Bridesmaid Lotto (9 page)

“You belong to a club?” I asked.

“Don’t change the subject!” she said. “What do you have to say for yourself, for God’s sake?”

“Well, if you would let me finish, I have been trying to tell you that they’ve twisted the whole story around.”

“Well did you say those things or not?”

“Yes, but they totally took it all out of context.”

“Josephine! How could you?”

“Mom, you don’t understand. I was trying to make Jennifer feel better. Rebecca was totally trashing her, and I didn’t know that anyone could hear me.”

The phone beeped.

“That makes no difference Josephine. You don’t just go around saying…”

“Mom, I have to go. I have another call,” I said and hit the call waiting. Anything had to be better then listening to my mother go on and on.

“Hello?”

“Oh Josie, I am so sorry,” Jennifer said. “This is horrible, just horrible.”

“Oh, hey Jennifer. Don’t worry; it’s not your fault. Those stupid reporters twisted everything around. I can’t believe that I’m supposedly the bad guy after that whole scene that Rebecca made.”

“I know,” Jennifer said. “I just feel like phoning that editor and telling him he has it all wrong.”

“I know, me too. But that’ll probably just make things worse,” I said. “Besides, this is just one paper. Some of the other reporters must have actually used the
real
story, right?”

“I guess,” she said. “At least I hope so.”

“Yeah, me too.”

I felt bad that Jennifer felt bad. It was no more her fault than it was mine.

Stupid Rebecca, I thought. It’s totally all her fault and she gets to play the victim card. Unbelievable.

~ 7 ~

As expected, work took forever. Everyone was giving me the glares and whispering behind my back. As if I couldn’t hear them. In the ladies, I had the pleasure of hearing an entire conversation about me. Something about ‘who does she think she is’ and ‘poor Rebecca Singleton. She really does deserve to be with Jake.’

Oh God, Jake. I realized for the first time, right there in the ladies room, that Jake was probably going to think the worst too. Not that I had my hopes up for actually dating him or anything. Except that secretly I did. Ever since we shared the laughing fit at the engagement party, I thought that maybe we had found a spark.

Stupid, I scolded myself. Must consult disaster diary.

After work it seemed like everyone everywhere had caught up on their entertainment news. I was getting nasty looks from complete strangers and I knew people were purposely talking loud enough about me so that I could hear. I chose to ignore them. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Go start a fight? That was pretty much the last thing I needed. I put on my biggest pair of sunglasses and continued home, hoping to remain undiscovered.

I fell into my apartment and curled up on the couch in the fetal position. A few minutes later, Calla walked through the door.

“Hey,” she said, throwing her keys down. “Ooh, I guess I won’t ask how your day was.”

I tucked my head in closer to my body and let out a little moan.

“That good hey?” she said. “Well if it’s any consolation, I found out today that everyone in the modeling world knows that Rebecca Singleton is a mega bitch.”

I peeked one eye out of my cocoon. “Really?”

Gossip was just one of the perks to having a friend who worked at a fashion magazine.

“Totally,” she said sitting across from me. “Apparently you were completely right. It’s all about stroking her gigantic ego.”

“Aw man. I don’t want to be right. I wish I had never said anything at all.”

“Chin up girl. The worst is over.”

I slowly sat up and nodded.

Calla clicked on the TV. Except, of course, ‘Entertainment News’ was just about to start.

“Today’s top story. Rebecca or Josephine? Victim or Instigator? Sources say that a full out Bridesmaid war has already begun in the now infamous Emma VanHorn Bridesmaid Lotto.”

I groaned again and curled back up into my ball, though my ears were certainly open.

There were several disgruntled looking models from a European fashion show that had apparently volunteered to comment on Rebecca Singleton, and what a rank bitch she was. I pulled myself up to a seated position, and leaned a little closer to the TV.

“See,” Calla said.

I nodded.

The story continued. They interviewed the barista at the coffee house down the street from work.

“Josephine McMaster has been nothing but extremely nice to me always. Even when you can tell she’s having a bad day. And she’s a really good tipper.”

I let a smile creep onto my face.

Calla gasped. “Oh my God, it’s Mattie!” she squealed.

“Josephine McMaster is my best friend, and she is fabulous,” he said on camera, standing with his hand on his hip as if daring anyone to contradict him.

“Oh, Mattie,” I said to the TV. “You’re awesome.”

The report ended with Jake Hall at some club in downtown New York.

“Jake! Jake!” the reporter yelled, finally getting his attention. “Could you please comment on reports that say you and Rebecca Singleton are dating?”

I gasped. “What?”

Jake looked genuinely confused. “I don’t know who your sources are, but at the moment, I am not dating anyone.”

“And, what do you make of this Bridesmaid war?” she asked.

I had been hoping he wouldn’t even find out about the whole mess.

Wrong.

Jake let out a little chuckle and simply said, “I’m sure it’s all been blown out of proportion.” He waved at the camera and graciously walked away.

“Oh man, he is so hot. You are a lucky, lucky girl,” Calla said. I detected a hint of sincere disappointment in her voice.

I rolled my eyes at her. “Yeah, right. Because I’m going to have Jake Hall fall madly in love with me.”

“It could happen,” she said.

“Mmm. Hmmm. I’m sure it will.”

“Oh don’t be such a pessimist. How many other girls are out there with the opportunity you have?” She was starting to sound a little upset. “Exactly three. That’s a one in four chance of Jake falling for you.”

“Um. Since when does love work that way?” I asked.

“Haven’t you ever seen any of those bachelor shows on TV?” she asked, getting more and more impatient.

“Yeah.”

“Well, don’t they always fall in love with at least one of their co starts?”

“Yeah, but that could all be an act. It’s not like any of them ever stay together or anything.”

“You don’t know that!” she said.

The phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hello. I’m looking for Josephine please.”

“Speaking.”

“Oh, hi Josie. It’s Emma VanHorn.”

“Oh, hi Emma. How are you?” I said, caught off guard.

Calla’s eyes grew wide. This whole Bridesmaid Lotto thing had her totally star struck. I think she was borderline obsessed.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Emma said sweetly. “The reason for my call is to let you know that I loved your idea for the Bachelorette party.”

“Oh really? That’s good. I’m glad I could help out. I think it will be really fun.”

“I’ve been really impressed with the way you’ve handled yourself through all this,” Emma said. “I realize that that the press is kind of all over you guys.”

“Oh, it’s fine. Makes life interesting,” I said.

“Well, you’ve done very well,” Emma said.

“Thanks.”

“Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. Your prize.”

“Oh, don’t worry about a prize Emma,” I said. “Just being involved with your wedding is quite an honor.”

Calla nodded vigorously, apparently approving of my blatant sucking up.

“Well, you might change your mind when you hear what the prize is,” Emma continues.

“Oh?” I said, pretending not to be overly curious.

“Well, I just found out this morning that he’s agreed to do it.”

He?

“Jake has agreed to go on a date with the winner.”

My jaw dropped. No. I couldn’t go on a date with Jake Hall. Me and Jake Hall alone together? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

“Oh, that’s sweet of him,” I finally said, calm as could be, even though I was internally freaking out.

“And Josie, the best part is that he absolutely insisted that I tell him who had won before he agreed to anything. I don’t think he would have been willing had it been, well, let’s just say he’s not too impressed with one of the girls so far.”

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

“So are you interested?” she asked.

“Um. Yes. Of course,” I said. “Sounds like fun.”

But suddenly my stomach was doing flip flops and I knew I would be scared to death for every moment of every day leading up to the date.

“Wonderful,” Emma said, sounding genuinely excited. “Jake will be happy. I’ll give him your email address so he can send you the details of the date.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll talk to you soon, Josie,” she said and hung up.

Calla was searching my face for clues about what might have just happened. I was unable to communicate other than hanging my mouth open and nearly hyperventilating.

“What!” she yelled.

I shook my head. Did that really just happen?

“Josie! What?”

“Um. I’m going on a date with Jake Hall,” I said.

Calla squealed. “Oh my God, I knew it! He is going to fall for you!”

“Calla!” I grabbed her by the shoulders. “How in the hell am I supposed to go on a date with Jake Hall?”

“Josie, don’t freak out,” Calla said, even though she didn’t look at all calm either. “It’s going to be fine. Try to remember, it’s just a date.”

I turned away and sat down slowly on the couch. My mind was racing. “Holy crap. I’m going on a date with Jake Hall.”

If I can just stay calm, maybe I can get through it, I thought logically. But I knew that logic would probably abandon me as soon as I caught on glimpse of him.

“I’m going on a date with Jake Hall.”

Calla was nodding.

“Oh my God,” I said, my voice getting louder. “I am going on a date with Jake Hal1!” I jumped up, screaming by this time and grabbed Calla’s hands.

We both started jumping up and down, squealing like five year olds.

A few minutes later, we began to calm down a little, though we were both still talking a mile a minute.

The apartment buzzer sounded.

“Hello?”

“It’s Mattie.”

“Hey,” I said and buzzed him in.

A few seconds later he flung open the door. “Did you see me? I was on ‘Entertainment News.’ Oh my gosh. That whole report was awesome! It totally dissed Rebecca Singleton and made you look fantastic! And me too, of course.”

“Thank you so much Mattie. You are such a good friend.”

Mattie could see that I was flushed.

“What’s going on? You’re all red.”

“I guess you could say I’m a little excited,” I said.

“Really, why?”

“Because I’m going on a date with Jake Hall,” I screamed. Calla and I started jumping up and down and squealing again.

“What? When?”

“I don’t know when,” I said. “But Emma VanHorn just phoned and told me that a date with Jake Hall was my prize for winning the Bachelorette party contest.”

“Oh my God, you won! And you’re going on a date with Jake Hall?” He started jumping up and down in sync with us. “We have so much work to do.”

I stopped jumping. “What do you mean work?” I asked.

The other two stopped jumping too.

“Well, you’ll need an outfit. Do you know what you’re doing on your date yet?”

“No.”

“Okay, then we’ll need to start with some options. And I thought we’d be able to wait until it got closer to the wedding, but we’ll have to bump up the spa treatments. Oh, and definitely a bikini wax.”

“What? I won’t need a bikini wax for the first date!”

“Honey, this is Jake Hall. He’s going to have some expectations,” Mattie said. “I mean, I’d do him on the first date for sure.”

“Well of course
you
would,” I said. “But I will not be having any kind of sex with Jake Hall on the first date.”

Did those words really just come out of my mouth?

“You’re going on a first date with Jake Hall,” Calla said. “Maybe you’d better spring for the works at the spa, you know, just so you’ll feel more confident.”

Confidence was sometimes something I was lacking. Especially on dates. Especially on dates with famous movie stars.