by Heidi McVay
By the time she ducked through the hedge onto the perfectly manicured McCall lawn, she was stunned by how the back yard had been transformed. What had been a normal back yard several hours before now looked like something from a movie set. The only thing missing was the flowers. Fairy lights crisscrossed over the area, and it looked like red tulle had exploded everywhere. Apparently, Tatiana loved red. It was everywhere. From the obscenely large ribbons on the backs of the chairs to the red aisle runner that led to the arch where Reverend Leeds stood in quiet conversation with Zarek’s mother.
Zarek was dressed to the nines in a dark suit with a red tie and a pair of shoes shiny enough to blind anyone who looked directly at them. His dark hair was wrangled back into a knot at the back of his head, and it looked suspiciously like he’d trimmed his beard since she’d seen him a few hours ago. Beside him, a stern-looking man was staring toward the area of the yard set up with tables and chairs and a dance floor for the reception, hand moving as he indicated the DJ booth. How in the hell had Zarek managed to pull this off in less than a week?
“I can’t believe he’s actually going to do it.” The softly accented voice from beside her nearly made Scarlett jump out of her skin. She spun to see Abasi standing there, nearly as tall as Zarek. His thick hair was short-cropped and had begun graying at the temples at some point since she’d last seen him. His usually dancing brown eyes were sober, and she watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed before speaking again. “When Zarek picked me up at the airport last night, I told him this was a bad idea. He was so angry he very nearly took me right back to the airport before we even made it to the hotel.”
Scarlett tracked his gaze to where Zarek stood, now speaking to the minister, who was gazing at the house in concern. She chose her words carefully. “I’m sure if Zarek says she’s great, then she’s great. He said she-”
“Bullshit.” Abasi interrupted her. This time, he pinned her with that same stare that Zarek always seemed to wear when he knew something but was trying desperately not to force his opinion on her. Abasi, however, had no such qualms. “He shouldn't marry this woman. She has no substance. A model. What the hell is a model anyway? He should be marrying you, Scarlett. We all know it. Even Zarek knows it, and I told him so last night. Again.”
She stared up at Abasi, pressing her lips into a thin line as she struggled for a way to mitigate the potential fallout from what would happen if Zarek got wind of what he was saying. She opened her mouth to speak once more, but Abasi shook his head, clearly not interested in hearing what she had to say.
“He knows it.” Zarek’s father repeated firmly, lowering his voice. “He has known it for years, but he just doesn’t have the guts to act on it. I know, Sylvia did not raise him to be a coward, and yet look at him. Giving up a woman who loves him in return for a woman who spread her thighs for him. It’s wrong.”
Scarlett lifted a hand, resting it on his arm as she turned to face him. Her voice was gentle, but firm when she spoke. “Abasi. Zarek and I are only friends. We have never been anything more than that, and we’ll never be anything more than that. He loves Tatiana.”
Abasi narrowed his eyes on her, then shook his head slowly. This time, she stopped him before he could speak. “No. Abasi. You know how much I care for Zarek, as my friend. But he loves the woman he is marrying tomorrow. Be kind to her. I’m sure that once we all get to know her, we’ll see she’s everything that Z says she is.”
She knew the moment she won when his jaw relaxed, and he released a long breath. Abasi gave a slow nod, then lowered his voice. “I know. You are right. I am only worried. I know what it is like to make the mistake of letting the right woman go. I made that decision decades ago, and I have regretted it ever since, Scarlett. I don’t want to see my son make the same mistake, especially when it is so obvious how much you love him.”
Scarlett opened her mouth to protest, but Abasi merely raised a brow, giving her a droll stare. She sighed and forced a smile. “Let’s just go say ‘Hi’ to everyone, shall we?” To her immense relief, Abasi let the matter drop and led the way toward the cluster of people near the front of the ceremony area. She’d just greeted Sylvia and Reverend Leeds and was shaking Tatiana’s father’s hand when she heard a feminine squeal of delight from behind her.
“Oh, my God! It’s so perfect!”
As Scarlett turned, she was confronted with her worst nightmare. Zarek’s bride stood at the end of the red carpet aisle in a pair of towering white stilettos and a white silk cocktail dress that clung to every curve of her tall, elegant frame. Even on the uneven ground, she didn’t wobble in the slightest. Her glossy blonde hair was caught back in a sleek ponytail, and she was grinning, her face flushed prettily as she made her way up the aisle to where they stood. As she drew closer, Scarlett saw her clearly for the first time in the flesh. Every detail was exactly like she’d appeared in the fashion magazines, in the paparazzi photos. Tatiana Landais was classic feminine perfection. From the perfect complexion to the tastefully manicured nails, right down to the understated makeup. How she wanted to hate this woman based on that perfection. Next to her, Scarlett no longer felt the least bit pretty in her borrowed dress and the sandals she’d found at Target’s pre-summer sale.
She drew in a breath and caught the movement of Zarek’s hand, motioning her forward. With her heart pounding, she sternly reminded herself that this was the woman that her best friend loved. This woman was about to be family as much as Zarek or Sylvia or Abasi were. And so she smiled warmly and stepped up to where Tatiana was twining her arms around Zarek’s shoulders and kissing him soundly. Awkward.
A moment later, Scarlett found herself folded into a hug. “Scarlett! It’s so good to finally meet you. Zarek’s told me so much about you!” The warmth in the woman’s tone was unmistakable, and almost instantly, Scarlett’s bullshit alarm began to beep in the back of her mind. She returned the hug and was surprised when Tatiana stepped back, hands on her shoulders, studying her closely and cooing the words.
“Aren’t you just the loveliest little thing.” Little? Sure the woman was at least half a foot taller than her, but little? It wasn’t Scarlett’s fault that she was surrounded by giants, and both her parents were pretty much gnomes.
As the woman leaned forward to air kiss both of her cheeks, the bullshit alarm went from a beep to a chime. Scarlett smiled politely. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Congratulations on the wedding. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am for you both. It’s obvious that you’ve made Z very happy.”
Tatiana’s baby blue eyes flicked to Zarek for a moment, her expression softening slightly. “Well, he’s easy to love. But I’m sure you know that.” The bullshit chime was now blaring in her head like a klaxon, so loud and so intense she could barely follow the rest of the polite chitchat until Reverend Leeds interrupted the conversation to get them started on the ceremony rehearsal.
It was its own special form of torture, watching the couple go through the motions of the wedding ceremony. Not that Scarlett had ever been foolish enough to think it would be her standing beside Zarek, but she’d thought she would get more than a week to process the idea that he was marrying someone else. She spent the entirety of the ceremony with her eyes trained on the minister, rather than the happy couple, to spare herself the overly-fawning smile on Tatiana’s face.
At the restaurant, she was saved from the worst of it, seated between Abasi and Sylvia at the end of the table. The buzz of conversation was good-natured and flowed as easily as the champagne. It was as though everyone relaxed, even her. By the time she quietly excused herself to the restroom, she’d almost managed to convince herself that her bullshit alarm, which had finally silenced itself, needed to be recalibrated. There was no sign that Tatiana Landais was anything but what Zarek said she was. She was warm and kind to everyone at the table, even going so far as to ask Scarlett about her work and her future plans in the tech industry. Tatiana complimented her borrowed dress, and Scarlett complimented her hair in
return. If she hadn’t known better, Scarlett could have sworn the woman was born and raised in the south. She had a masterful way about her, engaging and polite, warm, and genuine.
To Scarlett’s surprise, Tatiana rose from her seat as well and linked their arms together with a conspiratorial smile toward Zarek as he began to rise. Tatiana waved a hand to him. “Sit down, sweetheart. We’re just going to the restroom. You know it’s a group activity. We won’t be long.” The warm smile on Tatiana’s face seemed genuine enough as she jerked her head in the direction of the restroom. “Come on, Scarlett. Let’s go.”
Tatiana’s grip was gentle, as was her smile. Scarlett relaxed marginally and turned to head for the restroom with the other woman. Once they were inside, Tatiana released her and headed for the first stall, leaving Scarlett to blink toward the opposite wall. The truth was she didn’t need the toilet. She needed a break. Zarek’s overwhelming joy was, well, overwhelming for her, too, just in a completely different way. She reached for the sink and turned on the tap and washed her hands.
She heard the flush of the toilet and caught sight of the stall door opening as Tatiana emerged. The other woman wore a sheepish smile. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to have to tinkle all the time until later, but the baby books are wrong about that too.” Tinkle? Scarlett smiled slightly, wondering if she’d just heard the woman correctly. What grown-ass woman used the word tinkle?
Tatiana stepped up to the stink beside her just as Scarlett stepped back to reach for the paper towel dispenser. “I’m just so glad to meet you, Scarlett. I was afraid that Zarek’s family wouldn’t like me.” The tone sounded genuine enough, but when Scarlett glanced at Tatiana, there was a flinty quality to those baby blues. “I know what you’re all thinking.”
Ah. So there it was. Scarlett shook her head and smiled a little more gently. “We’re all very happy for you both. I’m sure you’ll be very happy together.”
Tatiana’s smile dropped in the next moment as she pinned Scarlett with a hard stare that seemed to come out of nowhere. “Let’s just be real, Scarlett. Woman to woman. Sound good?”
Scarlett furrowed her brows, staring at her, not quite believing what she was hearing. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
The other woman’s blue eyes turned icy. “We both know that men and women can’t be friends. Even if he seems too obtuse to notice, you and I both know your feelings for Zarek are more than just friendship.” Scarlett’s stomach dropped as she felt a moment of panic, wondering what she’d done or said to give away anything. Her brain scrambled to identify some kind of mistake, but Tatiana’s voice pulled her back to the present a split-second later. “It’s nice that you love him. He’s a great guy. He cares about you a lot too, but we need to be clear on a couple of things, Scarlett.”
That icy gaze turned hard and unyielding. Scarlett remained silent as she schooled her face into a neutral expression and forced her voice into something pleasant, even as her stomach turned. “What’s that?” “You’re his friend. I’m the mother of his child. I’ve already won, and you need to accept that. But because your friendship has meant a lot to him, I’m going to give you a choice. That’s more than I’d give to anyone else out there who harbored delusions that his loyalty belonged to anyone but me.” At those coldly spoken words, Tatiana made it obvious that she was going to play hardball.
Scarlett forced herself to remain utterly unmoving in the face of the threat. Tatiana offered her a brittle smile as she continued. “Your choices are to quietly fade away from our lives, a little at a time. Or I’ll make sure Zarek knows all the terrible things you’re about to say to me. Then, you’ll be at fault for making him choose between us and I’m sure you don’t want to put him in that position. Because I can promise you, he’d do almost anything to make sure I don’t terminate the pregnancy, something I have no issue doing, by the way.”
With that, Scarlett’s heart dropped clear to her feet. She stared at Tatiana, and for a fleeting moment, she wondered if this was some kind of a sick test. But the unmitigated hatred in the woman’s eyes told the truth. It wasn’t a test. She really would do it. Scarlett squared her shoulders and smiled slightly. “Zarek would never stand for it. He knows I’d never make him choose.”
Tatiana barked out a single laugh, her tone turning condescending.
“You’re thinking of the Zarek who wasn’t going to be a father, Scarlett. I hold all the power here. Surely you don’t think you’d ever have a chance with him. You can’t even do the one thing a woman is supposed to be able to do. He doesn’t have any use for a woman who can’t give him a family, and you have to know that, deep down, or you’d have told him the truth about your feelings years ago.”
Something inside Scarlett broke at those words. She swallowed hard and pressed her lips into a thin line. Tatiana leaned forward as if she were sharing a secret. “Besides, Zarek isn’t exactly the type to hide what he feels. He’s so transparent. So trusting. He only wants what’s best of his little family, and he knows that stress is the last thing I need right now. I can make him drop you in two seconds flat, and don’t think I won’t if you make the wrong choice.”
And at that moment, what had broken snapped right back into place. Scarlett narrowed her eyes on the other woman and smiled her sweetest smile. “I don’t need to do anything. Looks to me like you’re well on your way to ruining your marriage before it even starts. Zarek isn’t the type to be cowed by any woman, no matter what ace she thinks she holds.” The beginnings of rage flared in Tatiana’s pretty face, twisting it into something uglier, something that betrayed the woman within.
Scarlett continued. “I wanted to like you, Tatiana. But it turns out my instincts were right. You’re not the right woman for him. Hell, you aren’t even a good woman. If you truly loved Zarek, you would be moving heaven and earth to make him happy, not using his unborn child as leverage to destroy a friendship that’s lasted twenty years.”
Tatiana’s face flushed,, and for once, she didn’t look beautiful. She looked like she wanted to spit nails. Scarlett held up a hand to forestall her words as she saw the other woman’s mouth open. “You’re a bitch. And you don’t deserve him. I’ll see myself out. You can tell Zarek I had a headache, or whatever you want. I don’t care. You aren’t worth my time.” With that, Scarlett reached for the little clutch she’d borrowed from her mother and pulled out her car keys. “Good luck with motherhood, Tatiana. I suspect it’s going to be pretty hard for a selfish, spoiled brat like you to cope with.”
With an impending sense of foreboding, Scarlett strode past the other woman and headed for the bathroom door. It was only when she was in the hallway, the door closing behind her, that she registered the words the other woman had hissed to her retreating back. “He will never speak to you again! I’ll make sure of it!”
*
Zarek mounted the steps to Scarlett’s apartment, taking them two at a time. The already stressful day had taken a turn for the outright shitty after noticing that Scarlett had slipped out of the restaurant without a word. Tati’s explanation had been a shrug, and that had been that until they’d been in the car driving back to the hotel. Only then had she spilled the entire story of what had happened in the bathroom, relaying what Scarlett had said. Things that Scarlett would never say to anyone, or at least he’d always thought. The tears in Tatiana’s eyes and the sobs as she’d adamantly insisted that Scarlett had called her horrible things had given him pause. The final straw had come when Tatiana had thrown her hands up and once more threatened to call off not only the wedding but their child as well. Zarek was beyond tired of that particular threat, but it worked, and she knew it worked every single time she used it. When he’d left her at the hotel to return to his mother’s, he couldn’t help but replay the conversation over in his head. It was like one of the vintage records he loved, stuck on a loop, repeating without end.
“She called me selfish. She called me a spoiled brat. She said she felt sorry for the baby for having me as a mothe
r. Zarek, the woman called me a bitch! I don’t see how you can sit there and say it didn’t happen because it did. Why else would she have left if she hadn’t done something that she knew would cause a scene? She left because she didn’t want to get caught in front of everyone!” Tatiana’s voice was shrill by the time she bit off the last word.
Zarek had leveled her with a hard stare. “That doesn’t sound like Scarlett. She doesn’t attack unprovoked. What did you say to her?”
At that point, Tatiana had reached over and slapped him, open palm right across the face. Zarek wasn’t hurt, but it had stung and surprised him enough that he’d pulled off the road and turned on the hazard lights, staring at her in disbelief. “What the hell, Tati? When did this escalate to physical violence?”
“When you choose to believe what you think of that woman over me! You deserved it!” She’d shown no remorse, her pretty face flushing a bright red as she’d folded her arms over her chest, and a fresh wave of tears rose to her eyes. “Why would I lie about this, Zarek? You think I want people to hate me?”
He’d averted his gaze out the window, fighting to contain his temper.
“I’m not saying you’re lying. I’m saying that you probably misunderstood something, and that provoked Scarlett. She isn’t the kind to-“
“How would you know she isn’t the kind to say it? Hunh? You want to believe that because you can’t stand the idea that I might be right, and she may not be the person you want to believe she is. You don’t believe me, fine. Ask her yourself.” The final words were hurled at him between sobs.
“I will.” Zarek declared harshly. He was angry now. Just angry enough to want to hurt her as much as she’d tried to hurt him with the slap. “If I’d known you were going to be so much drama, I’d have used two fucking condoms.”
That earned him another slap out of nowhere. This time, though, he caught her hand, flexing his fingers around her slender wrist in a warning. “Hit me again, and I swear to God, there won’t be a wedding. I’ll put your ass right back on that fucking plane back to Vegas with your parents, and you can do whatever you want. Do you understand me?”
