Authors: Karen McCullah Lutz

Tags: #Fiction, #Contemporary Women

The Bachelorette Party (22 page)

BOOK: The Bachelorette Party

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forty

When Grey stood up to give a toast, Zadie’s whole body tensed, knowing he was toasting a girl who didn’t exist.

“Okay, everyone, here’s where I get all sappy.” The table became quiet, waiting to hear what platitudes of love Grey had conjured for the occasion. “As you all know, I only met Helen six months ago, at Denise’s wedding.” He nodded toward Denise and Jeff, who were arguing over whether Denise should eat his dessert as well as hers. “Of course, I was immediately struck by her beauty.” Helen blushed and smiled. “But, as I got to know her, I was struck by her inner beauty as well. Never had I met someone so pure and so good and so genuinely loving to everyone around her.”

If only he knew how loving she’d been to Jimbo, Zadie thought.

“When I asked her to marry me, she teared up, which made her eyes shine even more, and she said yes in a way that I’d never heard sound so beautiful. So I ask you all to raise a glass to the fact that I am so damn lucky.”

Helen immediately began sobbing. She stood up and hugged Grey, then kissed him in a way that was both chaste and incredibly romantic.

As the entire table held their glasses high and congratulated Helen and Grey, Zadie was relieved that she hadn’t said anything.
Grey was truly in love. She could never be the one to take that away from him.

As the wedding party and all of the relatives trickled out into the lobby, saying their goodbyes until tomorrow, when the blessed event would occur, Zadie got a chill.

“Helen, can I talk to you?”

It was Jimbo. He was sitting in one of the rose-colored velvet chairs under the mammoth chandelier and he got up as soon as he saw Helen walk in.

“Oh, shit,” Zadie said.

Mike looked at her. “What’s wrong?”

Zadie walked closer, hoping she could somehow diffuse the situation with her proximity.

Helen looked at Jim with a vague sense of confusion, then recognition, then annoyance. “Jim?”

He grabbed her hands. “Before you go through with this wedding tomorrow, I just had to tell you that I felt a real connection with you last night and I could never forgive myself if I didn’t take one last shot.”

Jimbo had a set of’nads. That’s for sure. Zadie had to give him that. But she wasn’t going to. “I think you should leave,” she told him.

The other members of the wedding party began to notice what was going on. There were frowns and worried tones.

Gilda frowned. “Isn’t that—”

“I think it is,” Jane said.

When Eloise spotted him, she turned red with rage. “What the hell are you doing?”

Betsy concurred, marching over and getting right in Jim’s face. “Didn’t you get the hint last night when we ditched you? Helen is getting married. She has no interest in you.”

“I just want to hear that from her.”

Grey walked up, stopping a conversation with Helen’s mom midstream when he noticed the ruckus. “Who the hell is this guy?” No one replied. He looked at Zadie. “Is someone going to answer me?”

“We met him last night,” Zadie said. “At a bar.”

“And he shows up at our wedding rehearsal?”

Jimbo looked at Grey. “I mean you no disrespect, but I happened to fall in love with your bride last night and I had to come by and see if we were meant to be.”

“You’re meant to get your ass kicked, I can assure you of that.” Grey was purple. Zadie had never seen him so angry. As his groomsmen—lawyers ever mindful of an assault charge—held Grey back, Jimbo tried to explain.

“It was a moment we shared that I’ve never felt before. I’m sorry. I just have to know.”

Betsy started pushing him toward the door. “Stalker!”

Helen’s father agreed, looking around for security. “Can someone get this man out of here? I’m paying a fortune for my daughter to get married in this hotel and she’s being harassed by some lunatic.”

Jimbo was unapologetic. “I’m just a man in love.”

“You’re disgusting is what you are,” Eloise told him.

Grey looked at Helen. “What the hell was this ‘moment’?”

Zadie tensed, preparing for the worst. But Helen merely looked baffled. “I talked to him for maybe twenty minutes at the Sky Bar. I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“We had that dance at Deep. Don’t tell me you forgot about that,” Jimbo said.

Grey was confused. “You went to Deep?”

Helen glared at Jimbo. “So, I danced with you. That gives you the right to try and ruin my wedding?”

Jimbo looked at Helen. “You can deny the night all you want, but I’m in love with you,” he said, completely matter-of-fact.

Helen looked at Grey again. “I swear I have no idea what he’s talking about. I
just
met him last night. All we did was talk and dance.”

“I know,” Grey said, as he put his arm around her protectively.

The relatives in the group stood there buzzing. How could something this sordid happen at sweet Helen’s rehearsal dinner?

As security finally showed up to remove Jimbo from the premises, he made one last attempt. “If we weren’t meant to be, then why did you give me the key to your hotel room?”

The room grew silent. Even the security guards paused. Zadie’s stomach knotted up with dread.

“I did no such thing!” Helen said.

“I still have it in my wallet.”

“You are a disgusting liar!” Helen said.

“I can prove it,” he said, pulling out her room key. He held it up for all to see.

There was a gasp, followed by an incredibly large silence that filled the room. Betsy was the first to think on her feet. “That could be the key to any room in this hotel.”

“There’s an easy way to find out.” He marched over to the registration desk and asked them to swipe it.

The registration clerk looked up at them all, mortified. “Bridal suite.”

Zadie’s head was ringing with panic. She just wanted to get Grey out of there. She didn’t want him to have to hear this.

“He could’ve stolen it,” Denise offered. “He was completely feeling her up on the dance floor.” Marci and Kim nodded in agreement.

“His hands were all over her,” Marci said.

“He could’ve taken it out of her pocket, when he was groping her butt,” Kim offered.

Helen was now crying. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Grey was pale. “Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” he asked, looking at Zadie as if she could clear everything up.

Her every instinct told her to make up some charming, witty story as to how this buffoon ended up with Helen’s room key, so they could all laugh about it and go on their merry way. But she couldn’t do it. This was the moment she should come clean. She knew it. As much as she wanted to protect Grey’s feelings, there was no way she could let Helen stand here and lie to his face when
the truth was so obvious. She sighed and stepped forward.

“He came by her room after we put her to bed. I heard them having sex from out in the hall around three in the morning.”

“What??!” Helen shrieked. “You did not!”

“Believe me, I wish I hadn’t.”

The rest of the room was too stunned to even gasp. They all looked at Zadie as if she’d just announced that Helen was an al Qaeda operative.

Grey shook his head, confused. “Helen was at my house at three in the morning. She took a cab over from the hotel around two.”

Now Zadie was confused. “Then who the hell was in her room screwing Jimbo?”

Eloise raised her hand. “That would be me. I saw him in the hallway and one thing led to another.” She shrugged, embarrassed, but not nearly as embarrassed as she should have been. Her parents were in the room, for God’s sake. Looking completely mortified.

“So, let me get this straight,” Grey said, glaring at Jim. “You showed up to screw my fiancée, but settled for screwing my sister instead?”

“Well, I hate to say it, but yes, that’s pretty accurate. I’m a man with a libido and the opportunity presented itself.”

“Go to hell, Southern boy, no one settles for me.” Leave it to Eloise to make this situation about her.

Jimbo looked back to Helen. “I wish you hadn’t had to hear that, Helen. I came to that room for you.”

Grey’s groomsmen were itching to rip Jim’s face off. Bill, the best man, nodded to the security guards that now was the time to take him away. As they dragged him off, Jimbo yelled, “I’m only guilty of love, Helen.”

Grey looked at Helen, still confused. “You let him feel you up and then you gave him your key?”

“No!” she sobbed. “I mean, I don’t remember
everything
from last night, but I’m sure I didn’t—why would I …” She trailed off. Then turned to glare at Zadie. “If Zadie hadn’t insisted we start drinking, then none of this would’ve happened.”

And there you had it. What Zadie had known would happen all along. It was all her fault. As relieved as she was to hear that Helen
hadn’t
let Jimbo violate her, she was enraged that any blame for her potential violation was now squarely upon her shoulders.

“I didn’t hand him your key, you did—” Zadie said. Perhaps not the most tactful display she could imagine, but the situation had gone far beyond civilized. She knew Mike and her parents were somewhere in the crowd thinking less of her, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment.

Helen’s father stepped up, looking around at the rest of the family. “Why don’t we all head to the bar and have a muchneeded drink while the kids sort this out?”

The old people in the group made a beeline for the bar, leaving just the wedding party in the lobby. Helen again pointed at Zadie, looking up at Grey. “She said you wanted me to loosen up. That you didn’t like me the way I was. So I got drunk.” She looked at Zadie. “Are you happy now?”

Oh, yes. Zadie was incredibly happy Bursting with pride. Her best friend was devastated and her cousin was dissolving in a puddle of tears. This was a banner day.

“It’s true,” Eloise said. “Zadie encouraged her.”

“We all encouraged her,” Jane said, glaring at Eloise.

Grey closed his eyes, trying to make sense of all this. “You gave some guy your room key two nights before we’re getting married?”

Helen just cried in response. “I don’t remember.”

“How much did you have to drink?”

“Quite a bit,” Betsy answered for her.

Grey looked at Helen. “Well, Christ, maybe you screwed a couple guys on the way over to my place and don’t remember that either.”

Denise put a hand on Grey’s arm. “Okay, we all just need to calm down.”

“She gave a guy her room key!” Grey shouted. He looked at Zadie before he walked out. “Thanks for making sure Helen had fun.”

forty-one

The wedding did not take place. The calla lily bouquets were sent back. The seared ahi on sourdough squares were never passed around. The Taittinger did not flow.

Grey could not quite get over the fact that Helen had been so free and easy with her virtue mere hours before their wedding. And he couldn’t quite get over the fact that Zadie was complicit in the evening that caused such a breakdown in trust. He wouldn’t return Zadie’s calls. Her many, many calls. She dialed his number at least fifty times on the day the wedding was supposed to take place, but there was no answer. She drove by his house, but he wasn’t there. She even drove down to Bolsa Chica to look for him on the waves, but there was no sign of him.

She called Helen a few times, but she wouldn’t come to the phone.

Zadie felt like shit.

She was a bad friend. She was a bad cousin. She was a bad teacher. In one night, she’d managed to fuck up her entire world.

Tuesday at school, she just went through the motions: listening to the report on Nancy’s Saturday night date with Darryl, trading her protein bar for one of Dolores’s Rice Krispies Treats, handing out quizzes on Joyce Carol Oates. All was the picture of
normal mediocrity, until sixth period, when Trevor walked in and sat down in the first row.

“Hey.” He grinned at her.

Zadie immediately tensed at the sight of him and stared at her desk. “Hello, Trevor. How are you?” Faced with the reality of her actions under severe fluorescent lighting, her entire body stung with shame. He was a student. In her class. And he had been inside of her.

“I’m good,” he said. She couldn’t decide if he was referring to his demeanor or his sexual prowess. She looked up for an instant and noticed that he gave her his best sex-filled look, trying to remind her of the pleasure that could be hers again.

The bell rang again and the rest of the class filed in and sat down. Zadie leaned against the edge of her desk in front of them. “Did everyone have a good Memorial Day weekend?” As her students murmured their answers—ranging from “Hell, yeah” to “It sucked”—she noticed that Trevor winked at her. She ignored it and went on to discuss the social mores inherent in
Pride and Prejudice
. When the end-of-class bell rang and the students shuffled out, eyes glazed over from her less than well-planned lecture, she saw Trevor throw a piece of paper onto her desk. After the last student left, she unfolded it. It was his cell phone number.

Just last week the problem had been that she wanted to fuck Trevor. Now the problem was that she didn’t want to fuck Trevor
again.
The fact that she’d lived out her fantasy and then some was shocking, shameful, and immensely gratifying. But there was no way she could condone a repeat performance. A drunken slip on an incredibly difficult night was one thing, but for her to indulge her urges again was unconscionable.

And truthfully, she had no desire to sleep with Trevor again. The fantasy had been fulfilled. It didn’t take a shrink to realize she’d fixated on him because he wasn’t a viable option. There was no conceivable way she could have a relationship with Trevor.

She looked down at the phone number in her hand and
frowned. Was he saying “Let’s go for another tumble,” or was he saying “Be my girlfriend”? Trevor didn’t think they were dating, did he? That would be bad. Very, very bad.

After her last class, she stopped in the ladies’ room. She didn’t normally use the student bathrooms, but her last Diet Coke was urgently trying to get out of her. As she was washing her hands, she heard a girl crying in the last stall. She waited a moment, then knocked on the stall door.

“Everything okay?” A stupid question. Obviously everything was far from okay.

She got some sniffles in reply and a quiet “I’m fine.”

Zadie frowned. “Amy?”

“What?”

“It’s Ms. Roberts. Are you all right?”

Amy pushed open the door to reveal that she was sitting on the toilet, lid down, sobbing into a big wad of toilet paper. “I’m just totally bummed out.”

“What happened?”

Amy sighed, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her soccer uniform. “Friday night at Belinda Matthews’s party I
finally
made out with Trevor.”

Oh, God. Zadie had a feeling she knew where this was going.

“I’ve been in love with him for, like, ever, like I seriously want to marry him, and after Friday, I totally thought we had a shot at being a couple. He said he’d call me this week and everything. And then he tells me at lunch that he met someone else.” Amy burst into tears again, blowing her nose into the giant wad.

Zadie paled. The fact that Trevor was breaking poor Amy’s heart for
her
was beyond mortifying.

She pulled some fresh toilet paper off the roll and handed Amy a new wad. “Maybe it’ll be a short-lived crush and then you two can pick up where you left off.”

“Doubtful. He sounded like he was in love with her or something.”

“I’m sure he’s not,” Zadie said. “Just give it some time.”

Amy glanced up at her, looking slightly confused as to how Zadie could presume to make assertions about Trevor’s capacity for love. “I hope you’re right. Because I seriously love him.”

Zadie held the stall door open as Amy gathered her bookbag and made her way out, wiping her eyes. “I just hope it wasn’t one of those slutty older girls that were at his show on Saturday They kept trying to get up in front so they could touch him. You should’ve seen them. They had on these shiny halter tops and stilettos—they looked like hookers.”

Snotty and Skinny. It took all the strength Zadie had not to blurt “One of them actually is a hooker now.” But she refrained, counting her blessings that Amy hadn’t spotted her at the concert. All she needed was a catfight in the girls’ room to make her week complete.

When she got out to her car, she checked her watch. Threethirty. Still plenty of time to make it to Grey’s office. She’d called his assistant during lunch and found out that he’d come to work, but was in a really, really bad mood. Go figure. Zadie thought that if she showed up there, they could have a conversation without him yelling too loud. It was a chicken-shit move and she knew it, but she had to talk to him.

As she pulled out of her parking spot, she heard a slap against her window that made her jump in her seat and slam on the brakes. It was Trevor, on his skateboard, wheeling up alongside of her.

She unrolled the window. “I could’ve hit you, you know.”

“You would never hit me.” He grinned.

“I have to go. A friend of mine is very upset.”

“Who? Your friend that got ripped off?”

Zadie was confused. One of her friends got ripped off? When?

“That girl with the strap-on. Some guy was going through her purse while you were yelling at her at Deep. I lost him in the crowd before I could do anything. I meant to tell you when I saw you later, but I spaced.”

Jimbo. It had to be Jimbo. He
had
stolen the key. That fucker!

“Was he a big guy with a red face?”

“Yeah. With, like, nineties hair.”

Now she couldn’t get to Grey fast enough.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She put her car in drive. “And thanks. For telling me that. It fixes a lot of problems.” She waved and drove off, leaving him standing there watching her go.

She dialed Helen from the car. “You didn’t give him the key. He stole it. Trevor saw him.”

“Who’s this?”

“Oh, sorry, Aunt Carol. Is Helen there? It’s Zadie.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you, Zadie.”

“She will when you tell her the thing about the key.”

“Hold on.”

After about thirty seconds, Helen picked up the phone, her voice a hopeful little tremble. “Trevor saw him steal it?”

“He just told me. I’m on my way to tell Grey.”

“Oh, my God! Do you think he’ll take me back?”

“I don’t know. I just wanted you to know that you didn’t solicit that idiot hillbilly.”

“Call me after you talk to Grey.”

“I will.”