The Wedding Setup, page 25
“I thought that went well,” she said.
“Yes. And you didn’t even see what I saw here in New York.”
While she’d been virtual, and some of the others had as well, many of the older board members had been together in person in the Manhattan office all day, which meant Ted had to be there, too.
“What did you see?”
“The overwhelming jealousy and spite some of these guys have for you and this deal. Not a single one of them had the vision for it, and not one of them could do a damn thing in London. Yet there you are, half a country away, handling it like a pro. You’d be eating it up if you could see their pinched little faces. They hate you more than ever.”
She laughed, but their jealousy didn’t give her nearly as much pleasure as it might have even two weeks ago. The thought of gloating or holding this over them now didn’t appeal in the slightest. She was proud of herself—she’d always been good at her job, and this coup proved it once again. But now that the deal was in the works, she simply wanted it done. If she could take care of this one last thing—get the whole thing running smoothly—she might actually enjoy having pulled it off. For now, her pleasure was ruined a bit with the mountain of work in front of everyone and the likely tens of meetings, short and long, between now and then. Further, she simply couldn’t give a damn what any of those men thought of her. Here, removed from them in space and time, they simply didn’t matter to her.
“There you go again,” Ted said.
She snapped back into reality, shaking her head to clear it. “What?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’ve been zoning out off and on all day today. I’m pretty sure I even saw a shadow of a certain someone earlier today, but I thought she left.”
Heat crept into her cheeks. “You’re right. I’m supposed to meet her and everyone else in a little while—shit. Make that a little less than two hours from now.” She sighed and rubbed her face. “I’m never going to make it that long.”
“Oh? What’s going on tonight?”
“Bachelors’ party,” she said, sighing again.
He laughed. “You don’t sound very excited about it.”
She shrugged. “After a ten-hour day, the only thing I want to do is soak in the bathtub, drink a scotch, and go to bed.”
“Well, you better get your shit together if you want to have any kind of fun. Get an espresso or something.”
She didn’t bother explaining how difficult that would be this late at night in a small town. Still, he was right. She needed something to pep herself up a bit.
“What are you wearing tonight?” he asked. “Something fun, I hope.”
“Jos, that’s one of Jai’s sisters, is supposed to bring something any minute. We’re going to get ready together before we’re picked up.”
“Good. I didn’t think you took any club wear with you.”
She laughed. “I don’t own any.”
After a knock on the door, he insisted on staying logged on while she went to let Jos inside. Jos blew into the room without saying anything, holding an armful of clothing with boxes of shoes balanced on top.
“Jesus, look at this place,” Jos said after she’d set the pile down on the bed. She spotted the open laptop and stepped closer. “Oh! And who is this?”
“Ted,” he said. “I want to see what you’re planning to dress her in.”
Jos laughed, clearly delighted. “Awesome. I’m Jos, and you’re in for a treat, Ted. I’m going to make her a thousand percent hotter tonight. Maddie’s not going to know what hit her.”
He clapped and hooted, and Ryann rolled her eyes, making both of them laugh.
“Okay, Ted,” Jos said. “I brought several options. Ryann here, as you can see, is a bit smaller in the chestal area than I am—”
“Chestal?” Ryann asked.
Jos continued, her attention still on Ted. “But I think I have some things that will fit her, anyway. I can’t wait to see her in something that doesn’t scream business wonk.”
“Me, too,” he said.
“Hello? I am hearing this,” she said.
Ted and Jos both gave her an identical, pitying frown.
“She’s right, Ryann,” he said. “Your clothes for work are hot as hell, but they’re still work clothes. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen you in anything fun before. Sexy, maybe, in an elegant, ballroomy way, but not a fun, hip way.”
“Jeesh,” she said, but didn’t argue further.
Jos had her try on several outfits, each more ridiculous than the last. Ryann insisted on changing in the bathroom, for which both Ted and Jos gave her grief for her modesty. Still, each time she stepped out of the bathroom, there was a bigger and bigger reveal, and both of them were getting more and more excited with each progressively wilder outfit.
“That’s the one,” he said as she stepped out of the bathroom for the seventh time.
“Agree,” Jos said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She was wearing a skin-tight, black lace dress and open-toed black kitten heels. The dress had no sleeves, plunged daringly over her breasts, and barely hit mid-thigh. Altogether, it revealed far more skin than she was comfortable with, and that didn’t even begin to describe her other issues with it. For one thing, it was very tight, making it hard to walk normally, and for another, it was almost see-through. Only the fabric over her breasts was slightly opaque, covering her actual nipples. Otherwise, her skin peeked through everywhere between the patterns of the lace.
“Incredible,” Ted said.
“Amazing,” Jos said.
“It’s like wearing lingerie!” Ryann said.
“Exactly,” Jos and Ted said together.
“No friggin’ way I’m walking out the door like this.” Shaking her head, she turned back toward the bathroom.
“Wait! Just wait a second, Ryann,” Jos said.
She turned back to her. “What?”
Jos walked closer and took her hands, leading her to the bed. Ryann sat down, peering up at her expectantly. Jos turned the laptop to face them and pulled up one of the room’s chairs, sitting down on it backward.
“You look amazing right now,” Jos said. “I know you don’t believe me, but you really do.”
“And what’s more, it’s fun, carefree,” Ted added. “It’s really different and appealing because of that.”
She sighed. “I know you both think that, and I guess I can see it a little, but this isn’t me. I would be uncomfortable all night.”
“So?” Ted asked.
“Maddie will love it,” Jos added. “And Ted’s right—comfort is not what we’re going for. We’re going for mad sexy, and this outfit nails it.”
“Think of it like a costume,” he said. “You could wear a costume for a night, right?”
“I guess.” She held back a groan.
Jos, recognizing a win, clapped. “Good. Next, we do your makeup and hair. You want to be here for this, Ted?”
“You know it!”
Later, as they waited in the chilly lobby of the hotel for the party bus, Ryann still hadn’t adjusted to the ridiculous getup, but on the other hand, having worn the dress for a while now, she had started, at least physically, to adapt a bit, recognizing now how far she could move her legs without pulling on the fabric too much. That was something, at least. Her makeup was much heavier on her skin than she was used to wearing, but with that element, at least, she’d been pleased with the final product—even if she looked nothing like herself. Why dressing up as someone else was supposed to be appealing to Maddie was beyond her, but both Jos and Ted were so confident that she’d like it, she’d finally simply let them do whatever they wanted with her.
She had insisted on black nylons to help with the chill, but every other thing on her body right now belonged to Jos. Even the leather jacket was one of Jos’s sisters’ jackets (she couldn’t remember whom she’d stolen it from). Her hair had been done in a surprisingly interesting updo, clenched loosely behind her head, stray curls allowed to hang willy-nilly. Of all the weirdness, she didn’t mind the hair and makeup that much. Still, she couldn’t see how she’d possibly keep it up and on all night.
They heard the music and saw the lights long before their ride pulled into the parking lot. It was red and the size of a small school bus, decked out in bright-pink and red neon lights along every edge and around the rims of the wheels. There were also neon hearts and cupids, and all of the lights would pulse and then race along each side, as if chasing themselves, then pulse again. It was bright enough that she could hardly see the people inside, all of whom were apparently standing up.
Once she and Jos were outside the hotel, the music, which had already been quite loud from the lobby, nearly made her take a step back with the volume blasting out the open bus door. With a mix of amusement and dismay, Ryann realized that the lights were programmed, in a sense, to dance along with the music. Pulsing flashes of light followed the beat of the tune.
Jos, seeing her hesitate, grabbed her arm and nearly yanked her off her heels and toward the accordion bus door and up the little stairs.
“Jos!” Several people shouted when they saw her. Then, “Ryann!” when she appeared behind her. The crowd inside was surprisingly dense, and she wondered if there would be room for the two of them. She recognized Jai’s other sisters, of course, and Erin and Darcy, but no one else. Then, almost as if the crowd heard her thoughts, they parted for her and Jos, scooting to the edges of the bus. The mass of bodies had been an optical illusion. Maybe twenty people were in here, total, and despite this, the bus still had quite a lot of room once they moved out of her way.
Stuart jostled several people and pulled her into his arms just as the bus started moving again. She couldn’t help the little squeak that escaped her lips, startled, and he brayed with laughter, right into her ear. The music drowned out much of what he said to her, but she heard, “Hot!” and “Maddie!” and “Soon!” and she decided that meant that she looked hot and that they were picking up Maddie soon. She let him help direct her toward the middle of the swaying crowd, but she was still occasionally obliged to grab one of the looping hand straps dangling from the ceiling to stop herself from going down.
“This is insane!” she screamed over the music.
Stuart laughed, giving her a big thumbs-up. Whether that meant he heard her and agreed or was responding to her tone, she couldn’t tell. They finally made it to the back of the bus, and he bent down in front of an open cooler. When he stood up, he turned around with a bright-pink plastic champagne flute. She took it, grateful, draining it at once. He laughed again, though she could barely hear him, and handed her a second. This one she sipped and tried, unsuccessfully, to dance along to the music as the bus crept along the street. It was driving at a ridiculously slow pace, but it was still hard to stand in her heels with the swaying movement. She wished then that she’d been firm in insisting on her boots back at the hotel room, but it was too late to worry about that now. Hopefully, this bus was only the transportation to wherever they were headed, not the destination.
Jai appeared on her right just as she almost fell again, his huge arm snaking around and holding her upright with very little effort. She saw his mouth open and close, talking, and imagined he said something like “I got you,” but she didn’t hear a word. He was much too soft-spoken to register over the blaring cacophony.
They were soon turning into another parking lot, and she took the moment the bus stopped to get her legs more firmly in place and her hand more securely looped into one of the dangling straps directly above her. As they waited, she bent down to peer out the window but could see nothing but the flashing lights outside and the silhouette of a dark building. Suddenly she heard shouts of “Maddie!” from the front, and a moment later, Maddie appeared as the crowd parted for her.
The moment Maddie saw her was something she would remember for the rest of her life. Maddie was scanning the crowd around her, clearly looking for her, and her gaze skated past, not recognizing her at first, before it returned to her, and her eyes widened comically. Then her mouth dropped open, as if in a cartoon, before snapping closed. Her eyes narrowed, darkened, and Ryann’s stomach dropped as Maddie marched toward her, surefooted despite the now-moving bus. Maddie’s kiss was like none before it—desperate, eager, starving, and passionate. It was overwhelming. She felt alternately hot, cold, and almost electrified as the sensation of that kiss raced through her heart and soul. When Maddie finally pulled away, she felt almost drunk, certainly dazed, boneless in Maddie’s arms.
I guess she likes the dress, she thought, grateful now for Jos and Ted’s assistance.
It was too loud to talk, so they simply stared at each other, she up into Maddie’s eyes, Maddie down at her the entire trip, which seemed both interminable and too short. When the bus finally stopped, in yet another parking lot, she didn’t notice until the music abruptly cut off. Several people booed and shouted, but the bus driver quickly announced that they were at the first stop for the night. He also announced the name of a business she didn’t recognize, but nearly everyone around her hooted with glee, clapping and cheering in drunken excitement. She had to shake her head to come back to reality, finally stepping out of Maddie’s arms. Maddie took her hand and led her toward the door, the last ones out.
A low, single-story building stood in the middle of a wide, open field, and maybe forty or fifty cars and trucks were parked there in addition to the party bus. A large, circular wooden sign had been mounted to the roof with a spotlight beaming on a red drawing of a cowboy hat sitting atop a pile of rope. She couldn’t quite make out the wording there and had already forgotten what the bus driver had said.
“What is this place?” she asked as they hurried to catch up with the others.
“Howdy. It’s a gay cowboy bar,” Maddie said.
“Really?”
“Really.”
She was delighted, excited to see the inside. She could already hear country music blasting now and again as the doors at the front of the building opened and closed. While she’d seen the occasional person wearing a cowboy hat around town—men and women—she hadn’t expected something this niche for a gay bar in a small town. She and Maddie joined the others, all of whom were waiting in a bunch as Jos went inside. She’d made some kind of reservation, so they needed to go in as a group.
“There are a couple of these here in the state,” Maddie explained. “Charlie’s, in Denver, is much bigger, of course, but we’re close enough to Wyoming to get some of the Cheyenne and Laramie queers down here, so it’s actually pretty popular, at least on the weekends.”
“Incredible,” she said. Maddie laughed at her excitement and kissed her, and only now did she realize that Maddie was, in fact, a little dressed up herself. She wore another silk shirt, this one a red-and-white swirling paisley. She’d paired it with a dark and smart brown leather jacket, and very tight, very dark jeans. And, she saw, fastening her gaze on them—brown cowboy boots that matched the coat.
Maddie, seeing her spot them, held one foot up for her and then the other. “Nice, right?”
She didn’t reply in words. Instead, she grabbed the lapels of Maddie’s coat and kissed her, her enthusiasm making the kiss a bit messy and hasty.
Maddie leaned back, laughing. “Gee. I guess you like them. I guess I should have brought my hat.”
Again, she couldn’t reply right away with words, showing, instead, what she thought of the idea with another kiss—a little gentler this time, but with some more heat in it.
Maddie’s eyes darkened into that hungry shadow again, and her lips were curled into an impish grin.
“You should stay at my place tonight,” Maddie suggested. “I can show you the hat.”
She nodded, lips pinched tight, afraid, suddenly, that she might do something incredibly inappropriate here in the middle of all of Jai and Stuart’s friends and family.
“I’d like that,” she managed to say.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryann woke, as usual, at six the next morning, confused for several seconds by her surroundings. Unlike the hotel, Maddie’s bedroom was pitch-dark, with heavy blackout curtains over the windows. Maddie’s soft sleeping sighs didn’t change at all as she got up to use the restroom and rinse her mouth.
She’d been in this room last night, of course, before and after, but hadn’t paid much attention, too excited to get back to Maddie to examine it in any depth. The bathroom was small but nicely appointed, recently remodeled. The tiles on the walls and over the tub were a cerulean blue with a subtle but gorgeous mosaic of waves done in lighter blues and whites around the room. The linens were a light gray, which matched the paint and floor tiles. It was also very clean in here—far cleaner than her own bathroom would have been with no notice.
She vaguely remembered Maddie mentioning that she’d been restoring her historic home since she bought it, and she was pleased that this was all her work. She herself had avoided buying a place in New York for exactly this reason—she hated the thought of fixing things herself or of having people in her place to do it for her. Maddie, on the other hand, had purposefully bought a place she could make her own. She didn’t remember a lot about the outside of the house when the cab had dropped them off last night, except that it was quite small. Room enough for one. Her heart sank a bit. She turned the light off before rejoining Maddie in the warmth of the bed, hoping to doze a little longer.
She hadn’t meant to fall so deeply asleep and was startled awake when Maddie opened the curtains.
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead! We’re meeting everyone at the festival in a little while.”
She sat up, rubbing her face, and Maddie helpfully put some pillows behind her back as she stretched. “Hmm? What time is it?”
“Almost eleven.”
