by Bry Foster
“Whoa. I look hot.” They have put much more work into my appearance than I ever have still, it looks good. My eyes are smoky. My lips are a dark maroon and match the maroon, shimmery dress I have been talked in to. My hair is slicked back in a sleek ponytail though there is a small hump on top.
“All you need is some heels and you will be ready to go.” Liz applauds.
“Oh no. That’s where I draw the line. No heels.”
“No heels? What are you going to do, go barefoot?” Liz asks. Her face looks like I just asked her to smell one of the boys’ gym shoes.
“I think I have some cute flats in my suitcase that will go perfectly.” I say as I walk out of the bathroom towards the bag.
“Are you kidding me? Wyatt, help me out here.”
“I don’t know. I kind of agree. We will be doing a lot of walking, and drinking. Plus, if any papz see us, it will be easier to escape in flats.”
“Found them!” I say as I pull them out of my bag and slip them on. The black sequins sparkle and they show off my new pedicure. I have to admit, my feet have never looked better. I had to suffer through a lot of tickling while Marcus worked on them though.
“Not bad. I think I’ll wear some too.”
“Are we having a night out on the town or going to a high school party here?” Liz asks. Her face is screwed up in mock confusion.
“Oh come on Liz, loosen up!” I tell her and she rolls her eyes.
“Fine. Do you know how much of a scandal it will be when the French find out we wore flats on a night on the town?” Liz mutters as she leaves the room to change her black bootie heels. She isn’t wrong. Everyone is so fashion forward here but, that’s just not me.
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” I yell at her back.
“When in Rome!” Wyatt yells in her French accent. We laugh and then follow Liz to her room while Wyatt tells me her plan of sneaking us out of the house.
Paris is a blast. “Wahoo! Another!” I shout to the bartender as he slides another round of shots over to Liz. She sorts them, passing one to Wyatt and me then we all shoot them back before dancing around on our spot in VIP close to the bar. Wyatt snuck us out as she said she would by helping us go through the kitchen entrance. Her mother’s body guards are assisting us tonight though each time we go to a new bar they try to stay out of our way until we are noticed.
So far we have managed to get away from papz before they get to the location they are called to. Obviously people are tipping them off to our night on the town. They will likely catch us soon, and if I was sober I would probably say that we should be on our way back to the manor by now, but I am not sober. I am passed tipsy, and I am having a great time being irresponsible.
We have also picked up a few friends. Wyatt has introduced us to some her friends that are out on the town. Yuri, Tony and Lexi are just a few people that were already out and decided to join her on her journey to show a couple American girls a good time. They know who I am but they went to school with Wyatt and are used to being around other celebrities. That is so weird to me to be referred to that way, but as of now I am notoriously famous for my connection to Cash. It is weird that so many people want this notoriety; all I have ever wanted is to make it out of my circumstances but, I cannot say that I particularly like being hounded and photographed and made fun of, but I do want Cash. And this all comes with him.
The body guards move closer to us and one of them whispers to Wyatt. Her eyes grow wide and she looks at Liz and me.
“Papz are here!” She yells closely to us over the music.
“What should we do?” I yell back. Her body guard speaks to her again and she leans back over to me.
“He says there are a lot. We need to call Cash and see if he can send back up for when we try to leave. Andrew and Jackson won’t be able to handle so many on their own!” She points to the entrance and we see that a crowd of people are standing in front of the front entrance. They stare through the glass paneled walls. Most of them have large cameras in their hands. I nod and then pull my phone out of my bra. I call Cash but when I talk he can’t hear me over the music. I hang up and text him.
Me: Need security, stuck @ Shwcse.
“This sucks, I wanted to take you guys to the Twister!” Wyatt yells back. My phone vibrates in my hand and I open up the screen. The fluorescent screen glows up at me.
Cash: Sneaking out? That is so unlike u. LOL b there soon. Around the block.
“Cash and Noa are coming I guess.” Excitement bubbles in me at the thought of seeing him.
“Really? Hopefully they bring security with them.” Liz quips.
“I doubt they will have been out alone anyway. Cash is still more popular than Khloe. No offense.” Wyatt says.
“None taken!” I shrug off. I keep dancing. It’s easy to ignore the flashing of cameras that competes with the strobe lights. Liz and I jump around and dance. My body is warm. I have never felt this carefree. My life is almost perfect at this moment, just missing my prince charming—when I am sober, I will regret that reference. Wyatt and some friends tip a dancer in the corner of the VIP section. Another round of drinks comes and then we hear commotion pick up at the front door.
“There they are!” Wyatt yells as she begins to wave her hands around to get the guys attention. Her movements make me a little dizzy and then I realize it’s my own movements that are throwing off my equilibrium. Slightly calloused hands go around my waist and I gasp at the touch. Cash turns me to him. I look into his eyes and they are gleaming in jubilation.
“Having fun?” He says to me. The smell of liquor and cigars are clinging to him. He is much too young to smell like a bar filled with old gangsters. I sway towards him as I take in the subtle smell of him that drifts just under the surface of the heavy scent of everything else.
“Cigars, Cash? What, did you all spend your guy’s night out watching old gangster movies like Scarface?” He chuckles and the rumble of his chest competes with the bass of the music pounding beneath our feet. The arch of my feet hurts but I am sure if I keep drinking I won’t notice.
“Maybe. I must say, I am surprised—gleefully of course— that you were able to get away from Clara and Corisande. Isn’t there a chateau full of women waiting to hound you about last minute decorations?” I Want You to Know by Selena Gomez and Zedd starts to blare through the speakers and I turn around and start dancing on my fiancé. I push back against him which causes him to emit a sharp intake of breath and his hand more firmly clasps my waist. Everyone in the club starts jumping up and down and fist pumping as we enjoy ourselves and the music booming through the sound system.
“Here, Khloe.” Liz passes me another shot and returns to the group.
“I don’t really care.” I say as I toss back the shot. It almost immediately comes back up and Cash chuckles at my face. I take two more shots and two more drinks before I am completely oblivious to what is going on.
“Alright everyone, we have some soon-to-be newlyweds in the building! Our very own Cash Castille and his fiancee Khloe!” The DJ says causing more eyes to find us but Cash and I are in our own world dancing on each other and making out. Drinking and laughing with our friends. As far as I know the group of us laugh and dance and generally have a good time. When I wake up the next morning on the bathroom floor with Cash asleep in the bathtub, I cannot help but wonder – how the heck did we get home?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Good morning my lo-“ I hear Liz’s voice come from the bedroom door but, I can’t bring myself to get up and let her know where we are. What I do get out is a monstrous moan that would scare small children away on Halloween.
“Are you in the bathroom?” Liz asks as her voice comes closer to the bathroom door. It isn’t closed and I see her at the same time that she sees me. Though her form is very blurry in my sight as I lay with my head rested on my arm…which is rested on the porcelain toilet. Liz puts a hand over her mouth as she surveys the scene. Me— almost passed out…head in the toilet. Ca
sh still asleep in the waterless jacuzzi tub. The hand doesn’t stifle her laughter though.
“My, my, my…what is this?”
“I don’t want to talk about it Turner.” I mutter. My head feels like someone is tap dancing on one side and drilling a jackhammer through it on the other. I groan and change the position of my head.
“Cash. Wakeup. I brought you guys something.” Liz says as she pushes his shoulder. His hair is insanely messy and he has lipstick marks all over his face.
“My mouth tastes like trash and smoke.” I groan as I roll myself into a sitting position. I hear Cash begin to stir as Liz gets him up.
“Why the hell am I in the bathtub?”
“Inquiring minds want to know Cash.” Liz cackles as she shakes something.
I squint and bring a hand to my head. Liz’s laugh is making my head feel like a jackal is cackling directly into my ear. “I know your high pitched laugh is usually adorable and hilarious but right now it is causing me physical pain.” I say as I grab onto the counter and start to pull myself up. All of my limbs feel tense and I feel like there is a ten second delay between what my brain tells my body to do and the action.
“I’m sorry but this is hilarious. And you guys haven’t even seen the pictures yet. Here.”
“Pictures?” Cash and I say at the same time. Liz hands him some pills and then reaches to do the same for me. I take them and Cash pulls himself out of the tub a lot easier than I do using the shower and when I finally stand up and get a good look at myself in the mirror I almost want to vomit again. My hair is a mess. My lipstick is smeared all over my face and I notice that I am only wearing undergarments and Cash’s shirt. No pants.
“Oh dear Lord. Please don’t let this mean what I think it does.” I mutter as I push my tangled hair away from my face. I look like the LMFAO brothers.
“Don’t worry, Cherie. No need to be modest now.” Cash winks at me through the mirror and my cheeks heat so much, I am grateful for the smudged makeup. He’s been enjoying teasing me about not being able to hold out. It’s our own little inside joke. “Get out of here Cash.”
“I’d suggest a shared shower but that may be awkward with Liz watching.” He says drily. Liz sticks her tongue out at him. “Hurry, I smell like a smoker’s club. By the way, nice underwear.” He says before he shuts the door.
“Liz!” I yell at her while she laughs at my misfortune and turn to the glass shower.
“I’m sorry but what did you think would happen when you put your arms up?”
“I don’t know.” I mutter as I start up the water. I strip and climb in as Liz continues to talk. Then the word she brought up earlier crosses my mind. Pictures.
“Liz, what did you mean by pictures?” My voice echoes along with the sound of water in the large bathroom.
“Let’s just say, very few people doubt that you and Cash are a legit couple now.”
“Why am I afraid of why that is?” Liz taps away at her phone before bringing it to the top of the glass shower where the glass isn’t ‘blurry’ so that all the private stuff is not visible to others in the bathroom. On the screen I see that a blog site has posted pictures of Cash and I from last night. A few of them are just of us talking to each other in the VIP section of the last club I remember going to. It’s dark and a lot of the pictures are blurry. Then they get more racy. Some are of Cash and I grinding on each other. Some with our tongues down each other’s throats.
“Are these pictures of Cash and I making out?”
“Oh, you did a lot more than make out.”
“What?” The next few pictures are of me pretty much straddling Cash’s lap. Wyatt is doing the same to Noa and a few of the other people we were with are in the same predicament. A figure I think is Liz is chatting it up with some girl next to us. “Why are we sitting on their laps?”
“The real question is, why are you giving them lap dances?” My jaw drops and I choke on some shower water and a bit of humiliation.
“Sweet baby Jesus.” I say as Liz moves the phone and I go through the motions of washing my hair and then my body.
“Yes. Well, I think I have given you enough to think about. I’ll go grab you some clothes before you have to face your in laws for the lunch in that is going to take place in twenty minutes.” Liz walks out and all I can do is ask myself why I thought listening to Wyatt was a good idea.
At the final dress fitting the day before the wedding, I look at myself in the mirror in awe. The expensive white dress is ornate and beautifully crafted. The dress is mostly lace. The bodice of the gown is tight until just under my hips where it flares out in rows and rows of lace. The train is long and decorated with small, handcrafted, lace flowers. I suck in a breath as I run my hands over my stomach and down my thighs, feeling the fabric beneath my fingers. I close my eyes as I try to compose myself. Filled with turmoil. Eventually I realize the women in the room are talking to me.
“Simply gorgeous.”
“Stunning.”
“Cashel is going to die.” My heart does a strange pitter patter at the thought. Would he like it? Can I do this? I feel so conflicted. Plus sick; really, really sick. Not too long ago, I thought that I would be able to keep my emotion out of this. What started out as a joke has become very, very real for me. But, how real is it for Cash?
“May I have a moment with my future granddaughter?” Corisande asks. Silently, everyone exits the room before closing the heavy double doors behind them. The room is bathed with sunlight from the large, oddly shaped windows and it casts a shadow of my figure to my side. I look at the curves and the way the dress hugs my body. I could have sworn that shadow belonged to someone else. I take in a deep breath, trying to brace myself as I look at Corisande in the mirror. She is standing behind me, alternately admiring the dress and waiting for my attention. Her face gives away nothing, as usual.
“All right, give it to me.” She raises a thin eyebrow. I roll my eyes and huff out a breath as I slouch a little, hunching my shoulders. “Come on, I can take it. What? My butt look big? I’m too thick around the waist? I can take it.” I turn to face her. The train of my gown wraps around the base of the pedestal as I do so.
“You think I am difficult with you, yes?”
“I think you enjoy making me a little miserable here and there.” I say casually. She smirks.
“I used to know someone like you.” Corisande tells me. I frown. I thought I was pretty one of a kind.
“Really?”
“Yes, yes. Lovely girl, she had a pretty difficult upbringing though. Her father struggled with alcoholism and used to abuse her and her siblings. Her mother was there, but only ever as a stand in when her father was not present. She didn’t make any rules, just enforced the ones her father set in place. Even when he spent all of their earnings up on liquor and gambling, that girls’ mother did everything she could to keep that family together. In the end, it probably would have been easier to give up on him and move on but she didn’t. The girl grew hardened by this however, she didn't like seeing a woman be ran over by a man that had no respect for the rest of the family’s wellbeing. From the time she was old enough to leave until she married, that girl wouldn’t let anyone into her heart.
Anyone that tried to worm their way into her heart was shot down.”
“Who was she?” I ask.
“Me.”
“You?” She nods.
“My late husband, Francois Sr. was the only man that was able to prove to me all men weren’t the same; he brought out a piece of me I didn’t even know. I’d never met the woman I became after I fell in love with him. I made him work for it though.” I laugh. “Now, his mother could not stand me. But, that is a talk for another day. As we both know, when a man falls in love, there’s not a thing anyone can tell him to make him believe otherwise. So— when my grandson brought a haughty little thing into our family home, a girl who was obviously beautiful, but even more obviously hurting, I immediately liked you.” My eyebrows rise even higher.<
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“Wow, if this is how you treat people you like, I would hate to be your enemy.” Corisande Castille actually smiled. She smiled at me.
“I recognized a familiar soul and I couldn’t help myself.” She chuckled and again I stand stunned into silence. “You remind me so much of myself at that age, in so much turmoil; confused and hurt and yet so resilient, so determined not to let anyone into that heart that is protected by armor and barbed wire and steal cages.” She points to my chest as she walks closer to me. “You see, I am not the foolish old lady you two seem to think I am. I knew what you were up to from the beginning.”
“So why didn’t you call all this off? Stop us?” My voice is small because I fear that is exactly what is about to happen. I am unnerved by how much the idea of not committing to Cash bothers me.
“I knew that you were the one. Whether or not you and Cashel noticed it, you are exactly what each other need. Cashel needs a woman resilient enough to stand by him, to keep him in line, and keep him focused. But, also, to love him through his own ignorance. And you, my dear,” she says as she comes closer and grabs my hands. Her hands are small, wrinkled and soft. I smile at the touch, even as my eyes water and tears pool at the bottom of my lids. “You, need someone to get through that armor. Someone free spirited enough to bring out the brighter side of you, and also, stable enough to break down those walls. I know those walls, I had them myself.” Her lip quirks up before a sad smile touches her fragile features.
“That is my biggest regret in my life. Not letting Francois Sr. in sooner. We could have enjoyed so much more time together had I not been so stubborn and pig headed. I felt that I was not worthy of love. It took me a while to realize that I was. You have to love yourself to love someone else. And you, my dear, are just opening your eyes to the idea of being lovable.” We are both quiet, just looking at each other. Me in wonder, her in that wise way that older people express.