The Bridesmaid

by Julia London

  Lord. “You won’t have to do that,” Kate said as confidently as she could manage. “Do you still have that spa package I gave you? Did you schedule that massage?”

  “No. But that is a great idea,” Lisa said absently. “Yeah, I think I’ll do that.”

  “Great. So listen, I better see about this flight. I’ll call you later?”

  She said good-bye and looked at Joe.

  “See about what flight?”

  “Trust me, it was the right thing to do,” Kate said with a flick of her wrist. “Why are guys so damned insensitive?”

  “Why are women so damned sensitive?” he easily countered. “What is it now?”

  “Kiefer—that’s my cousin’s fiancé—is not helping,” Kate said, and related the story of Lisa and Kiefer to Joe, from how long they’d been together, to Kiefer’s grand proposal with Christmas lights and a high school chorus, to the last-minute wedding jitters and unwillingness to help.

  Joe listened with a frown of concentration. When she’d finished, he said, “Wow.”

  “I know, right?” Kate said. “He’s really being a jerk.”

  “I was thinking she was the jerk,” Joe said.

  Kate blinked. “Lisa? Lisa is doing everything!”

  “And that’s your problem right there,” Joe said. “She’s so caught up in this wedding and it being perfect that she isn’t letting him do anything. He doesn’t have any ownership in it. It’s like he’s been cut out.”

  “That’s what I think—he’s being childish.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Joe said. “I think he’s just being a guy.”

  “A guy,” she repeated with a bit of derision in her voice.

  “Yes. A guy,” he repeated firmly.

  “So… you don’t think he’s having second thoughts?”

  “Nah,” Joe scoffed. “First of all, he wouldn’t have asked her to marry him if he didn’t love her. Second, he is doing what he thinks he should be doing—giving her everything he thinks she wants. If he didn’t want in, he would say so.”

  That almost made sense to Kate. “You sound like you’ve been down this path before.”

  “Me?” He laughed. “Hardly. But my brother has. Twice to be exact, and both women were totally eaten up with the wedding instead of the marriage.”

  Kate scarcely heard the last bit. She was focused on the hardly. “Why do you say it that way?” she asked him.

  “Say what?”

  “Hardly. You said hardly, like it was so out of the realm of possibility for you. Are you opposed to marriage?”

  He gave her a bemused smile. “How on earth did you get that from what I just said? I’m not opposed to marriage. I don’t think it’s for me, but I’m not opposed to it.”

  “Why not?” she asked curiously. It was funny, but she’d had the same feeling about herself.

  “I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “I guess I’ve just never felt like I wanted to spend the rest of my waking days with one person.”

  “A guy like you?” she asked disbelievingly. She would think he’d have his pick of women.

  “Who, an IT nerd?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “No. A handsome man. A gentleman. I would think you had lots of girlfriends.”

  “Handsome, huh?” He grinned. “Yeah, I’ve had a few girlfriends along the way.”

  “But not one that you felt that way about.”

  “No,” he said, and looked at her curiously. “Why? Is that so strange?”

  Something about that made Kate feel a little uncomfortable, but she wasn’t certain why. “Maybe you’re too busy partying,” she said.

  “What?” Joe laughed. “Where did that come from?”

  “Because this morning, you smelled slightly of alcohol. And you looked really hungover.”

  Joe’s eyes widened with surprise.

  “Dark circles, your hair messed up—”

  “Okay, okay,” he said, and laughed. “So maybe I had a few too many last night. But it’s not what you think, kiddo. I happened to be the person of honor at a going-away party.”

  “Really?” she said, doubly curious now. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “Seattle, remember?” He grinned at her. “I’m on my way to a new job. The kind of job that comes around once in a lifetime.”

  “Congratulations!” she said, and ignored the tiny niggle of disappointment she felt.

  “Thanks.” He smiled happily. “So what about you?”

  “I’m from Seattle. But now I live in New York.”

  “No, I mean the marriage thing. Have you ever gotten close?”

  “Umm… no,” she admitted. “Never.”

  “Okay. That’s surprising, too.”

  Kate could feel herself blushing. “Not really.”

  “Yes it is. You’re very pretty,” he said, and Kate felt the heat began to creep into her cheeks. “And you’re smart. And, bonus points, you’re a trouper.”

  “I am?” she asked, absurdly pleased by that compliment.

  “So far,” he said laughingly. “So why hasn’t someone snatched you up?”

  “Oh, come on—”

  “No, really,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many women I meet who can’t hang. Or maybe they can hang, but they can’t talk.” He shook his head. “It’s disappointing, you know? You take a woman out to dinner, and she’s hot, and then you discover she can’t carry on an intelligent conversation.”

  “Are you kidding?” Kate asked. “What about being on the other side of the table? How many guys have I gone out with and then found out they are unread and uninterested in anything but sports scores?” She realized she’d just described what she knew of him and looked at him in horror.

  But Joe laughed. “Touché, madam, touché. But you haven’t answered the question. Why haven’t you settled down?”

  Kate smiled wryly. “I guess because I never felt that way about anyone, either. But unlike you, I didn’t have a string of boyfriends to choose from.”

  “Now that’s just too hard to believe,” Joe said. “I’d think there’d be a line around the block, your poor navigation skills notwithstanding.”

  Kate laughed softly, but her cheeks were burning with self-consciousness. And pleasure. “At least I’m not an armrest hog,” she said.

  “Oh no, you’re not going to pin that on me,” Joe laughed. “You are horrible with the armrest.”

  “Everyone knows the middle seat gets the armrest!”

  “I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life,” he scoffed. “You’ve got some wacky ideas floating behind those pretty green eyes, Kate.”

  She couldn’t help it—she laughed.

  “So how do you become an assistant editor?” he asked.

  “You read a lot. And majoring in English helped. How do you become an IT guy?”

  “You start by taking computers apart to see if you can put them back together.”

  Kate could picture a mop-top boy doing just that. “What is it about boys, always wanting to take things apart?”

  “Sexist,” he playfully accused her. “My sister is the one who showed me how. Why do girls always read a lot?”

  “It’s in our DNA. It so happens that there are more women book lovers than men.”

  “Include more sports scores and more men would read,” he offered, smiling at Kate’s laughter. “But the real question is, how do we get more women to deconstruct computers?”

  “Good question,” Kate said. “Computers are like cars. They should just work. No one wants to know how.”

  For the remainder of the drive to Houston, they argued playfully about the differences between men and women, and about who had the wherewithal to get to Seattle first.

  As they entered the outskirts of Houston, rain began to fall. By the time they made their way across town to Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, the rain had turned into a deluge. “You don’t think this rain will delay flights even more, do you?” Kate asked, peering up at the sky
as they dropped the rental car off.

  “No, not at all,” Joe said with a roll of his eyes. He grabbed Kate’s bags.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she said.

  “I know,” he said with a wink. “Come on, get that pink life raft and let’s go find a flight out of here.”

  They crowded onto the shuttle, Kate with the garment bag on her back, Joe with her shoulder bag slung over his shoulder and cases in each hand. They ignored the looks of everyone who eyed her pink bag with disdain, then piled into the terminal with everyone else.

  And into pandemonium.

  “What the hell?” Joe said absently as they looked around.

  A man standing just in front of them turned around. “The air traffic controllers just went on strike,” he said.

  Chapter 5

  “We have to get that car back,” Kate said instantly, crowding into Joe’s side as a melee of angry, disgruntled passengers pushed and shoved toward the ticket counters. Joe couldn’t help himself; he put a protective arm around Kate.

  “We know what’s going to happen,” she said frantically. “Once they figure out they can’t fly out, they will try and drive out, like us.” She suddenly twisted into Joe’s chest and grabbed his lapel, her green eyes wild. “We have to go.”

  “We can’t drive out of this,” Joe said, putting a hand on her arm. “It’s at least a two-day drive in the best of weather, and we’d be driving into a blizzard.”

  Kate’s grip tightened. “I think I am going to pass out.”

  “No, you’re not,” he evenly assured her, and gave her a comforting squeeze on the arm. “What about a train?”

  “Train?”

  “Yes, train,” Joe said again, and gently peeled free the fingers clawed around his lapel so he could reach his cell phone. “If we can just get farther west, we have more options for getting to Seattle.” At least he hoped that was true. He googled the Amtrak schedules and squinted at the screen. “Okay, we can book a ticket right now, leaving in a couple of hours, and arriving in Phoenix at 6:30 tomorrow night.”

  “Tomorrow!” Kate exclaimed, and did a dramatic little backward bend. “But that’s the dress rehearsal! I’ll miss the dress rehearsal, and I bought a gorgeous new dress to counter the peach thing!”

  Joe looked up from his phone. “Do you know any other way to get there?”

  Kate sighed with resignation. She looked down and shook her head. Tendrils of hair shook loose from the knot she’d tied in her hair earlier, and Joe had an insanely stupid urge to touch them, brush them back behind her ear.

  “Listen, the important thing is that you get there in time for the wedding, right? And for me, Monday morning. I have to be there by Monday.” He googled the location of the train station, then looked at Kate. “Should I buy the tickets?”

  “Yes,” she said, and punched him lightly in the chest for emphasis.

  As it turned out, getting the tickets was the easy part. Getting across town looked impossible. The taxi stands were swimming with humans trying to leave the airport.

  After twenty minutes of waiting, Joe was getting a little panicky himself. He’d been to Houston only a couple of times, but what he remembered was that it was huge and sprawling. He imagined that sprawl would seem to double in a rainstorm. “If we can’t get in a cab soon, we won’t make it,” he said grimly.

  “We’re going to make it,” Kate said, her determination returned.

  “I don’t think so,” Joe said, looking at his watch.

  “Okay, that’s it,” Kate said, and thrust the pink garment bag at him. “Hold this for me, please.”

  “Wait—where are you going?” he called after her, but Kate was marching up the line, her hips moving enticingly in the pencil skirt she was wearing. As her fair head disappeared into the crowd of people, he lost sight of her altogether.

  Several minutes passed. Joe kept looking at his watch, wondering if he should go after her or stay put. When he looked up from his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time, he saw her walking back. But she was not alone—a porter with a red cart was walking alongside her.

  And Kate was crying.

  Joe’s pulse instantly leapt. “Kate!” he shouted. His instinct was to go to her, but he had a stronger instinct to keep their place in line. “Kate, what’s wrong?” he demanded as she walked up to him, her face streaked with the path of her tears. It alarmed him so that he grabbed her arms. “What happened? Are you all right?”

  “Joe, it’s Dad,” she exclaimed, sniffling up at him as the porter stood uncomfortably to the side. “He’s taken a turn for the worse. I got the call when I went to check on how long it would be.”

  “What?” Joe asked, confused. “Your dad?”

  She suddenly grabbed his upper arms and squeezed so tight it was almost painful. “Joe,” she said, her eyes narrowing just slightly. “I know you thought we’d make it on time, but unless we make that train, I won’t see him again!” She burst into tears and buried her face in Joe’s chest.

  “Oh, the poor thing,” a woman behind him said.

  “Oh my god,” Joe said. He was fairly certain there was no father issue and that Kate was working some mysterious, probably nonsensical angle, but then again, he didn’t really know her. He couldn’t be sure. He put his hand on the back of Kate’s head, held her close to him. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t worry—one of our private car passengers is going to give you a ride,” the porter said, and gestured at Kate. “So she doesn’t have to wait for a cab,” he added in a loud whisper. “Are these your bags here?”

  “What?”

  Kate groaned and squeezed his arms again. Quite tightly. And then she grasped a bit of his coat fabric and gave it a tug. Wow. She’d found them a ride? He would take back every thought he’d just had about this being nonsense.

  “Young man, he is asking if these are your bags,” the kindly woman said behind him.

  “Oh. Yes. Those,” Joe said.

  “Listen, you need to pull yourself together and help her,” the woman continued, and patted his back. “She needs to say good-bye to her father. Now go take advantage of the offer and get to the train station before it’s too late.”

  “Right,” Joe said. “Thank you.” To the porter he said, “Don’t forget the pink thing.” He put his arm around Kate’s shoulders and pulled her tightly into his side. “Be strong, baby,” he said. “We have to be strong for Dad.” What was that he saw, the barest hint of a smile?

  “I just need him to hang on a little longer,” she said tearfully. “Why now?” she sobbed as they followed the porter to a black town car. “It’s so unfair!”

  Joe squeezed her tight in a silent plea not to overdo it.

  In the backseat of the town car sat a woman in an expensive suit with a Louis Vuitton briefcase at her feet. She smiled sympathetically at Joe. “I’m so sorry,” she said softly to Joe as he climbed in behind a limp Kate. “She is obviously very close to her father.”

  “So close,” Joe said.

  “It’s so unexpected,” Kate said through her tears.

  “Right,” Joe said, smiling ruefully at their benefactor as he tucked Kate into his body. “We can’t thank you enough for the ride—she’s a basket case.”

  Kate poked him in the side.

  “I’m just so glad I can help.” The woman leaned forward a bit to look at Kate, whose hair, thankfully, covered her face. Kate shuddered and made a sort of garbled sobbing noise. The woman eased back, glanced over Kate’s head, and gave Joe a look brimming with sympathy.

  As the car started slipping into traffic, Joe very slyly gave Kate a slight fist bump.

  By the time they reached the train station, Kate had feigned a slight recovery. She was still tucked into Joe’s side, which, he had to admit, he liked. She felt good next to him. All warm and soft. She was speaking somberly to the woman beside her, telling her what a great dad her father was. “Of all the times this would happen,” she sighed. “The blizzard, the s
trike…”

  “It’s horrible,” the woman agreed. “It took me two days to come home from London due to all the cancellations. I’m just glad I don’t have to go any farther.” The car coasted to a stop in front of the train station. “I wish you both the best of luck,” she said. “Take care of yourself, Kate.”

  “Thank you. I will.” Kate teared up again, and she took the woman’s hands in both of hers. “Thank you so much.”

  Joe said his thanks, too, but hopped out as soon as he could and raced the driver to the trunk. The less pink the Good Samaritan saw, the better. He didn’t want to her to be reminded of a wedding and start putting two and two together. He watched Kate come out of the town car, watched her bend over and wave, then stand there as the town car pulled away.

  “Well played,” Joe said. “Where did you learn to cry like that?”

  “Drama club, Garfield High,” Kate said morosely, then twirled around, arms wide. “God, what have I done, Joe? I just lied to that poor woman to get to the front of the line! What has happened to me? I don’t lie to get my way! But look, the first sign of adversity and I am lying and crying and becoming someone I don’t even recognize!”

  “It’s called survival,” Joe said.

  “I never felt so greasy in all my life,” she said, running her palms down her thighs. “I’m a horrible person.”

  “Take it easy, Kate,” Joe said and unthinkingly smoothed her hair back from her brow. “Ask yourself this: Would you rather lie to a complete stranger? Or call Lisa and tell her you can’t make her wedding?”

  Big green eyes blinked up at him and something shiny flashed in them. Kate grabbed her shoulder bag. “Come on, we have a train to catch.” She swung her bag over her shoulder, hoisted the garment bag onto her back, and stalked toward the entrance.

  You had to admire a woman like that, Joe thought. And he did. More than he would have ever expected upon first seeing her. Definitely way more than he wanted to.

  ***

  It should not have come as a surprise that squeezing onto the overcrowded train was a bit like squeezing into the proverbial sardine can. Joe and Kate scarcely made it on time, and as it took longer than normal to maneuver the pink raft through the cars, they could not find seats together. Joe sat two rows back from Kate. All he could see of her was the edge of the pink garment bag that she held on her lap. The bottom of it stuck out into the aisle, and he winced every time someone walked by and stepped on it.