Des
“I’m hating you right now because you’re like a size two.” I feel like a freaking beached whale, and even head-to-toe black is not going to hide this totally fucked up place I am in my pregnancy. It kind of looks like I might or might not be pregnant, and I definitely look chubby.
“I’m a size six, not a two.” Rose rolls her eyes at me as we walk the long hall toward the ballroom.
“Rosie! Des!” Kathleen Donahue comes running down the long hall toward us, her bright red hair flailing behind her, making her look like a human torch.
She hugs me tight and then her hand goes right to my belly and I fear she is the first of a million times I will be palmed tonight. “Well, look at you.”
Yeah, look at me. I’m a whale dressed like I’m going to a funeral.
“Rose, I was so excited when I heard you were coming in for this.” Rose looks like she seriously needs alcohol and for one nanosecond I hate my BFF. She’s skinny and she can drink.
“Are Josh and Two-Tits here yet?” I feel my girth growing by the second. My penance for lying to Rose about him coming was that the very next day he sent in his RSVP.
Kathleen shakes her head. “No, but,” her voice drops to a whisper, “Connor Powell is here.”
“There’s a sim
ultaneous scream of, “What?” from both me and Rose.
Rose’s fingers are digging into my forearm. “Did you know?”
“Do you think I’d keep that from you?”
“Apparently, he just contacted Gina on Thursday night and said he was in town and wondered if tickets were still available.” She’s still whispering.
“And he’s here?” Rose is on the border of hyperventilation.
Kathleen nods, her big blue eyes wide, not blinking.
“How does he look?” I ask, and turning to Rose before Kathleen answers, conjecture, “Maybe he’s bald.”
“He looks good.” Kathleen disappoints me. “Really good.”
“Can we leave now?” Rose is dead serious and the death grip she’s got on my arm is causing my fingers to go numb.
“You look really good, too. C’mon, get it over with. He had to know he might run into you here and that he’d definitely run into me. And I don’t think he wants to be running into me because he knows I’ll tell him exactly what I think of him and I’m nowhere as nice as you, Rose.”
“She’s right, Rose. You have a lot of back-up here. And she’s definitely not as nice as you.” Kathleen ribs me. “We have over two hundred people coming and we’ve got you covered.”
I can feel Rose pulling my arm, as if she’s trying to bolt in the opposite direction. “Rosie, stop!” She hates being called Rosie and glares at me. “You look great. You live in Los Angeles. You have a phenomenal job. You are doing really well. You’ve moved on. And that is the best revenge, letting him see you living your best life without him.”
“I hate you right now, you know that.”
I laugh at my best friend. “Yeah, well, you’ll get over it. C’mon, let’s go in.” Successfully, I maneuver her over to the line and strike up a conversation with two guys behind us. “Who are you? Did we know you?” With a graduating class of over a thousand students, our high school had a bigger enrollment than some colleges. “This is Rose. She’s single. Are either of you single?”
“And this is Des. She’s single, too.” Rose chimes in and with a wicked smile on her face, asks, “So, who knocked you up again?”
“Bitch.” I whack her in the arm.
“You two are funny. What middle school did you go to?” Three middle schools fed into our high school, and while we knew the people we were with from sixth grade through twelve, unless you were in a class with people from the other schools, you might not have known them.
“We went to Candle Creek,” Rose answers one of the guys who is not bad looking and wears no wedding ring. “How about you?”
“We went to South Hills.” Their school was the far side of the district and they were a cliquey bunch.
Entering the check in, I take a quick scan of the name tags still on the table “Kathleen was wrong. Looks like Josh and Two-Tits have already checked in. How the hell did she miss her?”