by Lexy Timms
Chapter 5
Jamie sighed contemplatively as she looked at the new clothes Alex had bought her. She had no idea how much he had spent. He wouldn’t let her look at the price tags as they shopped. In return, she refused to let him buy her clothes that were non-work related, even though he tried once during the shopping spree. She ended up with new suits, silk blouses, and some office-friendly dresses that all made her look like she was a CEO herself and not just a personal assistant. He told her he wanted her to look like she had power, and look good at the same time. He was going to have her attend more business meetings and maybe even entertain some of the clients’ wives, if she was interested, while their husbands were in meetings for negotiations. “My only condition is that I ask to approve the clothes you wear,” he said. “The last thing I need is for you to be looking so sexy that the men will be more focussed on you than the negotiations, or that the wives get jealous.”
As if there were any clothes that could make her look sexy. She appreciated the compliment, nonetheless. He’d been completely businesslike the next morning after the imaginary kiss and she appreciated it. He’d asked her about the cut and that was it. How she managed to wake up without a hangover… She figured it was the hormones coursing through her body that probably absorbed the alcohol since they didn’t get what they wanted.
She looked at the time and swore. She was supposed to meet Christine to go over the seating arrangements and she was running behind. She grabbed an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt and put them on, cinching her belt to the last hole to make her pants stay up. She put on some flip flops and threw her hair into a ponytail before making a protein shake for breakfast. It was a good thing she had thought to pick some up the day before because there was no way she had time that morning to grab a real breakfast. Alex had insisted she take the day off and Christine had then insisted they meet at the crack of dawn for a whole day of wedding organizing. She honestly wasn't sure what there was left to do. It seemed like wedding planning just went on forever. Thank goodness for coffee.
Jamie put her breakfast shake into a clear plastic to-go cup and grabbed some money for a quick coffee run on the way to her sister's house. She steeled herself for a long and terrible day as she got into her car.
Even though they were just going to be at Christine and Stephen's apartment all day, Christine greeted Jamie in a designer blouse and a pair of sharp, firmly pressed black pants. Her hair was in a perfect upswept bun and she wore a hint of lipstick as well.
Jamie almost rolled her eyes. Cinderella had come ill-dressed for the ball, again.
“You’re late,” Christine complained, letting her in. "But I guess I'll deal." She sighed dramatically and then looked Jamie over with a critical eye, eyeing the breakfast shake with disgust. "Honestly, Jamie, you could at least try to follow a diet," Christine said, grabbing the shake out of Jamie's hands. "Milkshakes in the morning? What are you even thinking?”
"It's a protein shake," Jamie said, but Christine was already walking into the kitchen and pouring the liquid into the sink. She glanced around, relieved not to see Stephen.
"Oh, please," Christine said, setting the empty cup on the sideboard. "I know you, Jamie. You wouldn't drink something healthy if your life depended on it. Which it does, if you think about it."
Jamie's stomach growled. She had only drank a few sips of the shake on the way there and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she was ravenous. She sipped her coffee slowly, hoping it would fill her up. Her sister had her best interest at heart, and was more than nervous for a wedding that shouldn’t happen. Her husband-to-be was an ass. "What do you want to do first?" she asked, sitting down on the black leather couch and surveying her former apartment.
Unlike the funky style she had taken with her apartment, with thrift store couches and artwork from local artists, Christine and Stephen had decorated it in a pseudo-intellectual style. The TV was hidden in a dark wood cabinet and bookshelves lined the walls with leather bound books. Prints of famous paintings hung on the walls and there was a fake fireplace on one side of the room where flames were dancing and projecting patterns onto the mahogany coffee table in the middle of the room. It would make anyone seem smart and educated until you looked at the books and realized none of the bindings had ever been cracked. Christine spent more of her time poring through junk magazines than anything else and Stephen watched sports in his free time. Their decorations seemed as fake as their personalities. Jamie scolded herself for thinking that. It wasn’t her life, or her place to judge.
"I think we should go over the seating arrangements," Christine said, laying a folder on the coffee table as if it was a business meeting. "I don't know who to sit with who. Plus, it’s going to look funny at the head table with just a best man. So, I figured I’d put most of the wedding party together. Everyone who fits.” She waited a moment, purposely reminding Jamie she wasn’t doing her maid of honor part, and thus, had been forced to step down.
"Let's not focus on me, how about we just concentrate on the seating arrangements?" Jamie forced herself to smile, knowing exactly what her sister was thinking.
"Whatever you say, milkshake girl." Christine smirked and then pulled up the diagram of the seating arrangements. She had penciled Jamie's name in on a table way in the corner, not at the head table where the wedding party was eating. She wrote big enough so Jamie's name took up two seats.
Jamie bit down her anger. The kids’ table? Really?
Just then Stephen came out of the bedroom from the hall, looking just as immaculately and stiffly dressed as Christine did. He wore a thousand-dollar suit with the jacket, tie. "Have you made coffee, Christine?"
"It's in the pot, dear, all fresh and ready." Christine flashed him her sweetest smile.
"Thank you, darling." He looked up with a grin at the two of them, but his smile disappeared when Christine’s attention went back to the guest list. He glared at Jamie. "I'll be in my room if you need me, Christine."
"Okay, dear," she said. As soon as he was gone she turned to Jamie with a glare. "What the hell did you do to him?" she hissed. "I've never seen him look so uncomfortable in my life."
"I didn't do anything!" Jamie said defensively. And she hadn't. Aside from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she was the victim. She straightened. I’m no damn victim! He could have the decency to apologize or act humiliated for his actions. He certainly hadn't been ashamed when he started fucking her sister. She wasn't sure why he was any different now.
"Well, whatever it is, you have to apologize to him," Christine said. "I can't have my maid of honor pissing off my groom, now can I?"
"I didn't do anything, I swear!" She was Christine’s maid of honor again? She thought she’d been demoted. She almost giggled, except the thought of Christine telling her to apologize to Stephen irked her too much.
Christine smiled indulgently. "I'm sure whatever vulgar or uncivilized thing you did, you thought was perfectly normal, Jamie. But that doesn't mean the rest of us who have taste think that acting like a barbarian is acceptable at any occasion."
Jamie closed her eyes and counted to ten. "I didn't do anything," she said, gritting her teeth. "I have nothing to apologize for. And don’t talk to me like that. I’m your sister."
"I don't care what you think you've done," Christine said. "You’ve obviously done something and I can't have you messing up my wedding. So either apologize to my fiancé… or… or…”
“Or what? You going to knock me out of the prized position again?” Jamie covered her mouth in surprise. She knew better than to mock her sister. Fangs and claws came out when you did that.
Christine frowned as her face burned red. “You stupid, fat bitch! You think you’re better than everyone, don’t you? If you fuck up, you apologize.”
Suddenly, months of rage and resentment boiled up in Jamie and she couldn't force it to stay down. "I’m stupid?!" she shouted. "I don't want to be your dumb-ass maid of honor anyway! Your husband-to-be is an ass! Yo
u’re too imprudent to see it! Let Scarlet enjoy your constant bitchy phone calls and stupid breakdowns because I’m done! So fucking done!" She wanted to rant about Stephen and his dumb-ass ways as well, but managed to bite her tongue. She needed food. She needed a sister on her side. Well, screw them all!
"Good! I told Mom you wouldn’t make it!" Christine snapped. "You're lucky I'm letting you even come to my wedding at all, you ungrateful jealous bitch!”
“Jealous?” Jamie spat back, not believing her sister thought she was jealous.
“Of my husband!” Christine poked at her own chest. “You wish you were still with him!”
“No, I fucking don’t.” She shook her head. “Never in a million years.”
Christine was no longer listening. “I never even wanted you in the wedding party to begin with, especially when it's so clear you don't even love me enough to fix that stupid weight problem of yours. Is it really too much to ask that you stop hoarding for the apocalypse in your damn body? Honestly, Jamie, why would I want a blubbering whale like you ruining my wedding photos?"
“You are such a bitch!” Tears stung Jamie's eyes as she got up.
“Get out!” Christine screamed.
"I’m glad I don't have to deal with your wedding shit anymore, Christine," Jamie said quietly. "You and Stephen really deserve each other. You have no idea." She stomped to the door and slammed it to Christine yelling more profanities at her.
Chapter 6
Jamie waited until she got into her car before she allowed the tears to fall. She hadn’t meant to yell at her sister like that. Everything had just boiled up and up and finally over. It was like Christine’s mission in life was to make her big sister feel like she was nothing. She had been trying to lose weight and it was working. She had a whole new wardrobe to prove it! She was in no way jealous of Christine marrying Stephen. Or maybe she was. Not of Stephen, but the fact her younger sister was getting married before her. “The marriage won’t last, anyways,” she told herself, and then felt like crap for trying to condemn it before they’d even said ‘I do’.
As much as Christine's comments hurt, though, she had to admit the sense of relief lifting off her chest couldn’t be missed. She was tired of being spread thin by Christine's crises and work and the passive aggressive comments about her weight. She didn't even want to think about the wrath she'd have to face from her mother, but suddenly Jamie finally felt like she could breathe for the first time since Christine and Stephen announced their engagement.
She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and started the car. She suddenly had the day free and if she sat crying in her car, she was bound to run into her mom or Stephen. She didn’t want to deal with any of them right now.
On the way home she heard her phone ring and she checked the caller ID. It was her mother already.
She quickly pressed ignore. No doubt Christine had already told her everything by now and Jamie was not going to listen to her mother rant about how Jamie was such a disappointment, or how she should have just gotten an abortion that first time around but Jamie’s father had convinced her mom to keep the baby. She was not a mistake and no one was going to tell her otherwise today.
She threw her phone into the back seat of the car and did a quick U-turn away from home. The waterworks falling from her eyes wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t go home. Alex would be there, and she didn't want to run into him when she was so upset. He’d judge her like her own damn family did.
Opening the car window, she let the wind dry her tears. She had planned on helping Christine all day, and had no work to do for Alex at the moment. She had free time and damn if she was going to use it crying over anyone—least of all, herself.
She went to a tiny hole-in-the-wall cafe that had picturesque decorations and displays of beautiful baked goods. She ordered a vegetable omelet and a coffee before sitting down at a light brown table in the back of the restaurant. She was the only patron in there, which was fine by her. She wanted some peace and quiet while she mulled things over.
First thing she warned her brain was that it wasn’t allowed to think about Christine, feel bad, and then call and apologize. She had to grow a backbone sometime. She wouldn’t beg for her maid of honor spot and, Jamie smiled to herself, she now wouldn’t have to use Christine as her maid of honor when she got married.
She thought about Stephen and how he had acted so strange. He did seem pissed when he realized that she was there, but Stephen didn't have a conscience. Even if he did remember his drunken attack, he wouldn't care. Hell, he would probably say that Jamie was to blame and that she went after him. So, why so mad? Was he worried she would tell Christine?
No, he wouldn't be because when had Christine ever taken her side over his?
Jamie had a feeling Alex had said or done something. She shook her head. She was just being paranoid. Alex was the overprotective type but there was no way he would actually go so far as to threaten Stephen, or whatever, into leaving her alone.
Jamie smiled as she thought about her sexy, rich boss. It was kind of cool to think he was looking out for her. The look on his face the other night popped into her memory and how his touch had heated a fire in her that still begged to be released. She’d never been the horny type, well, she grinned wryly, not really.
Stop!
Alex was a great boss but he had made it pretty clear he only cared about her professionally. She shook her head. She told him she wasn’t interested. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t like anything could happen between them anyway. It wouldn’t work. She was not hot-guy material. Christine had made that blatantly obvious.
She took her time finishing her omelet and forced herself to enjoy the peace and quiet in the little café. She didn’t need her phone, or laptop or anything for those thirty minutes. By the time she finished, she had already begun to feel better. Not much, but a little.
She drove around for an hour and then with nowhere else to go, she figured she would head home and lie in bed with a book to curl up with, and maybe a workout as well.
When she pulled into the driveway, hundreds of cars were blocking it. She’d forgotten Alex had said he was hosting a brunch with business partners. She hadn’t realized it was at his place. She groaned inwardly. All she wanted to do was hide for the time being, but it looked like that was a lot easier said than done. Hopefully no one would notice her sneak into her suite.
She waved away the valet who tried to open the door for her. “It’s just me,” she told him before realizing that the valets Alex hired from the valet company had no idea who she was. “I’m Mr. Reid’s personal assistant. I live here. I’m just going to sneak by and go to my apartment.”
“Could I see some ID, please?” the valet said, a clipboard coming out from the little stand where he stood.
She handed him her wallet and he looked at her name, frowning. “I’m sorry, Ms. Connors, but I can’t let anyone through who’s not on the guest list.”
Of course Alex wouldn’t have thought to inform the valets about her. Plus, she was supposed to be gone for the entire day. “Look, if you just ask Mr. Reid, he’ll tell you and let me through.” She looked behind the seat but couldn’t see her phone. She reached for the door handle but the valent stood close, preventing her from opening the door.
“My apologies, ma’am, but I’m under strict orders not to let anyone in that is not on the list. If you could just turn your car around—”
“Listen, kid, this is my home. Ask Murray, the cook.”
“Who?”
She threw her hands in the air. “Ask, I don’t know, the gardener! Whoever you want. Just let me through the gates and step away from my damn door!”
“Jamie?” came an all-too familiar voice.
She sighed. Of course she would lose it in front of her boss. Because he didn’t already think she was crazy. Jamie and the valet both looked at Alex, who stood with a middle-aged couple in expensive, yet casual, designer wear, with mimosas in hand. They all looked at the spec
tacle curiously.
The valet rushed to open the gate and Alex came walking through. “So, sorry, Mr. R-Reid,” he stammered, blushing the same color as his jacket. “She refuses to leave, but I was told not to—”
“I know what you were told,” Alex said. “I’m the one who issued the instructions after all.”
The valet’s face grew even redder and he shot Jamie a dirty look, as if it was her fault he was getting told off.
“Jamie Connors is my personal assistant. Please let her through.”
“Of course,” the valet said stiffly, gesturing for her to pull her car up.
“Jamie, why don’t you join us for brunch?” Alex said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “We would love to have you.”
The man and woman, who had been apparently taking a walk on the front lawn with Alex both nodded, smiling kindly.
Jamie smiled at them weakly. She didn’t have a choice. “I’d love to,” she said finally, “I’ll be there shortly, after I change.”
Alex smiled. “Excellent,” he said. “I can’t wait for you to join us.”
Jamie slipped her sunglasses on and drove slowly to the house, avoiding the lines of parked cars and people walking around the grounds. No one paid much attention to her as she parked near the house and jogged around the back to her apartment. Anyone who noticed her probably thought she was hired help.
She kept her head down until she got into her place. She raced to her room and into the walk-in closet, stripping as she ran.
Why didn’t I let him buy me fancy casual clothes? Jamie looked through her new clothes for something suitable to wear. The last thing she needed was for her pants to be falling down in the middle of brunch and then trip over something. It was bad enough when it happened in front of Alex, and the last thing she wanted was for it to happen in front of people who hadn’t seen her naked and had no wish to.
