Miss Independent (29 page)

“Not bad, Miss Harris,” he said. “Not too bad at all.”

“We’ll see,” she replied without looking back at him. “The live music still isn’t here yet.”

“What was her name again?”

“It’s in my purse somewhere at the bottom. All I remember is that she’s some artist from the 90s that Joan got for half the price since she hadn’t performed at live venues in years.” She drank the remainder of her champagne, then sat her glass on the nearest table next to her clutch, and reached inside it for a mirror. She tussled with a few strands of her hair and drew her middle finger around the edges of her lips to remove any smudged lipstick that was left from the champagne glass. “Did I tell you that Vanessa finally caved?” she asked.

He narrowed his brows. “No. She called you?”

“This morning. She waited until the very last minute, but I’d expect nothing less. She’s coming as Maurice’s plus one. They’re bringing Nikki too and I said it was alright as long as she didn’t eat any of the food.”

“She won’t be able to keep that promise.” He waited a second and looked around the room again. He shrugged. “Why is V coming as Mo’s plus one?”

“She didn’t have a ticket and everyone invited who RSVP’d was allowed a guest. She’s coming as his.” She looked at him over her mirror. “Why? Are you jealous?”

“Of Maurice and Vanessa? She didn’t give him the time of day in high school, she’s not going to now.”

“And if she did, that would really be none of your business, right?” she asked. He remained silent. She slammed her mirror closed and shoved it back into her bag. “I need something stronger than champagne. I don’t expect that Vanessa and I will have much to say to each other--”

“She called you, didn’t she?”

“She called me because she didn’t have any other choice. If she wanted Nikki to be allowed inside without a ticket, she had to. We were curt on the phone, or at least
she
was curt. No apologies were exchanged, but I tried to be friendly.”

“Your idea of being friendly is pricking people with tiny thorns.”

“And yours isn’t? We may not be two shared peas in a pod, but you’re not the nicest person in the world either, Nathan.”

“I never pretended I was. But I’m also not the one trying to get back into Vanessa’s good graces.”

“You don’t have to, you’re already there.” She walked away from him and he exhaled sharply.

By 7:30pm, Maurice, Nikki, and Vanessa were out the door and on their way to the hotel in style. Maurice had rented a limo and a few bottles of champagne for the occasion. Vanessa was determined to drink until she couldn’t remember her own last name, but neither Maurice nor Nikki felt this was a night that she should be so willing to forget anytime soon. As he filled their glasses to the rim, spilling a little as the car rammed over a few potholes, Vanessa wanted to make a toast.

She raised her glass high and looked at the both of them. “To true friendships. May the backstabbing be left to the two backstabbers I plan to avoid all night.”

“Here, here.” Nikki clinked her glass against Vanessa’s, who drank hers back quickly.

“I’ll drink to that,” said Maurice. He looked at Vanessa from the corner of his eye and beamed while rapidly downing his champagne.

As Nikki turned toward the window to get a better view of the city as they passed through Midtown, Maurice sat his glass down in the holder and lifted his arm around Vanessa’s head, placing it around her neck. She laughed, suddenly lightheaded from the alcohol due to her lack of food from earlier in the day.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m making a move on you, Vanessa.”

She pressed her hand against his stubble free face and turned him away from her. “Save it.”

“God, get me out of this limousine,” Nikki mumbled. She sank down in her seat and grabbed her stomach, claiming to feel ill.

              Less than thirty minutes later and despite the large amounts of traffic, the three of them arrived in one piece to the hotel. Nikki jumped out first, as Maurice got out from his side and ran to the other to help Vanessa. He showed her both hands and she gladly took them, jumping to the ground as he pulled her out. Nikki was picking up on a weird vibe coming from the both of them, one she didn’t like at
all
.

              As they headed into the lobby, friends from cheerleading eagerly flocked over to Nikki and Vanessa. They felt forced into hugging everyone they remembered, many of whom were also enthusiastic about showing off their wedding bands or engagement rings. Maurice shook hands with the guys from his football and basketball teams and appreciated their wives, as well as their very pregnant bellies. Vanessa looked around, hoping to avoid what she knew was coming next. When Nikki noticed her all but staring off into space instead of listening to what the women had to say about their new lives, careers, men and old friendships, she made up an excuse to get them to the bathroom as fast as possible.

              Once inside the lush entryway, both felt like they could breathe again. It was as if all of the air had been sucked from their lungs the moment they were face to face with those people again. Vanessa dropped to a couch while Nikki leaned back on the counter.

              “Are you sure we need to be here?” she asked. “We don’t have to stay. I wasn’t even technically invited.”

              “Everyone was invited. You just didn’t RSVP,” Vanessa said. “Neither did I.”

              “But you’re at least getting a name badge.”

              “Which I’m not wearing. If people don’t remember who I am, fuck ‘em.”

              “And if you don’t remember them?”

              She looked upward. “Then it’s their own fault for not being more interesting in high school.”

              “That sounded kind of bitchy.”

              “That’s what this place does to me.”

              Nikki folded her arms and felt like recoiling. “I feel so out of place here,” she said. “Everyone is either married, engaged, carrying babies or just had them. I didn’t know so many people our age were wanting to get married so quickly and start a family, except for you.”

              “Gee, thanks.”

              “You know what I mean, V. I didn’t expect to see so many people from our class be so put together before the age of twenty-five or even thirty. It makes me feel more inadequate.”

              “You’re not inadequate. You’re living your life the way you want and doing your own thing. Don’t think the lack of a man or a baby makes you anymore inferior than the rest of them.”

              “What about the lack of a career?”

              “You’ll get there, you will… I believe that.”

              “And I believe you’ll get what you want too.”

              “Not in the near future, I won’t,” she muttered.

              “V.” She exhaled. “Just because
you
don’t have a man or a baby doesn’t make you inferior to the rest of them.”

              “Don’t use my words against me.”

              “I’m not. I’m using them to help you. I know what you’re thinking, it was practically written all over your face when they all came running up to us. You’re beautiful and successful and rich. I don’t like Maurice, but I can admit he’s good-looking and he’s been chasing after you since we were kids. Your life isn’t bad just because you don’t have a few things you wish you did.”

              “Yours isn’t either.” Vanessa dropped her head back and scowled. “Why the hell can’t we tell ourselves this shit in the mirror?”

              She shrugged. “Maybe I’m meant to be your reflection, and you’re meant to be mine.”

              “Or, maybe we’re afraid if we tell ourselves this shit, it isn’t true, so we need it validated by someone else, so that when THEY say it, we can stop feeling sorry for ourselves.”

              “Or that too.”

              One knock on the door led Vanessa to get up from the couch and answer.

              It was Maurice. He rested his hand on the frame while sliding his other inside his pocket and leaning in. He looked like a Gucci model from his ‘earlier’ days.

              “I didn’t come here so that you two could sit all night and gossip in the bathroom. We might be at a high school function, but this isn’t high school anymore.”

              “We weren’t gossiping.” Vanessa lifted the strap of her little white cocktail dress. “We were just trying to get away from all of
that
out there.”

              She nodded behind Maurice, who looked back at everyone else as they greeted one another with handshakes, high-fives and tight hugs and squeals. More weddings on the way, more babies on the horizon. Never had all three of them felt so lonely together as they did in that moment.

              Maurice turned back to them and shrugged. “Screw ‘em. We came here to have a good time. If I’m not getting laid tonight, the least one of you could do is dance with me. And by one of you, I mean Vanessa.”

              “There’s no music playing out here,” she said.

              “We’ll make our own until we start to hear it inside. Come on.”

              He tenderly pulled her from the bathroom as Nikki followed.

              They entered the ballroom to a sea of people dancing to music from a DJ on the stage. Others were eating caviar and drinking spiked punch as well as endless glasses of champagne, wine, and shots of vodka and tequila. Unlike the decorum and live music, no expense was spared for the amount of alcohol used to liven things up, courtesy of Sheila’s father’s credit card. Their graduating class consisted of a little over nine-hundred people, all of whom were either extremely successful or still seeking it, handing out business cards and trying to get numbers of those who knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone else’s brother. Nearly everyone Vanessa passed as they moved through the crowds stared at her in pity for still being alone. Her career and success meant nothing. It seemed that since she no longer had Nathan, she was still that girl everyone looked upon with great sadness. Making more money than the entire room combined, be damned.

When they moved over toward the food, Nikki searched the room for more familiar faces and spotted Eliza Duncan across the room talking to Sheila near the stage. She froze in place and jerked Vanessa’s arm back just as she was grabbing a paper plate.

              “What?!” she snapped, tossing the plate down and ripping her arm away.

Nikki didn’t say a word, only pointing across to where they stood.

              Eliza and Sheila were laughing away like two childhood friends who hadn’t spoken since then due to outside circumstances, when it was well known by everyone in that room just how much they openly hated each other, due to the fact that Sheila had made co-captain of the cheerleading squad while Eliza had barely managed to even stay on the team, thanks in part to Sheila always identifying her small frame as ‘
too fat for the top of the pyramid
’. Vanesa watched them with a keen eye, figuring that there had to be some kind of ulterior motive on Eliza’s part, or maybe she had in fact matured in ways that Vanessa had yet to completely understand or agree with, especially when it came to Sheila.

             
Nah
, she thought after pondering it for a moment.

              “What do you think they’re talking about?” asked Nikki, leaning in close.

              “I don’t know,” she answered. “Maybe Eliza’s asking her the same stupid questions she did in high school, like how she still manages to keep that really good, natural looking tan without ever being in the sun.”

“
V
.”

“I don’t know, Nicole. What was the name of that book you were reading before, the one she wrote?”

              She quickly glanced at Vanessa and sunk her shoulders, feeling self-conscious. “
How To Land Your Man While Still Keeping Your Dignity.
”

              “
Oh.
Well, Sheila landed her man yet still has no dignity, which is evident from the way she’s been acting since she came back. Maybe she should write a book about
that
. Maybe that’s what they’re discussing. Who cares?”

“I care.”

“You shouldn’t.” Vanessa reached over for a cocktail wiener and ripped it from the toothpick with her teeth. She soured, searching for a napkin to spit it into. “This food is terrible. I think that one was actually still frozen in the middle.”

Maurice made his way around the room after grabbing a few drinks for Nikki and Vanessa, nodding at the available former female classmates he passed -- how few and far between they were -- as they all checked him out and silently questioned his status: Was he finally with Vanessa for good this time? Was he not? Was he interested in Nikki? Was he too good looking to still be straight? Some didn’t know or care about any of it, even as they couldn’t help but continue wondering. Most were more curious to know if all the hype about what he had to offer as a supposed ‘God of Sexual Desire’ was true.