Page 21 of Bridesmaid By Chance
“I know.” I nod. “It’s…it’s bad. And then of course because I’m an idiot, when I was saying bye, I was on autopilot and said ‘’kay, love you, bye.’”
“You did not,” she says, her voice rising.
“Oh, I did. Then in the midst of covering that up, I told him I never said I wanted to sit on his face and that he must have misheard me. There was a lot of rambling. I took all these fruit snacks and then left with mychin held high, but now that I’ve been sitting here in the dark, thinking about it, I am kind of on the side of maybe Hudson was right, maybe I am young. I think a more mature human wouldn’t have brought up the sitting-on-the-face thing.”
“You think?” she says on a sigh. “Jesus, Sloane. What the hell is he going to say to Jude?”
“I have no idea. I’m kind of hoping that he tells him we went our separate ways, because I know for a fact that if Hudson tells Jude that I said I’d sit on his face, Jude would disown me.”
“Yes. Yes, he would. God, what a mess; where the hell did this all stem from?”
I lean my head back on the couch and stare up at the ceiling. “Hudson was trying to impress this guy, Archie Wimbach. Hardy and Hudson are attempting to purchase his property to extend their affordable housing project globally. I don’t know much about the backstory. I caught some of his text messages though.”
“You what?”
“He was texting Hardy in the car, and I was reading them.”
“Invasion of privacy much?” Stacey says.
“Listen, the man signed me up to be a bridesmaid in the dude’s wedding because the person that was supposed to be in the wedding broke their leg or something and can’t perform the Regency dances.”
“Regency dances? Like…Bridgerton?”
“Yeah, I guess they’re knocking it back a century and putting on their petticoats. Anyway, I fit the look, and Hudson said I was available. Talk about shocked, pretty sure my chin hit the table.” I lift my chin for her to examine. “Is there a bruise?”
“There is no bruise,” Stacey deadpans.
“Lucky for him. I could have filed worker’s comp. Anywho, the texts—Hudson was going off about Archie and this club and how he needs to get close to the father of the bride.”
“What kind of club?” Stacey asks. “A sex club? Because I could be into that.”
I roll my eyes at my sister. “I know you could, but I think it’s one of those posh, rich clubs.”
“What was it called?”
“Uh…what did he type?” I scratch the side of my head. “I think the Mayfair Club.”
Stacey pulls out her phone and types it into her internet search.
“But do you know what I really found out today, Stacey? I’m not the kind of person who can put up with this kind of business. It’s not for me. I mean, without even a second of thought for my well-being, Hudson offered me up to his business partner, and sure, it could have been worse, but this is not what I want to do with my life.” I drag my hand over my face. “I want to do something that’s more fulfilling. Something that isn’t fetching drinks and answering phone calls. I want to make a difference.”
“I know that feeling so well,” Stacey says. “This, coming from the Dog of the Day girl. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe this is the wake-up call you needed to switch jobs. Perhaps you were so comfortable getting paid that you settled for something you didn’t like.”
“That’s great and all but getting paid is the key to what you and I both need right now. We can’t afford the luxury of pursuing a dream. Hell, I can’t even imagine dreaming. My brain is too focused on paying the bills; dreaming isn’t even an option.”
She sighs sadly. “Isn’t that the truth?” She taps on her phone a few more times and then says, “That club you were talking about looks like it has been around forever.Poshis the nice way to put it. This is for aristocrats. They even have debutante balls where young women come out to society.” Stacey smiles at me. “When I came out to society, no one threw me a ball.”
“Because we knew you were gay the minute you started talking. No need to celebrate.”
“Uh, coming out is a big deal. There’s always a need to celebrate,” she humorously counters.
“Hey, I got you a vibrator in solidarity.”
Stacey chuckles. “Yeah, wore that thing out.”
“Okay, none of that,” I say, flitting my hand at her.
“You can talk about sitting on your boss’s face, but I can’t talk about the adventures of pleasuring my partners with the vibrator you got me for coming out? How is that fair?”
