THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID

by Amy Baker

  The last person I expected to see on Julia’s front porch was standing right before my eyes. In that moment I was wishing that I had told Logan to change my airline ticket to Saturday.

  “Where is he?” Darcy asked with the attitude she always sported. Then her heavily made up eyes slowly strolled down my body taking in my scantily dressed appearance. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she somewhat whispered.

  I looked down at my robe and back to Darcy realizing that she was under the assumption that I was smack dab in the middle of having sex with her husband. Before I could get a word out of my mouth, Darcy started in. “Are you on a mission to fuck every man that I have been with, Delilah? If so, I will make it easier for you and give you a list.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Darcy!”

  Truthfully, Darcy had every right to be annoyed. However, her fight, whether she realized it or not, was not with me. In my mind it wasn’t with Julia either, though she was not an innocent party. Darcy should be having this conversation with Ryan. He was her spouse. He was the one who stood across from her in front of God and her family and vowed his devotion. But instead of sharing my opinion of how Darcy should handle her husband’s infidelity, I responded to her immediate question. “I am not in any way or do I intend to ever in the future be involved with your husband.”

  I saw her jaw clench in anger. “Then where is he?” she asked on a threatening whisper.

  “I have no idea. But he isn’t here,” I stepped back and closed the door in Darcy’s face. I had had many a moment fantasizing about what that moment would feel like. I was sorry to discover that it lacked the satisfaction I had always envisioned.

  As I retreated to my room, I was attempting to muster up the courage to call Hugh back and say what I knew in my heart I had to say. First, I was sorry that I was keeping a secret from him and second I was sorry but I had to keep keeping that secret. I gave Julia my word. I was afraid neither revelation would be met with understanding so I procrastinated on the edge of my bed staring at my toenails. Boy did I need a pedicure. Then my phone began to sing while the vibration made it dance on the nightstand. It was Hugh.

  I picked up the phone and took a moment to admire the picture of him that I had saved in his profile. Once I got my fill I slid my finger over his bright white smile. “Hey,” I said solemnly.

  “Hey. You all right?” he asked with concern.

  “Mmhm.”

  “Who was at the door?” he asked innocently.

  Well how in the world did I explain this one? A much-needed enormous sigh escaped me. There would be absolutely NO reason for Darcy to be at Julia’s door. None whatsoever. They weren’t friends, neighbors or in any of the same social circles. The way I saw it there were only two ways to answer Hugh. One was with a flat out lie, which was not an option at all. The other was to evasively answer with the truth. The latter didn’t hold all that much appeal either. Mama had always told me ‘honesty was the best policy.’ Words to live by, really.

  “Hugh? Has someone ever asked you to keep a secret and once they told you the secret you were sorry they confided in you at all?”

  There was a good beat of silence. I was starting to think that I was barking up the wrong tree answering his question with a question. “Delilah. Are you telling me that you can’t tell me who was at the door because it would compromise the secret you are already keeping from me?”

  God he was smart. “Yes!” I overstated my response happy that he understood my position. I exhaled loudly with relief. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you!”

  Another long beat of silence ensued. “Baby, can this hurt us in any way…this secret you’re keeping?” he asked next.

  “Um,” I wanted to be thorough before I answered him. I was trying to think of even the most bizarre consequences but I still couldn’t see how Julia fucking around with Ryan could hurt Hugh and me. “I honestly don’t think so.”

  “This doesn’t have anything to do with Stacey?” he asked out of the blue.

  “No. Nothing to do with Stacey,” I confirmed.

  “I have to be honest. I’m not happy about you keeping secrets from me.”

  “I know. I’m sorry, Hugh.” I somewhat whined.

  “Is there anything else you’re keeping from me?” he asked, again out of the blue.

  Shit. Now if I said no I would be lying. Hugh didn’t know I was flying back to New York in the morning. Nor did he know that I had a wonderful surprise planned for us when I got there. “Hugh!” I exclaimed in frustration.

  “Delilah. You better come clean right now,” he threatened.

  “I will. Tomorrow,” I heard Hugh’s lips part with another warning on the tip of his tongue so I had to jump back in and cut him off at the pass. “Don’t ask me again, Matthew Rowen, you’re pissing me off now, I mean it!”

  “Oh, is that right? Look at you, getting all feisty. I love it when you get all hot under the collar. You’re turning me on again, Junior,” his voice got husky again.

  Holy cow. Shockingly, I was somehow back in the game. If I played my cards right I might just have my hand in my panties in no time. I jumped up and ran across the room to blow out the candle that was becoming a major distraction. A promising squeal escaped me before I knew it. “Are we back on?” I asked with hope in my tone. “Because if not I am going directly to the grocery store for an apple crumble.” I hurried back to the bed scrabbling to get into position just in case. I clutched the phone to my ear, as I didn’t want to miss Hugh’s response.

  “Yeah, Baby,” he rumbled. “We are on,” he annunciated every word carefully.

  Well at least all was not lost. I was getting a second chance at my virgin phone sex expedition. Bon Voyage! Then maybe I would head out for a crumble.

  Chapter 23

  I was out like a light when I heard the front door slam really hard. I popped up to sitting. My heart was racing so fast I thought it was going to gallop straight from my chest. I realized it was Julia when I heard her start screaming at the top of her lungs for whoever was with her to ‘get the fuck out.’ It was hard to imagine but I guess it was possible for Julia’s first date with Mason to go that badly. What he could have possibly done or said to elicit such a formidable response was hard to imagine. But anything was possible with Julia. I threw back the covers and reached for my robe. I started to swing it on when I heard another voice chime in.

  “Julia! Just hear me out!”

  I froze mid step even though I was just half a step to the bedroom door. That wasn’t Mason.

  It was Ryan.

  “Damn you, Ryan!” I heard Julia’s keys hit the dining room table with a clang. “You are like a bad fucking penny. You just keep turning up.”

  “Julia, would you listen to me?” he pleaded loudly again.

  “No. You’ve had plenty of time over the course of the last three years to say whatever it is that you want to say. Now it’s too late,” she yelled only slightly less intensely. “I am giving this thing with Mason a shot.”

  “What about us?” he actually had the balls to ask.

  I was praying really hard that Julia held her ground. But it was like dangling a carrot in front of a starving donkey. I knew in my heart that she just might take the bait. I also knew that it was not in her best interest to do so. It was taking every fiber of my being to stay put and not burst into the room and shove my two cents in his face. If Julia didn’t answer him soon I would probably lose control.

  Thank God, just as I rolled my eyes scolding myself for having to get involved, she chimed in and sang the appropriate tune. “There is no us. There is a you and Darcy. And now, if I play my cards right and don’t totally fuck things up, there might be a me and Mason. This fucked up thing we had…is over.”

  Good Lord, she was good. She said what she had to say and she couldn’t have been clearer.

  Or at least so I thought.

  “So what are you saying?” he asked seemingly confused.

  How could he have no
t understood what she said? Clearly Ryan didn’t get half the brains that Hugh did. But thank God Julia held her ground. “What part of ‘there is no us’ do you not understand?” she asked with the attitude only Julia could serve.

  “I guess the part that actually believes that that is true.”

  Then I heard some rustling, some keys jangle, and the front door open. “You won’t be able to stay away from me, Julia. Mason can’t give you what you need. He didn’t even come after you when you took off. What does that tell you?” Then I heard the front door slam.

  Son of a bitch.

  Was he kidding? I heard Julia exhale loudly and I knew it was time for damage control. I opened the bedroom door and saw Julia with her hand bracing herself on the back of a dining room chair. She was staring at her own shoes and breathing really hard.

  “Jules,” I interrupted.

  “Yeah,” she stated.

  “You okay?” I asked carefully.

  “No,” she answered flatly using her other hand to rub her forehead.

  Damn. My fingers went to my lip and started pinching. I wasn’t sure where to start. So I asked the obvious. “Where’s Mason?” I had to begin the process of sorting out Julia’s debacle of an evening. I figured that would certainly get the ball rolling.

  “Not here,” she continued without any inflection in her voice at all.

  Well that wasn’t good. “Want to tell me about it?”

  Julia dropped her hand from the back of the chair like it weighed a hundred pounds. She sighed heavily and then tilted her head to stare at her ceiling. “Ryan showed up halfway through dinner,” she told the ceiling. “He threatened to rip Mason’s head off if he laid a single finger on me.”

  “Oh boy,” I murmured. “What did Mason say?”

  Julia languidly walked to her couch and fell on the cushions. She slid down to a slouching position, cocked her knees in the air and pressed her heels into the end of the cushion. “Mason didn’t have all that much to say in response. But he shared two words. Do you know what those were?” She asked me through the fingers she had thrown over her face.

  “Um, no,” I answered not willing to chance a guess.

  “Too and late,” she answered.

  “Oh shit,” I responded.

  “Yep. Oh shit is exactly right,” she sort of whispered.

  “Then what happened?” I asked as I made my way over and slouched down on the couch next to her.

  “Then,” she sighed, “Ryan swung wide and hit the waiter.”

  “Oh, jeeze,” I whispered and half chuckled.

  “Yeah. Mason started laughing, too. I wasn’t really finding any of it funny so I got up and left. Ryan chased after me. Mason didn’t.” She pulled her hands from her face and started to slowly shake her head from side to side on the back of the couch cushions. “I’m guessing you heard our little conversation.”

  Julia was referring to her conversation with Ryan. I swallowed hard before I answered. “Yep.”

  “Ryan scored one blow, didn’t he?” she asked me.

  “No,” I cut in quickly. “No he didn’t.”

  “Mason didn’t follow me, Dee.” I could hear the sadness in her voice. I knew what it was like to be in her shoes. My lips pressed together outlining my sympathy.

  “Give him a chance, Julia,” I pleaded. “That might have been a little more than he is used to for a first date,” I shared.

  Julia rolled her head toward me and gave me a tight smile. “I’m really sorry about what I said earlier,” she whispered genuinely.

  I returned the tight smile and grabbed her hand. “Just forget it,” I pulsed her fingers to indicate my support and she leaned her head into me to rest it on my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head and said what I should have said a lot sooner. “You aren’t alone, Julia Harper. Even when I’m back in New York, you are never alone.” I roped my arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze just as I heard a faint sniffle come from her. Julia wasn’t nearly as tough as everyone thought. She was actually a lot more sensitive than me. “No matter what happens. Even if Mason doesn’t call,” I began. “Don’t go back to Ryan,” I pleaded.

  Julia didn’t answer verbally she just nodded her response. To which I responded with another squeeze.

  “I’m going to miss you, Dee,” her voice sounded thick with emotion.

  “Me, too, Sweets. Me, too.”

  I was having trouble falling back to sleep. I was worrying about my flight in the morning. Wondering how badly the news of the pilot’s wife’s infidelity was affecting his ability to reason. I was still worried about Julia. It had been an hour since I had tucked Julia into her bed and locked up her house. I wasn’t sure if she was sleeping though I figured it was unlikely. I was alternating between staring at the little dots on the digital clock, which blinked with every passing second and trying to distract myself by making mental lists of things I didn’t want to forget before I boarded the plane.

  I heard a car approaching just before I saw headlights flash across the far wall. I held my breath and waited a beat but then I heard a car door slam. Crap. I heard boots hit Julia’s front walk and I threw the covers back to go head off Ryan before he woke a hopefully sleeping Julia. The banging started before I even made it out of the bedroom door. Clearly he was determined.

  “Julia!” The pounding on the front door was causing every item in the house to vibrate and rattle.

  I saw Julia’s door open just as I stepped into the hall. It didn’t sound like Ryan. I looked back at Julia who looked like she was scared out of her wits and breathing heavy. I squinted at her in question. “Mason?” I asked her on a whisper.

  She shrugged in response. She maneuvered tightening her robe to look out the window. She expelled a loud sigh when she realized it was, in fact, Mason. She nodded at me and made her way to the front door. She unlocked the bolts and opened the door slowly. “Mason,” she began slowly. “What’s goin’ on?”

  The words barely left her mouth when Mason pushed in and scooped Julia up in the most passionate kiss I had ever witnessed. My eyes brows shot up and my lips pressed together to contain the shocked and amused expression that was threatening to assume my face. He shuffled her backwards to the wall pressing his hips into hers while his lips working hers vigorously. Since every one of Julia’s limbs was tightly wrapped around Mason’s body I was thinking that she was okay with this method of entry. Unable to tear my eyes from the show, I stood and watched it all play out. Mason finally pulled his lips from Julia’s.

  “I’m not afraid of Ryan,” he gasped.

  “Oh, well, um, that’s good,” Julia stumbled.

  “You want me?” he asked.

  Julia just nodded frantically.

  “Well alright then,” he answered and kissed her again. I continued watching since anyone in their right mind would be unable to do otherwise. After a few seconds Mason scooped Julia up again and walked past me to her bedroom. He was so engrossed in Julia that I wasn’t sure if he noticed I was there. He kicked her bedroom door closed with his cowboy boot and I heard Julia squeal.

  “Goodnight, Delilah,” Mason called.

  Okay. So I was wrong. Mason was more observant than I realized and he knew I was there. But then I heard a lot of giggling and laughing. So I was guessing neither of them cared that I was there anyway. In any case, things were clearly moving in the right direction for Julia. Which in all honesty was quite a relief. At least now I could leave Virginia with a clear head and all I had to focus on was the poor pilot and his cheating wife.

  One crisis at a time.

  Chapter 24

  Home sweet home. As soon as I saw the Empire State Building I felt a thousand times better. The flight wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped but it was in the past now and I had apologized profusely to the poor business man sitting next to me who had to go home to his wife and explain why he had claw marks all over his body. It must be said I had warned him well before take off that I wasn’t a good flyer. Feeling quite
guilty about my irrational behavior, I did offer to give him my phone number in case his wife wanted to call and ask me any questions regarding the attack. But he seemed to think that having my phone number might make matters worse. Since he knew her better than I did I figured it was best to go with whatever he decided.

  Unable to change the past, I had to focus on the future. And the immediate future required that I focus on the plan I had formulated and was hoping to execute seamlessly. If it had any chance of working, whatsoever, I had to time everything perfectly. I had spoken to Hugh just before I boarded the plane. He knew something was up because he asked me a hundred times what was wrong with me. Since I couldn’t tell him I was afraid the pilot’s wife was a cheating whore, I told him I was nervous about talking with Charles on Monday. In essence, I lied. It felt awful but I was on a mission and that mission was to surprise Hugh in a hot slinky number and a bottle of champagne. Hugh had mentioned, in our brief conversation, that he might step out later to look at blinds. Apparently the bedroom was way too bright in the morning and there was a woman across the street that seemed to be somewhat obsessed with his body at night. Not surprising. Who could blame her for appreciating perfection? So I encouraged his plans of shopping for window treatments for two reasons. Obviously the first being that I needed to get him out of the apartment in order to surprise him. And second was because I didn’t want some peeping Thomasina to be ogling my man or me, for that matter, once I moved in.

  Hoping I had succeeded in convincing Hugh to go out and purchase blinds, which it looked like I had, in order for any of the aforementioned plans to be even remotely possible, first had to make a few stops. My belongings and I still hadn’t been reacquainted. So I was short said ‘hot, slinky, number.’ So, I asked the cab driver to drop me off at Victoria’s Secret. I paid my fair and hopped out of the cab. I checked my phone to see how I was doing on time. So far so good. I had just enough time to find something sexy, get over to the liquor store to buy some champagne and get to Hugh’s new apartment to set everything up.