“True.”
“So you’ll come?”
“Yes. I’ll be there by noon on Saturday. Does that work?”
“You can’t get here by Friday night?”
“I’m going to say Saturday just to be on the safe side. It’s going to take me all week to get there.”
“Okay. The ceremony starts at three. If you could get here by noon so we could get ready together, that would be perfect.”
“It’s a date.”
“Lila, I’msoexcited to see you. L.A. isn’t the same without you in it.”
“I’ve missed you too, bestie.”
“Listen, my mom’s here to take me to try on wedding dresses. I would’ve asked you to make me one if it wasn’t so rushed. Call me tomorrow though. We need to talk through details.”
“Okay. I’m working two shifts but I’ll call you in between.”
“You work way too much. There’s seriously a free room for you to call your own here if you want it. You could sew all day and put your own show together.”
As tempting as that might be, it would never work. I’m far too independent to rely on other people. Just like my mother was. The mere thought of mooching off Jess’s new fiancé makes me feel uneasy. I guess it’s one of my quirks. I always need to feel like I’m fully in control of my own destiny. “I’m really happy for you, Jess. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Thanks, honey. It means the world to me that you’re coming. Oh, and Lila?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember Brittany Wells?”
“Yeah.” She lived down the street from us when we were teenagers. We used to go to the Santa Monica pier together sometimes.
“You know how she was always baking cupcakes and started that cupcake business a while ago?”
“I think I remember you mentioning it.”
“Well, she’s offered to make our wedding cake.”
“Great.”
“And since she offered to make the cake, I invited her to the wedding. She asked if she could bring…a plus one.”
“Is that a problem?”
“She said…” Jessie pauses. “I’m just going to blurt this out because I don’t know how else to say it, but her plus one is Troy Beckett. She’s been dating him off and on and…he’s coming to the wedding. They’re not exclusive. She said they’re ‘friends with benefits’. That’s how she put it.”
I feel myself pale. “Oh.”
“I just wanted to tell you, so you weren’t caught off-guard or anything. But you’re over him now, right? That was a long time ago.”
“Of course,” I laugh breezily. “Are you kidding? As if I’d still be pining for that loser.”
“Thank God.” She sounds relieved. “I knew that. I just wanted to make sure.”
“Don’t give it another thought.”
“Okay. Good. I better go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
