Bridesmaid Lotto (15 page)

“Not really,” I said.

“Oh shush,” she said and yanked the remote out of my hand.

I hated to admit it, but I might have been just the tiniest bit curious, not to mention hopeful that it might be some big scandal about Rebecca.

Just as I had shoved my mouth full, the screen filled with an overhead picture of Jake and I in the clearing at his cabin, kissing.

I nearly choked on my chow mein.

“Reports of a new romance were confirmed today when this footage of Jake Hall, seen with Lotto Bridesmaid, Josephine McMaster was released. It looks as though the two have become very cozy in a short time. This footage was taken above the private residence of Jake Hall.”

“Oh my God Josie,” Calla said. “Oh, look at you. You look so good together!”

“No, no, no, no, no!” I cried. “This can’t be happening!”

“What’s wrong?” Calla asked. “I’d just die to have something like that happen to me.”

“Oh God, Jake’s going to see this!”

“Uh, I think he already knows,” Calla said.

“I know that,” I said. “But now there’s all this speculation from the world. I mean, it was one tiny date. Who knows how he really feels about me. I don’t even know what I feel about him. Now we have to answer to the world what is going on in our relationship, and I don’t even know if there is a relationship yet.”

Calla was nodding but I could tell I wasn’t convincing her.

The woman on TV continued. “So far no comment has been issued by publicists for either party.”

“Publicist? I don’t have a publicist,” I said. I turned to Calla. “Do I need a publicist?”

I was still staring at her hoping for an answer, when the phone rang.

“Oh great,” I said, tempted to leave it.

But I picked it up. “Hello?”

“Josephine McMaster!” my mother wailed. “What are you doing to me?”

“What do you mean? I thought you were all happy that I went out with Jake.”

“Well yes, when I thought you just went out with him. Now the whole world knows that you kiss on the first date!”

“Mother, we are in the twenty-first century here. Everybody kisses on the first date.”

“Oh no they most certainly do not! I am not that old! I am not that far out of touch.”

“Whatever mother, it’s not like I slept with him or anything.”

“So you say, but the press is going to have a field day with all this. Who knows what kind of a jezebel they will make you out to be?”

“Okay, nobody uses the word jezebel anymore, mom.”

Calla burst out laughing.

“What am I going to tell the ladies this time?” my mother asked.

“I don’t know mother, maybe you should have thought about all this before you entered me in the lotto.”

“Or perhaps I should have raised my daughter properly,” she said.

“I’m hanging up now mom,” I said.

“Oh no you don’t Josephine…” was all I heard before the satisfying beep of me pressing the end button.

“Oooh, she’s not going to like that,” Calla said.

“No. No she won’t.”

I turned off the ringer. No doubt it wouldn’t be the last phone call I’d be receiving about ‘Entertainment News.’

My computer beeped, signaling a new email.

[email protected]

I clicked it faster than you could say ‘hot Hollywood hunk.’

Hi Josie,

I tried calling but didn’t get an answer. I just wanted to say I’m sorry about this whole mess. You are new to the paparazzi and I should have known better than to get you this involved. I can’t believe they even found us. I didn’t think anyone even knew where my cabin was. And I didn’t hear any helicopters, did you? I guess the zoom lenses are getting better and better all the time.

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me,

Jake

“He’s so sweet,” Calla said.

I wondered if I’d ever be able to read another email without someone looming over my shoulder.

“I can’t believe he’s apologizing to me. I should be the one apologizing to him.”

“Why?” Calla asked.

“Because it was just a prize. I shouldn’t have even kissed him. It wasn’t really a real date.”

“Oh please Josie, I read your last email from him. It was a date. You may not want to think of it that way, all the pressure and stuff, but it was a date. He wanted to go out with you. He took you to his home. He kissed you. And now he’s apologizing to you!”

“But, but… he’s Jake Hall. And I’m just Josie McMaster.”

“Yes you are Josie McMaster, my friend, Josie McMaster. Quit putting yourself down so much already, you’re insulting everyone who loves you.”

I bowed my head. “Sorry, I didn’t think of it that way. It’s just that this is all so glamorous. Not at all how I picture myself.”

“I know, I know, McMaster the Disaster. Well, get over it already. You are practically Jake Hall’s girlfriend.”

“Don’t say that!” I gasped. I hadn’t even let myself think it, and here she was saying it out loud.

“Why? It could happen,” she said.

“If I actually start to believe that something like that could happen to me, and then it doesn’t, I wouldn’t be able to function. Each day would be too mundane to imagine.”

“Or you could just let it happen. I mean, what is there to lose? Every girl dreams of having someone famous fall for them. It’s not very often that something like that comes along. Enjoy the ride.”

“I guess I’ll try,” I said, though I still had the feeling that somehow just thinking something could happen with Jake was totally jinxing it all.

# # #

Work was surreal the next day. That whole ‘stand around the corner and whisper while pointing’ thing started all over again after the footage of the Jake Hall kiss. It was as if I was some sort of chosen one and no one was worthy of talking to me or something.

I didn’t leave the safety of my cubicle all day.

“You have to eat something,” Mattie said carrying a bag from the sandwich shop downstairs.

“Thanks Mattie, I just couldn’t bring myself to face the world,” I said.

“Well you better get used to it honey, because when you’re dating Jake Hall, this is what your life will be like.”

“I’m sure it will settle down.”

“Oh yeah? Do you think it settled down for Tom and Katie, Angelina and Brad?”

“But that’s different, they’re both famous in those couples,” I pointed out.

“You don’t think this Bridesmaid Lotto has made you famous all on your own?”

“Not like they are. It’s just a silly contest.”

“But it’s almost like a reality TV show with all the press it’s getting. Do you know what ‘Entertainment News’ has paid just for exclusive rights to the actual ceremony?”

“I don’t want to know,” I said.

“Millions honey. Millions. And let me tell you, that has very little to do with Emma VanHorn and a lot to do with Jake Hall.”

I nodded. “I’m in way over my head.”

“You are not! You’re fabulous. You just have to learn how to deal with all the press stuff.”

“What if I don’t want to deal with it?”

“Well, then you get to go back to your old life. No more Jake Hall,” he said bluntly.

I sighed. I wasn’t quite ready to give up my Jake Hall dream just yet.

“I wish he wasn’t a freakin’ movie star,” I said.

The comment apparently surprised Mattie. “Then what would be the point of all this?” he asked.

“I didn’t want to be a part of all this in the first place,” I reminded him. “And now that I’ve gotten to know Jake a little bit, I just wish he was a normal guy.”

Mattie and I snuck out of work a few minutes early, to get to the fitting on time. I prayed that my boss wouldn’t notice. We arrived at the dress shop exactly to the minute of the appointment.

“Hello,” the tallest woman I had ever seen greeted us. “Let me take your coats,” she said.

Somehow knowing the drill, Mattie already had his off. The lady disappeared with them. Several minutes later a very stern looking lady came rushing toward us in a flurry of crimson satin.

“Here we are, now get into that change room and get dressed.”

I stood there, momentarily stunned by the starkness of this woman.

“Chop, chop!” she demanded.

“This is the dress?” I asked politely.

She stared at me as if I’d just uttered something completely incomprehensible.

Finally she barked, “yes.”

I went to the back of the store to find a change room with the help of Mattie who was pushing a little, out of fear for my safety, I think.

“To your right,” the stark lady bellowed from behind us.

The dress was a simple A line. Very elegant. I breathed a sigh of relief. I rushed into the change room to try it on.

I heard another change room open and someone come out.

“This is disgusting,” a vaguely familiar voice said. “This color looks like shit with my skin tone.”

“Oh, you look wonderful dear. And there won’t even be much altering,” another voice said.

“For God’s sake, open your eyes woman, this dress is hideous. It looks like she picked it out of some sort of Santa Claus workshop line.”

I was ready to come out and show Mattie my dress, but as I was opening the change room door, I realized, too late, why the voice was familiar.

Rebecca.

“Oh, uh, hi Rebecca,” I said.

She whipped her head around without changing the disgusted look from her face. When she saw me, she raised her chin just a little so she could look down on me.

“Josie,” she said with a curt nod. “Can you believe the hideousness of these?” She tugged on her dress like it was a cotton T-shirt.

“I actually thought they were nice,” I said quietly.

Mattie came over. “You look great,” he said to me.

“Who’s that?” Rebecca asked, still disgusted.

“Rebecca,” I said, “this is my good friend, Mattie.”

“Lovely to meet you Rebecca,” Mattie said, taking a step toward her and extending his hand.

“Humph,” she said, tilting her head even higher to look further down at us. She ignored his outstretched hand and turned back toward the mirror.

“Well, she’s friendly,” Mattie whispered.

I nodded.

“How are we doing?” the stern lady came rushing into view. “Oh yes, this is nice,” she said as she made slight adjustments to me. “Seamstress?” she yelled so loud I thought the people at the restaurant down the street might have heard.

A tiny lady with reading glasses appeared and ran with tiny steps toward me. The two ladies circled me again and again trying to decide the best way to go about the alterations. When they were done with me, they turned to Rebecca.

“I was here first, you know,” she said with her hand on her hip.

The stern lady’s only reaction was a couple of tsks. She sent the seamstress circling around. As they were making their laps around Rebecca, the lady turned to me.

“Are you going to change?” she asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry,” I said and rushed back into my change room.

As we walked out the store I turned to Mattie. “What was the tall chick? I hope I don’t have to see her again.”

Mattie shook his head at me. “Oh Josie,” he said, patting me on the head. “You are so naïve. That lady is the foremost wedding planner in the city. Believe me, you will definitely be seeing her again.”

My shoulders slunk a little and I sighed. “Great. Now I’ve pissed off the wedding planner.”

“Pissed off?” Mattie said. “You jumped at her every move, she probably loves you.”

“Ugh. I know. What is wrong with me?”

“Believe me, it’s a good thing that you did,” Mattie said. “I heard that one time, at some upscale Hampton’s wedding, this one Bridesmaid got the flu and Millicent Munroe forced her to go in the wedding anyway, and then pushed her when she puked all over the Bride’s train.”

“Oh my God. How does she still have a job?”

“Because she is the best. Very much a perfectionist, which I guess is what you want in a wedding planner.”

“I wonder if she was the one who picked out the dresses,” I said.

“I’m sure she had a hand in it,” Mattie said. “And if she did, ol’ Rebecca is not going to fare very well with that alteration.” He started to giggle a little.

“Serves her right,” I said.

~ 12 ~

A few days passed without any news about the wedding. Mattie kept invading my cubicle, waiting with less patience than me. Actually I wasn’t all that excited about any more wedding news. I was much more interested in what Jake was up to.