I turn and enter into the tent, bypassing the guards who only have to look at me once to know who I am. Circular tables are elegantly placed around the room with white and black centerpieces anchored in the middle. A candle on each table flickers, lighting the already dim setting. There’s a makeshift stage, speakers, a bar, and catering staff that are moving and swimming through the sea of people with silver platters holding all sorts of appetizers and desserts. I still haven’t found Bryant.
“This way.” Jess leads me to the front of the room, where she gestures to my name decoratively drawn onto a little white card that’s placed above a plate with gold trimmings.
“Where’s your brother?” I ask, taking a seat on the chair. My feet automatically thank me by throbbing as soon as they don’t have the pressure of my weight. I should have broken my shoes in yesterday. Or even this morning.
Jess places her gold clutch onto the table. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to find him. I guess we will know when he enters the room.” I hate all of this. It’s all too familiar to my life prior to being married. “I did see Max. He was with a woman. I can’t see her face because she’s wearing her mask.” Jess takes out a cigarette and places it into her mouth.
“My kid pushed you to start smoking?” I ask, eyebrow quirked.
“No,” Jess answers, exhaling through bright red lips. “Your husband did.”
“Her husband did what?” Bryant comes up behind me, his hand on my shoulder and his lips on my neck. “You okay?”
Without even blinking, a smile stretches on my face and I pat his hand. Everything is for show, and it’s a show that I’ve been performing in since my father first ran for office. It’s a show that needs to end.
“We’re about to start. I put Max and his plus-one opposite you so we can figure him out.”
I want to protest, but I can’t. The words are stuck in my throat, held there by the turmoil of what I am to do and not to do. When I was a kid growing up, I’d rebel. Everyone knew that. But could I do that to Bryant? No. I couldn’t.
I tap at his hand. “Got it.”
Bryant leaves, mingling with people he needs to mingle with. I spin around to follow him, realizing I’m doing a shit job at being his wife when I see Stacey’s body standing beside him. A red dress stuck to her with an equally red mask.
Anger brews inside of me, anger that I have every right to feel. “God, I hate her.”
Jess turns over my shoulder. “Who?” I watch as her eyes turn to slits behind her mask. “When the fuck did that happen?”
“Did what happen?” I ask, suddenly second-guessing my idea to be sober tonight. I need vodka. On ice.
“Stacey Humphries. When did she come back into Bryant’s life? Damn, I missed a whole fucking lot.”
“You were gone six—wait!” I saw it. The moment Jess realized she had said something she shouldn’t have. Her shoulders turned rigid and her eyes froze on the spot. “What do you mean back into Bryant’s life?”
“Shit.” Jess turns back around and swallows the rest of her champagne. “Isa, you might need to—” She pauses, leans over when a waiter is about to pass her and swipes up another flute. “Actually. No.” She sinks the entire second glass of champagne in one go and cranks her body to face me. Her hands come to mine. “Stacey Humphries has been a part of our lives since we were kids. That?” Jess hikes her head over her shoulder. “Is natural selection. They have always been all over each other. It was honestly disgusting considering she was my friend. When you said Stacey, I didn’t think it was that Stacey.”
One.
Two.
This is fine. I don’t have a say in who he was friends with as a child or who he had sex with before he met me. Only he was engaged to her before I came back in the picture. “What? How? Why?”
Jess leans back in her chair, deflated. I understand her exhaustion. “What? I’ve already answered. How? Her father and our father went to college together, and why? Well, that’s something I don’t know.” Jess shakes her hands. “Wait! Was she the one married to Max, as in your half-brother?”
I nod my head, squeezing my fists so tight little crescent moons indent into the palms of my hands. “Yes.”
I watch as the skin around Jess’ lips turns purple. “Something isn’t right about this.” Her eyes begin flying around the room. “Too much coincidence and I know these men. Nothing is fate. They are fate.” I pause. Thinking over her words.
They are fate.
Nothing makes sense. I’m reaching for memories that I know aren’t there.