"Then we'll come over after work...we really need to talk!"
"I...I'll have to see...we have a lot of plans to make, so I think I'm staying at Max's tonight..." I don't want to say that I have to ask Max's permission first to stay at my own place or to arrange seeing my friends. I feel a huge knot in my stomach and sit down on the bed.
"Fine. We'll see you there then." She hangs up before I can say anything more. I just stare at my phone, unsure of what to do.
"Are you ok?" Jake is standing in the doorway. I jump again. He laughs, his hands up, "I swear I wasn't trying to sneak up...I thought you heard me come up the stairs."
"I...don't know what to do..."
"About what?" He doesn't come into the room, but his large shoulders block the doorframe as he leans against it.
"My friends aren't too happy for me..." I don't want to get into the whole mess with him, but I don't want to be alone with my fear either. I'm afraid what will happen when Max finds out that they're coming over and I didn't get his permission first. And I'm afraid of what they'll say later to me if they do come over. What a mess!
"Screw 'em then." He says this with a grin, but I can see that he's serious.
I laugh, it was exactly what I needed to hear. "Yeah...screw 'em!" And for a second, I mean it. But Tracy and Laura have been my best friends for two years. I'm closer with them than anyone. Anyone except Max.
"I'm heading back to the city. Will you tell Max that I'll call him this week to talk more?"
"Sure," he turns away, "and Jake? ...Thanks...You make a good big brother."
"Anytime, li'l sis."
My head feels clearer. I have only one choice. I can't please everyone. But I know that I need to please Max first. I send a text to Tracy and Laura together. "Tonight won't work. I really need to make some plans and I hope as my friends that you'll respect that. I will be in the office tomorrow, early. I love you both! xoxo"
Max will be proud of me. I head back downstairs to help with breakfast. The morning light is so pretty on my ring! I am going to go blind staring at it!
Chapter 2 HIM
"So your brother is going to pick your Mom and Dad up at the airport Thursday and they're going to stay with him over the weekend."
"Thank you!" She puts her arms out and I sit on the sofa pulling her onto my lap. I've been in the den on the computer coordinating with her Dad. "You and your Mom have an appointment to look at dresses on Friday and I'm going to take your Dad out for a man-to-man talk." I say this extra machismo-y, she laughs.
"Please don't call it that to him...he'll make fun of you!"
"What?! Your Dad already loves me!"
"What's not to love?!" She kisses my cheek. "I know for sure that my Mom loves you!"
"She just loves how much I love her daughter, baby." I kiss her a little longer.
"I can't believe you found a place that would guarantee a dress in less than four weeks! You do work fast, Mr. Traeger!"
"I'm just determined to not let anything get in my way...you will be Mrs. Traeger next month!" I kiss her forehead and pick up the checklist she was working on. "So...what's next on your wedding to-do?"
"Only a guest list, invitations, find a place, get someone who can marry us, your tux, catering, flowers...a bazillion things!"
"Well...you are in luck, then. You happen to know a guy who's connected in the restaurant biz..."
"So where then?"
"I like the idea of my parent's place, but I think the weather could be tricky. October can be beautiful up there, but it's snowed before too. So I'm thinking it'll be somewhere in the city. I have a few ideas. I'll check around tomorrow." I kiss her nose and get up to grab the wine bottle from the dining table, pouring more into my glass. She gives me a little pout for not pouring more for her.
"Lucy...take that pout off your beautiful mouth." She blushes and quickly changes to a small smile. "So...did you get a chance to talk to your friends today?"
"Yes...a little."
"You ignored your phone all weekend."
"I didn't want anything to disturb our time together..."
"I like that sentiment, baby...but we both know that isn't why you avoided your friends..." I'm a little stern with her.
"No...I didn't want to deal with them. I just wanted to be happy for a while...is that so bad?" She's frowning again but quickly wipes it away.
"But you told them we're engaged, getting married in a month?"
"Yes."
"Good." I stand up and stretch. "Get ready for bed." I hold my hand out and she takes it while I pull her easily to her feet.
She looks at her watch. I know it's 11:00 "Are you coming too?"
"I'll be in soon. I'm going to track down a florist...can't remember the guy's name, but he did a nice job at a wedding last year for a buddy of mine. I know he gave his info to the LPE Group to keep on file."
"Oh. Ok." She starts to walk towards the bedroom, but turns in the hallway. "Max?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you giving me a set bedtime?" Her look is perfect, only a little questioning.
I grin. "Yes."
"Oh. ...Ok."
I walk over to her and kiss her head, "I'll wake you when I come to bed..." and I turn into the den and close the door.
Chapter 3 HER
I was going to save my "congratulations" cupcake from Jeff until after lunch, but I keep picking at it with my coffee. He was so sweet when he opened the car door for me and handed me the pink box, saying, "Ya gotta have cake to celebrate." And it's my favorite, red velvet. He must have asked Max.
I was surprised at first that he knew already. But Max has text and called everyone. He's giving a heads-up that the wedding is right around the corner. So far, I've only told my family, Tracy, and Laura. I'm sure my Mom has let the rest of the family know, so I'm covered there. And I have a few college friends and co-workers that I want to invite. Max said I have to give him my list tonight. He's having his assistant make out our invitations.
Since I'm in the office so early and no one else is around, I start on the list. I have to look up a few addresses, but I'm up to 25 pretty quick. Wow. I didn't even think I knew 25 people that well.
"Aren't you a busy bee...making up for slacking off yesterday, Lucy-Goose?" Kevin, my fellow recruiter, sets his bag down on his very neat desk. We've been officemates and co-conspirators against our boss for over a year, I add his name to the list.
"What's your address, Kev?"
"Why? My birthday was last month...Am I being served again? I told that cop that I didn't know that boy was underage...he was dancing in a cage at Chain Gang after all." Kevin loves to tease me with his raunchy stories, all made up. He's been in a committed relationship since before I knew him. But he decided that I was too "corn-fed" as he called it and needed some shocking. "Stop! What....is....thaaat?!" He points to my left hand.
"Oh, this is just my shiny new ring. You like it?" I twist and turn my hand in the air for him to see.
"Oh my God, girl. That ain't a ring, that's a strobe light!" He comes bouncing over and grabs my hand. "At least four carats," he pretends to put on glasses, "Excellent cut and clarity, flawless color." He tries to take it off my hand and I smack his fingers. "Mr. Knight-in-Shining I presume?"
"Of course." I continue flicking my hand around in front of his face, making the diamond sparkle more in the ugly fluorescent lighting.
"And you want to invite moi to your wedding?" He acts like he's tearing up and pulling a hanky from his shirt pocket.
"Of course! But since I know how busy you are with all the chain gang underage club thing...the wedding is next month."
He looks me up and down in my chair. "Girl, you ain't showin a bit!"
I hit his stomach. "I'm not pregnant!"
"So what's the hurry?! The engagement is the best part...ya get parties and presents and ya can still call the whole thing off if he pisses you off."
"We don't want to wait." I say this a little more defensively than I
intended, but Kevin doesn't seem to notice.
"Well...count me in! I ain't missing the shindig that goes with that ring!" He sits at his desk for a little while before saying, "Congrats, Lucy. I see how happy you are with Max and I'm happy for you!"
I take another bite of my cupcake. Now if I could just get my best friends to be as happy for me...
.....
It's just before noon before Tracy and Laura show up. I've had to sit through two meetings and four interviews worrying about what they'll say, so by the time they peak their heads into my office, I'm a wreck. Tracy only sent back a curt text last night, "See you tomorrow."
"You ready for lunch?" Tracy sounds almost nice. I'm shocked.
"Yes...yeah...let's go." I grab my purse and follow them to the elevator.
.....
On the street, Laura finally smiles at me. "So let's see the ring." I put out my left hand. "Oh my...It's so pretty!"
"It's like a frickin billboard. Lucy's taken!" Tracy yells this on the sidewalk, Laura pushing her shoulder to get her to stop repeating it.
We're only getting to-go, since they both have busy meeting schedules, so I know this will be thankfully brief.
"So are you coming to Romona’s tonight?" Tracy isn't saying much, but she's speaking volumes with her hostility.
"Yes." I already got Max's approval to go with them to our usual Wednesday night dinner. He told me to be back at his place by 9:30 and Jeff would be waiting outside with the car, but I can go at least.
"Good."
I know we'll talk more after work. For now, I got a congratulations out of Laura and one acknowledgement that the ring is nice out of Tracy...it's a start.
.....
"Lucy, you got a sec?" Cruela pokes her head in and out of my office quickly. I jump up and follow her out into the hall, but stop suddenly when I see Rich waiting by an interview room door.
Cruela stands next to him, "Lucy, I know that you're busy today. But Rich requested that you sit in on a first interview for one of his new hires today," she looks at her watch, "and you have an half hour free right now...so I agreed. Rich, let Lucy know if you need a formal feedback report or just a few notes, ok?"
Rich nods and Cruela takes off down the hall to terrorize someone else.
"So..." Rich blocks the door.
"I got your message the other night," I cut him off. "I did leave the party with Max. He's my fiancé." I put my left hand up to show the ring and Rich looks at his feet instead. "Well, we got engaged over the weekend..."
"Oh...well...that's great! Congratulations." He finally looks back up at me. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok...your fiancé seemed pretty angry about something."
I ignore this and point at the door. "I should get in there...I don't have a lot of time..."
"Oh...yeah. Bill could use your help...he tends to let the candidate get him sidetracked...so any pointers you can provide him, I'd appreciate it." He reaches with just one finger to touch my arm, but I move quickly to avoid this. "Thanks for doing this, Luce...maybe I could take you out for a celebratory drink sometime..."
"I...don't think that'd be a good idea...but thanks!" I just wait for him to finally move and knock on the door once before going in.
I try to concentrate on Bill's interview, but I'm distracted. Rich has always been friendly and he's joked about getting me on his team, but today he seemed more like a guy who missed out on a chance to date me. Max was right to be a little jealous of him I guess. I'm surprised that I didn't see his interest before this. I usually have such great instincts about people.
.....
"Oh my girls...all alone tonight, no guys?" Rosa is hovering over us as usual.
"No...We’ve had enough with guys..." Tracy shoots me a look.
"So, the usual then?"
We yell, "Yes," in unison. She stops before going to give our order to her cooks though. "Is that...are you engaged, Lucy?!"
I smile and put out my hand. It's about the thousandth time I've done this today. "Yes. Max and I are getting married next month." I've gotten used to saying the whole thing too.
"It's really nice. Congratulations, sweetie! Max is a really nice guy!"
When she walks away, "If he's so nice, then why were you so scared of him Saturday?" Tracy is eyeing me over her glass of Chianti.
"I wasn't scared of him," hopefully she’ll believe this technicality, "I was scared of disappointing him. I shouldn't have let another man touch me..."
"Why the hell not?! Who cares?!" Tracy remains leaning back in her chair, but she's getting louder. Laura thankfully just remains quiet, looking between our tennis match.
"Because." I don't want to get into everything with her, so I opt for an easy answer, "Because Max is a jealous person and I know this. And I love him. I shouldn't have pushed him on this."
"Jealous? Try insane, Luce!" She takes another big drink. I'd like to get drunk as usual on our Wednesday nights too, but I promised Max that I wouldn't. "He grabbed your arms and looked like he was going to rip them off for God's sake!"
Laura finally speaks up. "Lucy...we're just concerned that Max...well...he's...he's very controlling and...seems to have a temper..."
"Well...I'm fine. All in one piece." I shake my arms at them. "See...nothing to worry about."
We all sit back in our seats, avoiding looking at each other for a minute. Rosa comes over with our breadsticks. "Hey...what's with the long faces...my girls are usually laughing so loud I have to remind you that there are other paying customers here..."
We all smile up at her and I say a small, "Thanks," before she walks away shaking her head. "Look..." and surprisingly they both do, "I'm marrying Max. I love him and this is happening. So I need you two to get on board and be happy for me...Please?!" I start to cry. I told myself that I wouldn't, but I'm a wimp!
Laura moves her chair closer to mine and puts her arm around my shoulder. Tracy grabs my hand from across the table, squeezing hard. "We've always got your back, Luce!"
"Geez...I hope this isn't what you're planning for the bachelorette party!" Rosa sets our spaghetti and meatballs down in the center of the table.
We laugh and I wipe my cheeks with my napkin while she serves our plates. The rest of the dinner is lighter. I tell them about how Max proposed and how our families reacted. Tracy doesn't make any more snide comments, just tries to be happy for me. She says she would never think of marrying anyone before she's thirty..."the Mark Twain-approved age for knowing thy true self" as she puts it. Laura said she was thinking of breaking it off with Tad and we talked about that for the next hour. It felt really good to be just normal and just us for a night.
"Max already took care of the check...you really are one lucky girl, Lucy...he's a keeper!" Rosa walks away after leaving our tiramisu for us. I look at my watch guiltily at the reminder of Max. Still plenty of time. The diamonds from the watch sparkle up to match my ring...two big reminders that I'm "Always" Max's just like the engravings on both.
Chapter 3 HIM
Smoke rings above our leather club chairs, filtering the low light more, tendrilling around the bookcases of wine behind us.
"I gotta say, I'm enjoying myself," Paul Sr., puffs a small circle in the air, "When you kids said you wanna get married next month, I thought you were crazy. Your Mom just about through a fit of crazy!" He gestures with his cigar towards Paul Jr., who only nods, trying to make a ring himself. "But seeing how much you've already got done...well...I'm just glad that we can sit back like this and not be running all around town trying to figure out the craziness."
"I'm glad you can be here too, Sir. It was important to Lucy." I take another sip of my scotch. Congratulating myself on thinking of this place...nothing like a dark cigar bar, long stogies and tall drinks to bring future in-laws around. I'm glad Paul Jr., took the day off too. It'll be good that he's here for this talk too.
"What's with this Sir...call me Paul...Hell, call me Pop," he's already a little tipsy I think, "You'll be a
part of the family in a few weeks!" Paul Jr., only nods again. He's definitely tipsy.
When our server comes in, I signal her for more water and to turn the fans on higher. We have the private tasting room, so the air will clear up quickly. That should help. I don't want to be responsible if they show up drunk later to dinner.
And I want to clear the air in other ways too.
Chapter 4 HER
The buzzer sounds and I push on the door. There's a tiny elevator and stairs. We let Cathy take the elevator with the stroller and girls. Mom and I walk up and get to the second floor before her.
"I toldja they'd beat us!" Priscilla is six and precocious. She runs into my arms and we laugh as I tickle her sides.
"Annie Oocy!" Cassie, only two, has her arms up in the stroller for me to do the same to her. I bend down and tickle her a little, her giggles echoing in the enclosed hallway.
The door opens and a very short, white-haired woman with very large dark glasses holds it open for us, "Miss Shannon?"
I'm not used to being addressed so formally, I blush a little at our loudness earlier. "Yes."
The light in the room is shocking after the darkened stairwell. There's white everywhere and crystal everywhere and a tall woman with equally white hair and large dark glasses coming to greet us. She's carrying a tray of drinks and hands one to each of us, champagne for Mom and me, orange juice for Cathy and the girls.
I smile, Max thinks of everything. He arranged this appointment and must have informed them who was coming with me and that Cathy is pregnant. She's not showing yet, but she does glow! I cheers with her first.
"I already have some specifications from Mr. Traeger and I've pulled a few choices for us to get started. Please, come with me. Ladies, have a seat on the sofa there and we will be right back." She very efficiently ushers me towards a room to the side. Mom and Cathy grin at us.
I'm too distracted with what specifications she means. Max doesn't want to see the dress, but he certainly cares a great deal about how I dress normally. I'm not surprised that he'd want a say in my wedding dress too.
True Choices: A Dark Romance (True Series Book 3) Page 3