When Girlfriends Chase Dreams (6 page)

Since Robin wants to give her boyfriend, Bobby, a break from babysitting Rose, seeing how she’s often been charging him with that duty while she’s out and about for all-things-wedding, it’s a stay-in kind of girls’ night. And it’s really ideal that we all stay in tonight, because I need to get serious about the various wedding décor I need to make.

I’ve found so many neat ideas on Pinterest (too many, I’m afraid), and I’ve barely begun a fraction of the projects. I think it would be nice to send all of the wedding guests home with little jars of homemade jam. Isn’t that a cute idea? I think so. And so does Martha Stewart. And since she’s my idol and does no wrong (except for that whole house arrest shenanigan), I still have at least one hundred jars of jam to make.

Granted, I now have Melissa as my go-to girl, but she’s not exactly hired to make all of the little gift bags or decorative items I want.
 

Tonight, though, I’m going to see if the girls wouldn’t mind helping me press out little bird confetti pieces. I found this really neat cutout doo-dad that creates that special touch of vintage bird design I’m looking to add to the wedding. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do with all of them, or where all of the pesky pieces of paper will look best, but once I have them then the inspiration can come.

I hear a car pull up in the drive, and Schnickerdoodle starts to bark.

“Calm down,” I tell him. He keeps barking incessantly.

I peek through the front room blinds and watch as Jackie nearly tumbles out of her new, shiny black Mercedes, grabbing a brown paper bag from the trunk. The headlights flicker as she locks the car.

“Hey, you!” I greet from a crack I’ve made through the front door. Schnickerdoodle is still barking.

“Hey!” Jackie screeches.

“Schnicker!” I scold. He briefly stops his cacophonous spasm of canine duty, then begins another chorus. I pick him up and push the front door open wide.

“Sorry,” I tell Jackie. The moment Schnickerdoodle realizes the so-called intruder is only Jackie, he likens to her and starts to wag his stubby tail.

“What’s in the bag?” I ask, curiously.

Jackie kicks off her high heels—her hilarious choice of footwear despite the snowy winter weather—and heads towards the kitchen by rote.

“Oh, the usual,” she calls out. “Some wine. Red and white.”

“Something sweet?” The girls know my affinity for sweet wines. I don’t do the vampire-blood merlots or cabs. I’m a Riesling or a rosé or even a wine spritzer kind of girl.

“And a blush,” Jackie says, peeking her head from around the corner and giving me a quick wink.

I reward Schnickerdoodle with a rawhide stick for being…I don’t know what…Sophie always says, “Just for being a dog.” Then I help Jackie uncork the wine and set out one plate for crackers and another for various cheeses that I’d carefully selected that morning down at Pike Place Market with Sophie.

The added bonus of my weird job hours is that I can sneak off to the world-famous outdoor market for some artisan cheese on a weekday morning. The bonus of Sophie’s part-time work at a catering outfit called Katie’s Kitchen isn’t just that it’s part-time, allowing her to meet me for coffee or a random lunch date, but that it’s a job in the food industry. That means Pike Place Market is her culinary backyard.

I’m in the middle of cutting out a small wedge of Camembert I’ve placed on the plate, just to taste, when I ask Jackie how things are going as a married woman. She hasn’t been Mrs. Andrew Kittredge for very long, and she hasn’t, oddly enough, really gushed about it. To be honest, she used to gush about her relationship with her mogul man more before she got the bling.

“Eh,” she says while she fans out a handful of crackers onto a plate. “Not really any different from being just boyfriend-girlfriend.”

I tell her to go on. There has to be more to say than just “nothing’s changed.”

“He’s still just as busy at work,” she says. “Still just as tied down to the office or having to jet off to who-knows-where for work. It’s fine. I don’t mind.” She pulls more crackers from the box. “I wish he were around a little bit more, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine having Conner gone as much as Andrew.”

Andrew is a busy and important businessman. A broker or banker or something like that. He’s rich from it. He’s been doing it for a long time. Did I mention he’s also really old? Okay. Jackie gets upset when I say things like this. He’s not
really
old, per se… He is like twice her age, but hey, love knows no age, right? I’m pretty sure that’s how the saying goes.

“He
is
trying to make more of an effort to be around more,” Jackie continues, reaching for another handful of crackers. “And when he’s not, he sends over some really neat things like this.” She’s holding out her wrist for me to see the new diamond tennis bracelet she’s sporting. I compliment it and she adds, “Or he returns home with some more gifts. It’s nice and all. I totally appreciate it.” She lays out another fan of crackers. “I would just appreciate it
more
if I had a husband home more than one or two days a week.”

“He’s gone
that
often?” I’m shocked. I know Andrew is a man with a lot of frequent flyer miles, even before he and Jackie became Mr. and Mrs., but
that
often?

“Sometimes,” Jackie says, pausing from her cracker duty to look at me. “We haven’t even been married a month, I know, and we did take that really nice cruise for our honeymoon.” She returns to the crackers. “But that wasn’t even a week-long honeymoon! He says since he took that time off, he’s had to put in extra time at work. And it’s the time of the year, too, he says.”

Jackie’s about to reach for more crackers, but I put my hand on top of hers. “I think that’s enough, hon,” I tell her. I give a soft grin and she makes one loud chortle.

“Ugh!” she groans. “Sorry, Claire.” She starts to toss half of the plate of crackers back into the box. “I shouldn’t complain, though. Andrew treats me extremely well, and I knew this going into the marriage. Andrew’s a busy guy with a lot of responsibilities.”

“And I’m sure,” I add for good measure, “that nifty new ride you’re driving doesn’t come by taking vacation?”

Jackie crunches down on one of the crackers and says, “True, true.”

***

“I think these are going to look really nice,” Robin says, as she presses down on the paper cut. The dining table gives another rattle, and I’m starting to worry that all this paper cutting is going to damage it, if not break it completely. Just what I need to add to the list to bring to Conner. First the car that’s slowly dying, now the dining table. Although, in the name of wedded bliss, I think breaking this old table over cutout paper birdies is okay. It’s old and ratty, anyhow, and these birds are so darling.

“I should do something like this for an art project for Rose’s room,” Robin says, making another cut and rattling the table some more. “Bobby and I have been talking about redecorating it.”

“She’s seriously already asleep?” I interject, amazed that Rose isn’t up at such an early hour of the night, giggling and crawling and being the adorable baby she is.

Robin says, “Yes, thank God! That girl's crawling
every
where. Soon she’ll be walking!” She makes another paper press. “Rose is growing up so fast. Hence, room decorating time. Time to actually get her nursery looking like a little girl’s room.”

“Are you thinking all pink again?” Lara asks.

Lara and Robin used to be roomies. A couple years ago, Robin was single and living solo when she accidentally got pregnant. So before Rose came along, she moved in with Lara; and Robin’s room, which doubled as Rose’s nursery, was painted floor to ceiling in pink. It was really pretty, but Lara finally got around to changing the bubblegum pink room after Robin and Rose moved out late last year.

“I don’t know about pink,” Robin says. She looks at Lara and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Not that I wasn’t in love with my room at your place, Lara.”
 

Lara waves away the thought.
 

“Bobby and I were just thinking of something that could also work for her as a toddler and as she gets a bit older,” Robin says. “Since Bobby owns the house and we don’t plan on moving in the foreseeable future…and since we don’t really feel up to constantly repainting and decorating a room…”

“I know you two are serious and all,” Jackie says. She drains her wine and makes a motion for someone to pass her the bottle. I hand her the nearly empty bottle of red. “But don’t you think this says something about Bobby?”

“What do you mean?” Robin asks.

“You know, like this is a big step. You guys are agreeing on paint swatches and decorating motifs.”

Robin casts about the dining room, then shrugs.

“I’d say moving in together was a big step,” Lara offers.

Robin guffaws and says, “Bobby asking me out when I was pregnant.
That
says something.”

“You found yourself a keeper, Robin,” I tell her. I sweep my pale blue, pink, and green bird cutouts into a small pile.

“We should all be so lucky,” Lara says with a small sigh.

“Still dry on love?” Sophie asks, then, in an effort to assuage her choice of words, adds, “But things with Nathan
have
to be going well.” She raises her eyebrows. “Aren’t they?”

Nathan’s the guy Sophie foisted on Lara. Foisted in a nice way, really. Lara was seeing this horribly awful guy for the longest time, and we all told her she needed to get out of that sordid relationship, like, yesterday. As for finding herself a new love interest, it was tough going, but Sophie saved the day.

There was this guy, Nathan, who stepped in for Sophie at Katie’s Kitchen when she went to Paris and then became part-time. He was a nice and attractive and available guy. Lara was reluctant at first, as she had been with every dreamboat and doofus we tried to introduce her to. Eventually she and Nathan met, hit it off, and the last I’ve heard they’ve already been out on two very successful dates.

“They’re going,” Lara says so nonchalantly.

I’m nosy and can’t help myself. “Going where? Up? Down? Good? Bad?”

“Claire,” Lara says. “They’re going. We’ve only been out three times. Nothing crazy to report.”

“Three!”

“Yes,
three.
” She tucks a loose strand of her short, brown hair behind an ear. “Three really good dates.”

Is that Lara blushing ever so slightly?

“Good for you!” Emily says. “I’m glad you’re getting action!”

Lara waves her hands about, trying to end the discussion, but Emily won’t let up. And I’m glad she doesn’t, because I want to know more details. Juicy details.

“What’s he like?” Emily says. “And if you don’t dish, then we’ll just ask Sophie.”

Lara is definitely blushing now. “He’s very sweet. Kind of shy, but only a little.”

I glance at Sophie to see her nodding.

“Very nice and interesting, though,” Lara says. “He wants to take his culinary skills further. Be a Sous-Chef at some point.”

“Surrounded by bakers and cooks!” Emily says, shaking her head. “Goodness! Well, I’m happy he’s a nice guy.”

“And hot?” Jackie blurts out.

Lara rolls her eyes and tells Jackie that yes, he’s attractive.

“When are we going to meet him?” Jackie prods. She’s already finished her freshly poured glass of wine.

“Chill now,” Lara says. “Eventually. Maybe.”

“When Lara’s ready and if things go farther,” Sophie helps Lara out. “Right?” She looks at Lara, who agrees.

“Good for you!” Emily encourages, then she presses down for another paper cut, sending the table upwards, making a loud thud as it hits the floor.
 

“Claire?” Lara asks.

“Yeah?”

“I love you, honey, but can I call it a night on the cutouts?” Her pile is nearly twice the size of mine. Typical Lara. Going at anything with “work” labeled on it with sheer gusto.

“Yeah,” Jackie whines. Her pile, however, is about a tenth the size of Lara’s. The girls are all doing me a huge favor, though, and girls’ night should be fun.

I concede, and we leave the paper birds for another time. We retire to the living room for a rom-com that Robin brought with her.

“So, girls,” Emily says in an announcing kind of way. She sets the last snack plate onto the coffee table as Robin pops in a DVD. Schnickerdoodle leaps onto the couch’s arm, then settles warmly onto my lap. “I’ve been meaning to share something with you lately.”

I gasp, Sophie gasps, and Lara gets straight to business. “What is it, Em?” Lara asks. “You’re not running off to another country so soon, are you?” That’s the question we’re all thinking.

“No,” Emily says, and the group heaves a collective sigh. She can’t go anywhere. Not yet.

Emily pulls her knees into her chest tightly and is wearing a mischievous grin. “Remember when I asked if it was all right if I went out with that old co-worker of Jackie’s that she was trying to hook Lara up with?” She’s looking right at Lara, who looks very confused. “The waiter from the jazz bar?” Still confused, but not as much now. “Matt?”

Lara nods her head vigorously and says, “Go on.”

“Well…” Emily flashes a big smile. “We’re kinda, sorta seeing each other.”

“Whoa!” Jackie exclaims. “Spill it. Spill it!”

“Remember I asked if it was okay if I tried to snag him if you didn’t mind, Lara?” Emily asks. “Since you didn’t want to go out with him…”

“Yeah, totally.” Lara flicks her wrist in an offhanded way.

 
“Well, I did.” Emily claps her hands together. “I went to the place for lunch one afternoon, and I asked Matt out.”

“So brave,” Robin says, impressed.

“You just asked him out?” Lara says, bewildered. “Just like that?”

“Yeah.” Emily says simply. “He’s unbelievably hot, and I got the sister-swear on it that it was okay by Lara if I pounced.” She raises her eyebrows and looks around at each of us. “And she said it was okay, so I asked him out.”

In an effort to help Lara amidst her bitching about turning thirty in November and still being single, Jackie tried to set her up with this Matt character last year. Lara sort of dismissed him, even though she agreed he was extremely dishy. She said she still had a broken heart over the last douche bag (seriously, he was not so great), and she wasn’t interested in dating.