by DeSalvo, Kim
Ryan held his breath and bit his tongue to avoid saying all the nasty words running through his mind. Now he was being bribed? By a client? He couldn’t believe the nerve, but once again, he had to maintain his cool even as he was about to erupt on the inside. He exhaled slowly through his teeth before speaking.
“Wow. I’m not even sure how to respond to that, Donna,” he began. “We have worked together a lot over the past few years, but we’ve never done anything socially before, and our guest list is already over the limit.”
“Make it ten thousand, then,” she countered without so much as a blink. Ryan slowly counted to ten once again in his mind, but it didn’t make him feel any less like exploding.
“I’m afraid that money won’t affect the outcome of my guest list. I’ll also tell you that you’re not the first one to make this request, and that I can’t possibly accommodate everyone who wants to meet Dylan. Certainly not at my own wedding. ” To get rid of her, he forced a smile and added, “I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
“It’s one seat, Ryan. You’ll pay maybe, what, fifty or sixty bucks a head, and I’ll give you ten grand? You’ll make out like a bandit. It’s good business.”
“It’s my wedding, Donna,” he spat, unable to control his frustration any longer, “not business. I’m not selling tickets.”
“And I’ll tell you,” she said, her smile fading, “that you’re going to have party crashers, regardless of whether you invite them or not. And I just might be one of them. So the choice is yours—a generous gift for an invitation, or none at all if I crash.” The look in her eyes morphed from friendly to downright menacing, but Ryan refused to flinch. His head was pounding worse than ever and he was in no mood or physical state to deal with this kind of bullshit at the moment.
“Thank you for stopping in, Miss Van Dyke,” he said, purposely using her surname. “If I can be of any assistance to you in a legal matter, please don’t hesitate to call on me.”
She turned on her heel, shot daggers at him with her eyes, and left without another word.
He waited about four heartbeats, then burst from his office to lay into Shannon. “No more impromptu meetings,” he bellowed at her. “The next time someone walks into that door unannounced, you make sure you let me know…and you do NOT let someone into my office without my approval!”
Shannon just looked at him wide-eyed, more than a little surprised by his outburst. Hearing the commotion, Wes poked his head out of his office, beckoning with a curl of his index finger. “A word, Ryan?” he said.
Flustered, Ryan stormed to Wes’s door and walked inside, falling onto the chair in front of his desk.
“Sorry Wes, but I…” he began, but his boss was quick to interrupt.
“Do you want to tell me what the hell is going on with you today, Ryan?” he demanded. “You drag your ass in late for a meeting, you look like a goddamn zombie, and now you’re bitching out the secretary?” Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced by the look in his boss’s eyes and the finger pointed angrily at his chest. He dropped his shoulders and bowed his head, waiting for the verbal beating to be over. “I’ll tell you this, Stallworth…anytime Victoria Damon walks into this office and requests an audience with you, you will grant it, and you’ll do it with a smile! Same goes for Donna Van Dyke. You better get your shit together, and do it quick.”
Ryan took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m sorry Wes, really. I just had a really long night and a miserable start to the day.”
“Yeah? Well I’m going all mushy inside,” he said sarcastically. “I don’t give a shit what kind of night you had; you don’t take it out on our best clients. Am I clear?” He took in Ryan’s face, and shook his head. “Aw, hell, what’s going on?” he said more sympathetically.
“Damn it, it’s not that he’s a bad guy—he isn’t at all. He doesn’t rub anybody’s nose in it, you know? But this is absolute bullshit.” he said after he’d recounted for Wes the demands made by the clients.
“You know, Ryan, you might want to consider hiring some security for your wedding,” Wes replied. “Donna’s probably right--you’re likely to have all kinds of party crashers showing up uninvited.”
“Security? Are you serious?” he asked incredulously.
“I’m absolutely serious,” Wes said. “If you have someone you barely know telling you that they’ll crash your reception, you think there aren’t dozens more who would do it? Miller’s big news thanks to this love triangle thing, plus he’s some kind of sex symbol, or something. Lots of the ladies are going to want to meet him.”
“But he’s engaged to my fiancé’s best friend,” he said, “and she’s going to be there. Hell, if everything goes according to plan, they’ll already be married! What do they think is going to happen?”
“Who knows?” he smiled. “They just want to be able to say they rubbed elbows with a celebrity and that there was a chance that something could happen. His wife’ll be seated with the wedding party, so he’ll be all by his sexy lonesome self. Maybe you should just take the money and invite them—you could make a fortune!”
“It’s my goddamn wedding, Wes, not a fucking rock concert. I’m not selling front row tickets to the highest bidder, and I’m not hiring a bunch of thugs to keep my reception under control!” He raked his fingers roughly through his hair. “I don’t know if you’ve been to any weddings lately,” he said sarcastically, “but the focus is supposed to be on the bride and groom—not one of the guests.”
Wes shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you, buddy. It is what it is, so you’d best figure out a way to make it work for you. I’m telling you though, you could really make a lot of dough.”
“Shit,” Ryan said, “Not only would Lexi kill me, but again, it’s my wedding, and I’m not filling the reception with a bunch of people that I barely know.”
Wes shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe by that time the notoriety will die down and you won’t even have to worry about it. They won’t be in the news forever, and things might quiet down. It’s just big right now, so it’s on everyone’s minds.”
“That’s not going to happen. Tia and Dylan just got engaged a few weeks ago, but they’re planning on getting married before us. Like, a little over a month before us. So that means that there’ll be pictures of their wedding all over the place right before ours happens. Plus, there’s the whole Penelope Valentine thing, and the infamous movie they did in New Zealand will come out…”
“Why are they getting hitched so quick, and why so close to yours? That seems like a shitty thing to do to a friend. Is she pregnant, or something?”
“Ah, he’s going into the studio next month to make a new record, and then his band is going to start touring in the fall so he needs to be in rehearsals…I guess they don’t have a big window. Plus, they’re getting married on the one year anniversary of when they met.” He bit his lower lip and shook his head.
“Pretty shitty timing for you,” Wes agreed.
“The thing is? I don’t really fault Miller for anything,” Ryan sighed. “He seems like a nice enough guy; he doesn’t seem all full of himself like you’d expect a big rock star to be. And I understand wanting to get married on the anniversary, and that he has to work—there are other guys in the band, so he doesn’t call all the shots…but still. This is really sucking on the tit of every part of my life. I can’t stand going to my country club anymore—I’m sick of people asking me if I know when he’s coming back in or if I can get an autographed picture for their sick grandmother or something—and now I’m starting to get the same shit at work? It’s a bunch of crap!”
Wes’s eyes squinted and he nodded his head slightly. “Seems to me like maybe it’s the timing that’s all wrong, Ryan.”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” he grumbled.
“What if you postponed your wedding? If you got married while the band is on tour, maybe he wouldn’t be able to make it—or you could just tell all the would-
be wedding crashers that he can’t make it and have a legitimate excuse. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about any of it.”
Ryan’s eyebrows rose as he considered it for a moment, but then his face fell just as quickly. “How am I going to get Lexi to go for that? First of all, she has her heart set on a July wedding—she always has. She’s got a goddamned fireworks display planned for the reception, for chrissake. Second of all, Tia might be on the tour with Dylan, and she’s Lexi’s best friend, not to mention maid of honor.”
“I think it’s matron of honor if she’s already married.”
“Whatever,” Ryan said, waving his hand in dismissal. “The point is, Lexi is going to want her to be there for all the showers, parties, fittings…all that girl shit that they love so much. And, she really likes Dylan too. She spent a couple weeks over in Europe with them on the tour and really got to know the guy. She thinks he’s a fucking prince. She’ll want him there, and would be pissed if I even suggested having the wedding during the tour. She’s probably going to want to invite the whole goddamn band. God knows she’s gotten chummy with the drummer…” He closed his eyes and tipped his head toward the ceiling. “It sounds good in theory, but I really don’t see any way to get her to agree to that,” he said, defeated.
“What if it wasn’t your fault?” Wes suggested. Ryan cocked his head in question and Wes continued. “What if you don’t want to postpone the wedding, but you have to because of say…work?”
“I’m not following you, Wes.”
“What if you suddenly got a “big project,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers, “and it was going to keep you incredibly busy for the next…oh, I don’t know…six or seven months?”
“How am I going to pull that off?” he asked.
“Listen, Ryan. It’s no secret that we’re all considering you for partnership, but between you and me, the decision has pretty much been made.” Ryan smiled wryly—how ironic to get this bit of news when his life seemed to be tanking around him. “There are still some loose ends to tie up, and then a whole lot of paperwork and legal mumbo-jumbo before it becomes official, but we were thinking of springing the news on you around the end of the year. Kind of a Christmas present, if you will. So, if you were to say that this ‘project’ is so important that it could make or break your partner status, you’d have no choice but to work on it for the good of both your futures, right? And no one would know except for you and me.”
Ryan started nodding; slowly at first, then faster as a smile spread across his face. “That could work, you know? She’d be pissed at first, but she’d get over it, right? Especially when the partnership was announced—she’d know that it had all been worth it!” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “You’d do that for me? Keep the secret so she’d never know the truth?”
“I could…” Wes said cooly. “…but at the risk of sounding cliché…I hate to even ask right now, but if I do this, you’ll kind of owe me, so…”
“What, Wes, you want to sit next to him at the wedding too?”
“Not me, but if he does show up for your wedding, can I bring my niece? She’s a big fan—she’s got a freaking poster of the guy hanging on the wall in her bedroom. You wouldn’t have to feed her or anything, she’d just love to come to the reception and meet him…”
Ryan smiled. “Consider it done,” he said. “It’s a small price to pay to avoid this little shit storm. I’ll be sure to put her on the formal guest list—hell, she can sit in his lap if she wants to. Fuck these primadonnas who think they can bribe or coerce me into bowing down to their every request!”
The two men shook hands to finalize the deal, and Ryan headed back to his office, feeling better than he had since he first saw Dylan Miller with his arms around his fiancé.
Ryan worked on the story he’d tell Lexi most of the rest of the day. She was going to be seriously pissed off, there was no doubt about it, but the whole situation was pissing him off as well, and this was the only way he could keep his dignity as a man. He laughed at himself then. He was dreading telling her, if he was to be honest, and he’d have to tell her soon as he was tasked with picking up wedding invitation samples so they could go through them together over the weekend.
One thing he knew about lying, however—and his experience as an attorney had taught him well—was that you had to keep it simple and consistent. You told everyone the same story, and then you never had to try and remember who knew the truth and who didn’t. That was why when Jace called, he decided to set the foundations of the story with him.
Chapter 26
“Hey, what’s up man?” Jace said when Ryan picked up the call. “Long time no see, my friend. Sorry I haven’t been around the club lately…”
“I haven’t noticed,” Ryan replied. “I haven’t been there either.”
“Why not?” Jace asked, and then at the same time, they both said, “Dylan Miller.”
“Oh man, he got you too?” Jace laughed. “What happened?”
“Long story,” Ryan said.
“Well hey; I’d love to hear all about it. I’m glad I’m not the only one who isn’t bowing down at his fucking feet. Want to join me for drinks tonight? I was thinking about going to Skin Tones, blowing off a little steam.”
Skin Tones was a strip club not too far from the office. It was classier than most, seedier than some, but they had a decent selection of top shelf liquor, and Ryan decided he could really go for a drink. He could test out the story on Jace, and avoid telling Lexi about postponing the wedding for at least another day. He accepted immediately, and wrapped up only what was absolutely necessary before calling it an early day.
It felt good to hang with Jace, anonymous in the dimly lit bar, girls working the poles and delivering drinks clad in nothing but tiny g-strings. Jace relived for him again his encounter with Dylan in the locker room. “He knew exactly who I was, man,” he said. “He was just fucking toying with me. But because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure at the time, I had no choice but to sit there and take it.” Ryan voiced his sympathy, and Jace continued. “Then, Bitsy fucking broke up with me. I’d already promised to meet her for lunch, and I grabbed a table that was out of view so he wouldn’t see me and have Tia confirm who I was, but Bitsy kept begging to go over there and meet him, and she just wouldn’t let up! I said I didn’t give a shit if he was God, and she got real bitchy and started saying I was just jealous that I could never measure up to him and that I had to give up my fantasies about Tia.” He pursed his lips and shook his head.
“That sucks, man,” Ryan said sympathetically, but he knew that Jace deserved it. He’d treated Bitsy like shit in his quest to get Tia to date him.
Jace shook his head. “Wait—it gets worse! I told her she didn’t know what she was talking about, and she told me to go to hell. She actually said that…” his voice got high and whiney as he did a pretty good imitation of Bitsy, “’…having Dylan Miller say my name and shake my hand would give me more pleasure than you’ve given me over the past year.’”
“Unfuckingbelievable, man. Really,” Ryan said, “but you did kind of treat her like shit, you know. Especially about the Tia thing.”
“Yeah, I know,” he agreed. “And it’s not like I even miss her or anything—she was a pain in the ass most of the time, but now I can’t even go to the club anymore,” he moaned. “Everyone freaking knows how many times Tia shot me down, and they probably know about me and the Miller thing, and I don’t want to deal with the bullshit.”
“I know what you mean,” Ryan agreed. “I’m not going because everyone suddenly thinks he’s my best friend, and that I can get them autographs, pictures, private meetings…I’m sick of it, to be honest, and it just isn’t worth it anymore.”
“I hear that, brother,” Jace agreed, tucking a fiver into the tiny shred of fabric on a stripper’s hip. “It’s like no one else exists whenever he’s around,” he said.
Ryan shook his head and tucked a bill into the g-string of a particular
ly buxom brunette that kept wriggling seductively in front of him.
“Well, I got some news today that’ll keep me away from the club anyway. It’s great news, but it’s going to get me in a lot of shit with Lexi.”
“Yeah, what’s that?” Jace asked.
“I talked to Wes today,” he started, “and he’s got a real big project for me. One that could be the deciding factor in my getting a partnership with the firm.”
“That’s great man! Congratulations!” Jace said.
“That’s the good news,” he said, taking a deep breath before dumping the lie. He knew he could trust Jace, and that he’d be completely sympathetic of the situation, but he’d made his decision to keep the truth in as few hands as possible—meaning none. He threw back the last of his beer and motioned to the topless waitress with the pierced nipple for another. “The bad news is, unfortunately, it means I’m going to have to postpone my wedding—I’m going to be up to my neck in work for the next few months, and it’s going to consume pretty much all of my time—Lexi’s going to be so pissed, and I have to admit that I’m deathly afraid to tell her.”
Jace exhaled with a whoosh. “Oh yeah, I’d be afraid to tell her too. She’s going to kick your ass, bro.”
“Yeah, but I’m doing it for our future, right? She has to understand that.”
“She doesn’t have to understand anything, dude. She’s a woman. She’s planned her dream wedding, and you’re going to tell her that she has to wait for what, months?”
Ryan just nodded.
“Sucks to be you,” Jace said matter-of-factly, tossing back the last of his vodka tonic.
“Yeah, and I’m supposed to pick up the freaking wedding invitation samples before the weekend, so I have to tell her soon.”
“You have to tell her soon anyway,” he said. “She’s going to have to cancel a whole bunch of shit. Don’t you have deposits down on churches, flowers, limos, food…” Ryan nodded miserably. “Man, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near that volcano when it erupts!”
