Three Girls And A Wedding (12 page)

“How are you settling in?”

I looked up again to see Kiki,
bobbing excitedly from foot to foot in the aisle next to my chair.

“Great. This is such a beautiful
plane,” I said, smiling at her.

“I know, right? Daddy usually uses
it just for business, but it’s so fab when he lets us do something fun!”

“Want to sit?” I asked politely,
gesturing at the empty chair next to me.

“Totally!” she said, seeming happy
that I had asked. “Jen, this is
gonna
be amazing!”
Kiki sighed as she settled in the chair. “We are
gonna
have so much fun. Daddy got us really great rooms at the Plaza and we have
tickets for a show on Broadway! We’re
gonna
drive around
in the limo for a while so we can see all the sights, and I have a list of good
restaurants where we can eat—I’ve been asking around all my friends to
find the cool spots.”

Kiki always talked like this, a
mile a minute, excited by everything. It could be really tiring trying to keep
up. But then she said something that caught me totally off guard. “…I know
you’ve never been to New York before so I really want it to be special!”

I was touched. Kiki seemed
genuinely excited for me, and there was zero condescension or judgment in her
voice.

“Thanks, Kiki,” I told her,
spontaneously reaching over to squeeze her hand.

“Don’t thank me!” she cried,
squeezing back. “Just have a great time!”

I smiled at her. “I’m sure we all
will.”

At that moment, Matt passed us on
his way back to his seat. “Matt! Hey, Matt!” Kiki said, grabbing his arm. “I
was just telling Jen how much fun we’re
gonna
have on
this trip! Aren’t you so excited?”

“I’m sure it will be great,” he
said, shrugging. It was clear he couldn’t care less about Kiki’s plans.

“Matt’s just irritated ’cause he
knows he’ll have to try on tuxes. He thinks anything besides for jeans is
totally lame.”

Matt shrugged again. “Whatever Eric
needs.”

“Oh, go sit down, you big grump,”
Kiki said, shooing him away with a roll of her eyes. “We won’t let you ruin our
fun.”

I felt a swell of affection for
her. Unlike me, she was totally unaffected by his attitude and rudeness.

“That’s right,” I agreed, feeling
happy and confident all of a sudden. “
We
are going to have an awesome time. Miserable people can get out of our way!”

As Kiki laughed delightedly, Matt
gave me that same searching look as before. But this time, instead of flushing
or fidgeting, I met his gaze, my eyebrow raised slightly.

“I’m sure we’ll all have a great time,”
he finally said, more friendly this time. “I’ll leave you girls to your
planning.”

***

My room at the Plaza was gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous. I had never stayed anywhere nicer than a Marriot, so this
was pretty much out of my league. Kiki, however, had apologized, calling my
room “kind of modest”. Yeah, right. Kiki was down the hall in a suite, sharing
with her cousin. Matt and Eric were in another suite together, as were Kiki’s
parents. Jason and I, however, each had our rooms—to my great delight. I
had never stayed in a hotel room by myself before.

We were all spending a few minutes
relaxing and getting refreshed in our rooms before we headed out in the limo to
see the sights. I had a feeling Kiki was doing very little relaxing—she
was probably driving Bella crazy. I, however, was perfectly content to explore
my room and the bathroom (I had a jet tub!), to sit in the comfy armchairs, to
lay perfectly still on the plush bed, to try out the movie channels on the flat
screen TV. It was like heaven.

I was pleased to find that I was
feeling much more relaxed than I had expected to. It was hard not to get swept
up in Kiki’s enthusiasm. She seemed genuinely excited that I was there with
her. I hadn’t had too much interaction yet with her parents, who I still found
very intimidating, or with Jason, who always set me on edge. Even my anxiety
about Matt had faded after the incident on the plane. Maybe it was possible to
enjoy this trip after all.

I looked at my watch, realizing it
was nearly time to leave. I jumped up from the bed and headed to the bathroom
to reapply my makeup and brush my hair. It was important that I be on my game
today. We were all going to spend a few hours riding around the city and seeing
the sights before having lunch. At three, all of us except for Eric and Matt
would be going to a top bridal salon, where I had scheduled our first
appointment.

There was a sharp knock on my door.
“Jen? You ready?” I heard Kiki call from the hallway. I could picture her
excited face, her body wiggling like a puppy as she waited to start another
fabulous adventure. I smiled at myself in the mirror.

“Coming!” I called out as I grabbed
my purse, feeling very nearly as excited as Kiki myself.

***

I
could live here
, I thought to myself two hours later as we strolled through
the West Village, window- shopping and people-watching. New York was fabulous.
The energy, the bustle, the green spaces tucked away within the concrete and
skyscrapers. I loved it all.

“Jen, doesn’t it feel like we’re in
a movie or something?” Kiki asked me. She was walking arm-in- arm with Eric, a
gleeful smile on her face.

“It does,” I told her happily, not
even trying to sound cool. “It’s just like
Sex
and the City
.”

“Oh my God!” she squealed,
frightening a couple of pigeons into flight with the high-pitch volume of her
yell. “You’re totally right! I
love
that show! Oh my God, Jen, we are totally like Charlotte and Carrie!”

I didn’t ask who was supposed to be
whom; I just smiled at her.

“So what would you like to see
next?” she asked me. We had already driven through Times Square and browsed a
little at Bloomingdales. We had reservations for lunch at the Boathouse in
Central Park in an hour and a half. After that we were hoping to have time to
wander through the park before we had to be at the salon.

“Hmm,” I said, considering. “Would
we have enough time to see the Empire State Building? I’ve always wanted to go
there—actually, my favorite movie of all time takes place there.”

“
Ooooh
,
me too!” Kiki cried. “You mean
Sleepless
in Seattle
, right?”

I heard a snort behind me and spun
to see Matt rolling his eyes.

“No,” I told her, rolling my eyes
right back at him. I’d had about enough of this guy. “I actually meant
An Affair to Remember
.” Kiki looked
blank. “It’s an old movie; Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. It’s classic, Kiki,
very romantic. You’d love it.”

“We should rent it tonight!” Kiki
said. “We can get in our
PJs
and watch it in our
room. Oh, that would be so, so much fun, don’t you think?”

“Well in that case,” Matt
interrupted, looking at me with a slight smile, “the Empire State Building it
is.”

***

Less than two hours later we were
being seated at a table out on the patio at the Boathouse, overlooking Central
Park and the lake. It was beautiful. I hoped the food would be on par with the
rest of the day.

I couldn’t remember the last time
I’d had such a good time. Kiki was surprisingly fun. Her excitement about
everything was contagious. She was friendly to everyone and she seemed to
genuinely want us all to have a good time. Before long, she even had Matt
laughing a little.

Jason seemed content to hang back
with Mr. and Mrs. Barker. He was constantly on his phone throughout the
morning—I had a feeling he thought this made him look busy and important.
I just thought he looked like a pretentious prick.

Over starters of calamari and
stuffed mushrooms, Kiki and I made a game plan for dress shopping. I had made
appointments at five stores in the city, including a few exclusive designer
houses. I was absolutely dying to get into Vera Wang’s showroom, but that
wouldn’t be until tomorrow. Today we were going to hit
Kleinfeld
,
a huge salon that carried a staggering number of dresses. I hoped our energy
would last after the busy day we had already had.

“What are you guys doing this
afternoon?” I asked Eric.

“We’re seeing a Yankee game,” he
replied, looking excited.

I gasped in mock horror. “What
self-respecting Tigers fans would pay money to see the Yankees?” The Tigers
were, of course, Detroit’s baseball team, and as both they and the Yankees were
in the American League, there was a long-standing rivalry there.

“Tickets were free,” Matt said. “An
associate gave them to Mr. Barker when he heard we were coming. So there, Miss
Judgmental.”

I smiled in spite of myself. He was
teasing me! I had to admit I kind of liked it.

“I still think it’s sacrilegious,”
I said. “My father would disown me if he found out I was rooting for the
Yankees.”

“Who said anything about rooting
for them?” Matt said, offended. He reached down and pulled up his sweater to
reveal a white Tigers jersey—and a small flash of a perfectly toned
stomach. I felt my heart rate automatically speed up.

“Now you’re forgiven,” I said,
trying to keep my voice light. “I just hope you don’t get your ass kicked.”

Jason looked up at me sharply, and
I wanted to slap my hand over my mouth. How could I be so stupid, swearing in
front of the Barkers? Just because they were nice didn’t change my position: I
was their employee, and this was business. But Kiki and Eric were laughing, and
Matt was smiling at me.

“I never would have pegged you for
a baseball fan,” Matt said.

“I’m not really,” I admitted. “But
my dad is, and he’s very loyal to the hometown team.”

“Sounds like my kind of guy,” Matt
said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

“You’re a baseball man then?” I
asked.

He shrugged. “Baseball’s great but
hockey is my favorite.” That figured. Hockey was very popular in Detroit.

“Daddy has season tickets for the
Red Wings,” Kiki said happily. “I love going to the games. Hockey players are
so hot.”

I burst out laughing at the
disgusted looks on Matt’s and Eric’s face.

“Those seats are totally wasted on
you,” Matt groaned.

“Matt used to play hockey in
college,” Eric explained. “He thinks Wings games are a religious experience.”

This sparked my interest. Of all of
the sports my dad had forced me to watch growing up, hockey was by far my
favorite. I loved the speed of it, the primal nature of the hitting and the
fights. Furthermore, I agreed with Kiki that hockey players were particularly
sexy.

Just
what I need
, I thought.
Another
reason to fantasize about Matt
.

“What position did you play?” I
asked, leaning forward over the table slightly.

“Defense,” Matt said.

Mmmm
,
lots of hitting then. Nice.

“Where’d you play?”

“U of M,” he answered modestly.

“Wow, not bad,” I said, impressed.
That was a really good program.

“It was fun,” he said. “But I
wasn’t that great.”

“Yeah, right,” Eric said, rolling
his eyes. “He got drafted. He totally would have made it to the NHL.”

I raised my eyebrows at Matt,
wishing he would explain but not wanting to press.

“I got injured,” he said
composedly. “End of the road for me. But I was a long way from playing
professionally. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“You must really miss it,” I said
softly. How horrible. Despite what he said, I knew enough about hockey to know
that you didn’t make it to playing for U of M if you weren’t seriously good.
And to be that good you had to be damn committed. It would be awful to have
that taken from you.

“I still play,” he said, smiling at
me. “Don’t you go feeling sorry for me. I’m on a great rec team; we play twice
a week. We don’t get the same amount of fans coming to our games—” He
winked and I felt a little shiver in my spine. “—but that’s never what it
was about anyhow. It’s just fun to play the game.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw
Kiki looking at me with a huge smile on her face. Shoot. I was probably being
really obvious, leaning over the table towards Matt, my face all lit up. I bet
I totally looked like I was flirting. I would have to watch myself around him.
He was definitely the kind of boy Annie would call dangerous. The kind of boy
that could make you forget things, forget yourself. I usually loved that kind
of boy, but I was supposed to be working.

I felt even more disconcerted later
when we were getting back into the limo after a stroll through the park. “I
can’t believe that just happened,” Kiki whispered in my ear.

“What do you mean?” I asked
nervously. Was she pissed because she thought I was flirting?

“Matt telling you that stuff about
his injury,” she whispered in my ear. “I mean, I only know about it because
Eric told me. I have never—and I mean never—heard Matt tell anyone
about that. He must really trust you.”

I wasn’t sure what was more
troubling: Kiki’s words, or the way they made me feel.

Chapter Sixteen

We found Kiki’s dress at
Amsale’s
showroom the second day of the trip. Of course,
she didn’t buy it right then. She was having way too much fun playing dress-
up, and we still had three appointments—no way was she going to cancel
any of them.

I had really done my research for
this trip. I had pored over websites and catalogues until I had a detailed list
of what I wanted to see Kiki try on—and what shops carried those dresses.
I was very pleased when she tried on that
Amsale
dress I had picked out for her. I had a good feeling about it and I wasn’t
disappointed. I knew the second she tried it on that it was for her.