Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (142 page)

Nicole could barely get a word in
edgewise.

“I love the color scheme on this one,”
Marcie practically shouted, holding up her sample book and pointing to a pink
nightmare of an invitation design.
 

“Oh,” Nicole’s mother gasped, putting a
hand over her heart.
 
“That’s like a
pink dahlia motif, yes?”

Marcie nodded.
 
“Yes, and it’s so elegant, yet also
contemporary.”

Nicole half-nodded.
 
“It’s pretty, but I think maybe
something a little more understated…”

The two older women exchanged looks.

Her mother took a sip of tea and Marcie
resettled her body on the couch, turning her wide smile to Nicole.
 
“Now, honey, picking out invitations is
so much fun and we are having a blast.
 
But we’re starting to run into a major roadblock here with this guest
list.”

Nicole bit her lower lip.
 
She felt like a chastised fifth
grader.
 
“I know.
 
I’ve been trying to get Red to sit down
with me to figure out who he wants to invite.”

“Don’t try, honey.
 
Do.”

Nicole nodded.
 
“I will.”

“As it is, we’re already way
behind—we can’t even send out a save the date at this point,” her mother
whispered.
 
Nicole couldn’t help but
notice how her mother had started using the “we” pronoun an awful lot during
wedding conversation, as if she were now just as involved as Nicole and Marcie.

“I know, Mom.
 
Believe me, I’m well aware just how far
behind the eight ball I am.”

“We’re going to help you get through
this,” Marcie said, “so don’t you fret.
 
I’m very good at pulling husbands aside and giving them a good
old-fashioned knock upside the head.”

Nicole’s mother giggled and snorted.
 
“That’s because she has so much practice
doing it to her own husband.”

Marcie gave a bawdy guffaw.
 
“I swear, my Harold must have a
permanent dent in his head the size of The Grand Canyon.”

Nicole gave a weak smile.

Just then, Red and his new assistant,
Gia, came out of the conference room and walked by the living room.
 
Red still brought company employees by
the house, especially when they were newly hired.
 
He said he liked to make them feel welcome
and at ease, as if they were more friends then employees.
 
He usually spent most of the time at the
house in the conference room, putting them through their paces.

Red gave a smile and a wave.
 
“Hello, ladies.
 
How’s the wedding planning going?”

Nicole watched her mother’s eyes narrow
as she honed in on Gia, who was admittedly dressed like the office slut.
 
She was wearing a black, clingy skirt
(that was far too short in Nicole’s biased opinion), a white blouse showing
plenty of cleavage, and a little pendant that hung perfectly between her young,
full breasts.
 
Her dark hair was
pinned back and her lipstick was red and glossy.
 
Even her high heels were what Nicole
typically thought of as “stripper shoes.”

“The wedding planning’s going super,
Red,” Marcie said.
 
“However, we do
have a teensy weensy problem with the guest list—“

Red put up a finger.
 
“Sorry, I’ve got to take this call,” he
said, and then the cell phone was up to his ear and he was walking away from
them.

Marcie and Nicole’s mother exchanged
glances once again, and Nicole felt a rising sense of frustration with the two
of them.
 
She didn’t intend on being
ganged up on for the duration of this.
 

Gia approached the table where the book
of samples was laid out.
 
Her legs
were tan and smooth and—inviting—that was the word that came to
Nicole’s mind.
 
Gia’s skin looked
soft and freshly moisturized.
 
Her
breasts were full and young and perky.
 
She had a tight, athletic body.
 

Next to her, Nicole was feeling
positively frumpy.

“It’s so exciting,” Gia said, her
perfectly plucked eyebrows arching.
 

“Yeah, a lot of stress too, when you’re
doing it all last minute,” Nicole laughed.

Gia crossed her arms and nodded as if she
knew all about it.
 
“Yeah, well it’s
hard when you’ve had a nontraditional courtship.”

“Nontraditional?” Nicole asked, her
throat tightening.
 
She kept the
smile frozen on her face.

“My sister hooked up with this guy over
the Internet and they did it the same way.”

Nicole couldn’t tell if Gia was just
young or if she was truly intending to insult Nicole to her face.

“Well, this ain’t no Internet wedding, I
can tell you that,” Marcie laughed, breaking the tension.
 
“We’re spending way too much money on it
for there to be any confusion.
 
This
is going to be one beautiful, stunning affair.”

“Oh, totally—I’m sure it’ll be
amazing,” Gia said.

I don’t need your reassurance, Nicole
wanted to tell her—so save the phony sympathy.
 
She decided there and then that she’d
been right about Gia, and that she shouldn’t have doubted her first instincts,
which had been to hire Rick instead.

Red came back into the room.
 
“Sorry everyone, but that was work.
 
We’re having a call with one of our big
potential clients and I need to get back to the office pronto.
 
Gia?” he said, beckoning her to follow
him.

Nicole got up and ran over to him, hating
that it felt like she was chasing after him.
 
Gia was practically in-step with her and
she had an urge to throw an elbow.
 

“Red,” Nicole said, “we need to talk
about the guest list.
 
We should
have had those invites in the mail like yesterday.”

Red sighed and checked his phone.
 
“Listen, I don’t have any time
today.
 
But let’s do it first thing
tomorrow morning.”

“I really need to do it sooner.”

“Tomorrow morning isn’t soon enough?
 
Have them do a rush order, spare no
expense.”

“Promise you’ll do it tomorrow morning,
no excuses?” she pleaded.

He took her by the shoulders.
 
“I swear to God.
 
Now, I have to go.
 
Love you.”
 
He gave her a quick kiss and then he and
Gia were off.
 
Nicole watched them
go, and Gia’s round, firm ass swayed back and forth as she hurried after him
like a pet terrier.

When Nicole returned to the living room,
the mood was somber.

Her mother said nothing, just raised her
eyebrows elaborately.
 

“What?” Nicole said, annoyed.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Well she seems like a nice girl,” Marcie
cooed.

“That’s one way of putting it,” her
mother muttered.

Nicole couldn’t even focus.
 
She hated that her jealousy had reared
its ugly head again so quickly.
 
She’d told herself that she wasn’t going to let things like this bother
her.
 
After all, Red had shown no
interest in hiring Gia—he’d made it perfectly clear that he was fine with
hiring Rick, and Nicole had been the one to push the girl back into the mix.

And now she was resenting Red for it,
which made no sense.

“I hired her,” Nicole said.
 
“She’s a nice young girl with an
impeccable resume.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s
impeccable about her,” Nicole’s mother quipped.

Marcie stifled a laugh.
 
“I’m sorry,” she said.
 
“I can’t help it.
 
The girl has some serious assets.
 
I’ll give her that.”

And now the two older women were cracking
up, laughing so hard they were practically in tears.

Nicole sat on her couch in a state of
shock at what her life had become.

***

The rest of the day, Nicole’s tension
only grew.
 

Her mother and Marcie were long gone, and
she was glad of that.
 
Truth be told,
they’d accomplished a lot in their time together.
 
She’d picked a venue for both the
ceremony and the reception (The Branford Mansion near the University of
Connecticut), chosen what kind of flowers and tablecloths she wanted, and
finally decided on a design for the invitations.

But by the time the wedding planner had
left, Nicole was starting to second-guess her decision to hire Marcie.
 
The woman was obnoxious, boisterous and
overbearing.
 
And she seemed to be a
package deal with Nicole’s mother, which was perhaps the worst part of it all.

Nicole went and took a very long, hot
bath and tried to soak away her tension.

She kept her cellphone on the edge of the
bathtub and watched it with an eagle eye, hoping that Red might find just a
moment or two of free time to call or text her and tell her he loved and missed
her.

Nicole had begun thinking wistfully back
to their time together in the cabin, when none of their worldly problems had
interfered with their love.
 
Now it
seemed like the whole world was conspiring against them, keeping them further
and further apart as their respective responsibilities increased.

Red was so busy with this new company and
it was almost all he thought about or did, day and night.
 
Of course she knew that was what it took
to start a new business, but she at least hoped that he could spare a brief
second to say he loved her.
 

And now this wedding was growing into
something bigger than she’d really intended, but Nicole didn’t know how to stop
it.
 
She needed Red to really help
her understand what people he truly wanted to have attend the wedding, and who
he didn’t want or care either way about.

Stay calm, Nicole reminded herself, as
she sat in the tub soaking until the skin on her hands and feet began to
resemble prunes.
 

Stay
calm.
 
Tomorrow morning it will all
get better.
 
We’ll settle this
ridiculous guest list once and for all and I can start to relax.

That night, Red came home so late from
work that Nicole was already sleeping in the master bedroom.
 
She’d fallen asleep with the TV on,
watching bad reality shows about bitchy rich housewives.
 
It had been the wrong choice of viewing
material for the kind of mood she was in.

Red woke her up as he was settling into
bed for the night.

“Hey,” she said, groggy from sleep.
 
“What time is it?”

“Late,” he replied.
 
“Go back to sleep, babe.”
 
He slid under the covers and rubbed her
back.

“I miss you.
 
What were you doing so late?”

“Working on this pitch for Erikson
Bikes.
 
They could be a huge first
client if we get it right.”

“Was Gia there?”

“She works at the company, honey.
 
You’re not thinking
straight—you’re half asleep.”

Nicole lifted her head and gave him an
angry look.
 
“I’m not half
asleep.
 
I know Gia works with
you.
 
But was she there until you
left tonight?”

He sighed.
 
“Yes.”

“Who else stayed?”

“I don’t know.
 
Pretty much everyone.”

For some reason, Nicole was becoming
convinced that it wasn’t just everyone staying late and working together,
sharing little jokes and fleeting, flirtatious touches.
 
It was just Red and Gia, and now he was
lying because he knew she’d be angry with him if she knew.

“You could have at least called me, Red.”

“I’m sorry.
 
I just got so caught up at work,
babe.”
 
He moved close to her and
kissed her neck.

The warmth of his body and his affection
soothed her a little bit.
 
“You can
still call me and just say you love me,” she whispered.

“I will, from now on.
 
You know how much I need you and love
you, though.
 
Right?”