Lovestruck Forever (28 page)

Maria
scowled and strode to the table, popping the cake box open to peer
down at it. “Well, it looks nice, at least.” She pointed
at the table we had designated for desserts. “Please take it
over there.”

Before
she could walk off to complete some task, José pulled her into
an embrace, kissing the side of her face. “Nice to see you,
too, dear wife.”

She
rolled her eyes, but I saw the hint of a smile on her face. They
really were perfect for each other—José allowed her to
fulfill her natural urges to control everything in life without
taking any of it too seriously. His easy-going nature was the perfect
complement to her anal-retentive ways.

“Where
are they kids?” she asked.

“In
the car.”

“You
should get back—they’ve probably ripped up all the
upholstery by now.”

“Sure
thing, boss.” He smacked her butt lightly as he left, making
her curse, and I laughed. They could be cute together when they
wanted to be.

Now
that the cake was here, there wasn’t much else to do. I kept my
eye on the door, thinking Sofie might come early so as to avoid
walking into a room full of curious eyes.

But
Laura was the first to arrive. We all stopped what we were doing when
she walked in, waiting for her reaction. I thought she might cry when
she saw the room, her hormones having made her emotional for much of
the last six months. So far, I’d seen her cry at events ranging
from her husband painting the nursery to our brother Matias bringing
her a glass of water at the last family dinner so she didn’t
have to get up. From the somewhat smug, expectant look on Maria’s
face, she, too, was waiting for Laura to dissolve into a puddle of
appreciative emotion.

Instead,
Laura immediately fell into the closest folding chair, ignoring the
balloon-festooned chair of honor we’d placed at the head table,
barked out a terse hello, and demanded I bring her punch.

I
complied, raising my eyebrows at Maria as I did so.

“Doesn’t
everything look nice, Laura?” my mother urged, probably scared
of how Maria might react to this underwhelming display. “Your
sisters worked so hard on your party.”

“Yeah,
it looks great,” Laura said quickly, not even looking around as
she reached for the punch I brought. “Thanks, Lizzie, I’m
sweating my face off. God, I’m starving. Think I can get a
plate before anyone gets here?”

My
eyes darted to Maria, afraid she was about to lose her temper over
Laura’s continued lack of appreciation. She had her arms
crossed over her chest and an eyebrow raised—a sure warning
sign.

“Laura,”
I said, slipping into the chair next to her. “What do you think
of Maria’s decorations?” I stared at her hard, willing
her to realize she was in serious danger of a Maria blow-up. She
finally seemed to get the point, her eyes widening slightly at me.

“Oh,
sorry, girls! I’m just so fat and uncomfortable today.”
She smiled at Maria apologetically. “And it’s so hot, my
ankles have swelled to twice their size.” She pulled her skirt
up to show off her visibly swollen ankles. At the sight, Maria seemed
to relax a little, as if taking pity on her. “But I want to see
everything you did,” Laura went on, holding out a hand for me
to pull her up. “Show me the room.”

“Oh,
you’re fine,” Maria said, waving her hands dismissively.
“You’re pregnant, you’re allowed to sit around and
be waited on at your own shower.”

I
grinned at Laura. “But you should probably wait until the rest
of the guests show up before you start pigging out. It’s bad
manners.”

After
that, our relatives started to arrive in a steady trickle. Maria
assigned me the job of manning the gift table. As far as I could
tell, the job consisted mostly of me telling grown woman where to
place their gifts, as if the rather large pile of presents already on
the table wasn’t a dead giveaway. Having so little to do left
me plenty of time to worry about Sofie. She still hadn’t shown
up.

“Hello,
Lizzie dear,” my aunt Maria said, stopping by the gift table to
give me a kiss before dropping off the croissants she had brought for
lunch.

“Hi,
Tia.” I kissed her back. “It’s good to see you.”

In
all honesty, Sofie’s mother looked terrible. She seemed thinner
than the last time I’d seen her, deflated somehow. She was even
paler, with dark circles around her eyes. I wondered if she was
sleeping.

“How
is she, Lizzie?” she asked without preamble, her eyes wide and
troubled. “I’m worried sick.”

“I’m
sorry, Tia.” I’d spent so much time being pissed at her
for her initial reaction to the pregnancy; but seeing her now,
clearly beside herself with worry for her daughter, it was impossible
not to feel for her.

“Is
she coming today?”

“I
think she might. But Tia, please don’t make a big deal out of
it if she does come—”

She
waved her hands. “I won’t. I’m under firm
instructions from your mother to not make a scene. It’s Laura’s
day.”

I
nodded, relieved, but Aunt Maria went on. “I just want her to
be okay, you know? I hate that she’s not in touch, that I don’t
even know if she’s healthy.”

She
looked like she was about to burst into tears, so I took her arm and
squeezed gently. “She really is fine, Tia. She’s eating
well and sleeping well and keeping all of her doctor’s
appointments. She’s healthy as a horse, I promise you.”

“And
you’ll tell me if there’s anything to worry about?”
she asked, desperation in her voice. Though I was under strict
instructions from my cousin not to share any medical information with
her mother, I nodded. “I promise.”

She
released my arm, visibly relaxing. “Thank you, Lizzie. And
thank you for being there for her.”

“It’s
fine, Tia. She’s my family.”

It
was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. Her eyes filled with tears,
but she quickly turned away and busied herself setting out the
croissants.

As
the trickle of guests slowed, I became more convinced Sofie wasn’t
going to show after all. I was just starting to get annoyed with her
for letting Laura down when she appeared at my side, looking
strangely out of breath.

“Sof—?”

“Can
you come here for a minute?” she asked. There was something in
her voice that made my heart sink. Something was wrong.

Without
thinking, I abandoned the table and followed her to the hall, but
Sofie didn’t stop there. She took my elbow and pulled me into
an abandoned Sunday school room.

“What’s
going on?”

She
turned to me and my heart sank further. She was wide-eyed, her face
splotchy, like she’d just gotten terrible news. My first
thought was for her pregnancy. “Sof—the baby—are
you okay?”

“I’m
fine. Lizzie, it’s…Thomas.”

I
felt the room sway around me. “What about Thomas?” I
yelped, my voice coming out high-pitched and unfamiliar in my ears.

“He’s
fine,” she said and to my surprise her face twisted up as if in
anger.

“Then
what’s wrong?”

She
was quiet for so long, I was sure I was going to start screaming
hysterically. Finally she took a huge breath, her face set. “He’s
cheating on you. It’s all over the news.”

I
stared at her for a long moment before I finally burst into laughter.
“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m
not,” she said, clearly concerned for my sanity. “Callie
called me and told me. She wanted to make sure you heard it from me
and not from—”

I
cut her off. “Chica, I appreciate your concern, but this is
ridiculous. Thomas is not cheating on me.”

She
shook her head, her expression sad. “Lizzie, I know you don’t
want to believe he could do something like that.
I
don’t want to believe it. But—”

“But
what?” I was starting to get annoyed. The fact that she would
even entertain the possibility felt like an insult. Her insistence
after I refused to believe it was worse. “I trust him, Sofie.
He wouldn’t do that to me. I don’t care what the
entertainment media says. They make up shit all the time—”

“There’s
an interview, Lizzie.”

That
shut me up. I gaped at her as she went on, her expression making it
clear that she’d give anything to not be the one tasked with
explaining this to me. “It’s not just some
misunderstanding this time,” she went on. “Not just some
innocent pictures the media is trying to twist—though there are
pictures, too.”

“What
interview?” I asked. My throat felt dry and tight, like I was
having an allergic reaction to something.

“His
ex-girlfriend. Franny something. She gave an interview admitting to
the affair. It’s going to be printed in tomorrow’s paper
in London, but the information just leaked. And they’ve been
photographed together all over the city—”

She
was interrupted by the ringing of my phone. I felt a momentary rush
of relief. It would be Thomas, explaining everything, making sense of
all of this nonsense.

“Lizzie?”
A posh and very angry English voice snapped.

“Hello,
Heidi.”

“What
are these pictures?” she asked.

“I
don’t know, Heidi. I’m just hearing about them now. I’d
hoped
you
could explain to me why Thomas has been photographed with his ex—”

“I’m
not talking about those pictures,” she said impatiently. “I’m
talking about the ones of you cozying up with Jackson Coles.”

I
actually held the phone away from my face to look at it. That’s
how shocked I was by her words.

“What
pictures of me with Jackson Coles?”

“Of
the two of you in London. You’re holding his hand, smiling at
each other. They’ve just been sent to the office. Do you have
any idea how this looks? On top of all the garbage with that Franny
woman—”

“Hang
on a second, Heidi,” I snapped back, my annoyance spiking. “I’m
at my sister’s baby shower, and I’m just hearing about
this Franny story for the first time. You think you could have given
me a heads up? Instead of making it worse by—what? Are you
accusing me of something?”

She
blew out a long breath and when she spoke again her voice was more
controlled. “I’m sorry I didn’t inform you of the
Franny story. I assumed you’d been in communication with
Thomas.”

Why
hasn’t he called
?
A little voice in my head asked. I did my best to tamp it down.
Wasn’t he on location this weekend? I struggled to remember
through the increasing wall of panic. “He probably didn’t
want to interrupt my sister’s baby shower,” I said, my
voice all the more hot for the sliver of doubt that was creeping in.
“Considering it’s an important family event he knows I’ve
been looking forward to.”

“Well
the fact remains, Lizzie, these pictures of you and Jackson do not
look good. They seem to confirm the rumors of infidelity.”

“This
is ridiculous!” I was shouting now, but I couldn’t help
it. It was all too much. “There is no infidelity! From either
of us!”

“Well
what is the press supposed to think?” she asked, nearly as
angry as I was. “First we get this interview from a known ex of
his confirming that he’s cheating. Then there are pictures of
you with his co-star. This is going to look like you’re
retaliating for his indiscretion by going after the next celebrity
you can find. It looks terrible for Thomas.”

That
was the last straw. “You know what, Heidi, you can go to hell.”
I knew I’d regret this later, but I didn’t care. I felt
like I was about to cry. How dare she call me and accuse me of this
garbage, blame me for what it would do to his reputation—when I
was smack in the middle of dealing with the bomb shell of Franny’s
interview, no less.

“Lizzie,”
she said, her voice tight and controlled. I got the feeling that she
knew she had crossed a line, but I didn’t care.

“How
about you go out and do your job,” I snarled. “Control
the damage that you’re so sure I’ve caused. I’m not
talking about this with you anymore.”

Before
she could say another word, I hung up the phone, breathing heavily.
Sofie was watching me, wide-eyed.

“What
was that about?”

“Apparently
someone took pictures of Jackson and me when I ran into him in
London.” I closed my eyes, trying to rub some of the tension
out of my forehead with my palm. “And they’re going to
run the pictures as some kind of confirmation that my relationship
with Thomas is ruined.”

“Lizzie,
I’m so sorry—”

Before
she could expand on what, exactly, she was so sorry for, the door to
the classroom opened and Sofie’s mother stuck her head in.

“Sofie?”
she asked hopefully. “I thought I saw you come in. Sweetie, can
we talk? You don’t need to feel uncomfortable being here, I
promise I won’t—”

“This
is not a good time, Mom,” Sofie snapped, her eyes still on me.
She seemed to be worried that I was about to lose it.

“Actually,
it’s the perfect time,” I said, reaching down and
shutting off my phone. “It’s Laura’s day. We’re
here for Laura. So let’s all get the hell out of this room and
go to the damn baby shower.”

They
both gaped at me. I was sure I had never cursed in front of any of my
aunts before, but I didn’t care. I was at the end of my rope,
and if we didn’t get out of this room soon, I was absolutely
going to lose it.

“I
mean it,” I said, raising my voice. I made a shooing motion
with my hands. “Let’s go. Now!”

Silently,
they both turned and followed me from the classroom. As we walked the
short distance to the fellowship room, the sounds of the party hit
me, pulling me from the whirling thoughts in my mind.

I
wasn’t sure how I should be feeling at that moment. Wasn’t
sure if I should be scared or sad or indignant. A kind of numbness
was taking over, making it hard to feel much of anything. It was as
if my brain and my heart instinctively knew that I couldn’t
deal with this right now, couldn’t allow myself to think about
it too much. Couldn’t afford to start asking questions, to
think about the what if.