Beauty and the Bridesmaid

Chapter Twenty

Damien slips an arm around me comfortingly. It’s easy to forget what he said about us just being friends when we’re like this. Maybe I took his words the complete wrong way anyway. Men can’t be that stupid, can they? They know when something’s a date.

I ease into the embrace as he mutters something reassuring. I can almost forget where I am and what’s just happened if I stay here long enough.

“What are you two talking about?” Ash asks, appearing out of nowhere, and causing Damien and me to dive apart like teenagers caught kissing by their parents.

My mind has come back to reality from the serenity bubble I was just in, and I remember exactly what we were talking about. We were talking about the possibility of Ash finding out what either of us knows about Josh.

I look away, knowing there’s no way I can blatantly lie to him.

When Damien remains silent too, Ash says, “Are you sure Lela hasn’t mentioned Josh to you recently? You know her better than either of those two.” He nods his head towards Kerry and Steph, who are still giggling away to each other.

I swallow and rub my sweaty hands on my dress. Damien is looking at me, but he isn’t giving me any indication of what to say.

“Jade?” Ash demands an answer of me.

“Why don’t you talk to Lela?” I suggest.

He frowns. “What do you know?”

“She’s your fiancée, mate,” Damien backs me up. “You need to ask her what’s going on.”

“Don’t you think I would if she was here?” Ash yells. He pauses for a moment, looking between the two of us. “Are you hiding something from me?” he finally asks. “Either of you?”

But we don’t have to answer him. Because Lela is walking towards us. She’s alone, no Josh following behind her, and her head is held high with her blue eyes fixed firmly on Ash.

“Sorry about that,” she says casually when she reaches us. Her hand is touching Ash’s arm, but he brushes her away.

“What’s going on, Lela?” he demands. “Why was Josh here?”

“Oh, you remember Josh?” she says innocently. “I wasn’t sure if you would.”

Ash slams his left hand down on the bar. “Don’t mess me around! Tell me what he was doing here.”

“I…I’m sorry,” she stammers. “He came to see me.”

“What for?”

Her head tilts towards the crowd of guests, who are slowly closing in on us, eager to eavesdrop. “Can we talk in private?” she asks.

As the couple leave the room, Lela turns and gives me one last look. I don’t know quite how she manages to convey it through her slightly narrowed eyes, but it’s a look that says she’ll never forgive me if this doesn’t go her way.

“That’s it then,” I say, turning to Damien. “It’s over.”

“You don’t know that,” he reassures me.

“She thinks it’s my fault, but I never said a word! Whatever Josh was doing here, it’s nothing to do with me.”

“I’m sure Lela knows that. Anyway, she’s probably got some perfectly reasonable excuse ready to tell Ash.”

“He won’t believe her now,” I say, shaking my head. “He knows that something’s up. Worse than that, he knows that you and I are hiding something.”

It isn’t just Lela who acts like a character in a soap opera. I feel like one of those horrible ‘Bad Girl’ characters. The one who nobody likes, but who has an explosive secret about the soap sweetheart.

“Look,” he says, grabbing me by the shoulders. “It won’t come to that.”

He’s barely finished his utterance before everybody around us turns in the direction of raised voices.

Ash is storming towards the bar with Lela desperately chasing after him. She never was any good at running in heels, and soon one of her pastel pink stilettoes snags against the plush carpet, pulling her down to the floor in a pathetic heap of tears and ruined makeup.

A few people hurry to help her. I assume it’s her minions, and probably her mother, but I’m not paying any attention to them. Ash is getting closer and closer, and I know what he’s going to say.

I cling to Damien’s arm as though that will protect me.

But Ash doesn’t say a word to anybody when he gets to the bar. He whistles at the bartender, orders a shot of straight whisky, and downs it before he even looks at me.

“You knew then?” he says, his voice flat.

Damien squeezes my hand, and I know that I’ve got to tell Ash the truth.

“About Josh? I knew something was going on, but I swear to you, it wasn’t me who told him where we were tonight.”

“I know that,” Ash says, staring into his empty shot glass. “Lela had already told him herself.”

“So she doesn’t think it was me?” I ask, looking across the room to where she’s still sitting on the floor, rubbing her ankle and drowning in self-pity.

“I don’t blame you for trying to protect her,” he says quietly, following my gaze. “She was your best friend before any of this ever happened.”

I shake my head sadly. “I wasn’t doing it to protect her. I kept quiet to protect you.”

“I guess I appreciate that.” He nods at me, before turning to Damien and saying, “Do you think anybody will mind if I just want to be alone tonight?”

“Of course not,” Damien answers.

A small group of people try to approach Ash as he walks away, but he ignores them, heading for the lifts back to his hotel room. Luckily superstition prevents the bride and the groom from being together on the night before the wedding.

As I watch the crowd of people surrounding Lela growing bigger and bigger, I suddenly realise that Anna was right. I should never have agreed to be a part of this wedding in the first place.