Bridesmaid Lotto Page 4

  “Right. It doesn’t matter,” I tried to tell myself.

  The apartment buzzer went off. I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  “Yes?” Calla said pressing the button.

  “Driver for Miss Josephine McMaster,” the voice came through the intercom.

  “She’ll be right down,” Calla said.

  I pulled a delicate shawl over my shoulders and headed down the stairs, which was no small feat in the shoes and the form-fitting dress. I glanced back one more time but was not reassured. Instead of watching me go, they were giving each other worried looks. Mattie was saying something I couldn’t hear.

  I almost turned back around.

  “You can do this,” I said to myself and continued down the stairs. As I reached the lobby, the driver smiled at me and said, “You look beautiful Miss. McMaster.”

  “Thank you,” I said. I knew he was probably paid to say it, but it made me feel better anyway.

  He opened the car door and held my hand to help me into the car. I wondered if it was wrong to wish that he was my date for the evening, being the gentleman that he was. But that dream quickly faded when I spent the next half hour sitting alone in the backseat in silence.

  I almost asked him to stop the car and turn around about eight million times.

  “It’s not a big deal,” I kept whispering to myself. “Relax, enjoy yourself. Just have a good time.” As we got closer, I closed my eyes and chanted in my head. “Calm down. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  By the time we reached the party, I was surprisingly calm and almost had myself convinced that I could do this. I could make a grand entrance into a spectacular party and look confident all at the same time.

  But as the driver opened my door, hoards of photographers, all jostling to get a closer look, surrounded us. I felt like I was in a fishbowl with a million people gathered around, just watching to see if I would sink or swim.

  I decided I was going to swim.

  I grabbed onto the driver’s hand and flashed the most elegant, gracious, oh-gosh-I-don’t-deserve-all-this smile that I could muster. I guess the phrase is true, fake it ‘til you make it.

  Another guy held out his arm to me as the driver closed the door behind me and whisked the car away. He as handsome as any guy as I’d ever seen. They had to have hired models to walk us down the red carpet.

  “Miss McMaster,” the crowd kept yelling, all vying to get my attention for what seemed like millions of continuous flashes. I put my best, most sincere looking fake smile out there and tried not to think at all. I knew if my brain started spinning too much, I would definitely end up tripping. So I held tight to my escort and just kept moving.

  What seemed like an eternity later, the doors to the building finally opened, seemingly on their own, and we waltzed through as they closed quietly behind us. The atmosphere was the polar opposite of the mad house outside. It was completely peaceful and the lights were dim. Soft music was just audible in the background.

  “This way Miss,” my escort said, and led me down a long hallway.

  I loved the sound my new shoes made clicking along in the hollow halls. I’d made it through the paparazzi hurdle and my nervousness was starting to fade a little. I was almost beginning to feel like I could actually belong there. Not one person had looked at me like I was an alien yet. Amazing.

  Once again, the scenery did a three sixty when we entered the main hall where the party was being held. My escort and I posed for a couple more, much less invasive pictures. Sort of like at the prom.

  A few steps further and a soothing male voice came over the loudspeaker.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, please turn your attention to the front entrance as our fourth Bridesmaid, Miss Josephine McMaster, is now arriving.”

  All heads turned toward me. It was a miracle that I hadn’t been scratching my nose or fidgeting with my dress. I smiled graciously and nodded in a few directions. Hushed whispers followed me as my escort guided me to the front of the room where the other Bridesmaids were already waiting.

  Each of the girls was absolutely gorgeous. Any one of them could have made it big in the modeling world. They were all also in designer gowns, though I thought mine was the nicest.

  I spotted Emma VanHorn in the center, the lady in red, between us girls and the men that I assumed must be the groomsmen, though sadly, Jake Hall was nowhere to be seen.

  “And now for the final member of our wedding party,” the invisible voice announced. “Please turn your attention once again to the entrance where Mr. Jake Hall is now arriving.”

  Much louder applause followed Jake Hall as he walked with his blonde bimbo escort down the aisle. I was surprised when my heart started racing at the sight of him.

  I clutched my purse as gracefully as I could in front of me, mostly so I had something to do with my hands besides fidget, and smiled like the other girls as he approached.

  For just a moment, our eyes locked. I panicked and dropped my gaze.

  You idiot, I screamed in my head. So much for first impressions, bonehead.

  The other girls seemed to have their eyes glued on him. Geez, why can’t I be that cool and collected? I suppose they’re more used to this sort of thing than I am. Except maybe that girl that had been standing in the field of wheat in her picture. Surely she couldn’t be some sort of debutante, could she?

  We were all seated on a slightly raised platform. It felt like a graduation or something, with all the spotlights on us.

  Soon, the announcer came back over the loudspeaker.

  “Miss Emma VanHorn and Mr. Alan Hall would like to thank you all for coming to this very special evening.”

  Now that the guests had also been seated, I could see a TV camera at the back of the room. The logo on the side said ‘Entertainment News.’

  I’m going to be on TV, I thought. I’d never like the idea before, but since I was looking my best, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I imagined all the people that I’d gone to high school with seething with jealousy.

  The announcer continued. “Before we get to the meal, the happy couple would like to say a few words.”

  Emma VanHorn and Alan Hall stood up and walked to a freestanding microphone in the center of the stage.

  “Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” Emma VanHorn started. “Welcome to our official engagement party.”

  There was a spattering of applause.

  “We’d like to thank all of you for sharing this very special occasion with us.”

  More applause. The fake smile was beginning to hurt my face. I tried to relax it a little.

  “We wanted to celebrate tonight with my new Bridesmaids,” Emma said, and turned towards the four of us. “Thank you so much for agreeing to stand up for me girls, I just know we are going to have so much fun planning and celebrating.”

  I smiled my most gracious smile one more time, trying especially hard to make it look sincere. This was the woman who held my travel fate in her hands. Well, her and my mother, that is.

  The speech droned on a few minutes longer while Alan introduced his groomsmen and the Bridesmaids were all introduced one more time. We each stood as our names were called.

  Yup, just like graduation I thought again.

  “And, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, Alan and I would like to officially announce the date of our wedding.”

  The crowd grew silent. The cameraman at the back looked closely into the lens.

  “We will be married on July 21!”

  All the people started smiling and nodding and even applauded a bit.

  Good, I thought. Not too far away; only three months. I clapped quietly along with the rest of the Bridesmaids.

  “And now I’d like to invite the wedding party to sit around the large table,” Emma said as she gracefully pointed toward it. “I can’t wait to get to know all of you better.”

  The crowd applauded again and resumed their drinking and chatting around their elegantly dressed round tables. Our escorts r
eturned from out of nowhere to take us to our assigned spots at the table, and then vanished just as quickly as they’d appeared.

  The men were all on the same side of the long table, and the women were across from them. Emma VanHorn and Alan Hall were seated in the middle on either side. Thankfully, I was seated beside Jennifer Wilson who sat between me and Emma. At the far end of the table, were Bobbi Lynne Mayfield and Rebecca Singleton. I thought I would likely get along the best with Jennifer, so I was relieved that we were seated together. Rebecca looked very snooty upper class and Bobbi Lynne looked like she was straight off the farm. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but I just wasn’t sure how much I’d have in common with her.

  But that was certainly not the most important part. What was very, especially, amazingly most important, was that Jake hall was sitting about four feet away from me. Granted he was sitting directly across from Jennifer, but if I wanted, I could reach my foot out, just a little, and touch him.

  I thought I might faint.

  “Hello,” he said and reached his hand out to shake Jennifer’s. “I’m Jake.”

  “Hello,” Jennifer said and shook his hand and introduced herself.

  He reached his hand over to me. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

  “Hi,” I said and smiled. “Josie.”

  “Oh yeah, I was wondering if you went by Josie when I saw your bio,” Jake Hall said to me.

  TO ME!

  But instead of quietly going about my meal, McMaster the Disaster just had to show up.

  “There was a bio?” I stupidly asked.

  All heads at the table stopped talking and turned to me. I instantly turned a vibrant shade of red which I could only assume clashed dramatically with my yellow dress.

  “Um, sorry,” I said bowing my head a little to avoid eye contact with anyone. “I uh, uh… My mother put my name in the lotto.”

  “Oh, so you weren’t even interested in entering?” Jake Hall said with an amused smirk on his face.

  “Oh, uh no. It’s not that,” I said quickly, trying to think on my feet, which was not my strong suit. “I was uh, out of town, and I uh, didn’t know about it, so my mother put my name in.” I gasped for air since I had forgotten to breathe while I was talking.

  The other faces at the table slowly moved their gaze from me and continued to chat amongst themselves.

  Eventually I noticed the guy that was in front of me. As I looked up, he beamed a toothy grin my way. I almost couldn’t smile in return; I was so taken aback at his unbelievable hideousness.

  Of course he’s fantastically homely, I thought to myself. As if fate would ever have it any other way.

  It was in that moment that I realized, without a doubt, that we had all been strategically seated in front of our wedding party partners. I was gonna be stuck with this goofball for the duration of this whole thing.

  Thank God it was only three months away.

  “Hi, I’m Eric,” he slurred through his retainer. “Eric VanHorn.”

  Aw crap, Emma’s little brother. That’s how they see me? The one to stick with the little brother?

  “Hi,” I said, fake smile wide across my face. “I’m Josie.”

  “Huh huh, right,” he said. “You already said that.”

  I nodded, smiled, and bit my lip.

  “Yeah, when I saw your picture, I was hoping you’d be the one I was paired with, huh huh, huh huh,” he laughed, and actually winked at me.

  “Oh,” I said. I was afraid that I may have looked a little shocked and disgusted. “Well, uh.” I cleared my throat. “Isn’t that sweet of you?” I somehow reproduced the gracious smile.

  I glanced over at Jake and I swear he was chuckling quietly to himself. He met my gaze, which must have looked like a cross between utter horror over Eric VanHorn, and an evil glare for him laughing about it. When Jake saw the look on my face he cracked up completely, unable to keep it to a courteous chuckle.

  I started to giggle a little too, which quickly turned into a full out laugh.

  “What? What’s so funny?” Eric VanHorn asked and pulled out the signature Beavis and Butthead. “Huh huh. Huh huh”

  Every time I was close to calming down, Jake would glance over at me and we’d both start all over again.

  And then I saw the look that I’d been dreading all night. Beside me, Jennifer was looking at me with that all too familiar alien look.

  “I uh… I don’t get it,” Eric said scratching his head.

  That made me laugh even harder.

  After Jake and I had finally calmed down, the rest of the evening went by fairly uneventfully. It was pleasant and all of the girls actually seemed quite nice, even Emma VanHorn, who I had assumed from her first email would be a bit of a diva, but she wasn’t like that in person.

  All in all it was a pretty fun evening, other than Eric VanHorn. I went back home feeling much better about the whole Bridesmaid thing. It might even end up being fun after all.

  I came home too late for Calla to still be up. I would have loved to recount my whole evening for her, but I settled for drifting off to sleep with thought of Jake Hall and the moment we had shared at the dinner table.

  As I walked down the hall, I noticed that her bedroom door was shut tight.

  That’s weird, I thought. Calla doesn’t usually close her door at night. I thought I might have heard just the tiniest sound of sobbing behind the closed door. I listened closer. Nothing.

  Oh well, I thought, I must have been hearing things.

  As I got undressed from my designer gown, I realized that my mood was still flying high. Maybe it was time for another disaster diary entry, just to make sure it didn’t all go to my head. And I had just the story to cap off a great party evening.

  Dear Disaster Diary,

  Remember our first boy/girl party? Oh my, what a tragedy that was. Seventh grade. A guy from my class, Robbie had asked me to go out with him the week before. Now of course by going out in grade seven, everybody knows that means going steady. I had never kissed a boy before, and I knew that this party was likely my chance. So off to the party I went, nervous and excited. I even sat beside my new boyfriend. We sat beside each other the whole time, but barely said two words to each other. We pretty much faced opposite directions and talked to our respective friends all night. After a while, he grabbed my hand to hold it. But the visiting with friends continued. The night was nearing a close and some of the other couples had tried a little kissing. Robbie thought it might be a good idea for us to try too. Somewhere in all the background noise, all the talk about French kissing had escaped me. So, I went in for a peck on the lips, and Robbie went in for the slobber of a lifetime. Not that it would have been all that gross had I been expecting it, but it took me by surprise, so of course I reacted by frantically wiping my mouth and saying ew. Everybody was once again looking at me like I was an alien. Boy is the word alienation ever a good one.

  ~ 5 ~

  Work was weird the next day. Everyone was staring and pointing at me like I was some kind of celebrity. Even the people I knew. I was told that my picture made it into some of the entertainment papers and of course ‘Entertainment News’ had been advertising an exclusive look into the engagement party later on the evening broadcast.

  I tried to hole up in my cubicle and not think about it too much, though I couldn’t stop Jake Hall from creeping into my mind.

  Eventually, I clicked open my email. There is was again, e.vanhorn@vanhornholdings.com.

  Dear Bridesmaids,

  What a wonderful evening it was last night, no? I had such a great time getting to know all of you and I’m looking even more forward to all the planning and get-togethers.

  And now for your first Bridesmaid assignment…

  What? There are assignments?

  I would like to leave it up to you all to come up with a fantastic Bachelorette Party idea. As you can well imagine, my fiancé Alan will no doubt be holding some sort of gigantic and tasteless display for his B
achelor Party, so I’d like to do something really over the top too. Of course money will be no issue, so please, be creative with your ideas. The Bridesmaid who comes up with the best idea will win a prize.

  Oooh, prize. I like prizes.

  The deadline for the Bachelorette contest will be Friday at 5pm. We really have to get a move on the planning.

  Your Bride,

  Emma VanHorn

  P.S. The first fittings for your Bridesmaid dresses will begin in a few weeks, so please remember to watch those diets girls.

  “Hello darling, oh famous one,” Mattie said, coming in to sit down on my desk.

  “Where were you this morning?” I asked.

  “Well Calla and I were up late waiting for you, and you were taking forever and well, I needed my beauty sleep.”

  “You slept in!” I said. “You mean I made it in to work on time and you didn’t!”

  “Well yes. And it shows my dear. Just look at those bags. You’d better wear some über huge sunglasses home. You never know when the paparazzi might show up.”

  “Thanks,” I said unenthusiastically. “Your concern really warms my heart.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said jumping off my desk, choosing to ignore my sarcasm. “Whacha got there?” he asked, peering at my computer screen. “Oooh, another wedding email! How exciting.”

  “Yeah, I have to come up with some Bachelorette idea or something.”

  “Oh my gosh, that sounds like so much fun,” he said. Apparently he was waaaay more excited about it than I was.

  “What are you going to suggest?” he asked.

  I shrugged. “I dunno, I guess I’ll have to think about it for a while.”

  “Yeah, that’s good. You have ‘til Friday,” he said pointing to the screen. “That should give you lots of time to come up with something fantastic!”

  “Pfft. I don’t know anything about Bachelorette Parties. What am I going to come up with?”