me. We have the ceremony of the year to attend!”
I’m still wearing the shorts and T-shirt I threw on in my mad dash to help Karen.
