Three Girls And A Wedding (15 page)

***

I woke up the next morning feeling
unaccountably happy. My head was pounding, my mouth felt like it was stuffed
with cotton balls, and I was pretty sure I was going to throw up at any minute.
So why on earth should I feel so happy?

It hit me like a punch to the
gut—if a punch to the gut could feel so exhilarating. Matt kissed me last
night! He kissed me, and it was
amazing
.
I closed my eyes, letting memories of the evening filter back into my muddled
brain. The last thing I could remember was sitting in the limo, in the dark, with
my hand held tightly between both of Matt’s.

I smiled, burying my head into the
pillow. I couldn’t wait to see him.

I jumped out of bed, eager to get
in the shower, but regretted it instantly. Crap, I really was
hungover
. I sat on the edge of the bed again, taking deep
breaths and trying to quell the pounding in my head. A glass of water on the
bedside table caught my eye. Next to it was a piece of hotel paper. I squinted
at it, and smiled.
Call me if you need
anything
, it said, and next to the words was a phone number. Keeping the
paper in place was a bottle of aspirin.

My heart swelled. I remembered now.
Matt had walked me all the way into my room, helped me find my night shirt
(damn, he had seen me in this ratty old thing), then respectfully turned his
back while I changed. He had even tucked me in, kissing my forehead and wishing
me sweet dreams.

I was pretty sure I was in love.

Feeling reinvigorated, I gulped two
aspirins and most of the glass of water. When I was fairly confident I would be
able to keep it down, I got up to shower and get dressed. I had about an hour
to get downstairs for our limo to the airport, but maybe if I got to the lobby
early I would get to see Matt again. I briefly considered calling the number he
had left, but thought better of it. I didn’t want him to have to explain to
Eric why I was calling.

Forty-five minutes later I was
sitting in a gorgeous armchair in the lobby, my packed bags at my feet, while I
eagerly scanned the elevator for signs of Matt’s arrival. My breath caught as I
saw a tall man with dark looking hair step out into the lobby—then he
turned his face and my heart sank. It wasn’t Matt; it was Jason. And he looked
pissed.

I hadn’t thought much about work
since Kiki and I had left her room last night. Sure, in theory, I had gone out
with her because she was the client and I wanted to make her happy. But once we
had actually gotten to the clubs, I forgot all about that. I wanted only to
have a good time—and I had.

“There you are,” Jason said curtly.
“Come with me.”

“Why? The others will be down
soon,” I stammered. I felt guilty, though I wasn’t quite sure why. I hadn’t
really done anything wrong, had I? Kiki sure seemed pretty happy tripping down
the hall to her room after we had said goodnight at my door.

“All the more reason for us to find
a more private place to talk.” Jason’s voice was cold. Shit.

I stood and followed him to an
empty corner of the lobby. “What the hell did you think you were doing last
night?” he demanded, turning on me.

“Kiki wanted to go out. She wanted
me to come. What could I do?”

“I’m not talking about that,” he
said impatiently. “Though I would have thought you might have managed to stay
more professional and not get drunk off your ass, no matter what Kiki was
doing.”

I felt my face flush. “How did you
know…”

“I saw you coming back in, Jen,” he
said. “I was down here in the bar. I watched the four of you stumble upstairs,
making fools of yourself.”

I felt my face flush. “Mr. Barker
wasn’t with you, was he?” I asked, feeling dread build in my stomach.

“Thank God he wasn’t,” Jason said.
“But I thought I should make sure you got to your room without incident and
what do you think I saw when I got there?”

I looked at him blankly. I had no
memory, absolutely none, of seeing Jason last night.

“I saw that guy coming out of your
room,” he hissed. “What the hell were you thinking, Campbell? That completely
crosses the line!”

“We didn’t do anything!” I said,
stung.

“Do you think that matters? Don’t
be such an idiot, Jen! This business is about perception. What do you think
that looked like, him leaving your room in the middle of the night?”

My face flushed. I knew exactly
what it would look like.

“I’m sorry, Jason,” I said quietly.
“He was just making sure I got in okay. He was being a gentleman.”

“You have a job to do here, Jen,”
he said, leaning down so his face was next to mine. “You could have embarrassed
yourself and the firm. If Mr. Barker had seen you, you’d be fired right now. As
it is, if you let anything like this ever happen again, I’ll be forced to talk
to Jacqueline.”

I looked away, trying to avoid his
face, and found myself staring straight at Matt, who had just disembarked from
the elevator with Eric. He was watching us with a blank look on his face.
Something about his expression made me feel nervous.

“Fine,” I hissed, turning my
attention back to Jason. “You’ve made your point. It won’t happen again.”

I was desperate to get away from
him, desperate to go and talk to Matt. I didn’t know why, but I had a bad
feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“You see that it doesn’t,” Jason
said, his voice cold. “I’m serious, Jen.”

I turned and walked away, but now
Kiki and her cousin had joined Matt and Eric. There was no way I could get a
private word with him—Kiki would no doubt be watching us like a hawk.

When I joined them, Kiki gave me a
huge hug. “Jen, last night was the
best
,”
she said, much more quietly than was normal for her. “I had so much fun. God,
doesn’t your head hurt?”

“It’s pounding,” I told her. “But I
had an aspirin when I first woke up; I think that helped.” I tried to meet
Matt’s eye as I said this, eager to smile and show him how thankful I was, but
he seemed to be staring determinedly at the floor. My stomach plummeted a few
more notches. Was something going on?

When the Barkers joined us we all
loaded into the limo. Matt sat next to his brother, about as far away from me
as possible. I tried to tell myself that he just didn’t want to do anything
obvious with the present company. Kiki kept me occupied with a steady stream of
talk about details we would take care of now the dress was sorted. For a girl
with a hangover, she could really talk.

When we reached the plane, I
finally had my chance. As we lined up at the steps on the tarmac, I
purposefully hung back, pretending to search for something in my purse. When
Matt, bringing up the rear of the group passed me, I grabbed him arm.

“Hey,” I said softly, smiling up at
him. “Thanks for the aspirin.”

He looked down at me, and the
coldness in his eyes hit me like a slap across the face. “It was no problem.
Forget about it,” he said, his voice dead. “In fact, Jen, why don’t you forget
about
all
of it.” The same look of
indifference he had worn so many times settled on his face, and he turned away
from me, leaving me standing alone on the tarmac, tears filling my eyes.

Chapter Seventeen

“I just don’t understand what I
did,” I said for the tenth time. “Something must have happened that I can’t
remember.”

“You were pretty drunk, by the
sound of it,” Ginny agreed, holding my hand.

“Was
he
really drunk?” Annie asked, refilling my wine glass. “Maybe he’s
remembering something wrong.”

I was sitting at the kitchen table
with Ginny, Annie, and Josh.
 
I had
just recapped the entire tale over a bottle of wine. I felt absolutely
wretched. If Josh hadn’t been there, I was sure I’d be sobbing onto the girls’
shoulders by now.

I thought about what Annie said,
racking my brain to try and remember. Had Matt been really drunk? I didn’t
think so. He and Eric had expressed plenty of disdain for the mixed drinks at most
of the clubs, though I recalled them each having a few. Not enough to get
trashed on though, as far as I could remember.

“I don’t think so,” I told her
miserably. “Maybe he just remembered all the reasons why he didn’t like me in
the first place.”

“Give me a break, Jen,” Annie said.
I had also told them about my previous encounters with Matt, about the way he
so often seemed to look straight through me. “If he didn’t like you before, he
certainly seemed to change his mind. I mean, he kissed you and tucked you into
bed.”

“I have to agree,” Josh said
thoughtfully. “I know it might go against the stereotype, but I don’t know many
guys who would do that with a girl they couldn’t stand.”

“Then that leaves me exactly where
I started,” I moaned. “What the hell happened?”

“You could always call him,” Ginny
suggested. “He did leave you his cell phone number, right?”

I felt a cold trickle of fear at
the thought of talking to him again.

“He was so unpleasant,” I told her.
“It made me feel like shit. I don’t know if I want to go through that again.”

“If he was so rude to you, maybe
you shouldn’t be worrying so much about him,” Annie said. “Why would you want
to get all worked up about a guy who treats you bad?”

“I just want to know what
happened!” I said. “Because last night he didn’t treat me badly at all. He
was…he was really nice. Much nicer than any guy I’ve ever been with, actually.
I told him things, personal stuff, and he was…well, he was nice, okay?”

“Then call him,” Ginny urged. “Come
on, just say you were wondering if you did something to bother him.”

“Okay,” I said, talking a large
gulp of wine and pulling my phone and the piece of paper Matt had left in my
room from my purse.

“Be light and casual,” Ginny urged.
“Act like this morning by the plane never happened.”

“Try to convey that you couldn’t
care less what he thinks,” Annie argued. “Go for that whole, ‘you are way below
my radar’ tone.”

“Girls are insane,” Josh mumbled,
pouring himself the last of the wine.

I took a deep breath and dialed. It
went straight to voicemail. I listened to his voice telling me to leave a
message, and felt my heart lurch. He had such a nice voice.

“Hey, Matt,” I said brightly after
the tone had sounded. “I just wanted to call and see that you got home okay. I
was, uh, I was wondering about this morning by the plane, actually. I wondered
if maybe I had done something to upset you? Um, I really hope not.” I could see
Annie out of the corner of her eye, waving her hands energetically and mouthing
“Too much!” at me. I turned my back. “Anyhow, give me a call, okay? I mean, if
you want to.” I left my number. “So, uh, yeah. I hope I hear from you. Or not.
That would be okay, too. Um—” The sound of a beep cut me off.

“Smooth,” Josh said casually.

“Oh, God,” I moaned. “That was a
disaster, wasn’t it?”

Annie diplomatically kept her mouth
shut.

“It was fine,” Ginny said. “You
sounded a little nervous, but so what?”

“Shit,” I said. “I need more wine.”

Josh obligingly went to the
kitchen. Returning with another bottle, he smiled at me. “It could have been
worse,” he said.

“Yeah, right, Josh. Thanks,” I said
sarcastically.

“No, really. It could have. Isn’t
that right, Annie?” Josh looked kind of smug as he glanced at her.

“Fuck you, Stanley,” she muttered,
turning pink.

“What happened?” I asked, as Josh
refilled our glasses.

“Nothing,” Annie said firmly.
“Nothing at all.”

Josh was chuckling lightly under
his breath. Even Ginny was trying to hide a smile. This must be pretty good. I
felt my spirits perk slightly.

“Please tell me, Ann,” I said sweetly.
“I promise I won’t laugh.”

She merely shook her head.

“Annie, please. I’m feeling so
rejected. So sad. I really, really want to know what happened. Please?”

“Fine,” she said. “Fine. This
should cheer you up. You know that guy I’ve been talking about, Chris?”

I nodded eagerly. Annie had been
lusting after Chris, a barista at the coffee shop she frequented, for about
three weeks now.

“I finally got up the courage to
ask him out,” she said quickly, as if hoping to get the story over with. “I was
real causal, just asked him if he might like to get a drink one night. And he
told me…he said—shut up, you two!” she ordered Ginny and Josh, who were
both starting to laugh. “He said he couldn’t because his aunt was in town for a
month and he had to show her around.”

It was mean to laugh, really.
Clearly, this was one of the worst rejections I had ever heard. But it was also
kind of funny. Really funny.

“Can you even imagine?” Annie asked
after she drained her glass in one gulp. “He couldn’t even come up with a good
lie! His
aunt is in town
? Seriously?”

I tried not to laugh, really I did.
But I just couldn’t help it. “Oh, Annie, I’m so sorry. That’s awful!”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving her
hands at me. “Laugh it up, I know I would. I’m glad I could cheer you up.” She
grabbed my wine glass and took another gulp. “The worst part is now I’ll have
to find a new place to get coffee. I can never show my face in there again.”

“Oh, Ginny,” Josh said suddenly,
with a completely straight face. “I forgot to tell you. We have to postpone
meeting with the
officiant
for the ceremony next
week. See, my aunt is coming into town…”

We all cracked up. Even Annie
managed a slight smile. “This is
gonna
turn into one
of those things, isn’t it?” she said. “I’m
gonna
hear
about this for the rest of my life, aren’t I?” We could only laugh. “I hate you
all,” Annie sighed.