Page 24 of Love Among Vines

Jade stormed out onto the patio. There he was, smoking a cigar and yukking it up with his band of idiots. She slammed the cheese platter on a cocktail table and stormed across the patio.

She was going to punch him. She would rip his tuxedo off and make him eat it. She would hoist him up by his stupid tighty whities until he admitted what he did.

He turned and made eye contact with her. His blue eyes seared into her, and she almost stopped mid-step. But he didn’t have that power over her anymore.

“We need to talk,” she said.

“Can it wait?” Nate raised an eyebrow and gestured at his surroundings with his cigar hand.

She slapped it out of his hand, and it rolled across the patio. “No. Now. Unless you’d prefer to have this conversation in front of your parents and friends.”

“Uh, okay.” He ran one hand over his slicked-back hair and followed her around the corner of the building.

“So what’s up?” He looked cool and unbothered, as always. It was infuriating.

“Ashley told me the truth.”

Nate pulled a flask out of his tux and unscrewed the top. “About what?”

“The fact that you were fucking her for a full month before we were supposed to move in together.”

He sighed. “She wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

She gaped like a goldfish. “Is that seriously all you have to say to me? We were planning to move in together. We signed a lease. And all you can say is she was supposed to hide this from me forever.”

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I know I messed up. You were just…not yourself anymore. After the funeral and everything. It didn’t feel the same.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault that you can’t keep your dick in your pants? I’msosorry for having a hard time after my parents died. Both of them. In the blink of an eye. Ofcourseyour only choice would be to run headlong into the first vagina you meet. Even if it belonged to my best friend.”

“I’m sorry, Jade. I don’t know what else to say. When you introduced me to Ashley, something just changed. She gets me.”

“I don’t need any more apologies from you. You don’t even feel anything, do you? At least Ashley felt bad about betraying me. But you? You’re irredeemable. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to see it.”

She ripped the flask out of his hand and debated slamming it into his stupid face. But the Astors were a litigious family, and she couldn’t afford a lawyer.

“What’s going on over here?”

Jade jumped. Nate’s mother, Patricia Astor, rounded the corner.

She sighed when she saw them together. “I knew it was a mistake when Ashley said she was asking you to be a bridesmaid.”

Jade blinked. “Why? Because you didn’t want a middle-class nobody from Queens in the wedding pictures?”

Patricia scoffed. “Don’t be so dramatic. I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle the wedding. And frankly we don’t need the drama on Nathan’s wedding day. It’s bad enough that they’re getting married here and not at the Ritz.” She brushed a piece of lint off his tux.

“Well, I didn’t need the drama of your son cheating on me and blowing up my entire life either. So I guess we’re even.”

“You can go now, dear. We had a spare bridesmaid dress made for Nathan’s cousin. We don’t need you.”

Anger flared in her belly. Were they trying to dismiss her? Fuck that.

“No. I’m staying,” Jade said.

“What?” Nate’s nostrils flared.

She ripped open the top of the flask and chugged. Whiskey stung her throat. “I spent almost six thousand dollars to be in this stupid wedding. I’m staying. And I’m going to be in all the pictures. And you’re going to be reminded of me every day for the rest of your life.”

She made steady eye contact with Patricia and pulled out a chair that was probably meant for a parking attendant. She lowered herself down onto the seat, staring Patricia down.

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