Forever Bonded (BWWM Pregnancy Romance) (4 page)

Chapter six

Zoë was
running nearly 30 minutes behind schedule by the time she arrived at
Galatoire’s, so she was surprised to find that Aniyah hadn't arrived yet
either. She did, however, notice Audrey inspecting a menu at a booth in the
back of the room. She looked runway ready as per usual, and the large
sunglasses she was wearing seemed to swallow her small face whole.

Suddenly,
Zoë felt severely underdressed in her parka and skinny jeans. With a deep sigh,
she made her way over to the booth and took a seat. “Audrey,” she greeted with
a slight nod, tapping into all the cheerfulness she could muster up.

 
“Zoë,” Audrey replied in a brusque tone.

Zoë
picked up a menu of her own once she was situated and pretended to be occupied
by the selection. Every few minutes, she’d look up and eye the door for Aniyah,
but she was greeted with disappointment every time.

“So,
Nate tells me you're walking in Fashion Week?” Zoë questioned, attempting to
make conversation.

Audrey
shrugged in lieu of responding. Her expression made it clear that she wasn’t in
the mood for small talk.

Desperate
to distract herself from the awkwardness, Zoë waved down a waitress and ordered
a mimosa. It took awhile to come, but as soon as it was placed on the table,
she swallowed it back and ordered another.

“About
Nate,” Audrey spoke up out of nowhere, flipping her menu shut and sliding off
her sunglasses to reveal a fire behind her eyes that Zoë wasn’t accustomed to
from her. “I want you to stay away from him.”

“What?”
Zoë shook her head in disbelief. “No way. Nate’s one of my oldest friends.”

“I
don't care,” Audrey fired back. “He might be your friend, but he’s
my
boyfriend, and quite frankly, your
ever looming presence in his life is becoming more than a little exhausting.”

Zoë
stared Audrey down incredulously. When she finally spoke, her words were blunt
and straight to the point. “Look, why don't you just tell me what this is about
so we can work it out like rational adults?”

“Oh
like you don't already know,” Audrey replied in a snide tone. “I saw that
little burlesque show you put on last night. You must really think I'm dense,
huh?”

Zoë
came pretty close to giving Audrey a resounding “yes”, but she bit her tongue
and refrained from stooping to her level.

“Look,
I get that you and Nate were once as thick as thieves or whatever, but that’s
the past. I’m his future, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to standby and watch
some subpar blast from the past steal him away from me.”

Every nerve
in Zoë’s body aligned for a fight as her anger built traction inside of her.
She clenched her fists and went to stand up, but Aniyah’s voice was quick to
shake her from her trance.

Some
timing she had.

“Sorry
I’m late,” Aniyah said as she took a seat beside the two women. “Caleb and I
were taste testing wedding cakes and I completely lost track of time. It’s
funny how chocolate can do that to you.”

Audrey
pursed her lips and plastered on a smile before breaking Zoë’s gaze and meeting
eyes with Aniyah. “Not a problem,” she said in her usual cheerful tone. “Zoë
and I were just getting to know each other a little better, weren’t we Zoë?”

Screw this.

“I have
to go,” Zoë stated without looking at either woman, grabbing for her purse. She
couldn't believe she was letting this lowdown snake shake her up like this, but
it was either she leave now or lay hands on her. There wasn’t a third option.

“Wait,
what?” Aniyah questioned. “But I was hoping you could help me narrow down a few
bridesmaids dresses. I brought catalogs and everything.”

Zoë
sighed and studied her friend’s expression for a second before reluctantly
sitting back down. As pissed off as she was at Audrey, there wasn’t any sense
in making Aniyah pay for it.

One
thing was for sure though.

She was
done playing nice.

Chapter seven

“Anyways,
I was thinking a mauve color might be nice. Maybe something with a low neck,
like these Vera Wang’s,” Aniyah remarked, pointing to one of the many catalogs
spread out across the table. “Or what about these? They’re a little less
expensive, but we’d have to have them tailored for a few of the girls. The cut
ain’t exactly forgiving.”

Aniyah
fell silent as she considered each option. “I don’t know,” she said after
awhile, looking up at Zoë and Audrey. “What do y’all think?”

“Well,
personally, I’m a big fan of the Vera’s,” Audrey gushed. “I actually just
walked for her. She’s such a sweetheart, and her stuff is
so
high quality. It’s definitely worth the difference in cost.
Besides, it’s you’re wedding day. That’s like…the one excuse every woman gets
to be as over the top as possible. When I get married, I’m going all out.”

Zoë
held back the urge to roll her eyes. “I actually like the other one,” she said,
speaking honestly. “It’s more practical. I mean…no offense, but not everyone
can afford a four-figure dress for a one-time event.”

Audrey
appeared amused by that, but she didn’t say anything.

“What?”
Zoë asked her, not bothering to sound friendly. “Do you have something you’d
like to add?”

“Oh,
no,” Audrey said, waving a hand in the air. “I just don't really think you’re
getting the point, that’s all. Getting married is a big deal. Aniyah has every
right to want the best of the best…something you
clearly
know nothing about.”

Zoë was
in the middle of preparing an equally snide response when Aniyah cut her off.

“You
know what?” she said, gathering up the catalogs and placing them back in her
purse. “I’m a bit worn out by all this wedding talk anyway. Let’s just drop it,
shall we?”

All
three women fell into an awkward silence as they picked at their food, which
had long since grown cold. Zoë had ordered lemon fish, which was usually her
favorite entrée from Galatoire’s, but she was far too annoyed to focus on her
appetite.

“So,
Audrey,” Aniyah finally spoke up, putting on her most pleasant voice in an
attempt at breaking the tension. “Have you been enjoying your time back home?”

“Yeah,
it’s been great. I was actually just talking to Nate about moving back here for
good. New York is nice and all, but I’m getting a little sick of the winters,
and the traffic, and well…just about everything else. Getting back in touch
with my roots would be nice.”

Zoë
tensed up and swallowed back a large gulp of her mimosa. She couldn’t lie.
Audrey moving back to New Orleans sounded like something straight out of one of
her worst nightmares.

“That's…great!”
Aniyah replied with forced enthusiasm, exchanging a knowing look with Zoë. It
was clear that neither woman relished in the idea of Audrey sticking around for
good.

 
“Yeah, and if everything goes as
planned, it might be happening sooner rather than later,” Audrey added. “I
wasn’t going to say anything until I knew for sure, but I’m pretty sure Nate’s
on the verge of proposing.”

Zoë
froze with her fork suspended in mid-bite, and Aniyah gasped before setting
down her wine to keep from spilling it.

They
were reactions that seemed to satisfy Audrey, because she wasted no time in continuing
to speak. “I mean, don’t get wrong, he hasn’t brought it up or anything, but we
we’re talking this morning and he basically told me I was the one. That usually
equates to marriage somewhere down the line, doesn’t it?”

Zoë sat
in a stunned silence as her disbelief settled over her. It was as if all her
smart remarks and go-to rebuttals had been siphoned right out of her. She was
incapable of forming a full word, let alone a coherent sentence.

When a
few seconds passed without anyone saying anything, Aniyah was quick to come to
the rescue. “That’s great, Audrey, really…it is. Still…if I were you, I
wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet. Nate’s always been the type to take things
slow. Back in high school we used to call him captain cautious.”

Audrey’s
smile dissipated as she considered Aniyah’s words. “True, but I mean, it's
bound to happen eventually,” she said, her initial confidence resurfacing in
full force.

Aniyah
gave her a slight nod and casted her gaze downward, pushing her food around on
her plate.

“I
actually have some news of my own to share,” Zoë spoke up, breaking her
silence. “I’m moving in with Evan. He asked me this morning, and I have a
feeling he might be proposing soon too.”

Aniyah
looked up as soon as the words left Zoë’s mouth, glancing back and fourth
between her and Audrey as her surprise wrote its way across her sharp features.

Zoë
wasn't sure why she’d said it. Not even an hour ago, she was pretty sure she
was going to end things with Evan, and now here she was alluding to the
prospect of them getting married. Why was she letting this dumb broad work her
up like this?

As
usual, Aniyah wasted no time in calling Zoë on her bluff. “Uh-huh,” she said,
giving her an amused look. “I’m sorry, but since when does ‘Zoë the commitment-phobe’
so much as
consider
the idea of
cohabitation and marriage?”

“Wow,”
Zoë replied. “And to think I halfway thought you’d be happy for me.”

“Oh
come on. You can’t blame me for being surprised. The last guy you gave this
much devotion to was Nate, and we all know how that worked out.”

Aniyah
ate her words when she realized the repercussions associated with what she’d
just said. The way Audrey was staring at her made it clear that she was none
too amused.

“Well I
think it’s great,” Audrey spoke up in a dry tone. “Everyone deserves their own
little version of a happy ending.”

Zoë
forced a smile, but inside she couldn’t stop kicking herself. Evan was a nice
enough guy, but there wasn’t a single solitary part of her that wanted to marry
him. So just what had possessed her to say otherwise?

Chapter eight

“I
still can’t believe you’re moving in with Evan,” Aniyah spoke up from her spot
on Zoë’s sofa, where she was leafing through a stack of wedding dress catalogs
to no avail.

She’d already
decided on the dress that the bridesmaids would wear, going the cheaper route
to cut back on costs, but her own dress was still very much up in the air.

“Alright,
what gives?” Zoë questioned with a deep sigh, setting aside the moving box
she’d been packing full of books. “You seemed pretty happy about me becoming
more serious with Evan when it was still just a figment of your imagination…but
now that it’s really happening, you’re skeptical?”

“I
know. It’s just…the other day you didn't even want to admit that you were
dating him. Now you’re talking about marriage. It seems like a bit of a leap to
me, that’s all.”

Zoë
shrugged. “Evan’s a great guy. I could certainly do worse than to marry someone
like him,” she rationalized.

“Yeah,
but do you love him?”

Zoë
stopped flipping through the yearbook in her lap long enough to look up at her
friend. It wasn’t until she looked back down that she realized she’d stopped on
a page with a picture of her and Nate snuggled up in an embrace. It was taken
sometime during their sophomore year of high school, and they’d been voted
cutest couple shortly after.

“I
don’t know,” Zoë admitted, dodging the question as best she could. “But it
doesn’t matter. He’s successful, and stable, and he’s definitely not bad on the
eyes. If all that isn’t worthy of an ‘I do’, I’m not sure what is.”

Aniyah,
however, refused to back off that easily. “Be honest,” she said, speaking
cautiously. “This doesn’t have anything to do with Nate and Audrey, does it?”

“Of
course not,” Zoë lied.

Aniyah
sighed. “You remember when we made that promise never to lie to each other?””