by Cynthia Dane
Unfortunately, Jasmine had thought a lot about such things recently.
“I’m so sorry he did that to you. I thought you guys were getting along great these days.”
“We were!” Jasmine gestured for Selena to meet her halfway across the table so she could lower her voice. “We had the best fucking sex Friday night. I’m not lying when I say I let him pop the backdoor open for the first time, and it was the best.” Not something she was itching to do all the time, but she would be up for it again sometime in the future. “I was riding an orgasmic high all weekend. We went and picked out wedding rings!”
“Wow. So he popped your pucker and surprise attacked you with a prenup negotiation?” Selena shook her head. “I know he’s loaded, but I hope he’s loaded enough to keep you interested in marrying him. Because neither that nor a nice body is enough to put up with that.”
“You’re telling me…” Jasmine mumbled. “Look, it’s not the end of the world that we had to do a prenup. I knew it was coming… eventually. Like I said, I’m mostly pissed that he sprung that shit on me like the worst surprise party in the world. He might as well have popped in the door at the doctor’s office and said, “Congrats, it’s cancer!’”
“Men are so dumb sometimes.” Even with all the ambient noise around them, Selena’s voice still carried to Jasmine’s ears. Helped that she was naturally loud, like her brother Juan. “Why in the world didn’t he tell you that’s what you were going to do? Did he think you weren’t going to find out? Or care? Was he thinking at all?”
Jasmine shook her head, shaking chip crumbs from the bottom of their basket. “Let’s talk about something else. Like how I gained five pounds from this lunch.”
“I love this place. Almost as good as my abuela’s cooking. Her nachos aren’t as oily, though.”
Jasmine paid for their lunches before they parted ways, Selena going back to work at the garage she and Juan were employed at. I don’t miss having jobs to return to, but I do wish I had more friends who didn’t have jobs too. Jasmine was left alone in her red Dodge Viper, Ethan’s birthday gift to her many months ago. Vipers weren’t the most upscale or money-loaded vehicles around, but Jasmine had always drooled over the smooth curves like men drooled over hers. And red! Her favorite color!
She also liked that it was flashy without being too rich. It said she was a woman with some means, that she was flirty, liked to have fun… but that she wasn’t some stuck-up snob with millions at her disposal. Even if that’s true. It wasn’t like being driven in the Town Car. Jasmine only got out the Viper from the manor garage when she wanted some extra freedom and didn’t have upscale social commitments.
The way the Dodge clashed to hell and back in a garage full of Italian luxury cars though… ha!
Jasmine had plenty to keep her occupied that afternoon, however. She had an open invitation at The Crimson Dove for measurements and fittings for honeymoon clothes. Ethan (the bastard) had graciously arranged it after they decided to split their time between Hawaii and Europe for their honeymoon. It was tried and true, after all. They would be there during Independence Day, and Ethan had it on good authority that their rental would have a fantastic view of fireworks.
“I want you to start married life with me with the perfect clothes. You’ll be beautiful and comfortable, regardless of the situation or weather.” That’s what he told her two weeks ago when he informed her that the tailor at The Crimson Dove was salivating to turn bride Jasmine into her summer model. Monica had become the face – and stomach – of maternity fashion, even though the boutique wasn’t exactly known for any size above a 6. (Yet somehow women of larger sizes still managed to get dressed there. Money could accomplish anything.)
So with no other commitments and a burning desire to spend a wad of Ethan’s cash, Jasmine pulled right up to the boutique and sauntered inside.
It was not a busy afternoon. Even so, there was a small wait since Jasmine did not call ahead, and she was asked to sit in a waiting area. She hadn’t sat down for two seconds before someone texted her.
“Please meet me at the penthouse tonight. I’d really appreciate it.”
Jasmine was not quick to respond. She didn’t respond at all, in fact.
Oh, she would go. She would listen to whatever Ethan had to say, whether he remembered their incident at his lawyer’s place or not. He would probably apologize. Give her flowers or jewelry. Order them some fancy dinner before trying to make love to her. The man was upping his game over the past year. He might have drawn a bath again. Or volunteered himself to be subjected to video games.
Jasmine sighed, staring at his written words. I both hate him and love him right now. Of course she loved him, but because she loved him didn’t mean she liked him at the moment!
“Ah… fancy seeing you here.”
Even though she recognized that sweet voice, Jasmine was still surprised to look up and see Adrienne coming to the waiting area with two bags hanging from her arms. “What are you doing here?” It was the middle of a weekday afternoon. Shouldn’t she be up to some business? Or was she planning a hostile corporate takeover of The Crimson Dove? Great fashion for everyone involved. Thomas-Cole would be the best-dressed enterprise in America.
Adrienne sat one chair away from Jasmine, nestling her bags beneath her. “You want the truth? I’m here for my best woman’s fitting.”
“Huh?”
The other woman pointed to the seamstress hustling in and out of the back room. “That woman there is responsible for making me look good on your wedding day. Normally I pick out something nice for a wedding, but in this case…” Adrienne tilted her head with a cool complexion. “I have to make sure I match Ethan and the other men in his party. Even if I will be wearing a skirt.”
I had already forgotten about that. Adrienne being Ethan’s best man, that is. Or best woman, as they were calling her. “I see. Is it nice? Not that you never look anything but nice…”
“Oh, thank you. That’s kind of you.” Adrienne crossed two long, smooth legs, the pale yet healthy white of her skin positively glowing in the lights. “I’ve always tried to be fashionable. In my position, you either dress for success… or you go beyond. I like to think going beyond has done wonders for me.”
“Well, you certainly have the body for it… I mean…” Jasmine clapped her mouth shut. Wasn’t she wonderful at saying the most inappropriate shit?
“I’ve been blessed in many ways. So have you.”
“Dunno what you could mean by that…”
“Oh, come on. You’re a gorgeous girl. You’re also wicked sharp. You have to be to put up with a man like Ethan.”
A man you ultimately couldn’t put up with? Jasmine kept her eyes focused on her feet, toes peeking out of her Gucci sandals. Ethan paid for these. Adrienne, on the other hand, paid for her designer wear and couture looks with her own money. “You’re telling me.” Jasmine tried to bite her lip, but the anger bubbling back up exploded. “Did you know that he was going to spring a prenup negotiation on me?”
Adrienne dropped the lipstick she held. “What?”
“He randomly took me to his lawyer’s on Sunday. It was the most embarrassing afternoon he ever subjected me to. I apparently got the trophy wife prenup special.”
“No!”
“Yes. I’m not kidding. I know we had to do a prenup but… no warning. His lawyer made the worst accusations against me and my intentions. That’s fucked up.”
“With no warning? Yeah, that’s shitty. I’m sorry. That’s so weird he would forget to tell you.” Nevertheless, Adrienne snorted. “He probably needed Amber to tell him and she dropped the ball. I swear, if she doesn’t tell Ethan to take a piss, he ends up wondering why his stomach is cramped at five in the afternoon.” When she saw the look on Jasmine’s face, she explained, “I’m joking, of course, but he relies far too much on her. His mind had been addled with everything going on so far this year.”
Jasmine would believe it, but she wasn’t feeling very
sympathetic. “I am so embarrassed and angry with him right now. Do me a favor and go back to the office and smack him on the head. Tell him he knows why.”
Adrienne laughed. The strange thing? Jasmine had never really heard her laugh before. Oh, she heard the carefully timed giggles, the sighs of humor, and the smirks that were audible to her sensitive ears. Those were in social situations, however. Adrienne was a lot like Monica in that she could carefully control her responses to get the best outcome possible. Jasmine wasn’t like that at all. Too impulsive. Too brash for her own good.
When Adrienne was caught off guard and naturally laughed, she sounded like… well, she sort of sounded like a braying horse. Not a loud one, but Jasmine jerked back, wide-eyed to hear Adrienne sound so abrasive and completely unladylike. I suppose she really is that composed and dignified on purpose. Then again, Adrienne didn’t come from a wealthy family either. From what Jasmine understood, she was better off than Jasmine and certainly Ethan growing up, but that didn’t mean she was riding horses every weekend or flirting with pretty boys at the country club. Adrienne had to teach herself most of the manners that seemed to come so easily to her.
“That’s rich,” she muttered. “I want to smack his head for something or other at least once a day. Would be nice to do it on someone else’s behalf for once.
Jasmine couldn’t help but smile. “You don’t really think he did that on purpose, do you?” Not that Jasmine was convinced he had. On the contrary. Knowing Ethan, he really did need his assistant to tell him to piss every couple of hours in case he forgot. I want to hear her say it.
“I would be shocked if he had. That man loves you so much it’s almost disgusting.” Adrienne’s mouth twisted after that last word fell from it. “Er, I mean…”
“No, I know what you mean.” Adrienne would know all about that. “He just texted me asking me to meet him tonight… I haven’t talked to him much since Sunday. Guess I should let him make amends, huh?”
“I’m assuming you still want to marry him.” Adrienne pulled a wipe from her bag and cleaned her hands. Her sharp nails sliced right through the wet paper. “Even if you only get a single million from divorcing him instead of a billion.”
“I guess I do.” Jasmine pursed her lips, hands shoving beneath her thighs as she closed her eyes to the lights shining above them. “You know, I don’t care about the money. Not really. If for some obscene reason we had to get a divorce, I wouldn’t expect him to give me anything but respect and courtesy.” How many women got that? “I’m getting really tired of being portrayed as some gold digging slut who doesn’t know what she’s about or what it means to be a man like her future husband. I’m not using him for his money. I really do love him.”
The wipe slowed its assault on Adrienne’s hands. “I know you do. For what it’s worth, I think you’re the perfect wife for a man like him.”
“You do?”
“I wouldn’t bullshit about that.” Adrienne tossed her wad of now dirty paper in the nearest wastebasket. “If I thought you were nothing but a ‘gold digging slut’ trying to milk Ethan for everything for all he was worth, you would know… and I wouldn’t be happy.”
“I can’t say I would want you against me. You seem like someone who could be frightening.”
“Do I? I suppose that’s good news for me…” Adrienne’s pearly white teeth flashed in Jasmine’s direction. “But don’t be afraid of me. I have nothing against you, Jasmine. Sometimes I worry for you… no, forgive me. I shouldn’t say such things.”
Jasmine wasn’t going to press for more info, but those were words that ended up lodged in the back of her mind to mull over later. “I’m getting married in a few weeks.” That still didn’t seem like reality. “And I still don’t have a wedding dress.”
Adrienne had to do a double-take. “Still? You need to get on that!”
“I haven’t found anything that resonates with me. At this rate I’ll have to get whatever’s off the rack… or take up my mother’s offer to wear her burlap sack.” Unfortunately, that was a real conversation Luna brought up one day. As if Jasmine would ever walk down the aisle wearing a white sack.
“Everything else is still coming together, right?”
“Not really. Yes and no. I don’t have a maid of honor, because I can’t choose between my two friends. Never mind I’m supposed to have another person picked out because heaven forbid I don’t have at least three people standing up there with me.”
“How do you think I ended up in this position? Ethan doesn’t have any damned friends who aren’t women he’s slept with.”
She said it so snottily that Jasmine choked. Don’t remind me.
“Isn’t there anyone else you could ask?”
“I’m not that close with many women. The other few I’ve asked, like you, can’t for whatever reason. Like already being the best man, or being too pregnant.”
Adrienne shook her head, still devoid of any stray hairs from her perfect bun. “Who said it had to be a woman? Think about it. Ethan’s got a woman up there. Why can’t you have a man? Wouldn’t that even things out better than all women on your side?”
Jasmine mulled that over for about ten seconds before leaping off her chair and grabbing her bag.
“Jasmine?”
“I’ve gotta go. Don’t forget to smack Ethan for me!”
Since Jasmine didn’t have an appointment, no one was put out when she jetted out of the boutique and hopped into her car. The engine couldn’t start fast enough. Not when she had a damn mission to complete before the end of the work day!
***
The car horn honked repeatedly, rousing the mechanics and assistants inside the garage. Selena was the first one to look up, bedecked in oily overalls with her curly brown hair up in a messy bun that would make Adrienne’s prim and proper look scream. When Selena realized it was Jasmine pulling into the middle of the parking lot, she smacked her brother Juan on the arm – and Juan smacked his head against the hood of the car he worked on.
“Let me guess,” Selena said, hands on hips as Jasmine stumbled out of her Dodge Viper. “You killed the son of a bitch and think you’re hiding out here. Okay, Juan, go get the shovel.”
“Selena!” Jasmine wasn’t wasting any time. Even the stench of motor oil and burning rubber couldn’t hold her back as she entered the dark, drafty garage with her hands clasping before her. “You! You’ve gotta be my maid of honor!”
“So, you finally realized that I am the superior friend? Let’s bury the bleeding bastard.”
Jasmine was on the verge of shaking her before Juan came over. “Juan! You gotta be my bridesman!”
“Say what now?” Though tall, Juan was not exactly the kind of man who towered over Jasmine. It was probably that infamous slouch of his. “You’re nuts, right? There’s no such thing as a bridesman.”
“No, you don’t get it. Ethan’s having his ex-girlfriend be his best man-woman and so I can totally use a man in my bridal party! It’s perfect! You’re my other best friend and I need a third in my party!”
“He’s doing what? That’s messed up.”
“Come on, you’ve gotta do it for me!”
“I don’t have to wear a dress, do I?”
His sister, who was a good head shorter than him, grabbed the front of his overalls. “Our friend has been killing herself planning this fucking wedding, and what were you gonna do? Sit around and drink free booze?”
“What else do you do at a wedding?”
“While I gotta do maid of honor bullshit at some fancy billionaire’s wedding? I don’t think so. You’re going down with me. I don’t care if she puts you in a tutu, hermano, you’re doing it and you’re smiling for the bridal photos.”
How could Juan say no to that? Two women coming down on him for doing what they perceived to be the bare minimum? He didn’t stand a chance.
“Do I get to wear a fancy suit and keep it? I ain’t gotta pay for it though, right?”
“I’m paying for all
the bridal party dresses.” It may not have been customary, but Jasmine had to use expensive dresses and her party was made up of poor people. It was only right she pay for their dresses – or suits, in Juan’s case. “You ever wear Armani before? Because I bet you a million bucks…”
“Chump change for you now.”
“…That the bridegroom party is going to be decked out in Armani. So, you could match those bigwig brutes.”
“I guess, man…”
“You guess? You guess?” Selena jabbed a single finger in her brother’s chest. “If you don’t say yes right now, I’m telling abuela.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Oh, I would, and she will make your life hell for turning this down.” Selena turned to Jasmine. “You’ve never met her, but she loves weddings. Like, she is shitting herself over me being in your bridal party because my grandmother is all over those society pages looking at the dresses and shit. To see the both of us in a photo on Page 6? That shit is going on the wall.”
“Fuck no, not the wall…”
“Please, Juan,” Jasmine begged, looking one of her oldest friends in the eyes. “Help me out here.”
It took about five more minutes of coaxing and begging before Juan finally gave in. Once he did? Jasmine felt the first great amount of relief she had felt in a long, long time. I still don’t have a dress, though. One thing at a time!
Chapter 2
Jasmine sat at the dining table when Ethan walked through the front door of the penthouse. She had a bridal magazine open in front of her, flipping through one dress after the other, still not in love with anything. I like pieces of this. Pieces of that. It’s too late to get a custom dress, though. Now, if they were getting married next June like was the original plan…
She didn’t look at him as she drank white wine and depressed herself over dresses. For her excitement over completing her bridal party was short lived, and Ethan making his grand entrance at dinnertime wasn’t helping.
