Bridesmaid Lotto (29 page)

“Yeah, I’m okay. Mattie made me get out of the house today, and it was okay.”

“What happened? How did all that stuff get into the paper?”

“Calla.”

“Your roommate?”

“Yeah.”

“But why? Why would she do something like that?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Mattie thinks she might have been jealous of me or something.”

“Unbelievable,” he said in almost a whisper.

“Yeah. And my mom’s freaking out over the whole thing.”

“Really? Why?”

“Oh she’s very much into appearances and stuff. She’s embarrassed I guess.”

“I cannot tell you how sorry I am. I just really feel awful, like all of this is my fault.”

“Are you in town?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to come over?”

“Yes,” he said, sounding relieved. “I thought you’d never ask. I’ll be right there.”

I hung up the phone and turned to Mattie. “K. He’s coming over.”

“Yay,” he said, doing a mini victory dance. “I am going to get out of your way then.”

“You don’t have to,” I said.

“It’s okay. I have to get ready for my big date anyway. I’m so nervous.”

“You know you’re fabulous Mattie, don’t worry so much.”

“Yeah, you should talk,” he said and gave me a hug on the way out.

Jake arrived a few minutes later. I barely even had time to touch up my makeup.

I buzzed him up and cracked the door so he could just walk in.

He knocked lightly and yelled ‘hello’ as he entered.

“I’m in the kitchen,” I yelled.

I’d decided that I could use some liquid courage. I was making some margaritas with the leftover margarita mix from the makeover night.

“Excellent, drinks,” he said. He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek and stood close behind me.

I finished pouring the mix into two glasses and handed one to Jake. He leaned down and kissed me for real. “I was so worried about you,” he said.

“I was pretty worried that you’d never want to speak to me again.”

“Why?”

“Because of all that humiliation in the paper,” I said, heading into the living room.

“That stuff was so cute,” he said, following. “Not very many people would admit to things like that. But we’re all human. Everybody does the same stuff. You were just brave enough to write it down.”

“Yeah, in a diary, which I thought was personal and no one would ever see.”

“But you know what? It actually ended up making you look good. You know, sympathetic or something. I don’t think it had the result that Calla had intended.”

“I don’t think she really cared what happened to me after the story came out. She was doing it mostly for the money.”

“Really? They paid her?”

“Yeah, and a lot I’m guessing.”

“Well, I guess that just goes to show you how popular you are,” he said and set his drink on the table.

I thought he was about to take the drink out of my hand, but the phone started to ring.

Damn it.

I gave Jake a ‘sorry’ look and grabbed the phone.

“Hey Jose,” the voice said.

“Jennifer, hi. How are you?”

“Almost as bad as you judging by the paper yesterday,” she said.

“Oh no, what happened?”

“Ugh. My stupid roommate told me she was moving out at the end of the month. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. I can’t afford this place by myself.”

“Really? That’s a strange coincidence,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Guess who gave the paper my diary?”

“Someone gave it to them?” she said. “I’ve been trying to figure out how they got it.”

“My roommate. They paid her for the story.”

“No!”

“Yeah.”

“So she’s gone?”

“Yup, moved her stuff out before the story broke. Left me hangin’ here with a year left on the lease.”

“What a bitch.”

“Mm hmm.”

“I guess I’m lucky, At least I don’t have a lease on this place.”

“So why don’t you come live here?”

“Really? Do you think you could handle me?”

“Well let’s see. Are you going to go public with any past or future diaries of mine?”

“Um, no.”

“Then I think I can handle you. Besides, I don’t know how much I’m going to be around for the next few months anyway. But don’t worry. I’ll still make sure the rent is paid on time.”

“Oh man Josie, you are such a life saver.”

“No, you are. Seriously. Call me tomorrow. We can get together and I’ll give you the keys and stuff.”

“Cool, and thanks.”

“Thank you. You’ve saved me a lot of worrying.”

We hung up and immediately Jake was grilling me. “What do you mean you aren’t going to be around?”

“Oh, right. I haven’t had a chance to tell you,” I said.

He was looking a little worried.

“I’m going overseas for a while for this new job I’ve been offered.”

“How long?”

“They’re thinking around three months,” I said.

He was nodding and looking through me, not at me. “I guess I could squeeze in a couple of trips to Europe,” he said.

“What? Really? You’d want to visit?”

“Of course I would, Josie. I really think we could have something together. I know you might think this is all going a little fast, but I wasn’t joking when I said I was ready to settle down. I’m really am serious about being with you.”

I sat there staring at him. I didn’t have a clue what to say, so I settled on “Wow.”

He smiled and crawled up next to me on the couch. We stayed there and talked for hours. It felt amazingly comfortable and natural. And as the night wore on, the romantic evening made its way into the bedroom.

# # #

The next day I went for coffee with Jennifer. She was already waiting for me when I arrived.

“Here, I got you a Pumpkin Latte,” she said, handing me the cup.

“Ooh, thanks,” I said. “Aren’t we sitting inside?”

“I thought we could take a walk through the park since it’s such a nice day.”

“Good idea,” I said, taking a sip. “Ooh. I’ve never had one of these before. They’re fantastic.”

She nodded. We started walking toward the park.

“So, how are things going with you and Jake?”

“Unbelievable. We spent the night together last night and he told me that he was really serious about our relationship.”

“Whoa, that is something,” she said. “Most guys would rather squirt lemon juice in their eye than to admit something like that.”

“I know. It’s weird right?”

“But awesome.”

“I could hardly believe it, even as I saw the words coming out of his mouth. I’m still a bit in shock, I think.”

“Come on Josie, you’re great. Why wouldn’t someone want to be with you for the long haul?”

I shrugged. “I know. And I don’t mean to put myself down or anything, but seriously, it’s Jake Hall. Cazillionaire movie star. Half the female population on the planet has a crush on him. And he’s going to be my boyfriend? It’s all just so surreal.”

Jennifer let out a giggle. “You know, I know exactly what you mean.” She’d said it with a hint of mischief. Like there was something she wanted to tell me.

“Wait a minute, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Oh nothing,” she said, breaking out into a huge smile that told me that whatever she was about to say was the opposite of nothing. “Except that I’ve gone out a couple times with Dave Miller since the wedding.”

My eyes grew wide. “Oh my God! And you’re just telling me this now?”

“I know, I’m sorry. It’s just that you’ve had all this stuff going on in your life. I wasn’t sure what was going on with you and Jake, and I didn’t want to rub your nose in it.”

I stopped walking. “Don’t worry about me, I always bounce back,” I said. “I never want to be so down that my friends can’t tell me the amazing stuff that’s going on in their lives.”

“Good to know,” she said and smiled. “See how great you are? Jake Hall is lucky to have you.”

“And Dave Miller is lucky to have you.”

We tapped our coffee cups together in a mini toast to ourselves.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” I said digging into my pocket. “Here are your keys. Feel free to start moving in anytime.”

“Ah, awesome, thanks. It will be nice to finally have a roommate who isn’t a slob and has some ambition.”

“Speaking of ambition,” I said. “That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you. I’m going to be away for a few months.”

“Yeah, you mentioned something about not being around,” Jennifer said. “What’s up?”

“Well, you know how I got fired from my job.”

“Right.”

“Well I started looking into what my options were. I found this place that does job placements overseas.”

“Cool, you’re going to work overseas?”

I nodded. “England.”

“Very cool. I should look into something like that,” she said. “So what’s the job?”

“That’s the best part. I’m ghostwriting an autobiography for someone famous.”

“No way. Who?”

“I don’t actually know yet. I assume they’ll give me all that information in the package they’re sending me.”

“Oh man, I’d be dying to find out. But wait a minute, doesn’t that mean you’re going to be away from Jake.”

I sighed. “Yeah, it does. And I’m not looking forward to that. But he said he would fly over and visit me.”

“He really is serious about you,” she said and nudged me.

“You know what really sucks though?” Jen said.

“What?”

“That Dave is going away too. He’s filming overseas. I think he’s going to be in the UK too.”

“That does suck,” I said. “Hey, maybe you could come over and visit him, and then you can visit me too!”

“Oh sure, if I had enormous amounts of money to throw around,” she said.

“Hey, maybe you can catch a ride with Jake or something. I wonder if he’ll be flying commercially or on a private jet.”

“With the amount of money he has, I’m thinking private.”

“Yeah.”

“So, did you ever think you’d be dating a millionaire?” she asked.

“No, did you.”

“Uh, not in a million years.”

~ EPILOGUE ~

The package containing all the information and contracts for my overseas work arrived the next day. I ripped into it with the anticipation of a five-year-old on Christmas morning. Everything I could have ever wanted to know about my job was detailed in the information, except, of course, who the book was actually going to be about. But there was a sealed envelope that said EXTREMEMLY CONFIDENTIAL. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU LEAVE US SOIL.

The package went on to explain that due to my minor celebrity status here in the US, and the press that had been known to follow me around, it was too much of a security risk to tell me before I left.

# # #

Somehow Jennifer found the time to move into the apartment and plan a surprise Bon Voyage party for me the night before I left for Europe. She rented a small back room at a little restaurant near our apartment.

Everyone even yelled surprise when they dragged me in.

All my favorite people were there, including Mattie and Jennifer and Jake. There were, however, a couple of people who were very noticeably missing. Calla, of course, and my mother, whom I was told was invited, but declined. She still hadn’t talked to me since the newspaper article had come out, and only knew that I was leaving because Jennifer had phoned to invite her to the party.

The wine flowed and the food was to die for.

“Hey,” Jake said walking up to me. “I didn’t think I’d get a moment alone with you, with all these people around. You’re quite the popular gal.”

“Yes, don’t you know I’m famous now?” I leaned up and gave him a kiss.

“Are you sure you want to jet off to England without even a thought as to what your boyfriend thinks?” he said with a wink.

“Oh, my boyfriend, hey? Is that what you’re calling yourself now?” I asked. “Well, you’d better be careful about hooking up with me. In my life, the paparazzi can be brutal.”

“Ah yes, the paparazzi. That really must be a nuisance for you,” he teased.

“Hello lovebirds,” Jennifer said, coming up to us.

“Hey Jen. Thanks so much for doing all this. I can’t believe you had the time. You’re the only person I know who can move their entire apartment and plan a party in three days.”