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“And make a little money while you’re at it.”
“Hopefully. But that’s the issue now—money. I’m still saving, still trying to get a loan approved before I can even think about taking it to the next step, and—”
Before she could go any further, the sharp chime of a spoon against a glass cut through the air. The two of us turned to see something that neither one of us was expecting—James Silver, standing on the bar, a drink in his hand. Nearby was the blonde who was his date from the other night, as silent as ever.
“Good afternoon everyone,” he said, the attention from the bar now all focused on him. “I don’t want to keep you from your drinks, but I wanted to say how great this all is to see you here, and how wonderfully lucky I am to be able to be a guest at this incredible and unique wedding. I might be a guest, but I still want to take the chance to show you all how glad I am to be here with you all, and to make some new friends. So, drinks are all on me tonight!”
Silence hung for a moment, as if no one quiet knew how to take this development. Then there were cheers from all the guests.
“Wow,” I said, watching James hop down and slip his arm around his date. “Generous.”
“Too generous,” said Shania. “No one in the wedding said anything about him doing anything like this. If you ask me, he’s flashing his money around and trying to look like a big important dude.”
Her arms were crossed as she glared at James, and I got the impression there was something going on that was a little more serious than her being upset at a breach of etiquette.
But by this point, Sam and Will and Pepper and Noah and Katy and the rest were gesturing for us to come join them. With plenty on my mind, Shania and I smiled at one another one more time before melting back into the group.
Chapter Fourteen
SHANIA
The next day at work, I was in the middle of a very, very deep tissue massage for one of my regular clients—Bethany, the middle-aged wife of an extremely wealthy investment banker who lived in Newport Beach—and she was so busy talking I didn’t have time to worry about much of anything. She was part of the pretty standard demographic for the place, either rich or famous or both. In this case, it was very much the former.
“So I told Ed,” she said, referring to her husband, “I know that we’re busy, and I know that we order takeout anyway, but that doesn’t mean I want to do the damn Blue Apron thing, you know?”
“I know,” I said, my fingers deep into the knots of her Pilates-toned upper back, which looked killer for a woman in her sixties, I had to say.
And I didn’t know—my budget had been stretched so thin these days that the idea of paying for a daily food delivery service was like some kind of fanciful dream.
“He said it was a good idea, and I told him he was—” She let out a long moan of total pleasure as I really worked her upper back. “Shania, you’re a damned miracle worker. Part of me wants to cut the BS and pay you to live in my pool house and massage on demand.”
“Hey,” I said with a smile. “You say the word, and I’m there.”
Really, it didn’t sound like such a bad idea. Stump had been really, really riding my ass these last few days. As much as he’d said that it didn’t bother him, I was almost positive that he was still raw about my plans to step out on my own. The man was too damn sensitive to not get bothered by something like that, despite his best lies at suggesting it was otherwise.
“Maybe when Ed gets that promotion he’s been talking about for god knows how long,” she said. “Anyway, speaking of Ed, I tell him that the Blue Apron thing is totally ridiculous. Paying money to have food that you cook yourself? Why the hell not get delivery that’s, you know, already made? And besides, if we want cooked food that’s what our housekeeper is for, you know?”
I kept working her back, moving down along her side and really getting in there. Bethany let out some more happy noises, the noises I loved to hear my clients make.
“Anyway,” she went on. “I thought the matter was settled. But a few weeks later, Ed comes storming into the living room, demanding why we were getting charged for some food thing that we weren’t even getting. I told him that I didn’t want it, but he up and forgot to cancel!”
Problems of the rich, I considered. And problems that more and more of my friends all seemed to be getting themselves into as they moved up in the world. Not me, however. I was still having trouble making ends meet without dipping into my spa savings.
