THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID (13 page)

“Delilah.” The
slow drawl slid over me like hot wax during a hair removal session. Seemingly
harmless at first yet unnerving, painful and irritating once it adhered to the
body. “Stacey was just telling me what a wonderful lunch she had today.” I
slowly turned around to face Will. I knew where this was going. I’m sure the
expression on my face outlined my discontent but Will was undeterred. “Turns
out Hugh enjoys eating out with all of his clients. Who knew?” A slow smirk
appeared on his face.

Will thought he
was sharing something hurtful that I didn’t already know. Which meant his words
were meant to impale not protectively inform.

I popped open the
little jeweled purse that I was carrying, which was quite tiny. It barely fit
my cell phone and lip-gloss. Yet it was large enough to conceal the wicked
bitch that I had neatly hidden inside. “Oh?” I asked incredulously as my
fingers fished inside my bag. “Was Stacey actually able to remember your name
when she spoke to you this time?” I whipped out my gloss and unscrewed the cap.
“You know, when she shared this pertinent information with you, did she
actually know who she was talking to?” I smeared a sheen of gloss over my lower
lip. “She’s only met you…like…what?” I held up my gloss as I pretended to
calculate the number in my head. “…ten times?”

His snide smirk
disappeared when his jaw clenched and the muscles protruded in protest of his
grinding teeth. I obviously touched a nerve. Stacey must have addressed him
with one of her generic greetings like ‘Hey, Buddy’ or ‘Yo, Dude,’ which was
what she resorted to in a pinch.

Ignoring my
rebuttal, Will continued on his path of revenge. “Have you seen Steven?” He
countered through clenched teeth.

“No,” I said with
a hint of surprise in my tone taking the time to tuck my gloss inside my purse.
“But as soon as Hugh returns from verbally tearing Stacey a brand new one,
in your stead
I might add…
we,
and when I say we I mean Hugh and
myself
,
will go find Steven
together.” I pressed my lips together and then popped my lips apart to even out
my gloss and accentuate my point at the same time.

I saw Will’s eye
twitch at my insinuation that whatever harsh words Hugh was releasing on Stacey
was meant for him. Then instead of continuing the banter, he inhaled loudly and
swallowed hard. Just as the two streams of hot steam escaped his nostrils,
Stacey appeared in the lobby, her heels echoing her dismay.

As she neared Will
and me I raised my eyebrows in question. “Everything okay, Stace?”

“Fuck you,
Delilah.” She stormed past me heading toward the banquet room.

Before she got too
far I yelled after her. “We need to begin the gala with a toast!”

“Toast this!” She
screamed giving me the finger.

I looked around at
the other people who were milling about in the lobby. Unfortunately, Steven was
nowhere in sight to witness her charming behavior.

I turned to see if I could find
Hugh and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to find Will still standing there.
Truthfully, I had forgotten all about him.

“Rent stabilized
apartments are hard to come by in Manhattan, aren’t they Delilah? Shame you had
to let yours go. I would have thought that you of all people would have had
the foresight to lock that in,” Will drawled as he turned and walked into the
banquet room.

My eyes squinted
trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Man, he was creepy.
How the hell did he know that my apartment was rent stabilized? Well, however
he found out, he obviously hadn’t done his due diligence because I had just
extended my lease for my apartment for another year. The rich kid whose father
bought it for him was traveling around Europe and having too much fun to come
back and start graduate school. There was no question that I had an amazing
apartment at an amazing price. I had no intention of giving it up until it was
absolutely necessary.

“Good God,
Delilah,” the husky voice vibrated behind me. “That is the sexiest dress I have
ever seen in my entire life.” His warm breath against my ear sent a thrilling
chill up my spine. It would seem that up until that moment Hugh hadn’t seen the
back of my dress. I felt his warm hand gently land on my bared lower back and I
couldn’t control the instantaneous feeling of warmth that flooded my lower
abdomen.

I turned my head
slightly in his direction and whispered over my shoulder. “I’m glad you like
it.”

He urged me
forward with a gentle press of his hand. “Let’s go get this over with so I can
figure out how to get you out of it,” he groaned.

The satisfaction I
was feeling commandeered my smile. Too bad Stacey wasn’t around to see it.

Chapter 9

My feet echoed on
the hollowed out steps of the raised platform as I made my way toward the
podium. I could actually feel the splotchy crimson creeping up my neck. I
panicked a little more knowing how unattractive that must look. I never liked
public speaking but it was an integral part of my job. That didn’t mean that it
got any easier. I took a deep breath as I crossed the floor and blew it out
slowly threw my lips. I braced for the deafness that would ensue shortly after
I reached the podium. I was expecting it. But hopefully it would dissipate
after I began my speech and got into my groove. At least I hoped it would
subside. It always had before.

It would seem
that, despite the infuriation that she was experiencing at the time, Stacey had
heard me about the toast after all. I knew this because she showed up next to
me with two glasses of champagne in her hands. Oddly I didn’t hear her steps
echoing as she approached. It was either the pending deafness starting early or
she was using a stealth approach. As I turned to look at her, I noticed her
white knuckles fiercely clenched around the crystal stems. Somehow the fragile
glass wasn’t splintering in her tight grasp. Unlike me, Stacey had no problem
whatsoever with public speaking so I knew the white knuckle hold was the result
of Hugh’s talking to.

“Just get
started,” Stacey ordered with a set jaw.

I was already
looking forward to this evening coming to an end so I didn’t make haste. I
stepped up to the microphone and tapped on the tip to see if it was working. It
made that disturbing high-pitched shriek that was quite effective in getting
everyone’s attention. I cleared my throat as I watched fingers scramble to plug
sensitive ears and then I began.

“Good evening,
Ladies and Gentleman. On behalf of all of us at Premiere, Stacey and I would
like to welcome all of you to the Waldorf Astoria.” I managed a confident smile
despite the flooding in my ears drowning out what I could see as hands coming
together for a round of applause.

I cleared my
throat again hoping that the whooshing in my head would ebb. I scanned the
audience looking for a familiar face hoping it would help my confidence thereby
speeding up the process. When my eyes landed on Hugh I found what I needed. He
stared back at me with the most endearing expression looking handsome as ever.
I instantly knew everything, come what may, would be fine.

The gushing sound
subsided and my hearing returned. “Thank you,” I said in response to the
clapping. “We are here tonight to announce a momentous event. Tonight we
celebrate the union of two very successful companies into one Pharmaceutical
conglomerate that will rival some of the largest in the industry.” Another
round of applause erupted, this one I could see and hear. I nodded my approval
and paused while I waited for the noise to quiet.

“I would like to
make a toast!” I smiled at the crowd sprawled out in front of me and then
looked toward Stacey. I could see that she was desperately struggling to
contain her disdain. My smiling eyes morphed into a squinty glint that only she
could see as I reached to take a flute from her hand. It looked like she was
making a concerted effort to pry her fingers apart and release the glass. She
stared into my eyes communicating her hatred as I took my champagne from her
and turned back toward the audience. Ignoring the daggers hitting me in the
side of the head from her piercing eyes, I raised my flute in front of me. “To
Norstride and Jubilee. May your merger be seamless and your success imminent. Cheers!”
I tipped my glass toward my mouth barely letting the bubbles tickle my lips
before I lowered my glass and let Stacey introduce the Presidents of each of
the companies.

Charles Dorn of
the Norstride Corporation placed his warm palm on the side of my arm and then
Stacey’s illustrating his appreciation. He stepped up to the podium bending to
meet the microphone that he hadn’t bothered to adjust. “Thank you,” he said
using his deep commanding voice. “Aren’t they wonderful?” He raised his arm
showcasing me and Stacey as we stepped to the side. “I don’t know where we
would be without them,” he continued as he began to clap. A smattering of
people from the audience joined in.

I gave Charles a
cursory thank you and smiled in the direction of the audience. Out of the
corner of my eye I saw Stacey thank Charles but then noticed a strange smirk
appear on her face. Then Charles continued his adoration but this time with
news that brought the whooshing deafness back with a vengeance. “That is why we
were so happy to receive Delilah’s request outlining her desire to join our in
house team in Virginia,” he ended on a high note.

The entire
audience erupted with clapping, whistling and I would have sworn by the looks
on some faces sharp disturbing inhales of shock. Since my hearing had taken a
hike again I wasn’t positive that I had heard him correctly but when I turned
my head in confusion, I caught Stacey sporting the most ominous grin I had ever
seen on her vindictive face. Charles reached out to put his arm around my
shoulder corralling me back to the microphone. “Say something,” he encouraged,
only this time his voice sounded like it was spoken inside of a soup can.

“I, uh,” I
stammered. The sounds around me were starting to become more definitive. I
swallowed hard and tried to keep my composure because what I wanted to do was
shove my high-heeled shoes up Stacey’s non-existent ass in front of the 200
people attending the gala. “I, um, don’t know what to say,” I breathed as my
ability to hear returned.

“Well, we are just
thrilled, Delilah,” Charles reiterated.

“Thank you,
Charles,” was all I could seem to come up with at that moment. I wasn’t sure
what just went down. Or how it happened for that matter. All I knew for certain
was that somehow Stacey had set me up.

As Charles turned
the microphone over to George Waltaub, the CEO of Jubilee, I turned my
attention toward the relentless bitch that was standing beside me. “You set me
up,” I seethed so only she could hear.

“That’s
riiiiiight,” she sang faking the best impersonation of a southern drawl I’d
ever heard. “How do you like them lamb chops?” she asked with a devious grin.

The air in my
lungs all but froze. “What did you just say?” I asked incapable of digesting
her chosen words.

“That’s right,
Delilah. You heard me. Lamb,” she clucked her tongue and then proceeded,
“chops. Hugh told me all about it. You. Darcy Strong. Ryan. Your little mishap
at the wedding. And, oh boy, did we share a laugh about that one. Hugh was all
too eager to outline what an ass you made out of yourself,” she chuckled with
the memory but killed the laugh and the sinister glint in her eye as quickly as
she had produced them. “How humiliating. The only thing better than hearing it
from Hugh’s lips betraying you would have been watching the entire debacle
unfold in person. But, whatever. Just knowing you got yours will have to do.
Oh! I almost forgot,” she raised her pointer finger in the air. “Have fun in
Virgin-I-A,” she used that finger to dot her ‘I’ and scribble her ‘A’ before
she pivoted slowly on one foot and languidly swayed her way off the stage
demonstrating her satisfaction.

My mouth was
actually stuck in a lax position shocked by all she shared. “Oh my God,” I
breathed unable to comprehend how my entire world just disintegrated.

As the devastation she created
began to sink in I felt a large warm hand gently grip my shoulder.

“Delilah.” Hugh
turned me pulling me in for a tight embrace. My mind was so compromised I
couldn’t even process what was happening. “You asked to be transferred? I just
can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see the day that you would return to
Virginia.” He held me so tight I almost couldn’t breathe. Given what Stacey
just shared, I found the gesture confusing. If what Stacey said was true, Hugh
should be demonstrating signs of…satisfaction. He won. He got back at me after
all these years. He threw me under the bus, tossed me to the wolves, fed me to
the tigers. Yet his tone and his behavior reflected an entirely different
emotion. He seemed disappointed, concerned, distressed.

There were a
million other thoughts that should have been coursing through my mind at that
very moment. But there was one question that I desperately needed the answer to
before I could even begin to sort out what had just taken place.

“How could you?” I
murmured inexplicably into the shoulder of his suit jacket. “I just can’t
believe after all this time? I was a child, Hugh. I never meant to hurt you. I
never told another soul about what happened that day. It was the most
humiliating thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life.”

“What?” Hugh asked
confused by my question. And he genuinely sounded confused. “What are you
talking about?”

“You told her. You
told Stacey about the wedding…the lamb chops.” Then, as the realization of his
actions dawned on him, I felt his entire body stiffen with regret. His posture
forced the question from my lips. “You did, didn’t you, Hugh?” I pressed,
needing to hear his confession.