Page 12 of Not Mine To Love

I pulled the phone from my purse and called her number which I realized was already programmed into the phone.

“Okay, so what did you think? Did you stake him out?”

“Better than that,” I said with fake confidence. “I convinced him to hire me as the wedding photographer.”

She was silent for a long time and then said, “Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding, but wasn’t your job to make sure there isn’t a wedding?”

I was immediately intimidated by the anger in her voice and was so happy we were having this conversation over the phone instead of face-to-face. Claire was tough.

I tried to keep my voice from shaking as I replied. “I plan to make sure a wedding definitely doesn’t happen. My plan is to freely follow him around with my camera now that I have a reason to be around.”

“Hmmm... That plan might work. At least it better, or you’re going to be out ten thousand dollars.”

She was threatening me. That didn’t feel too good. I swallowed hard. I was determined not to show her that I was as clueless as I sounded.

“Trust me, Claire, I’ve done this type of thing before. This is my expertise,” I lied, hoping I sounded convincing.

“Okay. Just get results.” She paused for a second and said, “Actually, I think this arrangement might work to my advantage. I’ll arrange an engagement event or two. You’re bound to catch him showing his true colors eventually. This was actually a great plan, Becca. We’ll be in touch. Have a great evening.”

I hung up feeling vindicated. And then my phone beeped with an incoming text. From my bank.. A wire transfer for $5000 was scheduled for tomorrow.

I jumped up and down squealing in joy and then made myself sit down and be quiet. I didn’t want any of Piper’s neighbors calling the cops on me for disturbing the peace.

That night I went to bed with a smile on my face. And people said money didn’t buy happiness.

* * *

I heard from Julius the next day. Again, by email. He told me that his future mother-in-law had planned some sort of impromptu engagement party, and he wanted to know if I would be available to take pictures this upcoming weekend. I said yes, of course, and then texted Claire that I would be arriving.

She texted back: Ha. I’m a mastermind. See you there.

I was feeling pretty good. If I used Twitter, I would have posted something about it. But since I didn’t use social media, I did a happy dance instead.

I spent the rest of the week taking care of minor jobs for Leona. I was tempted to quit because of the five thousand dollar advance, but I didn’t want to seem like a flake. People didn’t take me seriously because of my beauty and they assumed I was a spoiled Disney princess, and sure, I’d made some stupid mistakes in my life, but I was determined to prove them wrong. I wasn’t a quitter. The only thing I ever quit in life was my marriage, but that had been for survival. I felt like I had been losing myself while married to Tom. In fact, when I had married him I didn’t even know who I was. I was happy that I was able to figure it out. Well, I hadn’t actually figured it out. I had just moved on.

I wasn’t too sure what people wore to engagement parties. I’d had one, but it had been on Tom’s friend’s yacht and I spent most of the party with my head in a toilet bowl. Seasickness had been an issue until Tom introduced me to Dramamine. So I didn’t remember what my guests had worn. And to be honest, the guests had been Tom’s friends. I didn’t have many friends then, and I didn’t have many now. Thankfully though, I had Piper and Dana now in my life.

I decided on a yellow and white striped dress. I slid on some flats and hoped that my hair would dry on the way. I was already running late and didn’t have time to blow-dry it. I jumped in my car, which had just had a tune up courtesy of Claire’s advance, and sped to the engagement party.

I arrived at a place that I remembered used to be a club when I was a teenager. Now it was a trendy outdoor/indoor event area. I was surprised Claire chose this as a location. It seemed sort of out of character. Like it just wasn’t classy enough. And it seemed unnecessarily large.

I pulled up to the front, and a valet approached me. I didn’t want to pay a valet anything.

“It’s free, ma’am,” he said. I guessed he could tell from my face that I was cheap.

I thanked him and asked where I could find the Doogan family.

“Just inside...” he said as I handed him my keys. “They rented the whole building for the event.”

I was in shock. The whole building? Wouldn’t a room or two be a better idea? Rich people were like a different species as far as I was concerned.

As soon as I entered, I easily spotted Claire. She was in a corner on the lawn talking to a young lady with short curly hair who was wearing ill-fitting slacks and a short jacket. I figured the lady in the slacks was some sort of event planner. She hurriedly walked away from Claire who turned and walked away from the event completely.

The young lady in the slacks stopped and spoke to a girl who was about my age. I figured the woman she was speaking to was the bride because of the way the event planner seemed to fuss over her.

The bride was redheaded and had flawless pale skin. Her lips were painted a dark red and when she turned in my direction, I saw that her eyes were a really light brown. In short, she was beautiful. She looked like an ice queen, but her eyes radiated warmth.

She smiled timidly at me as I approached and said, “Hi, welcome. You must be a friend of Julius?”