InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) (51 page)

“Oh.
My. God,” Lexi finally said. “Dylan is going to
die
when he sees you in
that dress.”

“I’ve
never seen a more perfect bride,” Jessa agreed.

Gus
took Tia by the hand and turned her in a slow circle before walking her over to
the mirror. Tia took in her image, unable to believe the gown she was wearing.
If Lexi was the sky and Jessa was the sunset, she was the sea; not traditional
white but instead the color of the inside of a shell, with the impossible
greens and turquoises of the Caribbean subtly swirled in. There was some light beadwork
on the bodice that caught every ray of light in the room and tossed it in a
different direction. The hem was just past her knees in the front and hung
longer in the back where a short train brushed just slightly along the ground.
She could picture how it would look skimming the sand; as if the waves were
gently rushing up to meet the shore. The simple veil was multi-layered and so
sheer it was nearly invisible. It was scalloped at the edges, with tiny ‘waves’
of the palest sea green incorporated subtly on the lowest layer. It was held in
place by a beaded clip that sat at the top of her head and glittered with the
muted colors of the fabric. She took one more look in the mirror and then
turned back to her friends. “Oh my God, this is my wedding dress!” she
exclaimed, her voice breaking. She turned to Gus and bowed her head slightly in
thanks. “It’s unbelievably perfect,” she breathed, and hugged Lexi and Jessa
who had jumped off the couch to embrace her.

“I
have several other designs,” Gus said. “These were merely my first instincts.
Would you like to see them?”

The
three girls walked to the mirror and stared at their combined reflection. “I
think I’m good,” Lexi said, pursing her lips. “Jessa?”

“Oh,
I’m definitely good,” she smiled. “Couldn’t be better.”

They
both turned to Tia. “I’m spectacular,” she grinned. “I don’t think we need to
see anything else.”

She
went to Gus and lifted her arms to hug him. “It’s far from finished,” he
scolded, gently pushing her away. “Enjoy it for a moment longer, but then you
must all stand still while we get them prepared for alterations so I can
complete them. Then I’ll certainly take that hug.”

“I
sure hope we’re going to be on a beach somewhere,” Lexi said. “These are
perfect for a seaside wedding!”

“They’re
just perfect for any wedding,” Jessa replied, “but I’d love the beach, too.”

Tia
just smiled. They took one final look, then reluctantly stood while Monique and
another woman gathered and pinned and measured before they shed the dresses and
handed them back into Gus’s capable hands.

“Thank
you,” Tia whispered as she wrapped her arms around Gus’s neck and planted a
soft kiss on his cheek. “They couldn’t be more perfect.”

 “You
are most welcome. If I do say so myself, you will be a very beautiful bride.”

“I’ll
certainly have the most beautiful dress, anyway.”

“I
will call you when they are ready for a final fitting,” Gus promised as the
girls bundled back into their winter coats. “I have a show in New York next
week, but am clear to work on them after that. I’ll need three weeks, tops, and
then we can get started on the men.”

The
girls were positively glowing as they tied their scarves around their necks to
ward off the cold and headed into the frigid February evening. They huddled
together, waiting for their limo to collect them to take them for a celebration
dinner, when Lexi stepped away and stared hard into the distance, cocking her
head. Automatically, Tia and Jessa turned to see what she was looking at.

“That
looks like Ryan’s Mustang,” she said, squinting into the dark. “Wouldn’t he be
furious to know someone has the same paint job as him?” She turned to Jessa.
“He actually went to one of those custom places that have their own reality
show—he said it was going to be his 15 minutes of fame when he got to pick the
car up in front of all the cameras. I think they aired, like, what,” she asked,
turning back to Tia, “about 30 seconds of him? If that?”

Lexi
smiled, remembering, until the car reached the valet station and Ryan stepped
out, dressed in a long coat over a tuxedo. She tilted her head again, trying to
make sense of it. “What the hell is he doing here?” she said. “He’s supposed to
be in New York!” She took two steps toward him, but then froze as Ryan opened
the passenger door and a very tall, very blonde woman dripping in fur stepped
out of the car and into his arms. Ryan smiled and said something, and the woman
tossed her head back and laughed, and then took his face in her hands, planting
a very sensual and familiar kiss on his lips. Lexi watched, slack jawed, as
Ryan popped the back hatch of the car and pulled out two overnight bags,
handing them to the doorman. One of them was the bag she’d helped him pack
yesterday.

“What
the fuck is that?” she spat, a look of pain, confusion, and fury taking turns
controlling her features. “
Who
the fuck is that?” Her hands clenched
into fists, and she took a few steps toward the couple before the other girls
wrapped their arms around her, holding her back.

Tia
and Jessa stared in disbelief, and it was a couple moments before either of
them found a voice. “Oh my God, Lexi, I’m so sorry,” Jessa said softly.

“I
just can’t even believe this,” Tia murmured.

“New
York my ass!” Lexi bellowed. “This is why he’s been so busy lately? He’s got a
fucking
girlfriend
? We’ll just see about that!” She tried to shake the
girls loose so she could confront him, but they held her fast.

“Wait,
Lex,” Tia said. “Just take a deep breath for a second, OK? Do you really want
to make a scene like that here? Maybe there’s an explanation…” but she didn’t
believe it. She’d seen their embrace—they were obviously on very familiar
terms.

“You
saw him fucking kiss her!” she hissed. “That’s all the explanation I need!” But
she did take a deep breath of the frozen air and exhaled a long stream of steam
that billowed out behind her. She closed her eyes and took a few concentrated
breaths before pulling out her phone and punching in his number. “We’ll see
what kind of game he’s playing,” she said.

They
watched as Ryan pulled out his phone, and motioned to the woman that he’d need
to take the call. She continued into the building to get out of the cold, and
Ryan came on the line.

“Hey,
baby,” he said. “I miss you.”

“How’s
The Big Apple?” she asked, her voice dripping honey. Only the girls on Lexi’s
end could sense the venom beneath the sweetness.

“Lonely,”
he answered, “but we’re getting a lot done. I think I can have the draft
finished up by next week if I’m lucky, and then I’ll need to work on polishing
it and starting on the presentation. Still a lot to do, but at least I think I
can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Lexi
immediately thought about how she’d like to make him see some lights at the end
of a tunnel…preferably the lights of an eighteen-wheeler carrying a load of topped-off
port-a-potties. “How’s the weather there? I heard there was a storm. Did your
plane land OK?”

“Yeah,”
he said, caught off guard. “We must have beat it in. We’re just coming back
from getting some dinner right now, and it’s not snowing too much. Hard to tell
around the skyscrapers, though.”

“Well,
stay warm, and I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Actually,”
he said, “just to give you a heads-up, I may need to stay one more night. It
just depends on how things go here. We’re taking a little nutrition break right
now, but we’re probably going to be pulling an all-nighter so we can try to get
it all finished up, so I’ll be turning off my phone here in a little bit. I’m
glad you caught me when you did.”

“Yeah,
I’m glad I caught you when I did, too,” she said, anger now evident in her tone
despite the tears streaming down her cheeks. “An all-nighter. Well, good luck
with that.”

“Thanks,
I’ll try hard to wrap it all up tonight. Love you,” he said, and she cut the
connection without a reply. They watched as he tapped his phone, and then
skipped up the steps and into the arms of the mystery woman who waited for him
just inside the entryway.

Lexi
stood with her phone in her hand, staring blankly at the space Ryan had just
occupied. “I can’t even believe this,” she whispered, not even bothering to
wipe the tears from her cheeks. “I just forgave him for being a complete
asshole, and volunteered to postpone the wedding so he could work on his ‘big
fucking project.’” She exhaled loudly through her teeth. “I guess I know all
about the project now, don’t I? God, how could I be so stupid?”

Tia
rubbed small circles on Lexi’s back, her mind trying to find the right words to
say but coming up a complete blank. How quickly things can change, she thought
to herself.  It had been a perfect night—they’d all been having a wonderful
time; smiling and laughing and looking forward to a scrumptiously overpriced
dinner at one of her new favorite restaurants in the city, and suddenly her
best friend discovers her fiancé’s infidelity. Just like that, another life
changed forever by lies and deception.   They continued to stare at the banquet
entrance, watching small groups of people drift up the steps and through the
glass doors. Ryan and the woman were well inside, but none of them could stop
looking and wondering how something like that could have happened. They didn’t
even notice the limo pull up until the driver jumped out and approached them. 

“Oh
Lex,” Tia whispered. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, and so pissed
off, and so hurt for you that I can’t even breathe. You just tell me what you
want to do, and we’ll do it. You want to go home? I can draw you a bath and
make you some tea…”

Lexi
took one hard look at her friends and stiffened her spine. “Hell no, I don’t
want to go home,” she hissed. “I want to get some fucking revenge, and then I
want to go celebrate with my girls. I’m not about to let this ruin your night,
Tia—it’s been so perfect.”

“It
doesn’t matter,” she said, wishing she could put more conviction behind the
words. It was most certainly not Lexi’s fault, but the festive spirit they’d
walked out with had definitely floated away on their sad sighs. “We don’t have
to go out. There’s not a lot to celebrate at this point.”

“The
hell there isn’t!” Lexi said. “I’m celebrating finding out what a snake that
bastard is before I married him, and obviously having a famous designer make
you the perfect wedding dress is cause for a party,” she added. “Just sit tight
for a minute. Tell the limo driver to wait.”

As
she walked toward the parking lot, Lexi admitted to herself that she’d known
that there was something going with Ryan for a while now. She wasn’t exactly
sure when the change had happened, but there had been something off about him.
It wasn’t something she could put her finger on, but if she fessed up to the
truth, she hadn’t really been trying all that hard to figure it out. Their
relationship hadn’t been the same in a while, and although she’d told him she
was fine with postponing the wedding, she was still seriously pissed about the
whole fiasco. She should have guessed it was something big, but frankly, she’d
been kind of wrapped up in her own affairs lately, and had ignored the signs.
They were certainly screaming in her face right now, however. Ryan was obviously
sleeping with someone else, and the whole “big project” was nothing more than a
lie and a manipulation. And she would not be played. 

She
walked toward the side of the valet parking lot with a sense of casual purpose,
her head high and her back ramrod straight. Tia and Jessa watched as she
slipped efficiently over the concrete barrier, entering the lot and strolling
toward Ryan’s parked car.

 Lexi
reached into her purse and pulled out her keys, heading in the direction of the
prized Mustang convertible. She walked past it casually, dragging her keys
along the side of the car, the sickening sound of metal against metal piercing
the night air. She turned as she passed the headlights and walked across the
front of the car, making a deep scratch across the hood and then down the other
side. Not a single shard of guilt clouded her mind as she scarred every body
panel; in fact, she felt somewhat liberated as she headed back toward the main
entrance.  Calmly skirting the barrier again, she headed back toward the limo
and the waiting girls.

“What
did you do?” Tia asked, already having guessed.

“I
just made a few custom modifications to his paint job,” she said nonchalantly,
scraping metallic gold flakes off her keys with her fingernail. “Nothing a few
thousand dollars and a lot of lost sleep won’t fix.”

 “Holy
shit, he’s going to be so pissed!” Jessa exclaimed, unable to control her fit
of laughter.

“You
have no idea,” Lexi said calmly. “Now let’s go party, ladies! I may be down a
fiancé, but my best friend’s still got the sexiest man on earth, so that’s
saying something!”

“Aren’t
you Tia Hastings?” the hostess asked.