Present day
It was a bad day at work.
Three of the interviews I had scheduled had to be cancelled because the three company vice presidents who were supposed to do the interviews got called into an emergency meeting. First thing in the morning, I was frantically trying to reach the interviewees before they got to our office.
I managed to contact two out of the three—and dreaded having to tell the last one that she showed up for nothing.
A phone rang in the HR office, and the secretary picked it up.
"Jasmine?" Ms. Belinda called. "You have a visitor."
I checked my watch. Three-thirty. Expecting the applicant, I said, "Can you send her to the waiting room? I'll be with her in a minute."
While I prepared the forms, I heard the door to the waiting room open and close. I grabbed a black pen and walked over.
Waiting inside was Kimmy Domingo. She was sitting at the far end of the conference table, facing the door. The harsh fluorescent lights did nothing to diminish her beauty, and I couldn't help but notice her flawless, rosy skin.
Zack, couldn't you have chosen a girl who wouldn't easily crush my self-esteem with a stiletto heel?
"You're not the applicant," I said stupidly, stating the obvious.
She rolled her eyes, stood up, and easily towered over me even if I was in heels. "I don't appreciate what you did, Jasmine."
"What did I do?"
"You told Zack rumors about me?" Kimmy shook her head. "That's low."
"Are they true?"
Kimmy raised an eyebrow and sat down. "Does it matter, Jasmine?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What matters is if Zack believes you. I know your source of that rumor, and I also know that if it ever came out that she was the source, no one who knows me and Zack will ever believe it."
"Even if it's true?"
She shrugged, almost like she was humoring me. "It's her word against mine, and I know Zack trusts me."
Kimmy was unbelievable. There was her imposing, intimidating beauty, but there was also a restrained menace in her voice. Though she was seated and keeping her voice down, she was still able to bully me. I felt for Marjorie all of a sudden; I could totally see how she would find a girl like Kimmy a threat. Kimmy seemed to get her way all the time.
She and Tim are two of a kind, was the unbidden thought that popped into my head. But this is MY turf. There will be no bullying of me on my turf.
"But you know Zack will believe me," I said pointedly, putting my papers and pen down on the opposite side of the conference table.
"You already told him. Do you think he believes you?"
"I think he's trying to believe the best in you and it's his mistake."
She seemed to take that as a triumph. "His decision, right? No one's forcing him. He is choosing to be with me, despite everything, and you have to accept it."
"Why are you doing this to him?" I demanded. "You can have any guy you want, I'm sure."
"Why not Zack?" she said. "He's the best guy to settle down with."
"But you're not settling down," I retorted.
Kimmy gave me a lopsided smile. "Why are you so concerned, Jasmine? You've been out of his life for, like, a decade."
"I care," I hissed through my teeth.
"Well, he's not canceling on me, so I guess he believes me more than you."
"Then why are you here?" I said, more harshly than I intended. "Are you here to gloat?"
"I actually came to take back your invitation," she said pointedly, grabbing her bag and standing up. "Zack and I don't need your negative influence on our wedding, so you better not be there."
"What if he wants me there?"
The look she gave me then reminded me of Tim's Look of Condescension. I felt like she was staring down a little girl and a lowly employee at the same time. "Jasmine, one day when you have your own wedding, you'll understand. This day is about me, and I don't want you there. Zack can't really do anything about that."
Kimmy spoke calmly through all of this. It was almost insulting that she didn't even want to break a sweat in dealing with me. I kept wondering what—apart from the obvious—Zack saw in her.
"You know the way out," I said, leaving the waiting room and slamming the door behind me.
* * *
The next meeting of Zack's exes happened quite spontaneously that night, after Lena and Marjorie got out of yoga class. We met at Chili's.
"I can't believe she went to your office!" Marjorie gasped. "Three hours of restful meditation all gone. I need a drink."
Marjorie asked for the drinks menu. I tried telling them about my dinner with Zack and Kimmy's visit, but it was hard to get the story out in a nutshell.
"What exactly did she say?" they kept asking. "What exactly did you say?"
Lena and Marjorie do have something in common, I thought as they hounded me further. They're both obsessed with details.
A pitcher full of Marjorie's chosen margarita arrived at the table, and she poured a glass for each of us. "I don't get it," she said. "Why is Zack still pushing through with the wedding?"
I shrugged. "And he knows what Kimmy's like."
"You're telling me he just gave up? And has accepted that he's going to put up with her for the rest of his life?"
"That bothers me," Lena said, taking a huge gulp from her glass. "Zack's always been... would you say romantic?"
"Yes," Marjorie agreed. "And optimistic."
"And idealistic," Lena added.
"And fun."
"You're talking about him as a boyfriend, right?" I sulked, now a little jealous.
"Is Kimmy pregnant?" Lena asked out of the blue.
I remembered her taut abs, which I noticed in the tight dress she wore six months ago, and then again in the extremely flattering white suit I saw her in earlier. "No," I muttered. "Unless she got pregnant yesterday."
"What hold does she have on him?" Marjorie wondered, frustrated. "And what exactly did you say to him?"
"I said she slept with someone at the conference! That's what you wanted me to say, right?"
"And?"
"He said I shouldn't believe people who want to start rumors about Kimmy because he's supposed to completely trust her."
"Great," Marjorie groaned. "She's turned him totally against me now."
"I've also been uninvited to the wedding," I said. "So I'm not going to object at the last minute, if that's what you're thinking."
"This is bad," Lena sighed, pouring more margarita for herself.
I saw that the lost cause was starting to sink in for Lena. That was the same way I had felt earlier that evening, before I met up with them. I stayed late at work and cried in a bathroom stall—on a different floor, so no one I knew would run into me.
How did I explain what I was feeling?
How about... crushing regret?
Lena's sadness was more of that—sadness. She felt sorry for Zack and wanted to help him. But she could be comforted by the fact that she couldn't really have done anything to change his mind.
Marjorie was angry because she hated the girl who was causing this drama, and also because her credibility was being undermined at the same time. But she had moved on, and she was in a new relationship.
I was the screwed one here. I was going to lose him.
Down my throat went the margarita, so fast I didn't even taste it.
"Did you tell him that you love him?" Marjorie asked.
Did I? "No," I said, sheepishly.
"Fuck. What is wrong with you, Jasmine?" Marjorie said, tapping me on the shoulder. "You're doing this all wrong. You show up out of nowhere and ask him to leave someone at the altar? And you didn't give him a reason to?"
"Why is this my fault?" I yelped, trying to avoid her accusing finger. "I told him about Kimmy's affair."
"Do you need fucking cue cards? He was waiting for you to tell him you love him. And you didn't do that!"
"It's too late," I said, putting my cell phone on the table. "He's not accepting my calls. He won't talk to me."
"So we give up?" Lena asked sadly.
"I'll think of something," Marjorie said. "And you should too, Jasmine. You know him better than we do. You should be able to reach him."