Bridesmaid Lotto (25 page)

“I am so glad we get to sit for this,” I whispered to Jennifer.

“No kidding,” she whispered back. “My feet are still killing me though. Why is it that when you wear dress shoes, they don’t stop hurting even after you sit down?”

I smiled and shrugged one shoulder a bit. Behind Jennifer, Rebecca was continuing to glare at me. I smiled sweetly at her. She narrowed her eyes even more.

I turned my attention back to the drone of the speeches.

When they were finally done, the dance began.

“And now ladies and gentlemen, the couple’s first dance as man and wife.”

“Does this all sound very old-fashioned to you?” Jennifer asked as we clapped along with the rest of the guests.

“Totally. I can’t believe that the guy called them Mr. and Mrs. Alan Hall,” I said.

“Yeah. I think I actually saw Emma’s mother’s eye twitch.”

“And now we’ll have the wedding party join the happy couple,” the DJ announced.

“Ugh. Gross,” I said as Eric VanHorn neared. “Trade ya.”

“Not on your life my dear, not on your life.”

Jake gave me a little smile as he passed by Eric and I on his way to Jennifer. Eric gave Jake the thumbs up.

Oh gross, I thought. Ew, ew, ew, please don’t let him touch my bare skin, please don’t let him touch my bare skin.

He touched my bare skin. Oh gross, oh gross, oh gross. I am going to die.

“Hey!” I said. “Watch the hands. And stop staring at my breasts!”

As Jennifer and Jake danced past us, I could hear them both laughing at my comment. I shot them a nasty look. Rebecca, on the other side of the dance floor, looked quite satisfied at my misery. I couldn’t help but keep wondering why she was so pissed at me.

“Whoa! There’s a feely Freddie out on the dance floor,” the DJ yelled into the mic, just after I had slapped Eric’s hand away one more time.

My face instantly turned red, and brought the previous splotches back. Eric gave the DJ his usual thumbs up along with his ridiculous, arrogant grin.

I hung my head, trying to hide my redness and shame.

Oh Disaster Diary, you will certainly get a workout tonight.

The never-ending dance finally did the miraculous and ended. I rushed off the dance floor as quickly as possible and headed straight for the shadows. I could tell that the redness in my face had not yet disappeared.

“That guy is such a spaz,” Jennifer said.

“That was so embarrassing,” I said as if I were nine years old again.

“Don’t let it bother you so much, Josie. Everyone knows what a creepazoid he is. You should have seen some of the faces in the crowd. They were so feeling sorry for you.”

“How can he not know how disgusting he is?” I wondered.

“Nobody really knows when they’re disgusting,” Jennifer said. “Otherwise they would do something about it.”

“Just tell me if he’s getting close to me,” I said. “I don’t think I could handle a sneak attack.”

“I promise,” she said. “Oooh, look. There are some of Jake’s actor friends. I wonder if it would be bad to sort of just saunter over and flirt a little.”

“No! Please don’t leave me alone,” I said.

“Are you sure?” she said pointing in the direction of Jake who was walking towards us.

“Oh shit! Is my face starting to calm down yet?”

“You look good. Don’t worry so much.” She gave me a little wave as she walked away towards the table full of movie stars.

“Hi,” I said as Jake approached.

“Hey,” he said, handing me a glass of champagne. “So Eric hey?” He elbowed me as if he were bugging a buddy.

“Oh shut up.” I shuddered a little.

“Oh come on, is he really that bad?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s the slimiest slime ball I’ve ever seen.”

“I know, I was just bugging you. I can’t believe I’m sorta related to that guy now. He always wants to hang out with me at clubs and stuff.”

“Oh God, really? I thought I had it bad. I suppose he thinks you’re like his wing man or something?”

Jake nearly spit out the mouthful of champagne that he’d just taken. Somehow he managed not to.

Oh sure, I thought. If it’s Jake Hall, it doesn’t actually spew everywhere. But if it were me on the other hand…

“Sorry,” he said wiping his mouth a bit.

“Don’t worry, I’m the clumsiest person on the face of the earth.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he said.

“Good. I hope you never see that side of me.”

“Aw, come on, I want to see every side of you,” he said in a very flirty way.

Oh my, is Jake Hall making sexual innuendo references to me? Well I never. Never dreamed of it, that is. I smiled and playfully dropped my gaze.

He set down his glass and took my hand, leading me out to the dance floor without saying a word.

He looked into my eyes as we danced. Then he pulled me tight, too close to keep looking at each other. Close enough that our heads were side by side. I leaned into him and closed my eyes. I wanted to savor every last second of being this close to Jake. I breathed in deeply, enjoying his designer cologne. I hoped he couldn’t feel my heart racing.

But the song ended too soon and the DJ decided to turn it up a notch with some faster music.

“I’m not really in the mood to dance to this,” Jake said.

I nodded and followed him off the dance floor. Not that I had a choice, he had taken my hand again. I was getting used to the feeling of his hand automatically finding mine when we were together.

A waiter walked by with a tray of champagne. Jake let go of my hand for a second to grab two glasses, but as soon as he handed one to me, his hand found mine again.

“So, are you glad all this is almost over?” he asked, waving his champagne in a sweeping circle.

“Yes,” I said. “And no. There are definitely some parts that I’ve enjoyed.”

“I am so sorry about everything that has happened to you through all this. The press really picked on you,” he said.

I shrugged. “Yeah, some bad stuff has happened. Some of the worst stuff that had ever happened to me actually,” I said. “But some of the best too. I mean, not every girl gets to play Cinderella for three months straight.”

“Cinderella hey?” he said. “Am I your Prince Charming?”

“Absolutely,” I said. I took a deep breath and decided that tonight was probably my last chance to be around Jake. If I was going to do anything other than pine away for him for the next twenty years, I’d better do something about it soon. “I really like you Jake, and not because you’re a movie star or anything. Actually, I kind of wish you weren’t a movie star. That way I might have a chance to be with someone like you.”

His face was serious. “Why would you think you wouldn’t have a chance with someone like me? You’re gorgeous, you’re intelligent, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you for three months.”

“What? Really?” I said, genuinely in shock.

“Really.” He leaned down and kissed me.

Jake Hall is kissing me and he doesn’t even care who sees! I screamed to myself. Oh shut up stupid voice in my head. Jake Hall is kissing you, just try to enjoy it.

We spent the rest of the night dancing when there were slow songs, drinking a fair amount of champagne, and letting go of each other’s hands only when we had to use the restroom.

The dance came to an end, too soon, for me anyway. The DJ called last call and an announcement was made that the cars were ready and waiting to drive the Bridesmaids home.

“I don’t want this night to end,” I said.

“It doesn’t have to, I could give you a ride home,” Jake said. “Do you want to go somewhere else?”

“Sure.” I was up for almost anything if it meant not leaving Jake’s side anytime soon.

“Okay. What should we do? Club?”

I shook my head. I guess I wasn’t really up for anything. The last thing I wanted was some loud bar where we wouldn’t even be able to talk.

“Yeah, you’re right, too loud. Hmm.”

“How about we just go for a walk or something,” I suggested, forgetting about the pain in my feet.

“I’d love to, but I don’t think we’d be able to sneak past the paparazzi.”

“Oh yeah, that must be so weird for you to have to deal with all the time.”

“Yeah, it takes a while. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

Did he just say I’d get used to it? Does that mean I’d have to get used to it because I’ll be dating him? Holy crap!

“Maybe we should just find someplace quiet to hang out. I could really use some down time after all of this,” he continued on as if he hadn’t just dropped a huge hint.

“My place isn’t too far,” I said.

Oh God, he’s going to totally think I’m a slut. I just asked him to hang out at my place at one o’clock in the morning.

“Sure. But how do we get past the paparazzi?” he asked.

“Why don’t we just take the car that’s waiting for me? The windows are all blacked out. They’ll never know who’s inside. I’m sure most of the photographers will be looking for you and Emma and Alan. They probably won’t care about any of us Bridesmaids anymore, now that the wedding’s over, we all just go back to our regular lives.”

“Don’t be so sure, those guys can be relentless,” he said. “But yeah, maybe there won’t be too many that try to follow us. We could drive around for a while and try to lose them or something.”

I raised one eyebrow. “There’s champagne in the car,” I said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” he said and put his hand in the small of my back, guiding me out the door.

We quickly found Gary.

“Do you mind driving us around for a bit? To lose the paparazzi,” I asked.

“No problem Miss McMaster,” he said.

We got in the car and Jake popped open the champagne.

“This is the life,” I said taking the glass that Jake handed me.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “This is the kind of stuff that’s easy to get used to. The drivers, the expensive champagne, nice parties.”

“If it weren’t for all the photographers.”

“Yeah, I guess. For the most part they’re actually not that bad. It’s just when I start dating someone, or party too hard or something, that they’re all over me. I try to keep in mind that they’re just trying to do their job. To put food on the table.”

“But it’s so sleazy. Spying on people for money.”

“I know, but if one leaves, another one will just take their place.”

“I guess so. And it’s really the public that perpetuates it all.”

“Exactly. But, the public is also who ends up paying my salary in the end, so it’s hard to be that upset about it. I just try to remember what the fans might want to see, and what they don’t want to see. Within reason.”

“Within reason?”

“Well, I’m still going to live my life, I mean none of this is worth it if I can’t live my life the way I want to,” he said. “You know, I’m not going to date some movie star just because that’s what the public wants. I’m going to date someone I have a connection with.”

Hmm. Interesting that he’s bringing up the movie star thing. “Like last week when they tried to say you were with Mitzi Golden.”

“Exactly, and I wasn’t even dancing with her, there was about ten of us all dancing in one big group.”

“Really? Did they use some sort of trick photograph or something, because that lady looked like she was all over you.”

“Yeah, well,” he said clearing his throat. “That’s Mitzi for you. She can be a little, um, forward.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry. There are people like that out here in the real world too. You know, guys like Eric VanHorn.”

“Not that’s he’s really a part of the real world, but yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”

I sipped my champagne and looked out the window. Gary was driving us around a huge park. I sat up and looked more closely out the window.

“I didn’t even know this park was here,” I said.

“That’s probably a good thing,” Jake said. “I’ve heard it’s not very safe, especially at night.”

“Hmm. That’s too bad, it looks beautiful.”

“Speaking of beautiful, I don’t think I told you yet how beautiful you look tonight,” he said. “You were the best looking Bridesmaid out there.”

“Well thanks. But come on, I mean Rebecca’s a model.”

“So? That doesn’t mean she’s beautiful.”

“I guess, but…”

“No but. You were.”

“Well, okay then,” I said and smiled.

We drove in silence for a moment.

“Did you get much of a chance to get to know Jennifer at all?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s cool,” he said. “I saw her talking with my friend Dave tonight. Maybe they’ll get together.”

“Dave Miller?”

“Yeah.”

Oh my God! I thought. That would be so awesome, me and Jennifer both dating movie stars.

“That would be cool,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “Is he a good guy?”