Page 7 of Easy Reunion
Or the ones I love.
* * *
“Ry!Oh, it’s so good to see you.” A sweet Southern accent accompanies a tap on the shoulder that night at the barbecue. I turn around, ready to be immediately hostile, but it’s someone I enjoy. “Hey, Darcy.” I lean down and hug my baby sister’s best friend. “What are you doing here? Did you forget you graduated a few years after I did?”
“Cute. I’m one of the event planners here at the resort.” She waves her hand to encompass the patio area lit by small Edison bulbs and filled with my obnoxious classmates. “I’m just the one who was blessed to work with Juliette for this event.”
“Do I detect sarcasm in your voice?” I tease. Darcy and Lisa were more like twins growing up. They were even roommates at the University of Georgia together when they both graduated Forsyth, only separating when Lisa ended her engagement a few years ago and moved to New Orleans to start over.
“I could fill the pool with sugar, bury her up to her neck in it, and it still wouldn’t make a difference in her disposition,” she tells me bluntly. A second later, her face becomes a blank mask. “Mrs. Gaines. How are you enjoying your evening?”
“The bar is out of Maker’s Mark, we’re low on canapés, and when is the pig going to be done? I selected this resort because of your impeccable reputation. This kind of inattentiveness will be reported immediately to your supervisor,” Juliette Gaines, nee Juliette Bernard, snaps behind me.
I roll my eyes at Darcy before I say loudly, “Thank you for taking the time to explain to me the history of the resort, Ms. Roth.”
“Not a problem at all, Mr. Perrault. Mrs. Gaines, I’ll immediately check on your concerns. Shall I call you or find you directly?” But Juliette’s already dismissed Darcy from her target since she has a new one in her sight.
Me.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Rierson Perrault,” Juliette purrs. She drags her ringed fingers up my arm. I want to sneer. Instead, I let them reach my forearm before I pluck them off and drop them away from me.
“Where’s your husband?” Not that I particularly care, but I sure don’t want this python’s attention directed at me.
I never did.
She waves her hand. “Around. Where have you been? I haven’t heard much about you lately.”
“Not around.” I don’t offer any more than that despite her impatient waiting.
On paper, my life looks picture-perfect. After I graduated high school, I left for college and hardly looked back. I proceeded on to Duke Law, where I summer clerked for Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. I worked my way up to an associate for Baker McKenzie, where I worked heavily on cross-border deals. One, in particular, attracted the attention of someone I was an acquaintance with at college even though he was a few years ahead of me.
Though I kept in touch with Eli Boudreaux throughout the years, it was my impeccable work that had him reaching out to offer me the assistant general counsel position at Bayou Enterprises three years ago, only recently being promoted to the head chair. At this level of business, friendship doesn’t come into play, only hard work.
But there’s a hollowness inside of me that keeps me working in the office too many hours. And I can’t even blame it on Eli any longer, not since he got married and quit doing the same shit. I used to joke with him that instead of a bonus, I wanted a bathroom installed in my office like his so I, too, could just sleep at work instead of going home.
But at thirty-four years old, there should be more. I’m just not sure I deserve it. Flickers of shame and guilt wash over me, and my heart begins to race as bile twists my drink in my stomach into something noxious ready to be expunged when I remember what I was forced to do.
And not just to Kelsey.
Juliette pouts in a way I’m sure she thinks is attractive, but all it does is enhance the fact she’s spent way too much money on Botox. Slyly, she prods the beast living inside me. “I hear King Kong’s going to show her face by coming.”
“Her name’s Kelsey,” I bite out harshly. The fist not holding a beer is clenching in the pocket of my dress slacks.
“Oh, that’s right. After all, who’d remember after seeing her? Or not being able to unsee her? Then again, you had to spend more time with her than anyone. I’m not sure how you didn’t have to have eye surgery or something to repair your vision, Rierson. She was a bea…” Juliette’s nasty laugh is cut off when I get into her space as close as I dare.
“Not. Another. Word.” My voice is low and vicious. “I’ll say now what I should have said then: I won’t tolerate another insult or slur against that perfectly sweet woman.”At least not again.
Juliette leans in, undeterred by my threat. “Aw, poor Ry. Did you come here thinking she was going to offer you forgiveness when she likely sees you as the person that represents all of us?” She laughs in my face before turning and walking away.
I stand stock-still for a few moments before moving off in the other direction. Finding the nearest trash, I toss my beer inside and make my way down the ramp toward the yachts docked at the end of the pier.
Juliette’s not wrong. I need to confront Kelsey tomorrow night and publicly beg for her forgiveness the same way I destroyed what was between us. No matter what she does or says, I have to accept that she may never forgive me for an act so hurtful, so heinous, it did turn me into one of her monsters—themonster.
And just because I’m scared of the outcome, just like I was on graduation day, doesn’t give me the right not to accept the consequences for my actions. It’s consuming me, this not knowing. But I owe her the apology face-to-face. Much like I caused her pain fifteen years ago.
