“Apparently you already did.” Lauralaughs.
I hold up two fingers and mouth, “twice.”
“Oh, my gosh.” Laura gets in the lift,bumping my shoulder. We both stare at Annie, who has managed to shut her mouth,but she’s narrowed her eyes and is glaring at us.
“Oh, get over it, Annie. We all know thatyou and Mark do it. You’ve got the kids to prove it.”
With a huff, Annie finally steps into theelevator, and then Luke gets in. I totally forgot about him. I give him asheepish look. “Sorry,” I mouth. He just smiles and nods.
“You should do what mom wants.” Great,she isn’t going to let this go.
“Why?”
“Because she’ll be hissy fit mad theentire time if you don’t.”
“Annie,” I turn to her, pointing myfinger at my wedding rings. “Married.”
“Look at it from her point of view. She’shere to help you plan your wedding. So to her, you aren’t married. You’re stillsweet, innocent, naïve, insecure Katie.”
Annie has officially ruffled my featherswith that statement. Ignoring her, I turn my attention to Laura. “So chick,what’s new?”
Laura scrunches her mouth from side toside. “Not much. Just the same ole same ole.”
Annie scoffs and Laura narrows her eyesat her, then turns back to me. “Hey, can we go to that great little boutiqueagain?”
I look her up and down. There’s somethingLaura isn’t telling me. Something Annie knows, and I don’t. Which makes me mad.Why wouldn’t she tell me? We tell each other everything. “Sure.” I shrug.“Um—maybe tomorrow.”
“Great. You’ll love this place, Annie.They have tons of cute boutique style clothes. They even have a maternitysection. Don’t they, Kate?”
I bite my lip, glancing from Laura toAnnie. When did they become such good friends? Annie always complains that Laurais too ‘out there’ for me. But now they seem to be all buddy—buddy. “Um—yeah, Ithink.”
The elevator opens to the lobby, andLaura and Annie get out, talking about clothes and the shops they want to visitwhile they are here. What about me? I’m mildly hurt and seriously envious oftheir new friendship. When I step off the elevator, an alarm sounds. I peer upat Luke, who punches in a code and the alarm in the elevator stops. I want toroll my eyes. “Really? Please tell me that wasn’t because I got off theelevator.”
“Okay, I won’t tell you that,” Lukestates as a matter of fact, tucking his phone back into his pocket.
“Isn’t that a bit overkill?” I mean, Iknow that what happened on Friday was bad. Shane, a woman I thought worked forLuke, ushered me out to a limo where I thought Cole was waiting for me.Instead, there was some big scary brute—who wouldn’t tell me his name, so Icalled him Mr. Not Important—took me for a ride in his limo and told me to giveCole a message. To top it off, he made me drink champagne with a roofie. Now Ican’t even get off the elevator without an alarm sounding. Isn’t that freakingfantastic.
Laura and Annie come back around thecorner, concerned. “What happened?” Laura looks at me wide eyed.
“Just an alarm.” I stomp off, annoyed atall of them.
Everyone’s sitting around a table eatingand, from the looks of it, Cole has all the women eating out of his hand. Hemakes eye contact with me, but I look away, walking over to the buffet andgrabbing a plate. I pick through the food, not really hungry, but I mindlesslyshove food onto my plate. I walk past the table where everyone’s sitting,making my way around to the empty chair. My mom stops me with her hand, so Ipeek over at her. She doesn’t seem to be upset anymore, that’s good. “Katie,really? That’s what you’re eating? There’s fruit over there. Why don’t you trythat?”
My stomach knots with humiliation andanger. I glance around the table and everyone’s staring at me, making my earsprick with heat. I smile at my mom, turning away and sitting at the othertable. I’m vaguely aware that Laura comes and sits down next to me. I’m tryinghard not to be upset by everything, but it’s not working. One thing’s for sure;my mother knows how to put me in my place.
“Don’t worry about her,” Laura leansover, whispering. “She’s thinking about your figure for your wedding.”
I give Laura a weak smile, but what shesaid makes me angry. Yes, a part of me wanted a big white wedding. I won’t denythat I dreamed about it. I mean, what girl hasn’t? I used to have a white andpink floral dress that had been my mother’s prom dress, and Annie and I wouldplay like we were getting married in it. But then I met Cole, and we eloped. Sonow the idea of a big wedding and having my mother, sister, and the rest of myfamily harp on me about this and that— well, the end doesn’t justify the meansBecause I’m already married. I didn’t need a fancy wedding, I just need Cole.
Someone places a plate of raw vegetablesand fruit in front of me, and the plate of food I picked out disappears from infront of me.
I glance up to find my aunt Kathystanding over me smiling. “You’ll thank us later, sweetie. When you can fitinto a smaller size wedding dress, you’ll look so lovely.” She pats myshoulder, taking my plate and dumping it in the trash, and then sits back downnext to my mother.
“Besides, Katie, you don’t want to eatall that fat. Your diarrhea will come back.” Leave it to Grandma Alice to makea crude comment.
Now I’m mortified. I try to swallow, butthe lump in my throat is too big, and my eyes are blurry with tears. I don’t door say anything. I do what I’ve always done in these situations: nothing. I sithere and take it, even if I don’t want it, and try to remember that I’m my ownperson and I control my life. That Cole is present for all this makes it somuch worse. I never wanted him to see this side of me. I wish we were in Idaho.At least then I could retreat tomyhouse for sanctuary. But even thatoption has been taken away, since my family has made themselves at home in thevilla.
“Oh Katie, the bank called me yesterdayabout your house payment. I guess I’m the back-up contact when they can’t get ahold of you. They said your payment bounced and now you’re thirty days pastdue. Did you ever figure out how you were going to pay your mortgage?” My momsounds way too happy about that.
