I stopped in my tracks. Slowly, I turned to face her. "Amber," I said. "There you are too. What a coincidence."
She smiled. "Yeah, I know, right?"
Well, at least she was being friendly. The least I could do was try to be the same, if for no other reason than to make this interaction as short as possible. "So," I said, "you're here to see Brittney?"
"No way," Amber said. "I'm here to see you."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you're gonna need a bridesmaid, right?" She held up her arms. "Ta-da! Here I am! I'm thinking of this as my audition."
I stared at her. "What?"
"Yeah, I mean it's only a matter of time, right? With you and Lawton getting so serious, I'm totally hearing wedding bells, and I want to throw my name into the hat before all the slots are filled."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Actually, it's little premature, don't you think?"
"I am not," she said. "I'm totally mature. And besides, I throw a seriously wicked party. You've got to pick me. I mean, c'mon, you don't have any sisters, right?"
"No. but I do have a best friend."
"Fine. She can stand too. I don't care."
"Wow," I said in a deadpan voice, "that's really nice of you."
She flashed me a grin. "Thanks. And just so you know, when I marry Bishop, I'll letyoube a bridesmaid too."
My jaw dropped. "You're dating Bishop?"
"Well no. Notyet. But c'mon. After you and Lawton get married, I figure it's only a matter of time, right? Especially with us being such good friends."
"Who?"
"You and me."
I decided to let that one pass. "But seriously," I said, "I'm not even engaged."
In spite of Lawton's innuendos in the hospital, it hadn't come up, which I told myself was just fine with me. Sure, he was my dream guy. And sure, I never wanted to let him go. But that was another girl I didn't want to be – the one who moved too fast when the guy wasn't quite ready.
"So what?" Amber said. "You totally will be." She looked around and lowered her voice. "My parents are friends with this jeweler, and I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but somebody we know – meaning this totally hot guy, not that I'm supposed to notice now that he's off the market – anyway, he just paid gobs of money for the biggest rock this jeweler had ever seen."
I stared, speechless. What was I supposed to say to something like that?
Fortunately, I was spared the trouble of saying anything, because suddenly I heard a shrill female voice call out from the other side of the restaurant. "You!"
I turned around to see Brittney tottering toward us on those obscenely high heels of hers. Co-workers or not, we never spoke to each other, except when absolutely necessary. And the times we did speak, most of our words weren't exactly fit for public consumption, as Keith had warned me countless times.
Brittney elbowed her way between me and Amber. She gave Amber a long, scathing look and said, "What are you doing here?"
Amber tossed a long strand of blonde hair over her bare shoulder. "I'm here to see Chloe, not that it's any ofyourbusiness."
Brittney's eyes narrowed to slits. She whirled to face me. "This is allyourfault."
"My fault?" I said.
"Yes, your fault. First you steal my boyfriend, then you steal my best friend!"
I glanced at Amber. "Hey, I hardly know her!"
