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“I don’t,” I admitted. “You know when you’ve got… like a gut feeling that you’re being lied to?”
She hummed.
“But I’m not sure if he’s actually lying or if he’s just omitting information. Also, there was a little incident last night with his sister and she’s… I swear she’s avoiding eye contact with me today. At first, I thought she knew about the Halloween incident, but I’m starting to doubt it. She’s not acting angry, just awkward. It’s weird.”
“And you’re at a department store with her now?”
“Yeah. Drunk packing for this trip was a terrible idea. If you’re missing a remote for anything in the apartment, I have it.”
Jamie chortled quietly as I double-checked the time. I’d be okay for a few more minutes but anything beyond that might prompt someone to check on me.
“Anyway. I needed to go shopping for necessities and made the mistake of mentioning it over breakfast. His mom immediately insisted on turning it into a girl’s day and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It’s supposed to be a bonding thing. I’ve never been so stressed out in my life.”
“This is so fucking weird,” Jamie said.
“I know. And instead of going to the mall, his mom dragged me to this… it’s like a private, invitation-only department store. It’s suffocatingly fancy,noneof the tags have any prices on them, the personal shopper I’ve been assigned keeps following me around like he’s imprinted on me, and Julie’s been insisting on covering the whole shopping trip because she’s ‘more than happy to spoil her new daughter-in-law.’ I’m going to die of a guilt-induced heart attack.”
“Julie’s the mom?”
“Yeah, Alice is the sister. Oh, and we have spa appointments lined up after this. Massages, facials, nails, hair. And every time I try to say no, Julie acts like I’ve stabbed her in the heart. Is this what it’s like to have a mom? My back’s been sweating nonstop for two hours. I hate it here. There’s too much guilt.”
The most annoying part? Istilldidn’t have Adrien’s stupid number, so I couldn’t text him about how out of hand this whole thing had gotten. Julie had already sent her driver home to drop off the first massive batch of bags we’d collected.
Because the car was already full… mostly with stuff she’d bought for me.
I felt like throwing up.
“Okay, uh, wow. Anything I can do?”
“Can you tell me how to get out of here unscathed?” I pleaded desperately.
“No… this one’s tough. She obviously really wants to bond with you. I’d maybe keep the tags on all the clothes and have Adrien return them after… I don’t know, I’m assuming there’s an expiry date on this fake engagement thing?”
Okay. Yes.Yes. I’d just keep all the tags on! Problem solved! (Kind of. Not really. But it was better than nothing.)
I opened my mouth to praise Jamie’s brilliance but was interrupted by a soft knock on the door.
“Ria? You’ve been in there for a long time. Is everything okay?”
I tensed at the sound of Julie’s voice, my insides twisting.Shit. “Yes, sorry! Be out in just a second!” I called before lowering my voice again. “Jamie, I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
“Was that her?”
“Yeah, I gotta go.”
“Promise me you’ll actually call me later.”
“Promise.”
I hung up and took three deep breaths before stepping back out to the private suite. I plastered a smile onto my face and sat down next to Alice on the couch, snatching a champagne flute off the table as Luke—my personal shopper—dragged yet another rack of dresses into the room for me to try on.
Maybe the bubbles would help drown out the guilt.
19
Was I drunk?Yes.
Did I regret it? Absolutely not.
