Page 28 of The Princess & the Prospect

“You’re not doing this to yourself again!” I scolded myself out loud and then stood, going to my closet to get some clothes for the day. As soon as I was done my shower I would call Gretchen and see if she wanted to hang out with me for the day.

Before I jumped in the shower, I went to the kitchen to grab a drink, and I saw a bunch of bags sitting on the counter along with a note.

Beautiful,

I had to drop these off and run. Cold stuff is already in the fridge. I’ll be back in a bit to help get things ready. Everyone should be showing up around noon. If you could make the potato salad, that would be great. If not, I got a bunch of chips – fuck everyone who wanted potato salad anyway!

Yours,

Evan

My hand was shaking as I placed the note back down on the table. My finger traced over the word “Beautiful” and then over the word “Yours”. I wondered if he knew what he did to my battered heart with simple words like that? Probably not. I moved quickly from that point, because it was already getting close to 10 o’clock and that didn’t leave me a lot of time to worry about throwing together potato salad, especially since I still had to cook the damn potatoes.

It was going on 11 in the morning when I finally had showered, gotten dressed, and had just finished up the potato salad as well as setting out the paper plates, napkins, and other things that Joker had purchased and left in bags on the counters. I had chips ready to pour into bowls, and even took a minute to eat some toast and drink a little juice in order to help settle my nervous stomach a bit. The last didn’t really help. I kept feeling little flutters, almost like bubbles in my tummy. It was weird to experience because I wasn’t usually a nervous person, recent panicky episodes aside.

I had just finished cleaning up my mess and tucking all the non-essential things away when there was a knock on the door. It was only quarter after 11, but I figured maybe Ever or my momma had come by a little early to help out. I still hadn’t heard from Joker – other than the note on the counter – which was weird since he had put all of this together. I hoped everyone who showed up really liked potato salad and chips, because it was just about all I’d managed to put together. Those worries slipped away when I opened the door to see who was standing there. More importantly, I saw the same green Skylark parked on the road that had been there the day before too, when Joker had driven it to bring me cake and balloons. My heart dipped and sank down into my stomach to rest with the nervous bubble-flutters that didn’t seem to want to ease up.

I supposed this, at least, answered the question about where Joker had been all night. Though, I wasn’t sure why his woman was showing up here at the house I lived in, especially when he wasn’t here. I had a fleeting moment of panic thinking she had come to do me harm, but then I straightened my back, making sure my spine was taut as steel before I spoke to the blond woman who had helped ruin my wedding night memories forever. “Can I help you?”

“Hey,” the woman breathed out, trying to sound sexy or sultry for some reason. “Is Joker here? He forgot this…” she didn’t finish her statement, instead opting to point to a pair of boxer shorts that were hanging out of her purse in plain view.

“You know what?” I asked in my saccharine sweet southern drawl. “He stepped out a minute, but everyone should be here soon. Come on in, sweetheart. Make yourself at home.”

I stepped out of the way and even hooked my hand around her arm when her eyes flared in shock. She had been about to turn and bolt, but I wasn’t having that. She came here with an agenda, and I was going to make sure she got exactly the level of drama she’d been craving.

“No, really. I insist. To be sure, he’s missing those,” I told her as I closed the door and had her take a seat in the kitchen. “I’ll be right with you,” I called out to her before I marched my ass to the place I’d set up the printer for my school work and I printed two pictures off of my phone. Then I smiled at the woman as I moved to the bedroom and went to dig around in my closet. I found the wedding photo frame I’d purchased two years ago. I’d found it in an antique shop and knew that I had to have it for when I got married one day. It was gorgeous and held a spot for two 5x7 photos with an engraved heart in the middle that stated, “Marriage is Sacred, Love Always”. I opened it up and hurriedly placed the photos in it, then replaced the backing and took it out to the living room where I set it in pride of place on the middle of the kitchen island right next to the stupid potato salad I’d made for Joker the Jerk.

The girl couldn’t see what the frame contained from her seat at the kitchen table, but I noticed her squirming around nervously anyway before I turned a fake smile her way. “I really think I should…” the girl started to say, but was cut off by boisterous laughter as my whole family and Joker piled through the doorway.

“Nonsense,” I told her. “Everyone is here now,” I threw my arm out toward the people who had all moved into my living room, unaware of what they had just walked in to. Then it happened.

“Oh shit!” I heard murmured.

“Oh shitake mushrooms, indeed!” I sang out sweetly. I had never been one to cuss, and even as spitting mad as I was now, I wouldn’t stoop to using that kind of language. I had only done so once before and I’d had instant regrets after the words left my lips. Everyone came to a stop. Some of them appeared puzzled by what was going on. I moved aside so they’d be able to see the photo frame on the counter.

“Look, Joker,” I called out. I turned to the girl sitting, ringing her hands at the kitchen table. “Sorry, how rude of me. I didn’t get your name, sweetheart.”

She looked too stunned to speak, so I waved away the thought. “Never mind,” I chirped out in a faux happy voice. “She was here to return your,” I glanced back at the woman. “What was it again?” I leaned down and snagged the boxers from her purse, and dangled the waistband from my finger. “Apparently, you left these with her last night.”

Every eye in the room except Merc’s and Lily’s turned accusing looks his way.

“That’s a fuckin’ lie!” He yelled the words out, thankfully directing his anger toward his whore and not me. I dropped the offensive underwear. “I don’t even fuckin’ know you!” Joker spat the words in the girl’s direction and I watched as she flinched.

“Now, that’s a mother truckin’ lie if I ever heard one,” I stated coolly, forcing his eyes to come back to meet mine. I slid over another step so the wedding photos were in plain sight for him too. “You know her very intimately. You know her so intimately that you consummated our marriage with her on our wedding night. Shoot, you drove her piece of crap car to this house just yesterday to deliver me an ice cream cake and balloons.” I felt sick to my stomach at the thought that hers had been the car that he had procured for that task when he mentioned he had gotten it from a hanger on. To think I was going to let him back into my life. I pointed to the wedding photos and left the room.

When I got to the bedroom, I was shaking so hard I had to sit down. The tears fell right around the time the shouting started in the other room. My mom rushed in and shut and locked the bedroom door behind her.

“Oh sweetie, why didn’t you just come home? If I had known…”

“No. I have enough money saved for a small apartment now. I’m not coming home, but I can’t stay here either. Not now.”

“If it helps, the girl lied. He was with Merc and Tiger Lily all night. First helping with club business and then he crashed there so he could pack all of his stuff and bring it home today.”

I shook my head. “He still borrowed her car yesterday and brought me gifts in it. Hers, of all the cars in the world? That was insulting.”

“I was there when he needed to borrow a car yesterday, honey. I didn’t have mine with me or I would have handed him the keys. One of the other men put those keys in his hands. I don’t think he knew who the car belonged to.”

I swallowed thickly. “That girl is just a symptom of the disease, Momma. We aren’t good for one another and I don’t think I’m strong enough to be like Tiger Lily and forgive. Our wedding night will always be tainted – even more than the crappy event itself. I felt more like I was being sold off than entering into wedded bliss. I should have just turned and run then. I just kept thinking that he agreed to do it, and maybe it meant there was something there.”

“Anna,” my mom whispered as she pulled me into her arms.

“I thought I was moving past the hurt and then she showed up today and threw it all back in my face.”

“Oh, baby girl.”

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