That’s the best you can do, Derrick? Shame on you.
“I’m Maddie, by the way,” I interrupt his perusing.
“Yeah, nice to meet you,” he states, jerking his eyes up to me. “Do we have to order something in particular, or just whatever we want?”
“You can order whatever you’d like. We’re just looking for something that might be good for the wedding, but it’s ultimately between you and Audrey what that food is going to be.” He nods a few times and continues to look at the menu.
Derrick might be good looking, but he doesn’t appear to have the best personality. I’m really wondering how he and Audrey met. They don’t exactly seem like a compatible match, from the outside looking in.
We sit in awkward silence until the waiter comes to take our order.
“I think I’ll have the lobster tail,” Audrey begins, handing him her menu.
“Chicken with mushroom sauce,” I add.
“Bring me the steak and shrimp,” Derrick orders, “medium rare.”
The instant the waiter disappears, I wonder what we’re going to talk about. Audrey seems too nervous to bring much to the conversation, and Derrick appears to be extremely uninterested.
“So, Derrick,” I begin, “Audrey tells me you’re an investment banker?”
“Junior investment banker,” he replies.
“You have to travel a lot with that job?” He shifts a little in his seat and places his right foot against his left knee as he leans back to make himself comfortable.
“You know, visiting clients and things, the normal business travel.”
“A lot of your clients must be from far away,” I casually mention, based on what Audrey has told me in the past.
“No, we deal mainly with local clientele.”
“It’s a wonder, then, that you have so many overnight trips.”
“Well,” he says, his eyes completely fixed on me, “you do what the job requires.”
“Of course,” I reply, taking a drink of my water. Audrey is simply sitting back, listening but not partaking in the conversation. “I’m curious, how did you two meet?”
“Work,” Audrey states quickly. “Oh, not the job I have now, but at my old job. Derrick brought Paddy into the shelter to rehome him, and I wound up taking him home with me.”
A bit stunned, I practically gape at Audrey. “You didn’t tell me anything about a shelter.”
“Didn’t I? I worked at the animal shelter the entire time I was going to college. It wasn’t until after I graduated that Dad insisted I get a real job at his company.”
Wow, Audrey Cooper working at an animal shelter. I can imagine that driving Cooper out of his mind.
“Working at a shelter for free isn’t a real job,” Derrick complains, intensely scrutinizing my face.
“It’s commendable,” I offer, grinning at Audrey, suddenly with a newfound respect for her.
“So what do you do, Maddie?” Derrick asks, placing his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand.
“I’m Kent Cooper’s assistant,” I reply simply.
“So you work for Audrey’s dad.”
What is this, a job interview or something? This is supposed to be a casual lunch.
“How does Audrey do up there?” he continues. “Is she completely worthless?”
Audrey makes a noise that indicates she’s offended, but he doesn’t laugh or smile. “Derrick!” she exclaims. “I’m not worthless.”
“Actually,” I interject, “Audrey has helped me quite a bit lately with the charity projects we’ve worked on.”
“Audrey’s working for charity, or Audrey is a charity?” he wonders with a laugh, pausing to take a drink of his water.
“I’ve told you about the charity drives we’ve been doing,” Audrey adds. He waves her off with his hand and continues to look at me.
“So, Derrick, do you have any ideas for the wedding?” I question, a bit uneasy about the direction of our conversation. “Audrey and I have been planning a lot, but it would be nice to have your input.”
“Weddings are for ladies. I don’t really care about it.”
“Well, it’s a big day for Audrey. She would probably like your input to make her decisions a little easier.”
“If it’s a big day for Audrey, then let Audrey make the decisions. It has nothing to do with me.”
I really hope Derrick got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, because if this is his permanent personality, he is horrible company.
“He does always say that,” Audrey speaks up. “The wedding is for girls, and the honeymoon is for the man.”
“So you’re planning the honeymoon?” I wonder, glancing over at him. “Where are you going?”
“There won’t be any honeymoon,” he states simply, averting his eyes to the other diners in the restaurant.
“I thought you were going to ask about that,” Audrey implores, and he shoots her a warning look.
“It’s just not a possibility.”
“Derrick has a business meeting the Monday after the wedding,” Audrey explains to me. “I thought he was going to ask his boss if he could get out of it.”
“The world doesn’t revolve around you, Audrey. You’ll just have to forget about a honeymoon for now.”
The waiter returns with three salad plates, and no one speaks for a moment. It’s difficult not to glance between Audrey and Derrick, wondering what weird circumstances would bring these two people together. Audrey I can understand to a certain degree, because she doesn’t have the greatest self-esteem and probably thinks she can’t do any better, so she settles. Derrick, on the other hand… If he dislikes Audrey as much as he acts like he does, why is he even in this relationship?
“I think I’m going to the ladies’ room,” Audrey suddenly announces, standing up and walking away from the table.
“Audrey really looks great with her hair like that,” I mention, not really expecting a comment but simply wanting Derrick to realize that he should have noticed.
“You can cut the crap,” he says, picking at his salad.
“Excuse me?”
“Audrey told me she had this great new friend Maddie, and I have to admit I was skeptical. Audrey doesn’t make friends. She’s way too needy for that. Well, now that I’ve met you, the picture is crystal clear. You don’t have to keep pretending to be her friend. I get it.”
“Get what?” I ask angrily, placing my salad fork on the table.
“Look at you. People like you don’t hang out with people like Audrey. Her dad made you be her friend—it’s part of your job. He pays you to take her to places like this and get her hair done and pretend you like her. I get it, so you can drop the charade when she’s not in the room.”
“Audrey is a nice girl,” I say quietly. “She deserves to have people in her life that care about her.”
“Whatever.”
This guy is exasperating. How dare he make such a judgment about me? He doesn’t even know me.
“Well, if you don’t mind me saying so, you’re a very attractive woman,” Derrick states, eyeing me suggestively. “Are you available?”
Am I…? Of all the nerve.
“Why are you with Audrey?” I confront him, almost ready to come across the table and ring his neck. As though he senses my emotions, he simply grins.
“Same reason you are, sweetheart: Daddy’s money.”
“Kent will never give you anything,” I whisper. Derrick laughs and holds his fork suspended in the air.
“He’s already given me plenty, and there will be a lot more where that came from.”
“And Audrey?”
“What Audrey doesn’t know won’t hurt her. Look at her! That girl is desperate for attention. All I have to do is pat her on the head once in a while when I’m coming or going, and she’ll be happy.”
Audrey suddenly returns from the ladies’ room, smiling at the sight of her fiancé eating lunch with her best friend, and I feel absolutely sick. Derrick may be the biggest jerk
on the face of the earth, but he was right about me in one respect: Cooper definitely does pay me to be his daughter’s friend. He might not have intended to do so, but that is the situation. I wouldn’t be helping Audrey with the wedding had Cooper not ordered me to do so, and we wouldn’t speak to each other at all if Cooper hadn’t demanded that she work with me on the projects I’ve been coordinating.
“Here comes the food!” Audrey comments cheerfully as she sits down. Derrick uses the opportunity to wink at me before he looks over at Audrey.
What am I going to do? I can’t not tell Audrey that her fiancé is only after her money, can I? Then again, how am I supposed to approach that kind of subject?
Hey, Audrey, by the way—Derrick is using you.
Oh, Audrey, in case you didn’t know, Derrick is a pig.
Hi Audrey. Did I mention that your fiancé doesn’t really love you?
I can’t do it. I simply can’t do it.
But I have to, don’t I? If I don’t, then that makes everything Derrick just said about me true. The only way to truly be Audrey’s friend is to tell her this horrible thing that I absolutely do not want to tell her. What am I going to do?
Driving home from grocery shopping after work, I happen to see Derrick walking into one of the local clubs. I slow down as I’m passing, because I think my eyes might be playing tricks on me, but it’s definitely Derrick. He told us over lunch that he was leaving on a two-day business trip. Apparently the trip was canceled. Funny that he didn’t bother to tell his fiancée, who informed me at the day’s end that she would be washing her dogs that evening.
A few blocks past the club, I pull the Tahoe into a vacant parking lot, screeching the tires. I didn’t have the courage to tell Audrey about Derrick this afternoon, but I’m not going to let him get away with his lies. I’m going to that club, and I’m going to confront him face to face.
Just as soon as I back off of this curb.
The bouncer at the door doesn’t look very friendly when I walk in. I stand on my tiptoes, searching for Derrick.
“ID, miss,” the burly gentleman states.
“Oh, I’m not staying,” I explain. “I’m just looking for someone.”
“If you’re inside the door, I need your ID,” he says, speaking a little louder. I fumble through my purse for my driver’s license and hand it to him. He waves me through, and I step forward into the pulsating, driving dance beat. There aren’t very many people on the dance floor, but if I were to guess, I don’t think Derrick is one for dancing the night away. He is probably here meeting someone, or at least trying to meet someone.
“Hi,” a male voice behind me states. I ignore him and keep walking. I am not here to meet someone—simply to bust someone. I scan every table within my eyesight looking for Derrick, and finally see him sitting toward the back with his arm around a blonde. I know that is definitely not Audrey, because I was with her earlier, and her hair is still brown. Busted, buddy!
I march to the back, ignoring people staring at me. Halfway to Derrick’s table, I stop and pull out my cellphone. It never hurts to have a little proof, does it? Snapping a quick picture, I drop my phone into my purse and tap Derrick on the shoulder. He looks up at me but doesn’t bother removing his arm from the new girl.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, reaching for the beer bottle in front of him. I put my hand on the bottle and shove it just out of his reach.
“I suppose I could ask you the same thing,” I say. “Who’s the girl?”
“Who is that, Derrick?” the blonde questions, looking at me with wide eyes.
“Who am I?” I repeat with a laugh. “Who am I? Derrick is my brother, and his poor wife is sitting at home eight months pregnant. She asked me to go to the store to get her some milk, and guess whose car I see in the parking lot of this club!”
“You’re married?” the blonde questions accusingly, pushing away from Derrick.
“Ash, let me explain…”
“You’re a pig!” she exclaims as she walks away.
Derrick slowly picks up the bottle, laughing up at me. “What are you doing here?” He continues to grin at me over his drink.
“I just wanted to see what this out-of-town business you are on really amounted to,” I reply, folding my arms across my chest.
“Maybe you just wanted me for yourself.”
“I never have found a soft spot for lying, backstabbing, money-grubbing worms.”
“Well, you certainly seem obsessed with me, for someone who doesn’t care.” He puts his drink on the table and leans back in his chair, coolly allowing his eyes to regard my entire form in a way that makes me feel like I need a shower.
“I do care,” I inform him, “about Audrey. Here’s the deal: either you tell her, or I will.”
“You do what you need to do, sweetheart. Audrey won’t believe you.”
“We’ll see about that,” I say, spinning on my heel and heading for the door. What a horrible, impossible person! As soon as I get home, I’m sending him an e-mail with this picture from my phone. When he knows I have proof, he’ll be forced to tell Audrey.
“Leaving so soon?” someone calls from one of the tables. I keep walking, completely focused on the door.
“Hey, Maddie!” I hear a voice behind me. Turning, I see Derrick coming after me.
Lousy scumbag – he’s probably going to beg me not to tell Audrey. He’ll plead with me to understand his plight, falling on his knees and asking for forgiveness.
“You dropped your wallet,” he tells me, handing it over. “Have a nice evening.”
Humph!
My cellphone begins to ring the instant I hit the door, and I fish it out of my purse and bring it quickly to my ear.
“Hello,” I practically yell, placing one hand over my free ear to try to block out the noise as I step further from the building.
“Mad? Where are you?”
“Seedy bar chasing Derrick,” I quickly tell Josh, glancing to make sure I won’t be run down by any vehicles before I cross the street.
“Derrick, huh? Should have known your dating hiatus wouldn’t last long.”
“No, the hiatus is still in full swing. Derrick is Audrey’s cheating fiancé. Not with me, in case you were wondering. Some poor blonde looking for love in all the wrong places.” Stopping midstride in the parking lot, I ponder my poor word choice. “Again, not me. Just to clarify.”
“You didn’t need to clarify,” Josh assures me with a teasing tone. “I knew that statement didn’t apply to you. You’re not blonde.”
Ouch.
“Very funny, Mr. Mason. Why are you calling me on a Friday evening? Are you keeping tabs on me?”
“No, I just wanted to ask you a favor. I ordered gifts for Mom and Dad, and I was hoping you would keep them at the house and deliver them on Christmas.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Hey, baby!” a male voice calls across the parking lot.
“I have a Taser, and I will maim you!”
“Wow, you’ve gone all the way from dating hiatus to hostile territory.”
Opening the door to the Tahoe, I slide into the driver’s seat and then lock myself inside. “I don’t really have a Taser. Maybe I should get one, though. Although I don’t normally employ the habit of going to seedy bars.”
“Remind me why you’re chasing a man around a bar?”
“You know Audrey, Cooper’s daughter, the one I’m planning the wedding for?”
“Of course, Maddie the wedding planner.”
Yep, still sounds ridiculous.
“Well, her fiancé is only marrying her to try to get his hands on her dad’s money. Add to that the fact that I caught him here tonight with another woman. Don’t I owe it to her as a friend to tell her the truth?”
“As a friend? That truth is going to sting.”
“More than waking up five years from now reeling from a divorce to a man who never cared about her and has taken half of everything she owns? What if the
y have kids?”
“You have to do the right thing,” he surmises, clearing his throat. “Now, on to a more important question. Did you put up a Christmas tree?”
Smiling, I glance at myself in the rear view mirror. “I might have decorated a small tree in front of the picture window.”
“How small?”
“Small, like eight and a half.”
“Inches?” He sounds skeptical, with good reason.
“Feet. There may or may not be peacock feathers sticking out of the branches, and I also might have doused it with glitter.”
“Leave it to you to celebrate the birth of Jesus with peacock feathers and glitter. Man, I wish I could see it. I’d give just about anything to be home this year.”
“I’m sure it would be a disappointment,” I add, sensing his melancholy mood.
“Being with you wouldn’t be a disappointment.” He paused and I felt my breath catch in my chest. “All of you, I mean. Mom and Dad. Do you remember a couple years ago when Jess and Levi were home, and Mom refused to put the star on the tree until everyone was there?”
“Of course I do. She included me in her ‘everyone,’ and you were all waiting for me when I showed up. Mom had just given me one of her famous ‘why aren’t you Brittany’ speeches, and when I saw all of you saving your special moment, I turned into a basket case.”
“We wanted you to put the star on the tree, Mad. Things just don’t feel the same when you’re not there.”
“Because you need someone there to provide some comic relief?” I joke, shrugging off the sense of longing that’s rising inside me.
“No, because you belong there. You’re part of the Mason family just as though God designed it that way.”
“So you could have two annoying sisters,” I offer, gripping the steering wheel tightly, unable to force myself to start the engine.
“No. So I could have one annoying sister and one sweet Mad.”
“Hey honey, where you going?” a gruff voice calls from the front of the Tahoe. “Party’s inside.”
Starting the engine, I rev it loudly and watch him jerk out of the way. Rolling my window down about an inch, I yell, “You better move! I have no idea how to drive this big old vehicle.” The man scuttles out of the area as I inch forward.
Simply Mad (Girls of Wonder Lane Book 1) Page 26
