THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID (28 page)

            “Oh,
is that right? Look at you, getting all feisty. I love it when you get all hot
under the collar. You’re turning me on again, Junior,” his voice got husky
again.

            Holy
cow. Shockingly, I was somehow back in the game. If I played my cards right I
might just have my hand in my panties in no time. I jumped up and ran across
the room to blow out the candle that was becoming a major distraction. A
promising squeal escaped me before I knew it. “Are we back on?” I asked with
hope in my tone. “Because if not I am going directly to the grocery store for
an apple crumble.” I hurried back to the bed scrabbling to get into position
just in case. I clutched the phone to my ear, as I didn’t want to miss Hugh’s
response.

            “Yeah,
Baby,” he rumbled. “We are on,” he annunciated every word carefully.

            Well
at least all was not lost. I was getting a second chance at my virgin phone sex
expedition. Bon Voyage! Then maybe I would head out for a crumble.

Chapter 23

I was out like a
light when I heard the front door slam really hard. I popped up to sitting. My
heart was racing so fast I thought it was going to gallop straight from my
chest. I realized it was Julia when I heard her start screaming at the top of
her lungs for whoever was with her to ‘get the fuck out.’ It was hard to
imagine but I guess it was possible for Julia’s first date with Mason to go
that badly. What he could have possibly done or said to elicit such a
formidable response was hard to imagine. But anything was possible with Julia.
I threw back the covers and reached for my robe. I started to swing it on when
I heard another voice chime in.

            “Julia!
Just hear me out!”

            I
froze mid step even though I was just half a step to the bedroom door. That
wasn’t Mason.

It was Ryan.

            “Damn
you, Ryan!” I heard Julia’s keys hit the dining room table with a clang. “You
are like a bad fucking penny. You just keep turning up.”

            “Julia,
would you listen to me?” he pleaded loudly again.

            “No.
You’ve had plenty of time over the course of the last three years to say
whatever it is that you want to say. Now it’s too late,” she yelled only
slightly less intensely. “I am giving this thing with Mason a shot.”

            “What
about us?” he actually had the balls to ask.

            I
was praying really hard that Julia held her ground. But it was like dangling a
carrot in front of a starving donkey. I knew in my heart that she just might
take the bait. I also knew that it was not in her best interest to do so. It
was taking every fiber of my being to stay put and not burst into the room and
shove my two cents in his face. If Julia didn’t answer him soon I would
probably lose control.

Thank God, just as
I rolled my eyes scolding myself for having to get involved, she chimed in and
sang the appropriate tune. “There
is
no us. There is a you and Darcy. And now, if I play my cards right and don’t
totally fuck things up, there might be a me and Mason. This fucked up thing we
had…is over.”

            Good
Lord, she was good. She said what she had to say and she couldn’t have been
clearer.

Or at least so I
thought.

            “So
what are you saying?” he asked seemingly confused.

            How
could he have not understood what she said? Clearly Ryan didn’t get half the
brains that Hugh did. But thank God Julia held her ground. “What part of ‘there
is no us’ do you not understand?” she asked with the attitude only Julia could
serve.

            “I
guess the part that actually believes that that is true.”

Then I heard some
rustling, some keys jangle, and the front door open. “You won’t be able to stay
away from me, Julia. Mason can’t give you what you need. He didn’t even come
after you when you took off. What does that tell you?” Then I heard the front
door slam.

            Son
of a bitch.

            Was
he kidding? I heard Julia exhale loudly and I knew it was time for damage
control. I opened the bedroom door and saw Julia with her hand bracing herself
on the back of a dining room chair. She was staring at her own shoes and
breathing really hard.

            “Jules,”
I interrupted.

            “Yeah,”
she stated.

            “You
okay?” I asked carefully.

            “No,”
she answered flatly using her other hand to rub her forehead.

            Damn.
My fingers went to my lip and started pinching. I wasn’t sure where to start.
So I asked the obvious. “Where’s Mason?” I had to begin the process of sorting
out Julia’s debacle of an evening. I figured that would certainly get the ball
rolling.

            “Not
here,” she continued without any inflection in her voice at all.

            Well
that wasn’t good. “Want to tell me about it?”

            Julia
dropped her hand from the back of the chair like it weighed a hundred pounds.
She sighed heavily and then tilted her head to stare at her ceiling. “Ryan
showed up halfway through dinner,” she told the ceiling. “He threatened to rip
Mason’s head off if he laid a single finger on me.”

            “Oh
boy,” I murmured. “What did Mason say?”

            Julia
languidly walked to her couch and fell on the cushions. She slid down to a
slouching position, cocked her knees in the air and pressed her heels into the
end of the cushion. “Mason didn’t have
all
that
much to say in response. But he shared two words. Do you know what
those were?” She asked me through the fingers she had thrown over her face.

            “Um,
no,” I answered not willing to chance a guess.

            “Too
and late,” she answered.

            “Oh
shit,” I responded.

            “Yep.
Oh shit is exactly right,” she sort of whispered.

            “Then
what happened?” I asked as I made my way over and slouched down on the couch
next to her.

            “Then,”
she sighed, “Ryan swung wide and hit the waiter.”

            “Oh,
jeeze,” I whispered and half chuckled.

            “Yeah.
Mason started laughing, too. I wasn’t really finding any of it funny so I got
up and left. Ryan chased after me. Mason didn’t.” She pulled her hands from her
face and started to slowly shake her head from side to side on the back of the
couch cushions. “I’m guessing you heard our little conversation.”

            Julia
was referring to her conversation with Ryan. I swallowed hard before I
answered. “Yep.”

            “Ryan
scored one blow, didn’t he?” she asked me.

            “No,”
I cut in quickly. “No he didn’t.”

            “Mason
didn’t follow me, Dee.” I could hear the sadness in her voice. I knew what it
was like to be in her shoes. My lips pressed together outlining my sympathy.

            “Give
him a chance, Julia,” I pleaded. “That might have been a little more than he is
used to for a first date,” I shared.

            Julia
rolled her head toward me and gave me a tight smile. “I’m really sorry about
what I said earlier,” she whispered genuinely.

I returned the
tight smile and grabbed her hand. “Just forget it,” I pulsed her fingers to
indicate my support and she leaned her head into me to rest it on my shoulder.
I kissed the top of her head and said what I should have said a lot sooner.
“You aren’t alone, Julia Harper. Even when I’m back in New York, you are never
alone.” I roped my arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze just as I
heard a faint sniffle come from her. Julia wasn’t nearly as tough as everyone
thought. She was actually a lot more sensitive than me. “No matter what
happens. Even if Mason doesn’t call,” I began. “Don’t go back to Ryan,” I
pleaded.

            Julia
didn’t answer verbally she just nodded her response. To which I responded with
another squeeze.

            “I’m
going to miss you, Dee,” her voice sounded thick with emotion.

            “Me,
too, Sweets. Me, too.”

            I
was having trouble falling back to sleep. I was worrying about my flight in the
morning. Wondering how badly the news of the pilot’s wife’s infidelity was
affecting his ability to reason. I was still worried about Julia. It had been
an hour since I had tucked Julia into her bed and locked up her house. I wasn’t
sure if she was sleeping though I figured it was unlikely. I was alternating
between staring at the little dots on the digital clock, which blinked with
every passing second and trying to distract myself by making mental lists of
things I didn’t want to forget before I boarded the plane.

I heard a car
approaching just before I saw headlights flash across the far wall. I held my
breath and waited a beat but then I heard a car door slam. Crap. I heard boots
hit Julia’s front walk and I threw the covers back to go head off Ryan before
he woke a hopefully sleeping Julia. The banging started before I even made it
out of the bedroom door. Clearly he was determined.

            “Julia!”
The pounding on the front door was causing every item in the house to vibrate
and rattle.

            I
saw Julia’s door open just as I stepped into the hall. It didn’t sound like
Ryan. I looked back at Julia who looked like she was scared out of her wits and
breathing heavy. I squinted at her in question. “Mason?” I asked her on a
whisper.

            She
shrugged in response. She maneuvered tightening her robe to look out the
window. She expelled a loud sigh when she realized it was, in fact, Mason. She
nodded at me and made her way to the front door. She unlocked the bolts and
opened the door slowly. “Mason,” she began slowly. “What’s goin’ on?”

            The
words barely left her mouth when Mason pushed in and scooped Julia up in the
most passionate kiss I had ever witnessed. My eyes brows shot up and my lips
pressed together to contain the shocked and amused expression that was
threatening to assume my face. He shuffled her backwards to the wall pressing
his hips into hers while his lips working hers vigorously. Since every one of
Julia’s limbs was tightly wrapped around Mason’s body I was thinking that she
was okay with this method of entry. Unable to tear my eyes from the show, I
stood and watched it all play out. Mason finally pulled his lips from Julia’s.

“I’m not afraid of
Ryan,” he gasped.

            “Oh,
well, um, that’s good,” Julia stumbled.

            “You
want me?” he asked.

            Julia
just nodded frantically.

            “Well
alright then,” he answered and kissed her again. I continued watching since
anyone in their right mind would be unable to do otherwise. After a few seconds
Mason scooped Julia up again and walked past me to her bedroom. He was so
engrossed in Julia that I wasn’t sure if he noticed I was there. He kicked her
bedroom door closed with his cowboy boot and I heard Julia squeal.

“Goodnight,
Delilah,” Mason called.

Okay. So I was
wrong. Mason was more observant than I realized and he knew I was there. But
then I heard a lot of giggling and laughing. So I was guessing neither of them
cared that I was there anyway. In any case, things were clearly moving in the
right direction for Julia. Which in all honesty was quite a relief. At least
now I could leave Virginia with a clear head and all I had to focus on was the
poor pilot and his cheating wife.

One crisis at a
time.

Chapter 24

            Home
sweet home. As soon as I saw the Empire State Building I felt a thousand times
better. The flight wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped but it was in the past now
and I had apologized profusely to the poor business man sitting next to me who
had to go home to his wife and explain why he had claw marks all over his body.
It must be said I had warned him well before take off that I wasn’t a good
flyer. Feeling quite guilty about my irrational behavior, I did offer to give
him my phone number in case his wife wanted to call and ask me any questions regarding
the attack. But he seemed to think that having my phone number might make
matters worse. Since he knew her better than I did I figured it was best to go
with whatever he decided.

Unable to change
the past, I had to focus on the future. And the immediate future required that
I focus on the plan I had formulated and was hoping to execute seamlessly. If
it had any chance of working, whatsoever, I had to time everything perfectly. I
had spoken to Hugh just before I boarded the plane. He knew something was up
because he asked me a hundred times what was wrong with me. Since I couldn’t
tell him I was afraid the pilot’s wife was a cheating whore, I told him I was
nervous about talking with Charles on Monday. In essence, I lied. It felt awful
but I was on a mission and that mission was to surprise Hugh in a hot slinky
number and a bottle of champagne. Hugh had mentioned, in our brief
conversation, that he might step out later to look at blinds. Apparently the
bedroom was way too bright in the morning and there was a woman across the
street that seemed to be somewhat obsessed with his body at night. Not
surprising. Who could blame her for appreciating perfection? So I encouraged
his plans of shopping for window treatments for two reasons. Obviously the
first being that I needed to get him out of the apartment in order to surprise
him. And second was because I didn’t want some peeping Thomasina to be ogling
my man or me, for that matter, once I moved in.

Hoping I had
succeeded in convincing Hugh to go out and purchase blinds, which it looked
like I had, in order for any of the aforementioned plans to be even remotely
possible, first had to make a few stops. My belongings and I still hadn’t been
reacquainted. So I was short said ‘hot, slinky, number.’ So, I asked the cab
driver to drop me off at Victoria’s Secret. I paid my fair and hopped out of
the cab. I checked my phone to see how I was doing on time. So far so good. I
had just enough time to find something sexy, get over to the liquor store to
buy some champagne and get to Hugh’s new apartment to set everything up.