by Lucy Lambert
“Did you know my dad likes to boast about never having been late for a day at the office in his life?” Gwen said.
“They’ll be here,” Aiden said, trying to soothe her nerves.
“And where is that creepy butler?” Gwen said. Lateness was a theme today, it appeared. “Judith better want us somewhere really close by if she expects us to get there inside 20 minutes.”
“I’ve been wondering that, as well,” Aiden said. He took another compulsive look at his watch.
“And you’re sure she said nothing at all about what’s going on tonight? Not even the tiniest, most cryptic of hints?” Gwen said. She wondered if she should wait out in the hallway, just in case everyone had suddenly forgotten which suite they were in.
“No, nothing. Nothing at all,” he said, his jaw working at the mention of Judith. Aiden had seemed a bit off somehow ever since he came back to the room. And every time Gwen asked him what they’d talked about, he became cagey, giving her answers like Nonsense or Senility.
“I’m going to call dad’s room,” Gwen said, starting for the phone. Someone knocked on the door.
Before Gwen could wrench it open and berate the late person on the other side (and most certainly to prevent such a scenario) Aiden beat her to it.
“Barb, Stan. Come in, please,” Aiden said.
Her mother and her mother’s boyfriend walked into the suite arm-in-arm. Barb wore a single-strap red dress and Stan, to Gwen’s surprise, actually didn’t look bad in his suit. Not nearly as nice as Aiden did, of course, but not anywhere near the sideshow Gwen had going in her mind’s eye.
“Oh, wow!” Stan said, ogling the furniture, the staircase, the big TV over the fireplace in the corner, “I don’t even want to know what they charge per night for digs like this!”
“It would give you nightmares, I’m sure,” Aiden said.
Barb uncoupled from her beau and greeted Gwen with a hug. Thankfully she no longer reeked of the same perfume as earlier. “You look so beautiful! Classic, I think. Doesn’t she look classic, Stan?”
“Like something out of an Audrey movie,” Stan agreed, followed by, “So what’s a guy gotta do to afford something like this? ‘Cause I own an IT firm back in Albany and I’m not sure my salary could cover the damage deposit.”
“He’s just joking, Aiden,” Barb said, “He just gets a little nervous before a big date is all.”
Gwen wondered if there was time to visit the bathroom for a good stomach heaving before they had to get going. Before she could give the matter any further thought, someone else knocked at the door.
Again, Aiden reached it first. “David, Elsa,” he said, standing aside and waving them in.
David wore the same tux as he had to the restaurant. Elsa, hanging off his arm, also wore a black dress. Hers was definitely of the sluttier variety, Gwen noted. It had a drooping neckline that was one moment shy of not standing perfectly straight to spill everything out, and a hem that also warned against even considering the idea of bending over.
What Gwen found more interesting though was the couples’ reactions to each other. She knew that David had met Stan, for instance. But she doubted that her mother even knew about her father’s current fling with Elsa.
They all sized each other up while Gwen and Aiden slowly backed out of the picture.
Barb squinted, trying to place where she knew that face from. Gwen cringed, waiting for the yelling to start.
“Oh! Aren’t you our waitress from the other night?” Barb said.
“Yes!” Elsa replied, “And you are the drunken former wife of my David!”
This is it, Gwen thought, the fight starts here. Elsa looked young and spry, but she knew Barb was wiry and scrappy and... They hugged. The two women who should have been enemies hugged.
“I suppose I did pour the sauce on a little thick, didn’t I?” Barb said.
“I don’t get it...” Gwen said.
Aiden put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close so that she could smell his aftershave. “They’re over each other, that’s all. And they’re being friends about it You should be happy for them,” he said.
Gwen watched the two couples go sit on the couch and the wingbacks in the little sunken living room and begin chatting animatedly. From the sounds of it, Elsa was trying to tell Stan the story of Barb getting so drunk that she couldn’t even stand up. The waitress threw her hands into the air to simulate all the cutlery and wine glasses flying off the table. They all laughed.
And they did look happy, Barb and David. Gwen could see that from the way Barb snuggled into Stan’s body when he pulled her close, or the way her dad couldn’t keep the big, dopey grin off his face when the pretty waitress looked his direction.
Her mom and dad, when they weren’t screaming at each other over the minutiae of their separation, actually seemed like friends. The realization struck her an almost physical blow, and she knew this was the thing she’d just not been able to grasp about them until that moment.
“You know what? I think I am. Happy for them, I mean. I guess this place does have a few good memories after all,” Gwen said, leaning more of her weight against Aiden.
“A few,” Aiden agreed. Again, he looked at his watch. “I wonder if something’s wrong? It’s nearly 10.”
“But what time is it precisely?” Gwen said, getting him back with a nudge of her own.
“Time to worry, perhaps?” Aiden said.
That ratcheted up Gwen’s anxieties, and she kept looking at the door, wondering what the mean old witch could possibly have planned for them tonight.
When the knock finally did come, it startled Gwen so badly that she would have stumbled if Aiden hadn’t been there with his arm around. This time, she beat him to the door, opening it to reveal the butler on the other side.
“I have a message for you,” he said, holding a folded piece of paper between his index and middle fingers. As soon as Gwen took it, he gave her the slightest nod and headed back for the elevators.
Gwen stood in the doorway, too anxious to open the note to even go inside and shut the door. She unfolded the paper, read the few handwritten words inside. Aiden came up beside her, and she handed it over to him. “Is this where I think it is?”
He confirmed her suspicions after reading the contents. “It is. It’s the same room where I asked you to marry me, right here, downstairs in this hotel.”
Gwen tensed deep inside her body. What sort of game was Judith playing? Why did she choose that particular room?
Chapter 24
Downstairs, heading away from the lobby towards the ballroom, a powerful wave of déjà vu whipped its way through Gwen. She walked arm-in-arm with Aiden, her parents and their dates following behind.
But it wasn’t just Gwen’s parents. She recognized people. People from that first night in the ballroom. Aunts and uncles and friends from school. She even got a glimpse of Beatrice speaking with a group of people.
And everyone again wore their nice clothes. They waded through a sea of suits, tuxedos, and fashionable dresses.
They arrived at the ballroom and found it done up exactly the way it had been that night. All the tables with their white table clothes arranged in a rectangle around the dance floor. Even the same music was playing.
“Is this...?” Aiden asked, thinking the same thing.
“It is. Everything is the same. Everything,” Gwen said. She knew because that particular event was etched into her memory, as tangible and real to her as the heavy ring weighing down her left hand.
As soon as Gwen and Aiden entered the room, everyone waiting on the other side began flooding in.
“Hey!” Beatrice called out, “Are you guys getting engaged again or something? Because if that first ring wasn’t good enough, I call dibs!”
Gwen shrugged in response. Was that what Judith wanted? She really didn’t have a clue.
The music died down and Judith’s voice boomed over the speaker system. “Hello, everyone. Thank you all for
accepting my invitation. I know that you must all be asking yourselves what is happening here tonight, and that it strongly resembles another evening you all so recently attended. Let me put your questions to rest by saying that I am an old woman who has so few future opportunities for happiness. And I was just so pleased by this engagement that I thought it a fitting tribute to the happy young couple to help them relive one of the happiest moments in both their lives and mine. Now please, enjoy the wine, enjoy the music, and enjoy the evening.”
The entire time she spoke, Judith’s eyes reached out across the room to glare at Gwen and Aiden. They both felt it, they both saw it.
Everyone clapped and cheered. Judith even gave a slight bow to the audience before climbing down off the stage, assisted as ever by that rented butler of hers.
The music’s volume swelled again, and people variously seated themselves or went out to the dance floor to sway around each other to the rhythm of the song.
Only Gwen and Aiden stood still and alone. Even her parents had flocked for the dance floor. They both tensed, waiting for the hammer to fall. However, it didn’t. The seconds ticked on, and Gwen’s body began aching from the strain of keeping her muscles locked so tightly.
“Would you like to dance?” Aiden said, deflating.
“Are you sure it would be fine?” Gwen said, trying not to blink so as not to miss a single critical moment.
“I think so. This could really be as simple as a stunt to try and make us think about that day, and make me think it was a mistake to propose and you to think it a mistake to accept.”
“That sounds pretty tenuous.”
“We’re talking about a crazy old woman here. I think her grip on reality could best be described as tenuous. We’re here. That was an amazing night. Why not relive it a little?” Aiden said, grasping her hand and urging her towards the dance floor, “Come on, let’s go dancing.”
She allowed him to lead her out, her limbs still feeling stiff and robotic. However, as soon as his arms encircled her waist and he began leading her in slow circles, that stiffness melted away, leaving her feeling loose and almost relaxed.
Gwen rested her head against Aiden’s chest, letting the steady thud of his heart soothe her anxieties away.
“That was an amazing night, wasn’t it?” Gwen said.
“Hey, I was there, remember? Actually, as I remember it, I’m also the one who orchestrated the entire thing.” His chest reverberated with every syllable, and Gwen closed her eyes as she didn’t just hear but also felt his words.
“Yes, yes, you’re the best. Now just hold me for the rest of this song,” Gwen said.
“I’ll hold you the rest of your life, if you let me,” Aiden said. She could tell he was looking down at her by the way his breaths washed over the top of her head. He planted a kiss on the crown of her scalp.
If this really was Judith’s dastardly plan, it was the worst one Gwen had ever heard of. She couldn’t possibly love and want to be with Aiden any more than she was at that moment.
“Didn’t you already ask me a question something along those lines?” Gwen said, her cheeks beginning to ache from holding her smile.
“I did. I also remember your answer.” His finger gently stroked against the ring.
When the song ended and a more upbeat, higher tempo one swelled in volume to take its place, Gwen and Aiden threaded their way through the throng and found a vacant table. There, they sat back and watched the happy people get their dance on.
Eventually, David and Elsa made their way over as well, David pulling out the chair for his new main squeeze. “Hi everyone,” he said, “I’m David, and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I interest anyone in some wine? There’s, well, there’s red and there’s... white, I think?”
“You are so good at that! Tres bien! Great! Give me a kiss, lover,” Elsa said, snatching at David’s bowtie and pulling him down so that he planted his lips against hers. Gwen only experienced a mild repulsion that time. There was also a twinge of happiness for her father.
When she let him back up, he winked at Aiden and Gwen. “Really, can I get anyone some wine?”
“White,” Elsa said.
“Red for me, please, dad,” Gwen replied.
“Nothing for me, thank you,” Aiden said, rounding out the orders for the table.
“I’ll be right back then, I guess,” David said, working his way back into the throng.
When the next song ended, a new one didn’t rise up to take its place. Instead, everyone watched as Judith climbed back up onto the stage. Everyone cheered for her again, and she gave them a tight little smile in response.
The speakers crackled when she tapped it with her forefinger to test the sound. “Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely hope that you have all been enjoying your evening thus far...” She waited for the cheers to die down again before continuing, “In that same spirit, I bring you now a very special message straight from the lovely bride to be, Gwendolyn Browning. I’m sure it will deepen our understanding of this beautiful young couple.”
Somewhere out in the crowd, Beatrice yelled, “Woo! Go, Gwen!” and everyone chuckled. As they did, a large white screen began lowering from the ceiling behind Judith.
“You have a speech?” Aiden said.
“Not that I know of,” Gwen said, she’d stood at the mention of her name. Aiden rose up beside her. Coldness began pooling in Gwen’s stomach, and the palms of her hands became clammy.
Then she heard a voice over the speakers. It took her a second to recognize it. But when she did, and when she recognized what it was saying, her stomach dropped out through the floor.
Everyone quieted to listen.
“I thought I got a signal from you that maybe, just maybe, you’re not as happy with Aiden as you think you are. And I also got this idea in my head that maybe you fancied me a little, too.”
“Ben, you’re a nice guy. I would love to be with you. And I do like you, maybe more than it’s okay to like you.”
A few people in the audience closest to their table turned questioning looks on Gwen. She hardly saw them, though. She started shaking her head, slowly at first, not quite believing what she heard. The words didn’t stop there, though.
“And what about Aiden?”
“He has his company and his money to worry about, and I just want to help him with that,” Gwen heard herself say.
“What if he didn’t have that company and that money, though? Would you still feel the same way about him?”
No, Gwen thought, Please, no, don’t. You can’t...
“No. Of course I wouldn’t.” The words cut into her. The played again and again in her head. She couldn’t unhear them.
Someone nearby gasped. The questioning eyes fixing on her turned into accusing ones.
And then a picture lit up the screen behind Judith. It showed Gwen standing in the square with the benches. Ben had her hand pressed to his lips.
“Aiden!” Gwen said, “Aiden, don’t listen, it’s all a lie. That’s not how it went at all!” When she turned to her fiancé, he was already gone. She searched for him; saw him pushing his way through the crowd towards the exit.
“I really am sorry to have to surprise all of you like this,” Judith said, “But you can’t deny what you just heard. Gwen, yes, I see you over there, dear, sweet Gwen, I hope this helps you on your road to recovery...”
“Boo!” Beatrice yelled.
The quiet of the room shattered, people asking each other what that meant, people grabbing at Gwen, asking her what she was thinking, what kind of person she was.
David pushed his way out of the crowd and made his way to the table. “Gwen? What’s going on? Talk to me, sweetie.”
“Aiden! Wait!” Gwen called out, starting to push her way through the crowd.
***
Judith watched the Browning girl start trying to ram her way through the audience. She’d be too late, Judith knew. Aiden was already at the door, his tall stature making him easy to pick
out amongst so many others.
She thought she’d feel more pleasure in crushing the girl, in winning the prize in such a decisive manner.
However, along with the muted pleasure came another feeling. Small, but still there.
Chapter 25
Gwen reached the exit only partially scathed. People hadn’t wanted her to leave. Some sounded confused or even pitying as they caught at her elbows in an attempt to stop her for a talk.
Others didn’t keep their opinions to themselves. They asked her how they could do that to Aiden, how she could be that sort of person. They accused her and called her things they thought she deserved.
And someone, she didn’t know who, had nearly wrenched her arm out of its socket in their attempt to keep her from leaving the room. Gwen could already feel the bruises from their fingers on her bicep. It was a deep, burning pain that clawed at her consciousness.
However, every part of her mind still functioning concerned itself with one thing: finding Aiden and making him understand. She knew that if only she could explain things to him, that the recording had been edited, the conversation changing things, taking them out of context, that Aiden would forgive her and everything would be all right.
Except when she finally spilled out into the hallway, she couldn’t find Aiden anywhere. Behind her, the music in the ballroom began playing again. At least no one had followed her out, yet.
“Aiden! Aiden?” Gwen called out, not caring when other hotel guests glared at her for the noise.
This time of night, there weren’t too many other people out and about. Most people were either in the ballroom or sleeping in their beds, leaving the hallway fairly clear.
And still she couldn’t find him. Gwen ran to the main lobby, thinking that maybe Aiden had headed straight for the elevators to take him back up to their suite.
The pair of night auditors watched her from their desks.
He wasn’t standing in front of the bank of elevator doors. He wasn’t sitting in any of the lounge areas.
“Aiden?” Gwen said again. She stood in the middle of that grand lobby and turned in a slow circle. Movement no longer keeping her together, her body began trembling from the terrible brew of shock, panic, and adrenaline inside of her.