THE JUNIOR BRIDESMAID (9 page)

I all but bashed
through my front door throwing all of my belongings on the chair that sat in
the corner by my entrance. I immediately started stripping my clothes off as I
made my way to the bathroom to start the water in the shower. I ran out of my
bathroom and into my bedroom to grab underwear and back into the bathroom to
see if the water had warmed up. After stripping the rest of my clothes, I
stepped under the spray and did a marathon wash to end all marathons. I had
never washed my hair with one hand and simultaneously shaved my legs with the
other. But, halleluiah, it was like God had suddenly blessed me with a
heightened ability to multitask. I turned off the water and reached for my
towel wrapping myself up like a sausage. I ran as quickly as I could with
restricted movement (my towel was tighter than I intended) to find something in
my closet to wear.

The scratching of
the metal hangers along the metal rod didn’t bother me nearly as much as it
normally would.

Screech
.
Red dress. Too sexy.

Screech
.
Blue sequined top. Better for a night out of clubbing not an intimate dinner
with the hottest man on Earth.

Screech
.
Little black dress. Last resort if I can’t find anything else.

“Urg!” I grunted.
“I must have something that doesn’t look like I am heading to a business
meeting or about to hang a red light outside my door.” Clearly my dating
wardrobe was in serious need of attention.

Screech
.
Brown gypsy skirt. Too casual.

Screech
.
Hunter green button down. “Looks like I’m ready for the Outback. Bummer matey.”
I sighed heavily unhappy with my options.

One after the
other, and I still couldn’t find exactly what I wanted to wear. I turned to
look at my nightstand where my alarm clock sat. 6:45. I was running out of time
and I needed to make a decision. I screeched the hangers back, back, back till
I got to the little black dress. I sized it up again. It was going to have to
do.

I pulled it off of
the hanger and laid it out on my bed. Stumbling over my heels that I had kicked
off when I quickly undressed, I ran back to my bathroom to finish getting
ready. I toweled off my hair and let it start to air dry while I put on some
facial cream and make-up. Once I was satisfied with my face I grabbed my
hairbrush and started to pull and tug and tug and pull while I scorched it
under the hair dryer. The smoke billowed until my hair was flat as a pancake.
Funny how it was okay to have flat hair but a flat chest was considered a
drawback.

I heard the buzzer
go off on my intercom alerting me to the fact that I had a visitor. My eyes
darted to my reflection in the mirror. “Shit,” I hissed knowing I was not quite
ready. I ran to my front door and pressed the call button trying to slow my
breathing. I took a deep breath before I spoke. “Yes?” I questioned as calmly
as I could while my heart was attempting to thunder out of my chest.

“Delilah? You have
a visitor.” Davis sounded rather formal but since Hugh was essentially a new
face, I figured he was doing it on purpose.

Therefore I tried
to respond in kind. “Thank you, Davis. You can send him up.” The voice that
came out of my body was like nothing I had ever heard before. I sounded like a
man in drag trying to impersonate a starlet from the 1930’s.

Even Davis was
confused. “Delilah?” Davis questioned. “Did I ring the wrong apartment?”

I cleared my
throat and tried again. “No, Davis. It’s me. You can send him up,” this time
sounding as cool and collected as I intended fearing Davis was careless enough
to have me on speaker and Hugh would be able to hear my hysteria. As soon as I
lifted my finger from the intercom button my panic resumed. My breathing
pattern became more harassed and I swore like my BFF, Julia, in a traffic jam
when I realized I still had clothes trailing down the hall.

“Son of a bitch!”
I picked up the clothes I had peeled off on my way to the shower and ran back
to my bathroom to throw them in the hamper. I ran my hand through my hair and
found that it was still damp in spots. But given the tumultuous day I’d
experienced, I was surprised I managed to pull myself together enough that I
wasn’t a total embarrassment. I ran to the bed and shimmied into my dress. Then
I heard the ding of the elevator (which sadly I could hear from my bedroom) and
I knew I was out of time. My eyes slowly closed while I said a silent prayer
that things would go my way.

This was it.

I heard the
rapping on my front door. I smoothed my hands over my hips rounding them over
my ass letting my fingers find the hem at the bottom of my dress. I had to make
sure it was flat and not tucked in my underwear. That would be a really poor
first impression after a twelve-year hiatus. I took a deep breath, slipped on
my heels and padded to the door. My heart was racing so fast if I were in the
Kentucky Derby I think I could pull out at least a show even up against the
finest thoroughbreds in the country. I lifted my chin toward the ceiling and
let out the breath I was holding simultaneously closing my eyes. Agreeing to a
dinner and mustering up the courage to get through the meal were two entirely
different things. “I can do this,” I breathed. I turned the handle willing a
positive and upbeat expression to replace the fear and trepidation that was
surely etched on my face. I swung open the door and the smile I had produced
fell away.

“Will!” I was
reaching for pleasant surprise but I think that he might have figured out that
his presence elicited shock with a healthy dose of disappointment.

“Hello, Delilah,”
he shuffled his feet as he drawled.

“When you said ‘I
know where you live’ I thought it was just a figure of speech,” I tried to
explain away my quickly deflating enthusiasm. “What are you doing here?”

He ignored my
question and instead offered me a compliment. “You look nice,” he gestured with
his hand.

“Thank you,” I
answered politely.

I raised my
eyebrows suggesting he should have a good excuse for showing up at my door
inexplicably and saw him swallow hard. I didn’t invite him in because I was
more than a little stunned to find him there and knew Hugh would be arriving
any minute. “Going somewhere special?” he asked instead.

I didn’t want to
share too much with Will. I didn’t know him very well and polite southern boy
or not, I didn’t want to encourage him in any way. “I have plans.” My right
hand went to the door handle to join my left and they started to work the metal
knob nervously. Then it occurred to me that he had come for his money. “Oh! I
should get you your money for the coffee you paid for this morning.” I turned
to go into my apartment and Will followed me in uninvited. I went straight to
my ice cream table (the only size that would fit in my little one bedroom) to
find some cash. “I’m sorry, Will, I should have remembered,” I added as I
searched for a couple of singles. It still didn’t explain why he showed up at
my apartment. It must have cost him more in subway fare just to collect his two
dollars for my coffee but at that point I just wanted to get rid of him.

I realized his
voice was right behind me as in very, very close behind me when he spoke and I
could feel the breath behind his words. “I’m not here for my two dollars,
Delilah,” he stated with his southern comfort.

My body froze
because I was far from comfortable with Will standing on top of me. I could
actually feel his emanating warmth through my dress. I’m pretty sure that he
heard me swallow because the lump in my throat was the size of a cannonball.
“Oh?” I didn’t turn around because there wasn’t any room for me to do so but my
hands had stilled from rooting around in my purse.

“Mnmn,” he hummed
but offered no more.

Needless to say my
discomfort was growing. Will showed up at my apartment unannounced. I’d never
given him my address, information he shouldn’t have had as I wasn’t listed in
the phone book and he still hadn’t revealed the reason for his visit. Then I
heard a light rap on the door.

Thank God.

My head spun in
that direction at the same time as Will’s. The door slowly swung open from the
knocking, as it had only marginally swung closed when Will followed me in. In
my doorway, leaning into the jamb appeared the most beautiful man I had ever
seen in my life. 6’ 2” and solid, Hugh was the epitome of tall, dark and
handsome. He crossed his arms over his chest as he sized up the situation
inside. I could see his lips and jaw press together at the sight of Will’s
proximity to me. Then he spoke and he didn’t sound all that happy. “Hey,
Junior. Am I interrupting something?”

“No!” I jumped at
the thought that Hugh was getting the entirely wrong impression. “Will is
a…um….just leaving. He stopped by for…uh...” Then I turned in the
claustrophobic space that Will reluctantly forfeited. “Why did you stop by
again?” I leaned back and asked as if he had told me and I had forgotten.

Then he finally
answered and I’d wished he hadn’t. “I heard that you had a rough day at work.
Had it out with someone in your office. Almost came to fisticuffs. I wanted to
stop by and see if you were okay,” with his confession I saw Hugh’s eyes dart
to me.

“You had it out
with someone and it almost came to…
fisticuffs
?”
he asked with surprise in his tone. The word fisticuffs sounded absurd crossing
Hugh’s beautiful lips.

My mouth bobbed up
and down a few times as I tried to think of something benign to say since I
couldn’t tell him that he was the reason that fisticuffs were involved and my
conflict was with Stacey.

But Will got his
version of the story out first. “Yeah. They were fighting over some guy.” Then
he got this shit eating grin on his face like it was him that Stacey and I were
fighting over. He shrugged and turned toward Hugh. “You know how it is,” his
southern inflection sounding almost cocky. “So I stopped by because I want
Delilah to know that there is no contest.” He took one finger and ran it down
my bare arm. I think my skin was visibly crawling.

“Will, I…” I had
to stop talking because I saw Hugh straighten and then he talked over me.

“I didn’t realize
that you’d already made plans for the evening, Delilah. I’ll leave you to it.”
As he turned to leave a feeling of complete despondency filled my heart and
soul.

I barely caught
the tail end of his sport jacket escape my view and I heard the elevator ding.
Why when I needed the elevator was it always being held up on every floor in
the building but when the man of my dreams was making a hasty retreat it was
waiting there for him to run?

“Hugh!” I blurted
hoping he would wait. But as I pushed passed Will to get to my door, Will
caught my arm in a firm grip. Not the right thing to do when little miss
Delilah was chasing down her man. I stopped because Will’s grasp was
unforgiving and turned on him. “Will. So help me God. Let go of my arm,” I
gritted through my teeth.

“Let him go,
Delilah. He doesn’t mean anything to you,” he said as if he believed that with
every fiber of his being.

So as much as I
hated to admit it, maybe Stacey was right. There was definitely something wrong
with Will.

Cuckoo!!

I gave my arm a
good tug but Will’s grip was unrelenting. “Will you’re hurting me,” I twisted
and struggled. “Let go.”

Luckily Will did
or I was going to have to use all of the self-defense moves on him that I had
learned in my kickboxing class. I stepped back trying to gain some distance and
backed into a very hard mass. And it was breathing. I watched Will’s eyes
travel up and over my shoulder.

Then I felt the
vibration of the chest behind me when Hugh questioned Will’s credentials. “Are
you a friend of Delilah’s or just a co-worker?” I heard and felt from behind.
My green eyes instantly softened with relief.

Will said ‘friend’
at the same time that I said ‘co-worker.’

Will’s offended
eyes shot back to me. “Huh,” his breath left his lungs. “And I thought you were
different.” With those creepy parting words, Will pushed past me, popped Hugh
shoulder-to-shoulder and headed for my door.

As I turned to
watch him leave Hugh snaked an arm around my waist pulling me closer. “He’s
weird,” Hugh murmured in my ear.

I couldn’t use my
‘he’s southern’ excuse because so was Hugh and he wasn’t weird. And the
argument that Will was just trying to be polite and check on me went out the
window when he freaked me out by outlining his disappointment in learning my
sameness to other females. So I didn’t answer Hugh and swallowed back the
paranoia that instantly took root. I never told Will where I lived, how I took
my coffee or that Stacey and I had had it out over a guy. He was a little too
informed for my private taste. So I nodded while I kept my eyes trained on my
front door.

Then I felt Hugh’s
hand give a little tug. “Hey. You okay?” he asked with a tenderness that made
his concern feel so genuine.

Afraid that my
voice would betray me, I nodded again. I turned to look up at Hugh’s face and
he instantly gave me a reassuring smile. Looking into his soulful eyes I
admittedly felt a lot better.

“You sure?” he
asked sweetly.

“Yes,” I breathed
still staring up at him while pressed snuggly into his side. I watched Hugh’s
eyes make the slow and torturous trek to my lips. My mouth twitched in response
probably out of my overly racked nerves.

“By the way,” Hugh
began, “I have a message for you,” he shifted me so we were standing toe to
toe. His eyes never left my lips as his arms slowly snaked around my waist and
came to rest on my lower back.

The weight of his
arms had my hips and torso pressing into him. “Oh?” I asked using my hands
against his biceps so I could lean back enough to see his beautiful face while
he delivered this message. Hopefully, whatever it was would distract me
permanently from the freaky stalker who just left my apartment.

“Yeah, but part of
it may come as a bit of a surprise,” he informed me cautiously with a gentle
voice. His head tilted slightly as he assessed my reaction to this potentially
shocking news.

“Um, okay,” I
shrugged which rubbed my chest against his. “Is it a good surprise or a bad
surprise?” I asked faintly. My hands, which had been resting on his biceps,
flexed slightly bracing for his response. “Cause if it is a bad surprise I’m
not so sure now is the best time to share it.”

His head lowered
slightly while his eyes bounced back and forth on mine. “I’m hoping you think
it is a good surprise,” he murmured gently.

My chest began to
heave from our tight embrace and the anticipation of this news that could
potentially be upsetting.

He seemed somewhat
hesitant to share this message, which had me questioning my ability to convert
carbon dioxide into oxygen. If he didn’t hurry up I might just pass out and
miss the whole thing. “Okay,” I repeated somewhat breathily in response.

God, his lips were
awfully close.

Then instead of
delivering this message, Hugh closed the tiny distance between us and touched
his soft lips to mine. It didn’t take long for the touch to turn into a slow
and tender kiss, his lips gently kneading and savoring mine. Then he shared his
message in between kissing and suckling my lips. “Ryan says thank you.”

I swallowed hard
not so much from the mention of Ryan’s gratitude but from Hugh’s chosen method
of delivery. I tried to control my breathing as a warm sensation began to
radiate from my belly. “Ryan? Your brother?” I was doing my best to stay
coherent. I really was. But it was ridiculously difficult. My head began to
swim from Hugh’s sweet breath mingling with mine.

“Mmhm,” he groaned
his eyes fixated on my mouth.

Before I could
process what Hugh had shared, he lowered his head again resuming our kiss. His
lips worked over mine so tenderly a whimper involuntarily escaped me.

Needless to say I
was officially distracted and definitely surprised in a very good way.

Then as he peeled
his lips off mine very slowly. I felt the tip of his tongue gently touch the
crease of my lips.

Good Lord.

I swallowed again
and my head fell back slightly as I licked the taste of him off of my lips.
“Um,” I hesitated trying to form a sensible question, “I don’t understand. Ryan
told you to kiss me and tell me thank you?” I questioned softly while my eyes
fought to stay open.

“No,” he slowly
shook his head. Our faces were still so close I could feel his lips forming his
words. “Ryan told me to thank you. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for twelve
years and couldn’t wait another fucking second,” he clarified then he pressed
his luscious lips to mine again just as a soft groan emanated from his throat.
“God, that is so much better than I have been imagining,” he breathed.

I don’t think he
was looking for a response but I found myself offering one anyway. “Mmm,” I
hummed. “You could say that again.”

He must have liked
my response because his mouth formed a slow satisfactory smile against mine.
“Dinner reservations,” he whispered.

“Okay,” I
whispered back trying to wake from the sweetest kiss I had ever experienced in
my entire life.

Hugh unclamped the
arm he had locked around my waist and took my hand in his to lead me to the
door. “Keys?” He asked clearing his throat in an effort to compose himself.

“Oh, no. Just one
second.” I let go of him reluctantly to make the short trek back to my
all-purpose ice cream table. I snatched my keys and handbag. Then I took a deep
breath exhaling slowly. I turned back toward Hugh registering the smile on his
face. I walked back to him coyly resuming my position with my hand pressed in
his. He didn’t make a big deal out of it he just shifted his fingers so mine
were laced with his. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

I have to say that
I had never in my entire life wanted an elevator ride to last forever and ever.
Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I worried if someone religiously monitored
the security cameras or if they were only utilized in case of an incident. But
that fleeting thought didn’t stop or slow me. Nor did it prod me to dissuade
Hugh’s hands from their northern expedition. My mouth and tongue were fairly
busy working against Hugh’s but I was pretty sure that my dress was up well
past my hips. Otherwise my leg that I reactively wrapped around his ass
probably would have met with a lot more resistance. I felt his hand snake
around my shoulder blade and his fingers press into the side of my right
breast. At least I hoped it was his fingers. If it was another extremity I was
in a lot more trouble than I had bargained for. But I didn’t really care about
that either. All I cared about in that moment was if Hugh liked that he could
palm my entire ass with one hand or if he was the kind of guy who preferred an
ass that required two hands. Beyond that insecure thought I was pretty vacant.
I realized this when the elevator dinged indicating our arrival to the lobby
and an older gentleman holding his yapping Chihuahua
exited
the elevator with us. How the hell I didn’t notice that he
got on somewhere between my floor and the lobby was a little disturbing. Hugh
started laughing when the older gentleman winked in his direction and shook his
free hand like he had just gotten burned. I just cleared my throat
uncomfortably and used my finger to daintily fix the smeared lip-gloss that
most likely surrounded my mouth. As we neared the front desk where Davis was
waiting to bid us a good evening, I did my best to pretend that nothing
whatsoever had happened on that elevator. But Davis probably surmised something
had transpired because I was having the darnedest time concealing the smirk I
was sporting as a result of learning something profoundly important about Hugh.
And that was that Hugh Rowen was the hottest kisser in the entire world and
Darcy Strong was a fucking idiot. No lie.

Chapter 7

“So why did you
run?” Hugh asked this question out of the blue while he pushed his medallions
of beef around his plate. Since we had been discussing how the merger was going
to affect both of our jobs and we were making small talk in the middle of a
fabulous dinner at one of the trendiest restaurants in town, my head snapped up
from my Chilean Sea Bass to stare at him intently. I wasn’t sure if I heard him
correctly. But since he wouldn’t look up from his dish I was guessing that I
had.

“Well,” I paused
because I wasn’t sure how to respond. If I went the honest route then I would
be laying all of my cards out on the white linen tablecloth. I wasn’t sure if
that was the best idea. If I lied I knew it would just haunt me later. So I
tried to think of a way to tell him why I left without drawing the bull’s eye
around my own heart and making myself an easy target. “An opportunity presented
itself and I took it,” I shrugged.

“There were
opportunities in Virginia,” he countered. He stabbed a morsel of filet and
pushed it in a half circle collecting the red wine reduction to assemble the
perfect bite. He spoke before bringing his fork to his lips. “I know for a fact
you were offered a job at a PR firm out of Richmond.”

“I suppose there
were.” I took the napkin from my lap to dab at the corners of my mouth.

He finished
chewing and forced himself to swallow. It seemed he had something important
that he wanted to share. “No supposing. There were,” he stated emphatically. “I
made sure of it.”

I watched as Hugh
leaned back, tore his gaze from mine, maneuvered his tongue inside his mouth
possibly to loosen food and rested one hand way up on his thigh, almost on his
hip and exhaled heavily. His expression looked frustrated or disappointed or
maybe even confrontational. Then it occurred to me that maybe the tongue action
was more out of irritation than dental discomfort. My eyebrows pinched in
question.

I wasn’t sure what
was running through his mind but I could tell his entire demeanor was changing
right before my eyes. Mainly I could tell that he seemed to be getting…angry? I
just wasn’t sure if it was with himself for revealing something he hadn’t
wanted to share or if he was enlightening me about my career choices in an
austere way for another reason entirely.

“What do you mean
you made sure of it?” I queried a little confused. As soon as the question
crossed the threshold of my lips our waiter came over to ask how we were
enjoying our meal. So Hugh and I turned toward him in unison with our most
pleased expressions plastered on our faces and fawned verbally over the
delicious food simultaneously. Thank goodness the waiter didn’t stay long
because things were about to get heated. As soon as he left, Hugh immediately
started in.

He leaned forward
and his posture seemed to stiffen at the same time. “I made sure of it,” he
said sternly. “How else can I say that?” He looked directly into my eyes and at
that point there was no question that he was irritated. And I could tell
without looking that his knee started bouncing under the table since the ice in
my water glass started clanking from side to side.

My chin tucked
back as soon as his overall posture registered to me as contentious. Where the
hell was this coming from and why would Hugh be angry with me for taking a job
offer in New York? His inquiry, which was coming across more like an
interrogation prompted me to go on the defensive. I grew a set of hairy ones so
fast that Barnum and Bailey would have hired me on the spot as the highlight
for their freak show.

“Oh, I don’t know.
Maybe you can say it in a way that explains what exactly you mean?” I grumbled
with a hint of sarcasm simultaneously cutting into my fish aggressively with a
knife. Who cuts Sea Bass with a knife? It’s a flaky fish that falls apart if
you look at it cross-eyed.

Obviously Hugh
thought my question was of a rhetorical nature anyway because he leaned back,
grabbed the napkin from his lap, and took his turn to aggressively dab at the
corners of his mouth. Then he sighed heavily instead of explaining further. So
I determined that it was a good opportunity to throw some more fuel on the
fire. I dropped my utensils with a loud clank and apparently the boxing gloves
I didn’t know I was wearing came flying off as well.

“Anyway, what
would make me think that it would have mattered to you if I’d returned to
Virginia?” I asked way too confrontationally raising my eyebrows to accentuate
my point.

Then I proceeded
to machine gun my supportive evidence.

“You never called
to check on me after the wedding
or
to ask if I was being ostracized at school
or
if I was totally humiliated since I essentially
bowled
my tits down the aisle in the middle of a wedding ceremony!
Look ma! No hands!”

I was yelling
wasn’t I?

My face couldn’t
have flushed faster. I don’t know what the fuck I was doing. I totally
obliterated
his
wedding and I was
reading him the riot act on how he should have behaved after? Well it seemed
that as fast as I had grown a set of balls my tongue had also grown a mind of
it’s own. I had no control over what was coming out of my mouth, whatsoever.
When I finally looked at Hugh, really looked at him, I saw that he was stunned
speechless. I became even more flustered and it actually started to feel like
my head was a pressure cooker and it could blow at any given moment. Since
shoving my napkin in my own mouth wasn’t an option, I brought it to my lips
hoping it would deter me from blurting out any other latent anger that I wasn’t
aware I was harboring.