by Nancy Warren
Kate assumed Ted would be right behind her, running to catch her and explain. He knew she had no car. She contemplated hiding in the bushes until he gave up looking for her, but that was cowardly and besides she was too angry to stay still.
But no one followed her. She stood in the dark wondering what to do. She heard the ocean in the background, muted traffic noises. She had a long road ahead of her and no intention of waiting by the front gates after calling herself a cab. She wanted to leave now.
Oh, the hell with it. She’d walk out on the road for a bit and then call a cab.
She headed toward the main gate and almost collided with someone on the dark path. Both jumped and made similar startled sounds. Then she recognized Ashley, one of Ted’s cousins. “Ashley, you scared the hell out of me.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
According to Ted, Ashley Carvarvon’s mother had made a bad marriage against the advice of her parents and her eldest brother, Duncan. When the marriage ended badly, she moved back home with her only daughter and the two of them had lived in a small cottage on the property ever since. Even though they were close in age, Ashley was twenty-four to her twenty-eight, they didn’t socialize much. Ted said Ashley was twenty-four going on fourteen. She attended college part time, worked at a variety of menial jobs, and seemed content to party her life away.
But right now, she seemed like the answer to Kate’s dilemma. “Ash, could you drive me home?”
“Don’t have a license.”
Who got to be an adult and didn’t even have a driver’s license? So much for that. “Never mind,” she said and made to walk on.
Ashley stared at her. Kate could smell booze on her breath and figured she’d been out partying. “Why can’t Ted drive you home? If you want to go.”
“Ted and I had a fight,” she said. She wasn’t going to tell this nosy girl that they’d broken up. She didn’t want Ashley to be the first person to hear the news.
“That sucks. Want to crash with us? Our place isn’t very big, but there’s a couch.”
That was nice of her, but Kate couldn’t think of anything worse than staying here on Carnarvon property for one more minute. “Thanks, but I need to get out of here.”
“Okay. Then do what I do when I need to get out of here.”
“What’s that?”
“Steal a bike.”
So, she did something she’d never done in her life.
Kate stole a bike. In truth, she was borrowing it, but without permission so she felt badass.
Ashley led her to a shed where old ten speeds lived along with fishing gear and boats, some old surf boards and a golf cart. The shed wasn’t locked. Ashley yanked open the door and flipped on a light switch.
While Kate watched, Ted’s cousin poked around squeezing tires. “This one’s good. Should fit you, too.”
“But it’s dark out there.”
“Right.” Ashley rooted around and took the light from another bike and handed it to her.
“Is there a helmet? Some kind of reflective vest?” She might be angry and heartbroken, but she wasn’t suicidal.
Ashley looked at her like she was really lame, but dug around until she found a helmet that fit well enough. Kate joined in the search and unearthed a biking jacket with reflective stripes on the back. “Perfect,” even though it wasn’t. It smelled like mold and was way too big.
While Ashley turned out the light and closed the door, she wheeled the ten speed up the path and through the gate. As she was mounting, Ashley came up to her. “You want me to come with?”
“No. But thanks.”
“Kay. Good luck.” She helped Kate position her purse across her body and watched as she mounted and set off. Then she waved as Kate headed off for a long ride home. As she pedaled into the night a breeze lifted her skirt and she didn’t give a damn who drove by and saw her panties.
When she finally arrived at her apartment, almost two hours later, she felt strangely exhilarated. There was a message on her home phone. “Look, Kate, I really think you overreacted. Fortunately, the cut in my cheek isn’t serious, but what if that ring had hit my eye? I suggest you calm down and we’ll talk in the morning. Don’t worry, I still love you.”
“Don't do me any favors,” she muttered and deleted the message. Then she began to pace. The Carnarvon family had a sizable investment in this wedding, not only financial, but also social. More than two hundred influential people were invited. The upcoming wedding had been featured in the society pages of local papers, a couple of blogs, and of course her mother had sent the announcement to all the prestigious papers. Uninviting all those people was going to be a monstrous task. And an embarrassing one.
She continued to pace, anger dispelling her fatigue from the long bike ride.
What if she was even now in the post-coital embrace of Nick the virtue tester? Which she pictured as like a cake tester. Stick it in something sweet and see what dragged out. They’d be canceling the wedding then.
But she’d passed the Carnarvon Faithful Fiancée test. Nick had painted her as a lot more virtuous than she’d acted which she’d think about some other time, but he’d made them believe she was the perfect wife for Ted.
Sure, she’d thrown Ted’s engagement ring back in his face and declared she wasn’t marrying him, but she had an uneasy feeling no one believed she was serious. Based on their reactions, they seemed to think she was acting petulant, childish.
She was reasonably certain that a huge amount of pressure was going to land on her beginning tomorrow. The same act that had caused her to break off her engagement had cemented her in the Carnarvon world as the perfect wife for Ted.
Kate did not want to deal with pressure. In the past few months she’d discovered that she was a complete wimp. She’d accepted a dress design she didn’t like, because the amazing Evangeline had condescended to design the gown. She’d acquiesced to a honeymoon in a mansion complete with servants when she’d have preferred bungalow on a surfing beach somewhere.
She’d signed a cold-blooded prenup.
Her stomach had been trying to send her an urgent message for weeks now, but she’d ignored it. Instead, it was a sexy stranger who’d made her face up to her own unhappiness. A stranger paid to trick her.
She was so upset, she knew she couldn’t think straight.
What she needed to do was get some space. Have some time to think, with no pressure. If she decided to marry Ted after all she’d do it because she loved him and wanted to spend her life with him, which, based on her current feelings was not going to happen. Right now, she did not feel love, she felt contempt for a man who would test his future wife’s fidelity. Maybe when she cooled down she’d feel different, she had no way of knowing that while she was still so hot with anger and betrayal.
She began to pack.
And while she packed she thought about how a family that would hire a private investigator to prove her faithfulness would not be above using coercion to get her to toe the line, or above hiring a detective to track her down.
She thought through a rudimentary plan, then made a few phone calls. She didn’t have a lot of money to waste, so she called the travel agent Ted had used to book their tickets to Hawaii and left a message asking about plane tickets to London or Sidney, Australia, as though she were torn between the two, she bought one bus ticket to Las Vegas and booked herself on the Amtrak to New York. Then she called Lissa, one of the other women who worked for the girls’ group and also one of her best friends.
“Whaat?” a complaining, sleep-heavy voice answered on the fourth ring.
“Lissa, it’s Kate.”
“This better be important.”
“How would you like to swap cars with me for a few weeks?”
A sleepy yawn answered her. “You drunk or something?”
“No. I’m serious.”
“Swap your sweet little ride for my old heap?”
“Yep.”
“Honey, I’m down.”
“Great. I
’ll be right over.”
