I didn’t want to be stubborn, but I hadn’t had success fighting myself on that front. “I don’t know how you got over him leaving when we were kids. He just left us for Montana…and cows.” Yes, he left his only daughters for freaking cows.
“Last year, I decided I was being pissy and let it all go. Now, will you put on your mother truckin’ big girl panties and grow up? YouknowMom was impossible. How they ever thought a marriage between a hotel heiress and a struggling artist practically living out of his Chevy truck would turn out to be anything more than a shit show is beyond me, but it wasn’t entirely his fault.
“Still, he chose to leave?—”
Zoey’s hand shot up. “She divorced him and was remarried within a year. Yes, it sucks that he moved so far away, but Lord knows New York wasn’t him, so he went back to the only place he knew and felt like himself.” She put her glass down. “He tried to persuade us to visit as teens. We were the ones who didn’t want to.”
“But he just stopped trying. I know it’s stupid, but I’m not ready.” Why couldn’t I let this go? I felt a fury in my gut when I thought about him and his new life.
Zoey walked over and yanked me in for a hug. “I know I can’t rush you.” She pulled back and brushed another piece of hair from my face, something she had done my entire life. “A part of me wants to gag you and drag you with me, but I know you’ll get to this place when you’re ready.”
Wow, Zoey sounded like she had her shit together.
A sly grin made its way across her lips. “But if you don’t get to that place soon, I’ll have to kick your ass all the way to Montana myself.”
There she was. Zoey’s a baller, and that evil grin reminded me that she’s capable of scaring anyone when she turns it on. She says if you don’t terrify people a little, what’s the point? I’ve seen her tear businessmen and contractors apart if they’re trying to pull a fast one just because she’s a woman or when it comes to cost. You don’t mess with Zoey or the Magnolia Hotel’s money.
A male friend in college was gaga over sexy Zoey. I’d always thought pretty and sexy were the same thing, but it turns out that was a “no.” He shared with me that pretty women were attractive or endearing, while sexy women oozed an exciting sexual energy that made men almost able to see what their eyes and lips would look like while they were in the throes of passion. (Okay,Isaid throes of passion. He said going to pound town.) As his friend, he claimed I didn’t fall into either category. Yeah, hearing that felt as good as a wax strip being ripped off during a Brazilian.
Sexy or pretty, I looked at my sis, knowing she always had my back, in addition to having ahugeproblem with Steve. “So, what did you tell Mr. Wonderful in order to pull off this shindig?” She scooted over to the food table and straightened a platter.
“That I wouldn’t be back from L.A. until tomorrow. I’m so glad this has all come together.”
She rolled her eyes, and I enthusiastically flipped her the bird.
* * *
Thirty minutes later, my eyes traveled around the room at the forty guests who’d taken time out of their lives to be there. I felt grateful. Kim and Sonja were standing by Steve’s private elevator, waiting for theping. Sonja waved her hands in the air at the same time she and her large bouncing breasts started jumping up and down, causing quite a spectacle. “He’s on his way up!”
I stood in front of everyone as Zoey walked up beside me, hit the light switch, and the room faded to black.
“Hey, bitches in the back, shut up!” Zoey had a magical way with words.
It was Steve’s birthday, and I suddenly wondered if he’d gone out drinking or something crazy. Steve was an ass when he drank.Mouthing off to the wrong person would result in him getting his ass handed back to him and a sprint home from the embarrassment of it.
After a moment, the elevator doors opened, and the bright light streamed in behind him like the spotlight of a great play. I heard a gasp escape my mouth, and my eyes twitched uncontrollably, while my heart pounded loudly in my ears.
There before the room was Steve, who was chest to chest with a woman, his hands holding her ass while he kissed her passionately before pushing her against the wall. My knees started to tremble, and in a split second, my hands joined in as well.
I wanted to shoot past him and disappear from the forty party guests behind me, witnessing the most humiliating thing I’d ever experienced. But my body weighed one thousand pounds, and time stood still as I watched Steve nearly suck the face off of the woman in front of him.
I saw Zoey move out of the corner of my eye. She flipped on the lights and grabbed an umbrella from the stand close to the door.
“I’m going to kill you! I’m not afraid of prison, you son of a bitch!” Zoey lunged, and Steve’s friends Andy and Cole held her back.
Steve spun around, stunned, while the red-cheeked woman next to him hung onto the wall for dear life, her mouth wide open in such a way she could probably catch all the flies in the city.
“I’m coming for you, bitch!” Zoey struggled mightily to get free from the men’s grasp as the woman turned and disappeared back into the elevator, frantically pressing the buttons.
Steve’s eyes were the size of saucers as he looked at his closest friends staring back at him before turning to me. A bead of sweat rolled down my back as my stomach churned. I was pretty sure I might puke right there in the living room. In front of forty party guests. I wanted to disappear, praying,please, for the love of God, let the floor beneath me drop so I can plunge into hell.
“This isn’t what it looks like.” Stupid Steve was kind of talking to the whole room while he walked in slow motion toward me.
The stabbing in my chest was turning to rage because, with every step he took toward me, the bright pink lipstick that peppered his face became clearer.
“I think I was drugged.” He rubbed his forehead, looking at me hopefully.
“You lying sack of shit!” Zoey’s voice was strong and scary.
