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“All I’m saying is that the whole thing could have been a whole lot worse,” Lanie said.
“How?” Nate asked.
“Jessica could have said yes.”
*~*~*
Three nights later, Lauren, along with the rest of the Bunco Babes, sat in Kitty Pappas’ living room watching the exact same video. It was Thursday night in Whispering Bay, which meant it was time to get down to the business of rolling dice, drinking frozen margaritas, and gossiping. Not mean spirited gossiping. It was more like the exchange of mutually needed information.
This week’s Bunco game was being held at Kitty’s house. Kitty, along with Shea Masterson and Pilar Diaz-Rothman were the group’s founders. Kitty was recently married to Steve Pappas, part owner of Pappas-Hernandez construction, the company who’d torn down Whispering Bay’s old senior center and was now in the process of building a new state-of-the-art rec center for the whole town to enjoy. Tom worked as a construction supervisor for the company and was in charge of the big rec center project. He worked hard and had a good reputation for being fair as well as smart, and Lauren was proud of him.
There were twelve Bunco Babes total, including Lauren’s good friend Mimi Grant, as well as Frida, from The Bistro. Lauren wasn’t a permanent member of the group, but lately, they’d been calling on her a lot to sub. Thursday night was rapidly becoming Lauren’s favorite night of the week. She loved being a mom and running her shop, but it was good to get away with the girls and enjoy some “me” time. Plus, attending Bunco was the best way to keep in tune with what was happening in Whispering Bay.
They were at the part of the video when a man was heard exclaiming, “What a loser!” Lauren cringed when she recognized Ted’s voice. She now knew exactly what Janie the receptionist had meant when she’d told Lauren not to mention YouTube to Nate. As unfriendly as she felt at the moment toward Dr. Nathanial Miller, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. It was awful enough to have your proposal of marriage turned down. But then to have it be entertainment for the rest of the world?
Kitty cut off the T.V. “And that, ladies, is what the whole town is talking about right now.”
The living room exploded with a dozen different voices.
Mimi took a sip of her margarita and shook her head. “Poor Nate Miller. He’s having a tough enough time as it is, but now this?”
“I’m friends with his sister, Lanie, and she says that this Jessica is like the creature from the black lagoon,” Frida said.
Shea nodded. “She’s evil looking, all right.”
“It’s called resting bitch face,” Pilar said. “You can look it up in the urban dictionary.”
“Just because you turn a guy down doesn’t make you a bad person,” Kitty said. “But it does seem kind of cold to just keep on eating like nothing ever happened.”
Lauren tried to keep her voice neutral. “What do you mean, he’s having a tough enough time as it is?”
“Everyone knows Doc’s patients aren’t too happy with him,” Mimi said. “Personally, I think Nate’s pretty terrific. When Zeke’s shoulder started acting up again, he immediately sent him to physical therapy instead of just prescribing drugs, and now Zeke feels as good as new. But, he does have a bit of a brusque manner about him.”
Brusque was putting it nicely.
“I was actually there for the proposal,” Lauren admitted. “That voice you hear in the background? It belongs to none other than Ted Ferguson.”
This news was met by a resounding chorus of boos. Ted Ferguson was to Whispering Bay what Sherman was to Atlanta. Well, maybe not that bad. He hadn’t actually destroyed the city, but it wasn’t for his lack of trying.
“I thought Ted Ferguson had crawled away into some hole to die,” Shea said. “Or was that just wishful thinking on my part?”
“The latter,” said Pilar, who was also the city’s attorney. “He’s definitely maintained a presence in the area.” She looked at Lauren. “What on earth where you doing with him at The Harbor House? Please don’t tell me you were on a date.”
“Blind date. Courtesy of my mother.” Lauren went on to tell them how they’d been at the table next to Nate and Jessica, and of her bathroom encounter with Jessica, as well as how the evening had ended.
“My other toy has tits?” Kitty nearly doubled over in laughte
r. “Oh, my God! That’s…horrible! You must have been—”
“Mortified? Humiliated? Pissed? How about all three,” she said.
“You know,” Kitty said, “Once upon a time, Ted Ferguson and I sort of went out.”
“You’re kidding,” Lauren said. Kitty’s husband Steve was the equivalent of the single woman’s dating trifecta: tall, dark, and handsome. Add in the fact that he was also rich and a genuinely nice guy, and you could say Kitty had hit the husband mega jackpot. “You did not go out with Ted.”
Pilar and Shea nodded their heads vigorously. “Oh, yes she did,” Pilar said. “Tell her about it, Kitty.” The rest of the room urged her on, as well. Lauren knew the locals credited Kitty with “saving” Whispering Bay from Ted Ferguson’s evil clutches, but the whole thing had happened when she was still living in Atlanta, so she wasn’t privy to any of the juicy details.
“It was supposed to be a business function,” Kitty emphasized. “I was single at the time, of course, and when Ted first came to town, he hired me as his realtor. So, in the middle of this party, he makes a pass at me—”
