Three Girls And A Wedding (13 page)

It had a high empire waist with a
full silk taffeta skirt. The top was simple—two modest silk triangles
covered her chest with a beaded swatch between them. The proportion was
somewhat unusual, so voluminous on the bottom and smaller on the top. It wasn’t
like anything I had ever seen Kiki in before, but something about it worked. It
almost made her look like—

“A fairy!” she gasped when she
stepped up onto the pedestal. She promptly burst into tears. “Oh, it’s
perfect!”

She did look kind of like a fairy.
The dress made her look ethereal, delicate. I loved it.

“Kiki, you’re beautiful,” I
murmured, shocked to find my eyes were welling up.

Even more shocking, cool, collected
Mrs. Barker burst into tears. “Oh, my baby!” she cried, jumping up to hug her
daughter. I think I even caught Mr. Barker surreptitiously wiping at his eyes.

The consultant smiled at me. “Good
choice,” she mouthed silently. I smiled, feeling inordinately pleased with
myself. I couldn’t have wished for a better outcome.

***

The following night, our last in
New York, Kiki wanted to go out dancing. We had spent the entire day at dress
salons. Every single gown Kiki tried on she dismissed. None could touch the
Amsale
fairy dress. We finally ended up back at the
showroom where her father ordered it without her even trying it on again.

By the time we were finished, I was
exhausted. It had been a dizzying three days, from the trip on the private
plane to the excitement of the Plaza and sightseeing, to the countless dresses
I had supervised Kiki trying on. The night before we had had dinner at a fancy
restaurant, Denial, that Kiki remembered from an episode of
Sex and the City
, before heading to the
theater to see the newest hit musical on Broadway. The show was great, but it
made me miss Annie. She would have loved to be here.

So now that all my work was done, I
was longing to spend an evening alone in my hotel room. I could take a bath,
order room service, watch crap on TV. But Kiki was insistent. We were going out
on the town for our last night in New York.

Jason declined her invitation,
saying he had to meet with a potential local client who might be doing some
work in Detroit soon. In truth, I hadn’t talked with Jason much on this trip.
When we were all out together he was right in the thick of things, schmoozing
with Mr. Barker for all he was worth. He went with the guys to supervise the
tux measurement and had accompanied us to a few of the bridal salons, where he
sat on Mr. Barker’s side and parroted everything he said. But he was constantly
on his Blackberry or stepping out briefly for vague meetings.
 
I wondered what he was up to, but I couldn’t
deny I was pleased to not have to deal with him much.

Exhausted though I was, I tried to
rally, knowing it was important to Kiki. I called down to room service and
asked that they deliver a large coffee, then began to get ready. Before long,
there was a knock on the door and I answered it, relieved and eager for my
caffeine fix.

But it wasn’t room service. It was
Kiki. Standing there in a pink silk dressing gown, her hair wet, carrying a
cosmetic case the size of a tackle box. “Hi!” she said. “Feel free to say no,
but I was wondering if you wanted to get ready together? I think it would be
super fun!”

“Oh, uh, sure, come on in,” I said,
opening the door wider for her.

“Oh good!” she said, walking into
the room. “I think it’s
so
depressing
to get ready all by yourself.”

“What about Bella?” I asked.

“Oh, she’s not coming,” Kiki said,
rolling her eyes and setting her case down on my vanity. “That girl never wants
to have any fun. She’s staying in tonight to read, can you believe that?”

To be honest, that sounded like
perfection to me, but I kept my mouth closed. Then an uncomfortable thought hit
me. If Bella wasn’t coming that would mean there would just be the four of us.
That was, assuming Matt was coming too.

“Is it just you and me and Eric
then?” I asked casually.

“No,
Matty’s
coming too,” she said.

I couldn’t tell if I felt pleased
or nervous.

“Now,” Kiki said, straightening up.
“What are we
gonna
do with your hair?”

“Uh, I usually just curl it under…”
I said uncertainly.

“I know what you
usually
do,” Kiki said. “Don’t get me
wrong, it’s really nice and all, but that’s, like,
professional
hair. Tonight we’re going out. So you should change it
up.”

“Uh, I don’t really know, Kiki.”

“Oh, Jen, please! Please let me do
your hair!”

I looked at her uncertainly, her
face lit up with excitement. “Okay, fine. But nothing too big, please.”

Kiki rolled her eyes. “What do I
look like, a pageant queen?”

Well,
actually…
I thought.

Half an hour later I had submitted
to Kiki applying my makeup and was sitting with my hair up in hot rollers,
feeling totally nervous about the result. What had I gotten myself into?

“Stop fidgeting,” Kiki demanded as
she applied her final false eyelash. “You’re going to look great, I promise.
Now, let’s pick out clothes.”

“I already picked out my dress,” I
told her, pointing to the back of the bathroom door where my navy shift dress
was hanging.

“Are you kidding me?” Kiki asked.
“Tell me you’re kidding me, Jen.”

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked,
offended. That dress was Nicole Miller, for God’s sake—though, granted, I
had found it at a sample sale last season with Ginny. But still.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,”
Kiki said, squinting her eyes. “It’s a nice cut and good material…What is it,
Nicole Miller?” I was surprised by her expertise from such a distance. “That
dress would be perfect for a nice dinner out—but it’s totally wrong for
tonight.”

“It’s the nicest thing I brought,”
I admitted.

“We’re not aiming for
nice
, Jen,” she said. “We’re going
dancing. It’s supposed to be
fun
.”

She walked briskly to the closet
and started rifling through my things. “Hmm, this might work,” she murmured to
herself. “But I don’t know…No…No…Okay, I think we should go to my room and
look. This tank might work.” She held up a glittery black tank top that Ginny
had assigned to be worn under a black cardigan for a nice restaurant. “But not
with any of your bottoms. Let’s go see what else we can find.”

“Kiki, I don’t know…”

“Jen, seriously, stop being such a
stick-in-the- mud,” she said firmly. Her expression was so stern I couldn’t
help but laugh.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m in your
hands. Let’s go.”

We slipped out into the hallway and
walked to her room. I felt ridiculous in my bathrobe and slippers with curlers
in my hair. I prayed we wouldn’t see anyone, especially not….

“Hello, ladies,” said a voice from
behind us. I spun around. Matt. Fuck. “Aren’t you looking lovely tonight?”

“Oh, shut up,” Kiki said. “Do you
think we just wake up looking as beautiful as you usually see us?”

“But of course,” Matt said, meeting
my eye and holding my gaze. There was something in his expression…I felt myself
blush.

“Don’t tease, you’re embarrassing
Jen,” Kiki said, noticing my face. “It was hard enough to get her to agree to
dress up with me.”

“Was it?” Matt asked, still looking
at me closely.

“Apparently none of my clothes, my
makeup or my usual hairstyle are up to Kiki’s standards,” I said.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you have
great stuff,” Kiki sighed. “But it’s work stuff. Now leave us alone,
Matty
.”

Matt held up his hands. “Okay,
okay. I’ll just be waiting for you in our room. Do let me know if you’re ready
sometime this decade.”

I turned my back on him and
followed Kiki the rest of the way to her suite, trying hard not to think about
the fact that I could still feel Matt’s gaze on me all the way there.

***

As Kiki and I finished getting
ready in her room, we chatted about inconsequential things: past boyfriends,
favorite places to go shopping. After ten minutes her cousin Bella got up from
the couch, grabbing a book and saying she’d go downstairs to the lobby until we
were done.

Kiki sighed. “We used to be so
close,” she said. “But ever since I went to college she just totally pulled
back from me.”

“Is she much younger than you?” I
asked.

Kiki nodded. “Five years. But when
we were kids we were, like, best friends. She’s the one that named me, you
know.”

I looked at her in confusion. “Oh,
not my real name. She couldn’t say Kimberly when she was a baby, so she started
calling me Kiki. It just stuck.”

“I had no idea your name was
Kimberly,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yeah, I think Kiki fits better,”
she said happily. “Anyhow, I was hoping if I invited her to be in the wedding
it might help us get closer. And my parents are always trying to get her to
travel with us, to visit my dad’s businesses. Broaden her horizons a little,
you know? But it seems like all she cares about is her books.”

“It’s a tough age,” I told her,
remembering how confused I felt when I started college. “Give her some time.”

“Daddy wants her to get her MBA,
like I did, so she can take over one of the divisions in his company one day.
Talk about total boring. I hate my job.”

It felt strange to be having such a
grown-up conversation with Kiki. For all of her seeming shallowness, she
actually had a lot to say.

“What do you do at your dad’s
company?” I asked.

She wrinkled her nose. “I’m in
charge of service management. That means I coordinate with all the managers at
the various properties and help with hiring and stuff. It’s so boring. I mean,
it’s nice Daddy helped me get a job, but I really hope I’m not there much
longer.”

“I know what you mean,” I said
without thinking.

Kiki looked at me, surprised. “I
thought you loved your job!”

Stupid
Jen, this is your client, not your girlfriend.

“I do,” I assured her. “I just
don’t like working at such a big firm. I always get stuck doing club openings
and restaurants and stuff. I wish I could just do weddings and nice parties,
work with real people, you know?”

She tilted her head. “I can see
that. Well, now that you’re doing such an amazing job on my wedding, they’ll
let you plan whatever you want!”

“I hope so,” I said, smiling at
her.

Half an hour later I had finally
passed Kiki’s inspection. She had lent me a dress of her own. It was actually
similar to the one I had picked out—a simple sleeveless shift. But Kiki’s
dress was about four inches shorter than mine, silver, and completely covered
with glittering sequins. I felt like a walking disco ball—a disco ball in
a very short skirt.

“You’re gorgeous!” Kiki squealed
once I had put shoes on (four inch tall black
manolos
which she insisted I keep).

“I don’t usually wear things this
short,” I said uncertainly.

“Live a little!” Kiki said.
“Seriously, you’re a knockout.”

I peered at myself in the mirror. I
couldn’t deny that she had done a good job. While my hair and makeup wasn’t
anything I would have done for myself, she hadn’t gone completely over the top
either.

Kiki had curled my hair, backcombed
the top (at which point I nearly had a heart attack. My mother had instilled in
me very strong ideas about women who ratted their hair), but then brushed it
all out, pulling it over the side in a low pony tail. The result was much
thicker and wavier than I was used to, but it was still out of my way and not
so totally huge as to scare me.

“The boys got tired of waiting,”
she told me, looking at her phone. “They’re downstairs at the Oak Bar having a
drink.”

I felt butterflies fill my stomach.
The idea of spending the evening with Matt was making my knees tremble. “Well,”
I told her, trying to sound more confident than I felt, “we should get going
then.”

“Are you okay?” Kiki asked, looking
at me closely.

“Yeah,” I told her, trying to
smile. “A little tired. I’m sure I’ll perk up once we’re out on the town.”

“You will, just you wait and see,”
Kiki said, linking her arm through mine and pulling me to the door.

A few minutes later we were
stepping out of the elevator into the lobby. The Oak Bar was bustling already.
It was the kind of place I would have never felt comfortable walking into on my
own, but Kiki strolled through as if she owned the place. It probably helped
that she did, in fact, own several places that were quite similar.

“There they are,” she said,
sounding happy as she waved over at a table in a corner of the room. Eric and
Matt stood, allowing me to catch my first glimpse of them—I felt my
breath catch. Matt was devastatingly handsome tonight in black slacks and a
tight, black, long-sleeved shirt. He looked just dressed-up enough, but not
over the top. I noted that he was wearing black leather loafers. It was the
first time I had seen him in anything other than work boots.

Just the sight of him sent my heart
rate into overdrive. I couldn’t meet his eyes, instead keeping my gaze firmly
on the ground as we walked toward them.

“Girls, you look gorgeous,” Eric
said in his easy way, reaching out to pull Kiki into a hug.

I chanced a glance at Matt and saw
that he was swallowing rapidly and staring determinedly at the wall opposite
us. I felt a wave of disappointment that I tried to quash. Would it have killed
him to compliment us?

“Thanks, Eric,” I said, forcing a
smile onto my face. “You guys clean up nice, too.”

Kiki was looking at Matt with a
little smirk on her face. Before I could ponder too much what that might mean,
Eric was laying a few bills on the table and gesturing us to the door.