Page 13 of One-Star Romance

“Someone like me?”

“Well, you’re trusting. You’re soft.”

“I’m not soft,” Nat said, scowling in her hotel bathrobe. “After all those guys you brought home, I hardened myself up a long time ago.”

Ellen frowned, her voice sharp. “I’m your mother. I know. You want to see the world as better than it is, people as better than they are. It’s all over your writing too. And that’s admirable, in a way. But don’t fall in love with a man whom you’ve put up on some pedestal.”

“Better to settle for a man who puts you on a pedestal instead?” Nat shot back, and her mother shrugged. She tried to calm her heart, her voice. “But…but you love Greg. Right?”

“Sure,” Ellen said in the least convincing tone Natalie had ever heard.

Natalie slammed her glass down on the nearby side table so sharply, she nearly broke it. “Oh my God, Mom. Don’t marry him if you feel this way!”

“Honey, you’re twenty-one. You don’t understand anything about this yet.”

“I hope I never understand these things the way you do. Because this is the most depressing shit I’ve ever heard.”

They glowered at each other, then retreated to separate corners of the suite. The next morning, Natalie gritted her teeth and got through that wedding. But things had never fully been the same with her mom since.

Now, anytime the two of them hung out, Ellen invited Greg along as if to underline how much she loved spending time with him, unable to admit that maybe she’d made a mistake. But Greg’s presence annoyed both her and Natalie, so they stopped hanging out as much, and the distance grew and grew.

Even now, sometimes, Natalie would hear her mother’s voice when she was with one of the many artists who enthralled and intimidated her, even when they were gazing into her eyes with total fascination: They’ll get bored of you eventually. They’d realize that she wasn’t enough and leave for someone who was.

Determined, Natalie put on a show for them, hiding any flaws or weaknesses until she didn’t recognize herself. But then she ran into a new problem. How could she love anyone who couldn’t see the real her?

At least she had her book. Apartment 2F proved that she had talent, things to say, even if Addison K—no, she was going to put all thoughts of Addison K aside for the rest of this wedding.

Right. The wedding. Natalie pulled herself back to the task at hand as she spotted a middle-aged woman in a severe black dress supervising the setup while chugging from a water bottle.

Nat hustled over as quickly as possible in the heat. “Hi,” she said, and pointed to herself. “Maid of honor here. This looks amazing. But I was just wondering, is there any way to get some shade to help cool things off?”

The woman sucked her teeth. “We do have a canopy we bring out sometimes for situations like this.”

“Oh, perfect!”

“But unfortunately, the bride and groom didn’t choose to rent our canopy package, so we lent it out to someone else.”

“Got it. Okay. That’s fine. We’ll just take a page out of your book and keep everyone hydrated.”

“Exactly. We have this water dispenser right here.” The woman indicated a beautiful canister on a nearby table, patterned glass catching the light, set on a wrought iron base. Natalie looked closer. The dispenser contained maybe twenty glasses of water. And Gabby and Angus had two hundred guests on their list.

“This…this is the only dispenser?”

“The bride and groom picked our smallest water package.”

“And you can’t add another?”

“No, because they didn’t pay for that option.” God, this place had the face of a sweet, family-run inn and the soul of Spirit Airlines.

“Okay, what if I pay you for it? How much to add, say, four more of these?”

“Three hundred and twenty dollars, plus tax.”

Buying anything for a wedding was like going to a foreign nation with a terrible exchange rate, where your dollar was suddenly worth far less than normal. “You know what? Thank you so much, and never mind.”

Natalie ducked back indoors, delivered Angus’s mom’s coffee, then returned to Gabby’s side.

“How does it feel out there?” Gabby asked, worrying at her bracelet as her hairstylist spritzed her dark curls.

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