“Kelsey, congratulations!”
“Thank you! When you were last here, I’d just started seeing him, and it kept getting better and better—and hotter and hotter. We are totally in love! It all happened super fast, but you know, when it feels right, it’s right.”
“I know.”
“I only wish he had gotten gold rather than platinum for the band, so it would match my cross.”
Kelsey lifted the bejeweled cross out of her cleavage and held the ring next to it.
“They look great together. Do you have a date?”
“Yes, June! So it’s going to be a mad rush!” Kelsey announced with a gleeful shrug. “Now what’s been going on with your man?”
Kelsey, standing on a stepladder, reached for a glittering sled high on the tree. Jane was worried she might topple.
“Not much. We’re still figuring it all out,” Jane answered.
Kelsey stepped off the ladder and handed Jane a tiny sled. Little flecks of glitter stuck to their fingers.
“Do you want it to work out?” Kelsey asked.
Jane, deflecting, scrutinized the sled. “I would get rid of this one for sure, it’s shedding glitter.”
“Agree, that’s an easy decision,” Kelsey said brightly, then gave Jane a disarmingly trenchant look. “If you want it to work out, I hope it does. And if you want it, I’m sure it will.”
Packing up the ornaments had taken quite a long time, but Kelsey stuck it out. She was much more energetic than usual; there was no talk of migraines or Fiorinal. Was this a byproduct of being in love?
They were eating Chinese chicken salads from Mendocino Farms on the floor by the now-bare fake tree.
“We were going to have a destination wedding, but it was toohard on such short notice, so we’re doing it in Malibu, but then we’re having two honeymoons—one just for us, and then one with my kids and his kids, which we’re calling a familymoon.”
“That’s so sweet of you to do a familymoon. I didn’t know that was a thing.”
“I might have invented it. I should probably trademark it or something. Maybe I should invite my mother to make it a full-blown clusterfuck!”
“Really?”
“Oh god no. I’m not even sure she’s coming to the wedding.”
“Are you inviting her?” Jane asked.
“I have to invite her to the wedding, but the familymoon—probably not.” Kelsey took the tiniest bites of her salad, sometimes spearing a single shred of lettuce on her fork.
“How would you feel about some non-organizing advice?”
“Go for it,” Kelsey replied without any hesitation.
“Invite your mother. Why not? It’s like an olive branch. She’ll be grateful.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’re right. If only I didn’t hate her guts and if she hadn’t already dished my fiancé and had her lawyer call me to recommend I do a prenup.”
“Isn’t your father a divorce lawyer?”
“Yes, and he would never get involved in this sort of thing.”
“Really?” Jane asked, lifting a tiny Kelsey-size forkful of salad to her mouth.
“Because he deals with family dramas at work all day, he avoids it outside of work at all costs so he can spend all his free time collecting Porsches and hot young babes. His new girlfriend is way younger than me. So sometimes it’s weird. I mean, she’s gorgeous—I just hope she doesn’t upstage me at the wedding,and that my mom doesn’t go nuclear. Anyway, my dad is a total sweetheart.”
