THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID

by Amy Baker

  I heard feet quickly padding the floor in my direction. A hand wrapped around the doorjamb and grabbed my arm. The palms of my hands acted like suction cups and made a popping noise when they were ripped from the wall. Stacey proceeded to drag me inside. “Oh, there you are, Delilah,” Steven said with a smile. My eyes must have looked like saucers because I saw a slow smile consume Hugh’s face. “Hugh, this is the other half of the wildly successful Norstride PR team, Delilah Welling.”

  Hugh, who was already standing, pushed his chair away from the table with the backs of his legs and made his way around to get to me. He stuck his hand straight out to shake mine while I stood there in complete shock. Holy shit. He was even more beautiful than I remembered.

  “So nice to meet you, Delilah.” He was staring straight into my soul. He cleared his throat and then turned his attention to Stacey who was without a doubt sizing up Hugh as boyfriend material, a potential vessel for career advancement or (with my luck) both.

  I didn’t think it was possible for the reality of Hugh to be better than the image I had etched in my mind for all those years. He was only twenty-one years old when he stood at that altar and he was the most beautiful male specimen I had ever seen then. Now he was just as handsome but his features had lost their boyish roundness and had become chiseled. He looked like a runway model dressed in a navy blue power suit. Good Lord, I had to start fanning myself.

  Stacey was no fool. She wasn’t going to waste her golden opportunity. “It is so nice to meet you, Mr. Rowen. I just don’t think that I could be happier about the merger. I know this will mean big things for both companies and I genuinely look forward to servicing you,” she smiled her beautiful smile and batted her meticulously lengthened eyelashes while my eyes were crossing and I was just doing my best not to pass out.

  Then my eyebrows pinched together. Did I just hear what I thought I just heard? Did she say that she looked forward to servicing him?

  Then I heard Steven clear his throat probably thinking what I was thinking. What the hell was wrong with that girl? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Steven scratch his forehead. “She means service your company,” he qualified.

  Hugh ignored Stacey’s comment and Steven’s correction. I would have sworn his attention was focused on me but I really couldn’t see straight so that was a wishful assumption on my part because he seemed to be facing my general direction. “Maybe we should all sit down,” I heard Hugh suggest.

  “Good idea,” I mumbled faintly pulling my Peter Pan collar from my reddened neck.

  “Would anyone like a beverage before we get started?” Steven moved toward the far end of the table and sat. He pulled the phone that sat atop the table closer to him and pressed the intercom button to summon his assistant.

  Maria, the person with the most annoying voice in the world quickly answered. “Yes?” She droned, her voice quivering in a way that made me upchuck in my throat.

  “Maria would you get us some coffees?” Steven asked pitching his body forward speaking directly over the intercom. He pointed to Hugh who nodded and then Hugh turned his face back to look at me. “Four please.” Steven didn’t care if Stacey or I wanted coffee or not. We had all been in enough meetings together for him to know that we would drink whatever sat in front of us. So he just ordered for us as per usual.

  “Of course, Mr. Smith.” Maria’s voice always sounded like it made several trips through her nasal passages before it was emitted. Her whiney voice on a normal day made my stomach clench so at that moment while I was already lightheaded it was like a good dose of that serum my mother would give us when she wanted us to throw up. I straightened my posture hoping to elongate my stomach and unclench my muscles. All I accomplished was offering the bile that was swirling around in my stomach a direct path up my esophagus.

  I stood abruptly excusing myself at the same time before I further embarrassed myself and vomited all over the conference table. “If y’all excuse me. I’ll be right back.” Out of the corner of my eye I watched as Hugh stood with me. Y’all? What the heck was with my accent? I had worked very, very hard to abandon that thing a long time ago.

  “Are you okay, Ms. Welling? You don’t look so good.” It was nice of Hugh to show concern because Stacey and Steve didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass that I was as white as a ghost and swaying like a drunken sailor who’d lost his sea legs. It was also nice that he was keeping our interaction on a professional level. The alternative was having my worst nightmare come true.

  “Yes. Just forgot my notepad.” I lied, swallowing back the rising storm.

  I saw his lips press together and then he bit the inside of his mouth before he nodded accepting my excuse.

  I somehow held it together as I bounced off the walls of the hallway to the ladies room. However once inside I tossed my cookies in the closest toilet. Once my stomach was emptied, I collapsed against the stall door feeling soooo much better. I sighed heavily deciding that I was going to have to get my shit together. “Calm down,” I slowly blew through my pursed lips. “Just relax,” I whispered to myself. “He’s not here to decimate your world. He’s here for a legitimate meeting.”

  Then I heard the door to the ladies room fly open and crack against the tile wall. My partner and full time she-devil was shrieking my name. “Delilah? So help me God if you fuck this up I will throw you right out our office window. Do I need to remind you what floor we are on?”

  I exited the bathroom stall and went straight to the sink. Cupping water into the well of my palm, I slurped it into my mouth. A few swishes later I spit it in the sink ready to face my nemesis. “Thanks for your concern, Stace. I’ll be fine,” I stated sarcastically wiping my mouth with a paper towel still leaning over the sink.

  I heard her sigh heavily and peripherally I could see her shift her weight from one foot to the other. “What are you, like, pregnant or something?” She asked with indignation.

  I hadn’t been with anyone since I had broken up with Carson eight months earlier. She knew I was single. More than that, she knew I wasn’t like her. I didn’t just fuck guys in utility closets for career advancement or just because I had the good fortune to find myself with five extra minutes between conference calls. She, however, had demonstrated on more than one occasion that she was capable of either or both and considered either scenario a bonus. After Carson announced that he and Stacey went at it in the utility closet, needless to say, it was over between us. By us, I mean all of us. Carson and I were over. And any illusions of Stacey and I being friends became clear. Stacey never said a single word about her actions nor did she ever apologize. I wasn’t surprised that Carson pursued her. He was immature and angry that I wasn’t affected by his charm, good looks and self-confidence. But I was a little surprised that she participated and did so without showing a hint of regret or remorse. Not a lot surprised but definitely a little. If nothing else it spoke volumes to how our work relationship was just that. In other words we weren’t friends and we were never going to be. I never told her or gave an inkling that it bothered me she and Carson betrayed me because I knew deep down he and I didn’t have a future and she basically did me a favor. But what kind of person has sex with her partner’s boyfriend in a utility closet while she is in the coffee lounge checking her watch every five minutes waiting for him to go to lunch?

  I turned my head from the sink basin to look at her and I knew she saw the resentment that flashed in my eyes. “I’m going to say this one time and one time only, Stacey,” my eyes bored into hers. “Hugh Rowen is off limits. If I see you so much as sneeze in his direction, Stacey, I will rip your useless heart right out of your boney chest. Do you hear me?” I swear I don’t know what came over me. It was like I was possessed.

  Stacey’s eyes widened and her chin tucked back to her chest. I saw her swallow hard and detected that she was going to try to defend herself but I was having none of it. “Don’t,” I warned. “Carson was one thing. Hugh is a-complete-fucking-nother. Don’t fucking test me. You
stay away from him or so help me God there will be consequences.” I tossed my wet paper towel into the trash and then paused in front of her before I grabbed the handle to the ladies room door. I stared into her soulless eyes so she knew I was serious before I pulled the door and swaggered (yes swaggered) back to the conference room. I entered with my head held high and a confidence that I had never felt in my entire life. It didn’t hurt that I was lot less nauseous.

  When Stacey returned to the conference room she was behaving quite differently than when she left. I think she even secured a button higher up on her blouse. I saw her jaw clench a couple of times. I assumed because she was angry that I had cut her to the quick. But I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t let her get anywhere near Hugh. Not just because she was a soulless whore. With my luck he would enjoy that about her like every other man in the building. But because if there was a shot in hell that I could ever have Hugh Rowen it would bother me to the core that Stacey had him first. So even though my intentions seemed selfless they were not. If anyone was ever going to get a shot at Hugh it was going to be me. Not Stacey Horn Dog.

  Hugh noticed Stacey’s chilly change in demeanor. He even went so far as to ask her about it. “Stacey is everything all right? You seem…agitated,” Hugh asked innocently.

  He had no idea how agitated she really was. I turned my head poignantly in her direction unable to wait and see how she was going to answer that one.

  “I, um, well, don’t be silly Mr. Rowen, I am not agitated. I just take my job very seriously. This is my game face,” she answered.

  “Please. Call me Hugh,” he responded.

  “That’s okay. Mr. Rowen is just fine,” she answered glaring at me.

  I disingenuously smiled at her as we wrapped up the meeting. Stacey slapped folders shut so hard that they made a distracting clapping noise. Who knew that telling her to keep her hands off one man in the entire Universe could get her so angry? I had to admit, watching her juvenile reaction made me question if I had inadvertently upped the anti. We all stood to finalize details and then the meeting was over. Hugh’s fingers went to his suit jacket to close the top button. Maria broke in on the intercom to tell Steven that he had a phone call, which he picked up right away and Stacey fled the scene like the boyfriend thief that she was. That left a distracted Steven on the phone, Hugh and me. I gave a cursory grin as Hugh rounded the table to get to me. As he approached my heart began to drum a little faster and my chin tipped up to keep my eyes on his.

  “Did you get my message?” he whispered.

  I nodded before I spoke and then I smiled. I felt my cheeks flush at the thought of his message. “It was a nice surprise.” I downplayed the entire drama. No point in admitting that I was running around the lobby of my apartment building like a chicken without a head.

  “Dinner?” he whispered.

  My head cocked to the side in disbelief. I pointed to myself while my eyebrows touched. “You want to have dinner with me?”

  He didn’t answer my question per say yet he answered it all the same. “I’ll pick you up at 7:00.”

  Steven hung up the phone and slapped his hands together. “We have a great team in place. I think you will like these gals.” He directed his comment toward Hugh as I smiled at his remark.

  “I think you’re right, Steven. I think I like them already.” I didn’t miss Hugh’s eyes roaming my face and that only made me smile wider.

  I barely made it through my office door when Stacey’s tirade commenced. I was shocked that she went on the offensive but I guess that’s what a wild animal does when their back’s against the wall. They attack.

  “I did you a favor!” she screamed.

  “Seriously? Are we going to do this now?” I asked her heatedly.

  Stacey folded her arms over her chest and threw out a hip.

  Yes we were.

  “Okay. Here goes, Stacey. You may or may not have done me a favor. We will never know. But what I do know is that the moment that you chose to have sex with my boyfriend you chose to never have any type of meaningful relationship with me. You don’t do that to a friend or a partner that you give a flying shit about. You just don’t!” I yelled back at her.

  “He wasn’t your boyfriend! You didn’t give a rat’s ass about him. Don’t try to bullshit me.”

  That was true but I had never verbalized my feelings of ambivalence to Stacey and even if I had it still didn’t justify her decision to have sex with him.

  “Oh, please! I was in a relationship with him.” Obviously she needed to be educated on the subject so I took it upon myself to explain the moral code to her. “How serious it was or wasn’t was none of your business,” I paused momentarily and then changed tactics. “Maybe I made a mistake not taking you to task with the whole Carson debacle. But this is different. I wasn’t kidding before. Other than business you stay away from Hugh. Do you understand what I am saying?” Stacey had never seen this side of me. Hell I had never seen this side of me. But one thing was for certain. There was no way that I was going to stand by and watch Stacey dig her claws into the man I had spent my entire adult existence longing for. And I was going to make damn sure there were no misunderstandings between Stacey and me. I pointed my finger in her face while I carefully laid out in detail the parameters in which she was allowed to function around him. “You don’t have drinks with him, dinner, or even share a cab ride. Nothing. And I am not in the least bit exaggerating.”

  I saw her chin set and her eyes squint. “You don’t own him, Delilah. Hugh Rowen is fair game.”

  Welcome to the jungle.

  I knew she wouldn’t back down. But I just figured she would go behind my back and stab me in between my shoulder blades trying to avoid a direct challenge. But I was wrong.

  “As far as you are concerned? I do,” I challenged back. “I’m serious, Stace. You mind me,” I finished.

  Then I watched as her entire being was consumed with indignation. I could actually see her calculating her next move as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Oh,” her voice softened, “believe me, Delilah. I heard every word you said. And if there is one thing that I can tell you for sure it’s this. When I do Hugh Rowen, and I will do him, I will make sure to mind you the entire time,” she purred her threat caustically. The claws were officially out. And I was actually introduced to yet one more sinister side of Stacey.

  “So, you’re intention is to do Hugh just so you can fuck me over?” My eyes squinted in disbelief just before I heard the crackle.

  Psht. “You are such a bitch.” Psht. “Over.”

  Well at least I had Logan on my side.

  “You’re fired!” Stacey bellowed at Logan. “Again!”

  Chapter 6

  I was late. But there was no way that I was leaving work for the day without moving out of the office Stacey and I shared. Stacey’s challenge was the last and final straw. Working with her was one thing but sharing space with her for nine hours a day would be impossible. Now I found myself under some serious pressure to get ready for dinner with Hugh. I ran through the front door of my apartment building in a flat out run on the tips of my toes. With everything going on, I had forgotten to change back into my walking shoes when I left my office so my feet were on fire from running fifteen blocks in my heels. Davis’ eyebrows shot up in surprise at the sight of me. I was the quintessential mess. My hair was stuck to my head with sweat, my blouse was hanging out of the waist of my pants and my briefcase was only half zippered with papers peeking out here and there. My one free arm was flailing out to the side as I rushed to make the turn to the bank of elevators. “Buzz me in. Quick!” I was desperate to get upstairs and find something to wear for dinner. I had approximately 25 minutes before Hugh would show to pick me up for dinner. That amount of time, given my current state, was cutting it absurdly close. I needed to shower.

  “Good evening, Miss Dee,” Davis greeted at the sight of me while reaching for the button to unlock the interior door. “Your package
showed up,” he shared excitedly as he grabbed the package from behind his desk and chased me down with his hand outstretched.

  I pushed at the door with my chest heaving as Davis followed me through. “Oh my goodness. Thank you, Davis, I am so late.” My words came out in a rush as I repeatedly tapped the call button for the elevator. The doors opened at the same time as Davis’ approached. I reached for the package and stepped in at the same time. Just as the elevator doors began to close they popped back open as I fumbled the package to get it under one arm. “Thanks,” I blurted as the doors reclosed. I barely witnessed him raising his hand to wave and nod that his mission was accomplished. My mission for the evening, however, was just beginning.

  I all but bashed through my front door throwing all of my belongings on the chair that sat in the corner by my entrance. I immediately started stripping my clothes off as I made my way to the bathroom to start the water in the shower. I ran out of my bathroom and into my bedroom to grab underwear and back into the bathroom to see if the water had warmed up. After stripping the rest of my clothes, I stepped under the spray and did a marathon wash to end all marathons. I had never washed my hair with one hand and simultaneously shaved my legs with the other. But, halleluiah, it was like God had suddenly blessed me with a heightened ability to multitask. I turned off the water and reached for my towel wrapping myself up like a sausage. I ran as quickly as I could with restricted movement (my towel was tighter than I intended) to find something in my closet to wear.