Be Mine (12 page)

Tom came over to join them. “A booth just opened up. The hostess says she can seat us if we can find another two people to sit with us.”

“Want to join us?” Natalie asked.

Before Jennifer could answer, Will cut in. “We'd love to!”

“Are you crazy?” Jennifer hissed under her breath as they followed after Natalie and Tom to their booth.

“What are you freaking out about? I thought you wanted to see if we could fool her.”

“All we had to do was say hello and chitchat for a little bit. Now we're going to be sitting across from them for at least an hour. Maybe longer!”

Will shrugged. “What can I say, Red? I like living dangerously. Life's no fun if you're always playing it safe.”

“You're not going to have a life after tonight if we don't fool them. And for the last time, don't call me Red!”

Were they buying it?
Jennifer wondered as she ate her cheeseburger.
Did they think she and Will were a couple?

They were sitting opposite Natalie and Tom. Will had pulled her close to him and had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. Every so often he would casually move his hand down her arm, rubbing it softly. Other times he would offer her bites from his fork and sips from his milk shake.

Natalie hadn't asked them a lot of questions. They had compared notes on the movies they'd seen — Natalie and Tom had seen
Romancing Rachel
— and talked about their classes. Jennifer felt something was going on between Natalie and Tom. She couldn't figure out what it was, but she sensed that they were in the middle of a fight. There wasn't that warmth you usually saw between couples. They were icy and polite to each other.

“Who do you think is going to be voted Most Romantic Couple?” Tom asked after they had ordered dessert.

“If you ask Claudia, she thinks it's going to be her and Chase,” Natalie said.

“Do you think they'll win?” Will asked.

Natalie shrugged. “I don't know.”

“Claudia might find herself facing a little competition,” Jennifer said.

“From who?” Tom asked.

“Us!” Jennifer snuggled up to Will. “Of course, we still have to wait and see if we get nominated.”

“If I were you, I wouldn't underestimate the competition,” Tom said. “A lot of couples submitted essays and most of them have been together a lot longer than you and Will. Claudia and Chase have been together since freshman year. You two just started dating.”

“You and Natalie haven't been a couple very long, either,” Will said.

“I didn't submit an essay,” Natalie said. “It never even occurred to me. Maybe it's because subconsciously I knew Claudia wouldn't like us competing against her.”

Jennifer noticed that Tom wanted to say something, but he didn't. Was he mad that Natalie hadn't submitted an essay because she was afraid of Claudia?

“Well, Claudia
is
going to have some competition if she and Chase get nominated,” Jennifer said. “They're going to be up against four other couples. I guess we're just going to have to wait until Monday to see who gets nominated and then let the voting begin.”

Jennifer hated working on Saturday mornings.

The last place she wanted to be was at DeVille's. She'd rather be home in her pj's in front of the TV, watching cartoons and eating a nice sugary bowl of cereal the way she used to when she was younger. Instead, she was standing behind a cash register at the crack of 10
A.M
.

Jennifer yawned as she stared around her empty department. She hated working in Bridal. The customers were
so
demanding. When she'd first been assigned to the department, she'd been thrilled, thinking she'd be working with happy brides-to-be. Wrong! Most of the women she dealt with were spoiled, demanding, whiny, and just not nice! They seemed to think because they were going to be a BRIDE that they could do or say whatever they wanted. Jennifer got the whole “I want my wedding day to be perfect” thing, but these women were out of control. In her opinion, that TV show
Bridezillas
should come to DeVille's and hide a secret video camera. They'd have enough material for at least a year's worth of episodes.

Jennifer began flipping through a bridal magazine. Even though she had told Will she didn't want a wedding, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to wear one of these gowns.

Thinking of Will reminded her of the night before. After finishing at the diner, he had started walking her home when his cell phone rang. It was his mother, calling in a panic because his father was out of town and one of the pipes in their basement had burst. Water was gushing everywhere and she didn't know what to do. Will promised to get home right away. When he got off the phone, Jennifer told him she could walk home by herself.

“Are you sure?” he had asked.

“Go,” she had insisted. “Your mom needs you. We'll talk tomorrow.”

After he left, Jennifer wondered what would have happened if Will had walked her home. Would he have given her a kiss good night? She hadn't been expecting a full-on-the-lips-end-of-a-date kind of kiss. But maybe a quick peck on the cheek?

The bell in front of Jennifer's cash register clanged, startling her from her thoughts. She looked up from the magazine and saw she had a customer.

It was Claudia. What was she doing in the bridal department?

“We'd like some service here!” Claudia snapped. “I'm sure DeVille's isn't paying you to read magazines!”

Jennifer closed the magazine and gave Claudia her most professional smile. “How can I help you?”

Claudia pointed to a young woman flipping through a book of wedding invitations. “That's my sister Pam. She's getting married in October.”

Jennifer walked out from behind the register, bringing along one of the folders they used for registering new brides. “Good morning,” she said. “See anything you like?”

Pam curled her lip in a way that was similar to Claudia's. The two could have been identical twins, they looked so much alike. The only difference between them was the huge engagement ring on Pam's finger.

“Are you in charge?” Pam asked.

“No, I'm not.”

“Where's your boss?”

“Mrs. Hudson won't be in until twelve o'clock.”

Pam slammed shut the invitation book. “I don't do assistants.”

“Pam doesn't do assistants,” Claudia repeated.

Jennifer kept a smile on her face, reminding herself that the customer was always right. “While Mrs. Hudson has more experience than me, perhaps I can show you a few things, and if you have any questions, she can answer them.”

Pam checked the time on her watch. Jennifer couldn't help but notice it was gold and decorated with diamonds. “As long as we're here, we might as well,” Pam huffed, plopping herself down on a couch. She snapped her fingers. “Show us some wedding gowns.”

“And make it fast!” Claudia added with a snap of her own as she sat next to her sister.

Jennifer went into the back and found the most expensive wedding gowns they had. She had a feeling Pam wasn't going to want to see anything cheap. When she brought the gowns out, she displayed them one at a time, explaining all the special touches. Each time she finished her explanation, Pam and Claudia would make a face. They kept doing the same thing until Jennifer ran out of wedding gowns.

“These all look cheap and tacky,” Pam said. “Doesn't DeVille's carry any designer gowns?”

Jennifer peeked at the price tags of the gowns she had brought out. Most of them were at least a thousand dollars. How much more expensive did she want?

Pam turned to Claudia. “We should have gone to Vera Wang.”

Vera Wang! Jennifer knew those wedding gowns cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Spending that much on a dress you were only going to wear for one day was crazy!

“What kind of fabric do you have for bridesmaid gowns?” Pam asked.

After returning the wedding gowns to the back, Jennifer brought out a fabric book filled with all sorts of colors. Pam quickly flipped through the cloth pages, vetoing all of Jennifer's suggestions.

“My bridesmaids can't look prettier than me,” Pam said. “We need to find a color that's going to make them look washed out.”

“With the exception of me, of course,” Claudia added.

“Claudia is going to be my maid of honor,” Pam told Jennifer. “So her dress will be different from theirs.”

“How about pea green?” Claudia suggested.

“I was thinking more of a watery lemon.”

“We could have them wear black!” Claudia exclaimed.

“Are you getting married on Halloween?” Jennifer asked.

“No,” Pam said. “October twenty-fourth. Why?”

Jennifer shrugged. “Just wondering. Halloween is on a Saturday this year and we've had lots of brides with that date come in.”
Plus, it seems like the perfect date for a witch like you.

Pam got off the couch. “Let's go, Claudia. I don't know why Mother insisted we come here. It's obvious I'm going to need to do all this in Manhattan.”

Without even a thank you for all her help, Pam walked away from Jennifer.

“Still coming to my party tonight?” Claudia asked before following after her sister.

“I wouldn't miss it.”

“And you're bringing your boyfriend, right?”

Jennifer could see the way Claudia was studying her. Like she was waiting to hear some sort of excuse. “Who else would I bring?”

“I can't wait to meet him.”

“He's dying to meet you, too.”

“Really?”

“I've told him all about you.”
Every nasty, horrible thing you've ever done.

“Pam's going to buy me a new outfit for my party.” Claudia pointed to a mannequin across the aisle in the designer dress department. “That one. She works in PR in New York, so she knows what's hot and what's not.”

“I'm getting a new outfit, too.”

“Is Old Navy having a sale?” Claudia snickered.

Jennifer could feel her temper rising. She hated the way Claudia was always putting her down. Just once, she'd like to leave her speechless. Before she could stop herself, Jennifer pointed to another mannequin in the designer dress department. “That's the outfit I'm buying.”

Claudia walked over to the mannequin and checked the price tag on the dress. “Expensive.”

Jennifer joined Claudia and peeked at the price. She gulped. The dress was five hundred dollars! She didn't have that kind of money. Even with her store discount, she still couldn't afford the dress.

Claudia stared closely at Jennifer. “What's the matter, Jen? You've suddenly gone pale.”

Jennifer pointed up at the ceiling. “It's the fluorescent lighting. It washes you out.”

“Uh-huh. Sure it's not the price of the dress? It's five hundred dollars. Not fifty. There's an extra zero.”

“I can afford it,” Jennifer confidently said, even though she didn't feel it.

“How fab! I can't wait to see you in it.” Claudia found her dress on a rack and headed over to the cash register. “Bye!”

Jennifer watched Claudia and Pam pay for the dress. As soon as they stepped into an elevator and were gone, Jennifer whipped out her cell phone and called Violet.

“Come on! Answer!” she pleaded with the ringing phone.

Finally, she heard a click, followed by, “Mmghgramhh.”

“Violet, wake up. Wake up!”

“Huh? What?” a sleepy voice asked. “Who is it?”

“Jennifer! I need your help.”

“What's up?”

“I did it again.”

“Did what?”

“Opened my big mouth and lied.”

Violet sighed. “Let me guess. Claudia?”

“Who else?”

“What happened this time?”

Jennifer told Violet the entire story. “What am I going to do? I can't afford five hundred dollars.”

Violet yawned. “Here's an easy solution. Wear something else.”

“I can't! She thinks I'm not going to show up in that dress and I have to!”

“Okay, calm down. Let me think about this.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Are you still there?” a panicked Jennifer asked.

“Yes! Give me a minute. I just woke up. And you cheated me out of a great dream. I was on a date with the Jonas Brothers and they were all fighting over me!”

“Sorry.”

“You
so
owe me!” Violet was quiet for a couple of minutes. Then she said, “I have an idea. But it's risky.”

“What? What? I'll do anything.”

“You still have that emergency credit card your parents gave you, right?”

“Yes.”

“Charge the dress on the card but don't take off the tags. You wear the dress tonight and then return it tomorrow. No one will be the wiser. Especially if you snatch the credit card bill before your parents see it!”