"No." I fasten it before adjusting the chain around her neck. "It's perfect, Jessica. Just like you."
***
"Have you ever fucked in the backseat of a Cadillac?" A woman's voice assaults me from the right.
I feel as though I've been transported back to my teenage years. Judging by the reception hall and the outfits of the majority of the guests, I'd say I'm right on target with that estimation. Now, I'm being propositioned by a woman who looks like a librarian, knee high wool socks and all.
"Did you hear me, gorgeous?" She steps closer and I inch back towards the makeshift wooden bar.
"I'll have a bourbon neat, and …"
"I'll have a Bloody Mary." She interrupts me with a wink and I literally shudder. I stare over her shoulder to where Jessica is huddled in a group with her sister and the bridesmaids. I smile to myself as I watch her pull on the top of the dress, trying to keep her breasts where they belong. My eyes dart across the room to Josh Redmond, her ex-boyfriend. He's sitting at his table, his eyes honed in on the woman I'll be crawling into bed with later tonight.
"Thanks for buying me a drink." The librarian leans closer still. I'm trapped between her and a wall.
I stare down at her briefly. "The drinks are free."
"You're not from here, are you?" Her hand leaps to my lapel. "Your suit is real nice."
I want to reach up and swat her hand away but I have no idea who she is. For all I know she's one of Jessica's oldest and dearest friends. That's hard to imagine, given the fact she doesn’t talk about anyone she left behind when she ran away from here to Manhattan.
"Where are you from?" she asks as she presses her body into mine.
I lurch my hips back quickly trying to meld into the plaster which covers all the walls in this school gymnasium. As much as Jessica's sister and her husband wish it looked like a reception hall, it doesn't. The basketball hoops on the opposite ends of the room can't be disguised, even though it appears that someone tried to hide them beneath a mile of colorful streamers. "Manhattan," I offer. The less details the better. This conversation is going nowhere quickly.
"Have you ever had a one night stand?"
I almost spit the entire mouthful of bourbon I just gulped on her plain yellow dress. Have I ever had a one night stand? Jesus. This woman has no idea who she's talking to. "Why?" I bark back. My sex life is none of her business.
"I'm horny."
It's a declaration I should have seen coming like a freight train on a runaway track. The way she's shifting back and forth on her brown heels is enough of a clue that the woman's crotch is on fire. Even if Jessica wasn't in the picture, I'd turn this one down. Something tells me she'd eat me alive before we even got to the parking lot.
"Keep your panties on." I tip my drink in her direction. "I'm taken."
"By who?" She dips her chin and raises a brow, challenging me to answer.
"Jessica Roth," I counter. "She's that beautiful blonde over there."
She turns sharply in Jessica's direction. We both gawk as we watch her run her hands over the front of her ill fitted dress. Her left hand stops briefly as she subtly traces a slow path over her left breast with her index finger.
"Wow." The librarian pulls in a heavy breath. "She's even hotter now."
I stare at Jessica as she blows me a kiss across the room. Normally, a sticky sweet gesture like that would be a turn off, but seeing her lips pursed together like that makes my cock jump to life. I have to pull in a steely breath before the librarian notices it. "You know her?" I ask, hoping it will keep her gaze on my face and not on my groin.
"We went to high school together." Her eyes dart down to my pants and I swear I see her tongue smooth a path over her bottom lip. "I'm Charity."
The name doesn't suit her in the least. "Nathan," I offer back before finishing the plastic glass of bourbon the bartender offered me. "Another?" I place it down and nod at him.
He murmurs something under his breath before he refills the glass to the half-way point.
"You two are dating?" She pulls her hand through her short brown hair.
I take a small sip of the liquid, grateful for the slight buzz I'm starting to feel. I haven't eaten anything since this morning and judging by the lack of any food on the banquet tables, I'd say dinner is hours away yet. "We live together."
"You're her rebound?"
The question bites and I get the unmistakable impression that was its intention. Why wouldn't it sting? Virtually every person in this room knows Jessica as the other half of Josh. Even their names belong together. Why the fuck did I keep insisting we come to this wedding? I could be back in my apartment buried in Jessica's body hearing her scream my name and my name only.